Returning to aquatics

[BubblingUnder]

Hi - I am returning to the hobby following a ten year break (a heater breakdown wiped out most of my fish dampening my enthusiasm for aquatics). I have been looking at some of the forum tanks & info. most beyond me but inspirational. Nice to see the technology has evolved with LED lighting & liquid carbon. Just set up my first planted tank after a bit of research & will post pictures asap.

 

[kadoxu]

Hi and welcome!

 

[Smells Fishy]

Welcome, i like your name its cool.

 

[Ryan Thang To]

Hi welcome back

Cheers
Ryan

 

[BubblingUnder]

Thanks for the welcome. I'm looking forward to an algae free tank (hopefully)

 

[Ryan Thang To]

Thanks for the welcome. I'm looking forward to an algae free tank (hopefully)

Are you using tap water if so where are you base?
Tap water is fine but if you can get hold of r/o water depends on how big your tank is.
Key is to over plant so it can use up all the nutrients and add plenty of shrimp is the key to keep nice clean tank

Cheers
Ryan

 

[BubblingUnder]

Are you using tap water
Ryan

Hi Ryan - I'm using a 50/50 mix of tap & rainwater at the moment but I will top up with mainly rain water over time. On my old tanks I used rainwater from a water butt attached to the house & run any tapwater through a de-ironizing resin but that got too expensive for me so I just used rainwater in the end. I don't live in the city so pollution is not an issue. I'm hoping the houseplants I will use for extra nitrate filtration will purify it further (this has worked for me in the past).

Shrimp is something new for me I must admit I'm tempted to put some Cherry Shrimp in but I'm also tempted to drop a discus in as well & am worried that they would soon disappear a new food source for it. Maybe if I introduced a small enough discus & fed it well it might not view them as a snack but I not so sure.