Nautilus143
Member
Hi all! I am new to UKAPS and loving the forums so far. I recently set up a tank (first one, not counting a tank my parents maintained when I was little) and thought it might be fun to track its progress here.
Firstly, my tank is an Oase Styleline85. I started watching George Farmer's videos and noticed that this tank features in several of them. I thought it looked great for a beginner since it comes with everything (tank, stand, filter, light).
I decided that I wanted to use dragon stone for the hardscape. As I was doing all my planning/purchasing during lockdown in January, I couldn't get out to a shop to purchase the things I needed. Fortunately, the team at Scaped Nature were a huge help. I sent them some pics for inspiration and they assembled a hardscape for me. They then priced up the stones and shipped them out. Below is a pic from the day I put the hardscape in.
At this point I wondered whether I should have opted for taller stones as the tank is actually pretty tall. Nevertheless, I was happy with the results.
In terms of plants, I started with Bacopa caroliniana, Staurogyne repens and Monte Carlo. These were tricky to get due to Tropica shortages at time. I was really happy with my plants from the very beginning, but this photo from the day of flooding shows that the whole setup actually just looked really sorry for itself.
I then started a fishless cycle using fish food. This was a bit of a nightmare as it made the tank (and by extension, the room it's in) smell awful. Plants started growing in nicely though. After three weeks, I added Anubias petite and water sprite to the tank. Note the lovely bag of fish food in the pic below.
To be continued
Firstly, my tank is an Oase Styleline85. I started watching George Farmer's videos and noticed that this tank features in several of them. I thought it looked great for a beginner since it comes with everything (tank, stand, filter, light).
I decided that I wanted to use dragon stone for the hardscape. As I was doing all my planning/purchasing during lockdown in January, I couldn't get out to a shop to purchase the things I needed. Fortunately, the team at Scaped Nature were a huge help. I sent them some pics for inspiration and they assembled a hardscape for me. They then priced up the stones and shipped them out. Below is a pic from the day I put the hardscape in.
At this point I wondered whether I should have opted for taller stones as the tank is actually pretty tall. Nevertheless, I was happy with the results.
In terms of plants, I started with Bacopa caroliniana, Staurogyne repens and Monte Carlo. These were tricky to get due to Tropica shortages at time. I was really happy with my plants from the very beginning, but this photo from the day of flooding shows that the whole setup actually just looked really sorry for itself.
I then started a fishless cycle using fish food. This was a bit of a nightmare as it made the tank (and by extension, the room it's in) smell awful. Plants started growing in nicely though. After three weeks, I added Anubias petite and water sprite to the tank. Note the lovely bag of fish food in the pic below.
To be continued