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Hello from Australia


Chris45
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Hi everyone

I recently bought the 290 litre (~75 gallons) tank in the picture, and I'm day 5 into cycling (fishless).

This is my 2nd tank, the first tank being a small 30 litre tank that my young kids managed to poison with playdough and whatever else. They are a bit older now so hopefully I have bettrer luck 🙂

The tank kit came with an Aquis 1250 Series II canister filter. It also came with a 300w heater, but I didn't know this until I opened the box, so now I have two heaters. Both are set to 28c (82f). The small ornaments are from the old 30 litre tank, as is the air stone.

The filter has the usual sintered glass media, sponges, and I also added a bag of Zeolite at the recommendation from the pet store.

I still have no sign of ammonia after almost 5 days cycling. I'm finding it hard to get an accurate read on the PH, but I believe it's somewhere between 7.4 and 7.8.

I'm sure I'm terrible at scaping, but hopefully I can produce something that the fish will like.

Edited by Chris45
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Hi @Chris45, how are you doing your fishless cycle? What source of ammonia are you using? 

Scaping an aquarium is a form of art in my opinion, everyone has their own style and interpretation, and it evolves over time. As long as you enjoy the aquarium and the inhabitants are healthy, I say its a great scape. 

I cannot wait to see what hardscape you find! 

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32 minutes ago, Isaac M said:

Hi @Chris45, how are you doing your fishless cycle? What source of ammonia are you using? 

Hi @Isaac M, I'm just adding food (Tetra Tropical Coulour Flakes), and testing the water every day.

Oh, I'm also adding two caps each of API Stress Zyme and SeaChem Stability every day.

Edited by Chris45
wish I knew how to multi quote
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@Chris45 I see, I do something similar where I feed my aquarium as a source of ammonia. I typically try to feed at least as much as I think I will feed the fish I will be stocking or even a little more. I do that along with some sponge from an established tank. Then introduce fish and other inhabitants slowly over time.

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Just now, Colu said:

Welcome to the forum are you going to put live plants in your tank

Yes definitely want there to be plants.

The tank seems fairly tall, so I'd like some tall plants that reach the top, or close to the top. Along with a variety of others.

I don't have any plan as far as the scaping and planting, I'm a noob and kind of winging it. I see the final product potentially being a collection of random things that my kids think I should put in there 😁

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4 minutes ago, Chris45 said:

Yes definitely want there to be plants.

The tank seems fairly tall, so I'd like some tall plants that reach the top, or close to the top. Along with a variety of others.

I don't have any plan as far as the scaping and planting, I'm a noob and kind of winging it. I see the final product potentially being a collection of random things that my kids think I should put in there 😁

Great plant for the back ground would vallisneria that will reach the surface Javan fern and anubis are great for attaching wood and rock you want some quick growing stem plants like Hornwort I would add plants now to let get establish before adding fish

Edited by Colu
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1 minute ago, Colu said:

Great plant for the back ground would vallisneria that will reach the surface Javan fern and anubis are great for attaching wood and rock you want some quick growing stem plants like Hornwort 

Awesome Thank you - I will keep an eye out for those

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On 4/23/2021 at 12:16 PM, Colu said:

Great plant for the back ground would vallisneria that will reach the surface Javan fern and anubis are great for attaching wood and rock you want some quick growing stem plants like Hornwort I would add plants now to let get establish before adding fish

I also really like some brazilian pennywort. Totally different leaf shape and pattern to the tank and rather easy. No co2 needed. Grows to the top of the water and mine grew in so fast. I got this from co-op only a few weeks ago and reached the top of my 29gallon today. Also, I agree with @Colu, try to get those plants in there sooner rather than later. It's so much easier to get the layout down without the fish being in the tank, the plants will have some time to get established, plus the bacteria that will come on the plants will help your cycling process, as well as the plants using the nitrogenous wastes. Good luck with the tank!16193051670932918768091149919414.jpg.c31bcc93f9df083e9983cba48d9c3dbd.jpg

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Hi @Chris45, just a thought but what if you embrace the boat look. I think your kids could enjoy a sunken ship themed aquascape. You can leave it horizontal on the substrate like in the first picture and place rocks around the boat and throughout the tank. Then you can get a treasure chest, diver and a boat anchor as decor. It could make for an enjoyable aquascape for your family. 

As for plants, jungle val and pennywort would look great as was suggested. Some crypts would work well in the foreground as they can handle low light (assuming the jungle val will eventually cast some shade). 

If you are not into this idea, let us know and I will try to think of some other aquascaping ideas! 

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  • 1 month later...

The tank has evolved a bit while cycling. I cut the driftwood in half - was producing far too much red tannin and too quickly for my liking. I think the cycle is pretty much done now as well.

I have added a few plants from what I could get from my LFSs, and I would like to keep adding more. A couple Val and baby tears, which look quite poorly compared to the other anubias and swords and whatever the others are.

I wouldn't mind some grassly low growing stuff near the front and some more interesting medium size plants around the middle. I've already started thinking about CO2, so that will be the next thing to be researched I guess.

28.05.jpg

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2 hours ago, Chris45 said:

The tank has evolved a bit while cycling. I cut the driftwood in half - was producing far too much red tannin and too quickly for my liking. I think the cycle is pretty much done now as well.

I have added a few plants from what I could get from my LFSs, and I would like to keep adding more. A couple Val and baby tears, which look quite poorly compared to the other anubias and swords and whatever the others are.

I wouldn't mind some grassly low growing stuff near the front and some more interesting medium size plants around the middle. I've already started thinking about CO2, so that will be the next thing to be researched I guess.

28.05.jpg

Looks awesome mate!

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2 hours ago, Colu said:

I just wondered wether a lot of people keep native fish in Australia  or is mostly non native fish people keep @Chris45

I honestly wouldn't know what an Australian native tropical fish would be. I used to live in North Queensland and my father had a boat so could access the reef, and a lot of our friends kept sea water tanks and had lovely corals and anenome with clowns and so on, but as far as tropicals I couldn't say. When I go into a LFS here, all I see is basically the same fish that are regularly discussed here on the forums and on youtube etc.

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