Hello there.
So I was already into the second or third week of having a planted tank that I came across this forum, or rather, that I realised this same forum was frequently popping up whenever I wanted to figure something out. And it was perhaps a week after that when I found the journals page and thought I might like to start a journal. It was a bit too late at that point of course, and it took me a while to actually get around to it, so it’s a bit retrospective (I am now about 6 weeks in), a bit sketchy, and I didn’t take particularly helpful photos along the way. But still, hopefully better than nothing.
I should warn the faint of heart that I’ll talk about water testing a lot here. I know that a lot of users of this forum consider them inaccurate and pointless. Well, partly I was testing a lot at the start because at that point nothing I read had suggested otherwise. But also, for me as a complete beginner I still feel they are “good enough” to spot various trends and issues I might not otherwise have discovered (until it was too late anyway). I accept that they are flawed, and that using your eyes, nose and common sense is often more helpful, but until you get your eyes and nose tuned in with experience, these are not that much use either (and sadly, in my case, common sense may never come).
So, with that trigger warning out of the way, the story is ready to begin. Are you sitting comfortably? I mean it, there are a lot of words coming up, and the occasional badly taken iphone photo.
The Cast :
The Chief Technical Officer - never had any fish, was always jealous of their cousin’s fish tank as a kid (a “Japanese Fighting Fish” as it was known then, and some neon tetras). Prone to over-researching/over-thinking every decision, either beforehand (invariably leading to Analysis Paralysis), or afterwards (invariably leading to Buyer’s Remorse). Often somehow manages to achieve both with the same decision.
The Creative Director - had a goldfish in a bowl as a student, insists it was fine and healthy for years “until some builders knocked it over and killed it”. Has strong aesthetic principles leading to the rejection of pretty much any fish tank you’ll find in a store (the tank itself that is, not the contents).
The Client - Loves Octonauts and Steve Backshall, so his ideal aquarium inhabitant would probably be a hammerhead shark. Perhaps with some effort I could talk him down to a sting ray. Loves nature in theory, but has the patience of a small child, because, well …
Prologue
A couple of months ago, The Creative Director announced to The Chief Technical Officer that she’d like to get The Client a goldfish (in a traditional bowl/small tank) for his sixth birthday. “I’m not sure that’s considered fair on the goldfish these days” said The Chief Technical Officer “Let me just do some research”.
FADE TO BLACK
Caption : “A week later”
Day B minus 2:
The Chief Technical Officer (aka “I”, for it is me) is in the Morden branch of Maidenhead Aquatics two days before the birthday to choose between a Superfish Scaper 60 and an Aquamanta Nano 60 for a planted tropical community tank. Both have the clean hoodless design stipulated by the Creative Director (aka “my wife”, for it is she), I was quite keen on a tank with a lid (because, you know, evaporation, jumping fish, dust, dropping the TV remote in the tank, possible future cat, potential labyrinth fish with cold noggins, and other imagined disasters) so was leaning towards the AquaNano which has a glass lid (and filter/etc neatly hidden behind black glass in the back). However, the big heavy single piece of glass for a lid seemed like an invitation to disaster, and the clearer/whiter glass of the Superfish Scaper was much more appealing. “Oh well, I guess we can just avoid fish that jump” I naively thought (turns out, whenever you try and look it up, that is basically ALL OF THEM). Also, “oh look, there’s a Superfish Scaper 90 which will just fit into the space. “It’s going to sound like sales talk, but you should always go for as big a tank as possible” said the helpful sales person. Of course, they would say that, but, it turns out, so does everyone else. After some calls home to double check the measurements of the dedicated location, and some anxious to-ing and fro-ing (it was going to be a very tight fit, not so much for the tank as for the light, but I figured I could replace it or somehow lower it if needed), went for the 90L.
The tank comes with a strong LED light, a big HOB filter (Superfish Hang on Filter 200), a foam base, some backing material, some Flora Grow Plant Fertilizer and FloraGrow Carbon “CO2 Alternative”, so just need a few bits and bobs “This won’t cost much” I think “Ho, Ho, Ho” laughs the experienced fish keeper.
Heater : Aqua Eco 100 - Went for covered glass because I am a klutz. Actually ended up accidentally picking a slightly underpowered heater for the tank size, as picked it out when thinking of the 60L and forgot to reconsider after upsizing, so will probably need to upgrade (or add additional heater) before winter sets in. Also, I note the instructions say it is designed to operate at a room temperature of 20 degrees, and may not work properly below that ... mate, if I kept my sitting room at a constant 20 degrees I probably wouldn't need a bloody tank heater!
Additional filter : Aqua internal filter 100. Got an internal filter, not because I wanted to massively over-filter the tank, but because I thought the HOB wouldn’t fit in the space the tank was going into. Seems a pretty decent filter, downside is it is replaceable cartridges, but you can very easily open the cartridge and clean the foam and replace the carbon/etc balls (or remove and replace with ceramic/etc if I don’t feel the need for chemical filtration.
Substrate : “I need a substrate for planting” I told the salesperson, “Well, you can either do it the simple way with a single layer, or the slightly more complicated way with different layers” “The easy way of course!” I said, because sometimes, in the heat of the moment, I forget that I will later obsess over whether “easy” necessarily means “best”. So they grabbed me two 5L bags of Colombo Flora Base Pro. I have a number of regrets over this choice which I’ll come back to in a later post, but without getting too far ahead of myself, I can safely say that one big regret is that I didn’t think to ask the price … £40 a bag ... two bags … yowch!
CO2 : Not gonna go down that road. Slow and low is good enough for me.
Also got a starter pack with dechlorinator, “bacteria in a bottle” (did this actually do anything, I'll never know), and some flake food. A net, and gravel vac, also a nitrite test kit to establish when the tank was cycled (with that sentence I have probably lost 80% of my audience here, but hey, don’t hate me, I hadn’t discovered UKAPS yet!)
Noticed afterwards that a lot of the products I was advised to get were "Aqua" which appears to be MA's own brand. Funny that.
Finally, the beginnings of “the fun stuff”. A couple of Cyperus helferi (because I like the look of it), a bunch of Limnophila heterophylla (because the salesperson said it was easy to grow and propagate) and a single solitary bit of Pistia statiotes (dwarf water lettuce) “You'll only need one” said the salesperson “yeah, right” I think to myself.
So, after quite-some-more-money-than-I-had-anticipated, a sloooow taxi ride from Morden home and a carefully co-ordinated child distraction technique (aka Nintendo Switch). We had the beginnings of a surprise tank ready to go hidden away in a spare room (the tank amazingly intact despite what felt like 200 hundred speed bumps on the way). Now we just needed to figure out what to put in it.
So I was already into the second or third week of having a planted tank that I came across this forum, or rather, that I realised this same forum was frequently popping up whenever I wanted to figure something out. And it was perhaps a week after that when I found the journals page and thought I might like to start a journal. It was a bit too late at that point of course, and it took me a while to actually get around to it, so it’s a bit retrospective (I am now about 6 weeks in), a bit sketchy, and I didn’t take particularly helpful photos along the way. But still, hopefully better than nothing.
I should warn the faint of heart that I’ll talk about water testing a lot here. I know that a lot of users of this forum consider them inaccurate and pointless. Well, partly I was testing a lot at the start because at that point nothing I read had suggested otherwise. But also, for me as a complete beginner I still feel they are “good enough” to spot various trends and issues I might not otherwise have discovered (until it was too late anyway). I accept that they are flawed, and that using your eyes, nose and common sense is often more helpful, but until you get your eyes and nose tuned in with experience, these are not that much use either (and sadly, in my case, common sense may never come).
So, with that trigger warning out of the way, the story is ready to begin. Are you sitting comfortably? I mean it, there are a lot of words coming up, and the occasional badly taken iphone photo.
The Cast :
The Chief Technical Officer - never had any fish, was always jealous of their cousin’s fish tank as a kid (a “Japanese Fighting Fish” as it was known then, and some neon tetras). Prone to over-researching/over-thinking every decision, either beforehand (invariably leading to Analysis Paralysis), or afterwards (invariably leading to Buyer’s Remorse). Often somehow manages to achieve both with the same decision.
The Creative Director - had a goldfish in a bowl as a student, insists it was fine and healthy for years “until some builders knocked it over and killed it”. Has strong aesthetic principles leading to the rejection of pretty much any fish tank you’ll find in a store (the tank itself that is, not the contents).
The Client - Loves Octonauts and Steve Backshall, so his ideal aquarium inhabitant would probably be a hammerhead shark. Perhaps with some effort I could talk him down to a sting ray. Loves nature in theory, but has the patience of a small child, because, well …
Prologue
A couple of months ago, The Creative Director announced to The Chief Technical Officer that she’d like to get The Client a goldfish (in a traditional bowl/small tank) for his sixth birthday. “I’m not sure that’s considered fair on the goldfish these days” said The Chief Technical Officer “Let me just do some research”.
FADE TO BLACK
Caption : “A week later”
Day B minus 2:
The Chief Technical Officer (aka “I”, for it is me) is in the Morden branch of Maidenhead Aquatics two days before the birthday to choose between a Superfish Scaper 60 and an Aquamanta Nano 60 for a planted tropical community tank. Both have the clean hoodless design stipulated by the Creative Director (aka “my wife”, for it is she), I was quite keen on a tank with a lid (because, you know, evaporation, jumping fish, dust, dropping the TV remote in the tank, possible future cat, potential labyrinth fish with cold noggins, and other imagined disasters) so was leaning towards the AquaNano which has a glass lid (and filter/etc neatly hidden behind black glass in the back). However, the big heavy single piece of glass for a lid seemed like an invitation to disaster, and the clearer/whiter glass of the Superfish Scaper was much more appealing. “Oh well, I guess we can just avoid fish that jump” I naively thought (turns out, whenever you try and look it up, that is basically ALL OF THEM). Also, “oh look, there’s a Superfish Scaper 90 which will just fit into the space. “It’s going to sound like sales talk, but you should always go for as big a tank as possible” said the helpful sales person. Of course, they would say that, but, it turns out, so does everyone else. After some calls home to double check the measurements of the dedicated location, and some anxious to-ing and fro-ing (it was going to be a very tight fit, not so much for the tank as for the light, but I figured I could replace it or somehow lower it if needed), went for the 90L.
The tank comes with a strong LED light, a big HOB filter (Superfish Hang on Filter 200), a foam base, some backing material, some Flora Grow Plant Fertilizer and FloraGrow Carbon “CO2 Alternative”, so just need a few bits and bobs “This won’t cost much” I think “Ho, Ho, Ho” laughs the experienced fish keeper.
Heater : Aqua Eco 100 - Went for covered glass because I am a klutz. Actually ended up accidentally picking a slightly underpowered heater for the tank size, as picked it out when thinking of the 60L and forgot to reconsider after upsizing, so will probably need to upgrade (or add additional heater) before winter sets in. Also, I note the instructions say it is designed to operate at a room temperature of 20 degrees, and may not work properly below that ... mate, if I kept my sitting room at a constant 20 degrees I probably wouldn't need a bloody tank heater!
Additional filter : Aqua internal filter 100. Got an internal filter, not because I wanted to massively over-filter the tank, but because I thought the HOB wouldn’t fit in the space the tank was going into. Seems a pretty decent filter, downside is it is replaceable cartridges, but you can very easily open the cartridge and clean the foam and replace the carbon/etc balls (or remove and replace with ceramic/etc if I don’t feel the need for chemical filtration.
Substrate : “I need a substrate for planting” I told the salesperson, “Well, you can either do it the simple way with a single layer, or the slightly more complicated way with different layers” “The easy way of course!” I said, because sometimes, in the heat of the moment, I forget that I will later obsess over whether “easy” necessarily means “best”. So they grabbed me two 5L bags of Colombo Flora Base Pro. I have a number of regrets over this choice which I’ll come back to in a later post, but without getting too far ahead of myself, I can safely say that one big regret is that I didn’t think to ask the price … £40 a bag ... two bags … yowch!
CO2 : Not gonna go down that road. Slow and low is good enough for me.
Also got a starter pack with dechlorinator, “bacteria in a bottle” (did this actually do anything, I'll never know), and some flake food. A net, and gravel vac, also a nitrite test kit to establish when the tank was cycled (with that sentence I have probably lost 80% of my audience here, but hey, don’t hate me, I hadn’t discovered UKAPS yet!)
Noticed afterwards that a lot of the products I was advised to get were "Aqua" which appears to be MA's own brand. Funny that.
Finally, the beginnings of “the fun stuff”. A couple of Cyperus helferi (because I like the look of it), a bunch of Limnophila heterophylla (because the salesperson said it was easy to grow and propagate) and a single solitary bit of Pistia statiotes (dwarf water lettuce) “You'll only need one” said the salesperson “yeah, right” I think to myself.
So, after quite-some-more-money-than-I-had-anticipated, a sloooow taxi ride from Morden home and a carefully co-ordinated child distraction technique (aka Nintendo Switch). We had the beginnings of a surprise tank ready to go hidden away in a spare room (the tank amazingly intact despite what felt like 200 hundred speed bumps on the way). Now we just needed to figure out what to put in it.
