Show me your aquarium

[otolith]

They are highly susceptible, yes. But it was an extremely well established heavily planted tank. The fish had a latent infection.

[Caddyshack]

otolith said:

They are highly susceptible, yes. But it was an extremely well established heavily planted tank. The fish had a latent infection.

Any ich outbreak would have been brought on by new introduction stress, i guarantee it. I would not put clown loaches in a new environment without a U.V steraliser, I would treat it as a when, not if. White spot follows a very clear life cycle, clowns just get stressed and live in highly social groups, the new hierarchy alone can bring on whitespot. Heavily planted tanks can have large ph swings day to night as the plants swap from producing oxygen to taking it in, that too would take some getting used to, shops don’t tend to have planted tanks and MA run centralised systems so the water is very stable and also protected with UV.

[Sway]

I think I'm right in saying pretty much every fish has latent ich?

Just in normal circumstances their immune system is able to suppress it, and it's in times of stress/other illness or parasite/poor water quality that there's an 'outbreak'?

Although I'm really not one to talk - I've never quarantined a fish/coral/invert. Always tried to find the best quality stock, from as good a shop as possible, and attempt to keep stress as low as possible.

So far, I've 'gotten away' with it, likely as my early naive approaches were countered by keeping hardier tank bred fish.

I'm super careful with choosing marine stock though. Especially as the best treatments for fish illness are so incredibly toxic to all the inverts I've got. Worst thing I've brought into the tank is aiptasia and bubble algae (jury is out on where the BA came from). Luckily, the introduction of natural predators of each have sorted both of those out.

In fact, I'd almost call that a positive in my mind - the more biodiversity in a reef tank the better (although at the moment I've a little cyano that's doing my head in!).

[otolith]

No, it’s a common myth that they’re all carriers. An infected fish can go from a carrier to a full blown case (and infect the whole tank) as a result of the stress of being moved, but the most likely situation is that the retailer hasn’t quarantined thoroughly. Didn’t have a problem in over a decade of using my LFS and I am quite sure I wouldn’t have had one if I hadn’t been so stupidly impatient.

[BoggoStump]

Lord.Vader said:

I’ve just bought my first tank!

80L
Should arrive next week
Plan is to have a little tropical aquarium
It’ll be based on the office so lots of light but not direct sunlight

I’ve bought all sorts of additives and tests kits to get things up and running ...

There seems to be a mixed bag re substrate, I want a few live plants and was planning to just have a mix of small and medium gravel as the base without any organic material. Is that acceptable if I dose with liquid plant food?

Plan to add fish eventually too, maybe 2 weeks until plants and then 2-4 weeks after that for fish, dependent upon tests even with safe start.

Any handy guides I can read too?

I have access to Practical fish keeping via Readly.

Not sure if I’ve everything i need but I sold some MotoX gear that wasn’t being used!

Edited by Lord.Vader on Thursday 22 April 17:26

Do a Build thread??

[BoggoStump]

Sway said:

Lord Vader - couple of thoughts...

Bin off the 6in1 test strips, they're worse than useless, as they're misleading and inconsistent. Get a 'proper' titration/dropper test kit with individual tests...

Also, the evolution aqua filter balls - they're a tad niche, and really unnecessary.

I'd also not bother personally with the plastic plants, and just get nice and easy real ones (I am an immense fan of the tropica '1-2 grow' series, incredibly good quality and if it says its easy - it really is!). George Farmer has a great set of vids setting up a simple low maintenance planted aquarium using them.

Otherwise, all looking good!

Any links to said series and vids?

[anonymous-user]

What a nice thread, thanks again for all the help.

Tank is coming Friday, so plenty of time.

Need to get some rocks too.

Some of those fish are stunning!

Edited by Lord.Vader on Friday 23 April 08:49

[Sway]

BoggoStump said:

Any links to said series and vids?

I'm the kind of luddite that can't figure out YouTube mobile, links and PH... Not as a combo!

However, the Tropica Aquarium Plants channel has it as a series (Tropica's easy planted aquarium).

The George Farmer channel also covers the same tank (he's the guru in the UK, so did the vids for Tropica as well as slightly tweaked ones for his own channel) - they're listed under low tech fluval flex.

The flex is a great little tank at 37l - an 80l tank like Vaders has the potential to be really quite stunning for 'relatively' little effort following the advice given.

It really is a golden age from that perspective. Both in terms of info available, quality of stock - and things like in vitro plants that are stupidly healthy, guaranteed pest free, etc.

Also amazing value too.

[Caddyshack]

Sway said:

I think I'm right in saying pretty much every fish has latent ich?

Just in normal circumstances their immune system is able to suppress it, and it's in times of stress/other illness or parasite/poor water quality that there's an 'outbreak'?

.

Clown loaches are a very nervous fish which are best off in quite large social groups, when sold they are often sold in trios which is not really enough. They are often bought as snail eaters for planted tanks as they are partial to a snail and do not bother the plants, the snails and plants could be a source of whitespot too. The clown loach has tiny scales on it's body and none on it's "face"...the body type and nervous behaviour is whitespot waiting to happen.

The only way of telling if it was already on the fish is to go back to the supplier, if their tank is not riddled with it then it was the move that caused it and stress of capture etc. Whitespot becomes free swimming as part of the life cycle and is killed by the system UV, it is not a bad problem and easily dealt with.

[105.4]

@S11 Steve,

Any recommendations for aquatic shops in the Sheffield / Chesterfield area?

We’ve almost always used the small aquatics shop in the garden centre between Coal Aston and Eckington.

[BoggoStump]

Sway said:

I'm the kind of luddite that can't figure out YouTube mobile, links and PH... Not as a combo!

However, the Tropica Aquarium Plants channel has it as a series (Tropica's easy planted aquarium).

The George Farmer channel also covers the same tank (he's the guru in the UK, so did the vids for Tropica as well as slightly tweaked ones for his own channel) - they're listed under low tech fluval flex.

The flex is a great little tank at 37l - an 80l tank like Vaders has the potential to be really quite stunning for 'relatively' little effort following the advice given.

It really is a golden age from that perspective. Both in terms of info available, quality of stock - and things like in vitro plants that are stupidly healthy, guaranteed pest free, etc.

Also amazing value too.

Great, thanks i'll be sure to search them up.

[Chester draws]

Chester draws said:

[...]

I've just started a fishless cycle, just Dr Tims ammonia to 4ppm yesterday. Faint hope I still have some of the SafeStart bacteria asleep somewhere to jump start things, but will wait and see.

48 hours later and the 4ppm Ammonia has dropped to 1ppm. And Nitrite is a lovely shade of purple where I've only ever seen light blue! So something's happening.

Ammonia dosed back up to 4ppm and will probably test again tomorrow.

Also got a small pump so can pump water in gently rather than pouring it in from a bucket when I do water changes.

[Sway]

Chester draws said:

Chester draws said:

[...]

I've just started a fishless cycle, just Dr Tims ammonia to 4ppm yesterday. Faint hope I still have some of the SafeStart bacteria asleep somewhere to jump start things, but will wait and see.

48 hours later and the 4ppm Ammonia has dropped to 1ppm. And Nitrite is a lovely shade of purple where I've only ever seen light blue! So something's happening.

Ammonia dosed back up to 4ppm and will probably test again tomorrow.

Also got a small pump so can pump water in gently rather than pouring it in from a bucket when I do water changes.

No need to keep dosing ammonia that high! All you'll be doing is making work for yourself at the end when you've gotta dilute down massive amounts of nitrate via new water.

If you measure 0ppm ammonia 2 days in a row, dose back to 1-2ppm.

Once you're doing that, and 24 hrs later you're at 0 ammonia and nitrite, you're good. Mass water changes to bring nitrate down, add your first stock.

[HustleRussell]

I’ve got about 35ppm Nitrate from the tap according to my water supplier’s report. Don’t really want to have to go R.O. so we’re living with it. I’ve got plants incl. emergent growth so Nitrate doesn’t March upwards from 35ppm.

[Sway]

Using Dr Tim's and ammonia dosing on my marine cycle - I ended up doing double the total water volume in successive 30% changes just to get the readings below 100ppm!

I may have cursed at myself...

[Chester draws]

Thanks again Sway.

The guide I linked previously does suggest a 50-60% change half way through and then a 90% at the end.

Hence getting prepared with the pump.

[Turn7]

HustleRussell said:

I’ve got about 35ppm Nitrate from the tap according to my water supplier’s report. Don’t really want to have to go R.O. so we’re living with it. I’ve got plants incl. emergent growth so Nitrate doesn’t March upwards from 35ppm.

I had 45ppm from the tap when I was keeping Wild Malawis.....I used to run the tapwater through a 10 litre Purolite filter - zero ppm Nitrate and fully rechargeable as well....

Amazing stuff.

https://www.devotedly-discus.co.uk/acatalog/A-520-...

[Caddyshack]

105.4 said:

@S11 Steve,

Any recommendations for aquatic shops in the Sheffield / Chesterfield area?

We’ve almost always used the small aquatics shop in the garden centre between Coal Aston and Eckington.

Go to wharf aquatics, ask for Richard and tell him Toby sent you and I expect he will give you a good look around. He bred my stingray pups that I then bred from.

[Sway]

Caddyshack said:

105.4 said:

@S11 Steve,

Any recommendations for aquatic shops in the Sheffield / Chesterfield area?

We’ve almost always used the small aquatics shop in the garden centre between Coal Aston and Eckington.

Go to wharf aquatics, ask for Richard and tell him Toby sent you and I expect he will give you a good look around. He bred my stingray pups that I then bred from.

Dude, how many times?

Pics!!!!

[105.4]

Caddyshack said:

105.4 said:

@S11 Steve,

Any recommendations for aquatic shops in the Sheffield / Chesterfield area?

We’ve almost always used the small aquatics shop in the garden centre between Coal Aston and Eckington.

Go to wharf aquatics, ask for Richard and tell him Toby sent you and I expect he will give you a good look around. He bred my stingray pups that I then bred from.

Thanks Caddy.

Is the place you are in about in Pinxton, Notts?

I’ve got to go down to that neck of the woods on Sunday, so I’ll call in.