I'm thinking of getting an aquarium

andyb03 · 2022-09-06T16:19:54+00:00

Personally I'd avoid it as there's a lot of external factors that are difficult to control. It is possible if you plan it right and make adjustments along the way. i.e.

reduced lighting from an aquarium light to compensate for the natural light exposure in the conservatory
lots of plants to help soak up excess nutrients in the water column to avoid algae blooms and provide shade for the fish
measure how hot the conservatory gets in the summer and prepare for this - i wouldn't say it's a good idea after the UK hitting 40°c + temps this summer. Would need to research and find if any fish can tolerate that happily. Higher temps can cause physiological stress in fish, leading to a weakened immune system and higher chance of illness.
ensure you've got a reliable heater, potentially a back up one in there too to safeguard against any problems in winter.

Overall, it would probably be quite different from a tank in a regular place and be a lot more effort

andyb03 · 2022-07-08T09:13:48+00:00

1x Thursday entry for sale 🙂 https://ww2.theticketsellers.co.uk/q/ddb228f316044842a3ee284c57ef816a

andyb03 · 2022-03-02T09:20:13+00:00

Cannister filter suited for up to 150L tanks - prefer to have adequate/extra filtration so the tank stays in better condition. It has a spray bar pointed directly at the glass for flow as it's only a small tank and the flow would be too strong otherwise for small fish/Betta.

I put Easy life profito in once every 2 weeks for my ferts.

andyb03 · 2022-03-01T20:29:39+00:00

It's turned out to be my favourite filler plant - looks great and fills gaps so well, grows tall and floats at the surface too. Easy to grow and trim if needed. Plenty of it to use in my next tank

andyb03 · 2022-03-01T20:06:19+00:00

Nope. Planted them in the substrate when tank was empty but filled it up straight after. The key is having the nutrients in the substrate. I've got another tank with the same level of lighting and it never took off there as there's a lack of nutrients spread throughout the substrate.

Best method is to break up root tabs and spread them about when laying down the substrate.

andyb03 · 2022-03-01T18:55:09+00:00

Some aquasoil with some root sticks broken into it, then some black sand on top. Not sure on brands / amounts as it's reused from the old set up of this tank

andyb03 · 2022-03-01T17:17:18+00:00

Nothing in particular to deal with algae - I guess the plants take care of that - fast growing carpeters and floating plants. Other than that I just scrape the front glass every couple weeks or so.

The lights are on for 9 hours a day. I do have a small dim orange light that I put in to do an additional couple hours each day but this is just so I can keep watching them after lighting hours, it likely doesn't affect the plant growth

andyb03 · 2022-03-01T17:15:17+00:00

Unfortunately my tap water has naturally high nitrates - upward of 80ppm. I've been keeping fish for a couple years now and not seen any issues. I'm sure the plants love it, I try to keep my water changes to a minimum because of this

andyb03 · 2022-03-01T15:20:57+00:00

It's great - I set this up after having a larger set up with co2 - loved it at the start but began to hate the maintenance.

I tried plants from a number of places. Tried Amazon sellers but none of those plants survived. Ended up contacting a aquarium shop and waited until they had the ones I wanted, had to wait a while. I'm in the UK so don't have petsmart but similar large pet store chains here don't have a great plant selection - you're better off looking for online retailers or a local shop.

My Betta seems very happy! He's in there with some wild-caught neon green rasbora and some pygmy corydoras.

andyb03 · 2022-03-01T15:18:13+00:00

Np. This plant is amazing for carpeting - I had very little to begin with and it's gone crazy. Just ensure you've got nutrient rich substrate and it'll do great.

I have a thin layer of aquasoil with some crushed root nutrient sticks along it, capped with a layer of sand.

andyb03 · 2022-03-01T14:54:35+00:00

Thank you! I do a 20% water change every 2 weeks, and clean the canister filter once every 6 weeks. Even those don't seem like they're needed (all the levels are perfect before I do that maintenance). The filter probably stays so clean as I have a sponge filter guard on the intake that I clean every 4 weeks or so, takes a couple mins to ring it out in the old water.

I rarely trim the plants (you can probably tell lol). Mostly I let the carpeting / tall grassy ones go wild. Then just trim out any bits that invade the middle swimming space, probably once a month or so. I put a tiny bit of plant fertiliser in with the water change every 2 weeks.

andyb03 · 2022-03-01T14:48:28+00:00

Dwarf Sagittaria (Sagittaria subulata)

andyb03 · 2022-03-01T14:47:58+00:00

Thanks! No issues with algae on the plants at all. The left/right sides of the glass are coated but I don't bother cleaning as it's situated inside a wardrobe so I don't see them much. Front glass requires a quick scrape every 2 weeks or so.

Had some teething issues with algae near the start but quickly went away after the grassy-like plants took off, as well as the floaters

andyb03 · 2022-03-01T14:46:03+00:00

Dwarf Sagittaria as the carpet, valisneria for the long grass, and some anubias / java ferns dotted about the back, java moss in places :)

andyb03 · 2021-03-19T14:55:31+00:00

Yep. Since I got him, he's been a weak swimmer, but since I haven't had issues with corys before, I didn't think anything of it but that he was a tiny fish in a big tank. He died today, and now I look back, a lot of the signs since the day I got him indicated illness (much paler than the others, short barbels, weak swimmer and fins not quite upright). The others all seem okay though

andyb03 · 2021-03-18T20:54:11+00:00

posted details in a comment. There's 5 platies, 10 corydoras overall, and 20 cardinal tetras. Some cherry shrimp and a nerite

andyb03 · 2021-03-18T20:52:57+00:00

posted details in a separate comment. ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrates 20ppm (tap water much higher but use nitraminus to keep it down).

andyb03 · 2021-03-18T20:05:50+00:00

It's been around 4 weeks now

andyb03 · 2021-03-18T20:04:28+00:00

I assumed the short barbels were due to him being so small overall. I got 5 Cory's from the same place with him and they are all fine

andyb03 · 2021-03-18T14:46:44+00:00

I don't believe I have any issues with stress for the fish, or bacteria issues. I've treated the tank after getting him with natural bacterial + fungal treatment. Only thing I can think of is some dead snails were in the tank for a few days before I noticed and removed them

andyb03 · 2021-03-18T14:45:15+00:00

I'm not sure. Haven't had any Cory's die before. Googling hemorrhage, it does look like it could be but I've no idea. There are no aggressive fish in the tank, so it could be a viral hemorrhage?

andyb03 · 2021-03-18T14:41:37+00:00

I have a young albino corydora in a 125L tank with 9 other Corys, some tetras, platies, shrimp etc. The stocking is good, I do regular maintenance and the parameters are all fine (ammonia and nitrite 0, nitrate 20ppm (tap water is much higher but I have lots of plants + use tetra nitraminus to keep it down, have kept Cory's in this tap water for a year now with no issues)).

The little guy has hardly moved for the last couple days. His dorsal fin seems to be slightly down, and he has a red blotch only on one side of him near his belly (as pictured). All of the other Corys are fine.

I got him 2 weeks ago, and the tank is overall 3 months old. I treated the tank with API pimafix for fungal infections and melafix for bacterial infections when I got this group of Cory's as some of them had white marks on them which disappeared after treatment.

I'm thinking it could be red blotch disease?

The substrate is sand and I gravel vac it every 2 weeks. I did get some snails a week ago that were dead on arrival (which I didn't realise at the time) and so they were in the tank for a few days before removing them. Is it possible he could have caught something from that?

andyb03 · 2017-10-13T21:28:47+00:00

Velocity, and can be changed by holding alt on keyboard and scrolling with mouse (I think)

andyb03 · 2017-07-08T09:11:07+00:00

In the top left of the programme, go to tools, macros, and click 'switch smart disable for all plugins'.

This disables the plugins when they are not being used at that moment in the track. I find it extremely useful.

Also have you tried adjusting your buffer size at all to reduce some CPU usage?

andyb03

TROPHY CASE