Hope this is in the right forum....

[Fisher2007]

Hi All

Joined earlier today and a little bit about me and my prior fish keeping experience is here;

https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/hi-all.52167/

Re the link, I'm looking at setting up a new tank - something in the region of 400 litres. I've looked into the high tech route and simply I don't want to go there. I did that with my marine system and after a while it becomes more of a headache than enjoyable, plus work means I've only got a limited amount of free time

I'm thinking along the lines of;
- 120-150cm long tank by 45cm wide and anywhere from 45-60cm tall
- Tank needs to be closed top or at least glass covers. I don't want the evaporation problems
- External filter, probably a thermo version or something along those lines to keep the heater out of the tank
- LED lights (for energy saving purposes)
- Liquid carbon dosing (don't really want to go CO2)
- Plant wise, easy stuff - cryps, anubias, javas, vallis
- Fish wise - maybe a shoal of tiger barbs, a few Denison barbs and a shoal of tetras. These are just ideas at the minute but nothing complicated in any event

I've been looking round the various shops for display tanks to give me some ideas but struggling a little. Right now I'm considering the juwel rio 450 LED but don't know much about it and not seen many reviews - any comments based on the above? I've seen one show with one running along similar lines to what I'm thinking. They said it's been going for 7-8 months and looks quite impressive. My plan would be to remove the internal filter in favour of the external and a cleaner look

Should have said that although I've got lots of fish keeping experience, and also water chemistry experience from my marine days, I've never kept a true planted tank, so a little green (excuse the pun!). As per the link, today I have 2 x stock Aqua Nanos (a 40 - which is 55 litres, and a 60 - which is 100 litres). Both have been running a couple of years or more successfully with the plants above, carbon dosing and small tetras, etc. So my plan it just to upsize everything is possible

Any help, tips, comments welcome

Cheers

 

[Tim Harrison]

Lower-energy is the way to go if you don't have time or inclination for a full blown high-energy tank.
Best to check out the Tutorial section, all the info you need to get started is there https://www.ukaps.org/forum/forums/tutorials.34/

 

[Fisher2007]

Thanks Tim - yeah, been reading through. Already planning on going down the dirt route

 

[Trebor127]

Re co2 I would go for pressurised on a tank that size...cost will soon mount if dosing liquid carbon