Hi, I have come across this ukaps site several times over the past few months whilst searching for information to help me with various aquarium problems and also just for interest sake. There always seems to be good information here so I joined.
I was given an aquarium as a kid by a neighbour who was moving abroad. I knew nothing about how to look after it but was given a book which I still have: 1001 Questions Answered About Your Aquarium by Ida Mellen and Robert Lanier (George Harrap and Company 1936). The aquarium was 24 x 12 x 12 in, lit by two 40w bulbs, separate heater and thermostat, no filter! There was plenty of Valis and some floating plant, but no other plants. I was supposed not to clean it out as the collected "mulm" on the gravel was a "good thing". I new nothing about the water chemistry , pH or anything! Well, the fish thrived for several years, then gradually the platys and guppies died out, but the single angelfish and numerous neons thrived. The only time I have ever managed to get neons spawning! (The angel fish ate the eggs and fry). Then I had to give them up.
Forty years later, I remembered how much I liked the hobby and started again. Wow! Hadn't things moved on. I bought a 180l Juwel tank, T8 tubes internal filter and heater. I put in sand as a substrate, some bogwood, java fern and Valis. Seventeen years on, that set up is still running although I have added more plants and an external filter and changed the lights to LED as I have learnt more (no more mulm).
Recent years have seen the addition of a 90litre Aqua 0ne and a 200litre Roma, both of which I have used to experiment with various set ups with very varying success. This brings me to the present day where I have got so excited about all sorts plants and got in so much trouble with so much cyanobacteria and twisted my mind up about too much CO2 and not enough GH and KH. This should be easy. I am a biologist! So back to the internet and here I am.
I was given an aquarium as a kid by a neighbour who was moving abroad. I knew nothing about how to look after it but was given a book which I still have: 1001 Questions Answered About Your Aquarium by Ida Mellen and Robert Lanier (George Harrap and Company 1936). The aquarium was 24 x 12 x 12 in, lit by two 40w bulbs, separate heater and thermostat, no filter! There was plenty of Valis and some floating plant, but no other plants. I was supposed not to clean it out as the collected "mulm" on the gravel was a "good thing". I new nothing about the water chemistry , pH or anything! Well, the fish thrived for several years, then gradually the platys and guppies died out, but the single angelfish and numerous neons thrived. The only time I have ever managed to get neons spawning! (The angel fish ate the eggs and fry). Then I had to give them up.
Forty years later, I remembered how much I liked the hobby and started again. Wow! Hadn't things moved on. I bought a 180l Juwel tank, T8 tubes internal filter and heater. I put in sand as a substrate, some bogwood, java fern and Valis. Seventeen years on, that set up is still running although I have added more plants and an external filter and changed the lights to LED as I have learnt more (no more mulm).
Recent years have seen the addition of a 90litre Aqua 0ne and a 200litre Roma, both of which I have used to experiment with various set ups with very varying success. This brings me to the present day where I have got so excited about all sorts plants and got in so much trouble with so much cyanobacteria and twisted my mind up about too much CO2 and not enough GH and KH. This should be easy. I am a biologist! So back to the internet and here I am.
