Hello,

Well it is hard to start but I have just started my adventure with aquarium - just because of Lidl... But frankly speaking not exactly by them. In November I was forced to give a shelter to 2 cry fishes and their 3 babies (I thought they were lobsters - not any difference for me that time - it gives also an idea about my knowledge in this field...). At the beginning, they were kept in a small fish tank (15 l). In my opinion it was cruel to keep them in it but I knew it was a a temporary place and it was only a question of time when better tank would be given to them. So I spent some time on the net and found a comfortable home for them - 130 x 40 x 50 cm and they moved in to it very happily but they also moved out from my house as my co-tenant moved out, too. These cry fish (red Australian ones) belonged to his late friend and I couldn't let them finish in a toilet or river as people who were supposed to take care of them wanted to do. Unfortunately, babies didn't survive because we made too many mistakes but adults are great now. When they moved out, I felt I lost something although they were a little bit stinky (limited living space, insufficient filtration, no proper heating). I started to miss for a fish tank... I have never had fish in my live. I used to have cats, a dog, birds, a hamster, but never fish... So, just after Xmas I decided to buy an aquarium in Lidl. It's only 84 liters but just for the beginning. I'm doing my best to have it organized in a proper way but water started to be yellowish as I was not informed that yati wood should be kept in a separate container with water for a couple of days. Currently I have 20 guppy-babies that are growing so fast. I took them from the cry fish tank as my ex-co-tenant bought some guppies for his tank and it turned out that 'girls' were pregnant...
I attache a picture of my aquarium and would be very obliged if you could give me your advices.

Katherine


Welcome on board I hope you enjoy fishkeeping as much as I do. I started out small like yourself & probably most of the other members & I have worked my way up to a 180 litre tank once I was confident in what I was doing. I keep malawi cichlids & some evenings I just turn of the television & watch what is goin on in the tank it is such an interesting & enjoyable hobby. Best of luck & like me I'm sure you'll get all the advice you need from all the other members of the forum

Padraigr:)

Thanks a million. I do my best to get as much information as possible. The Net is a great place to find out what you need and to compare different opinions.
I hope I will manage to attach photo this time

looks very nice,plenty of water changes will sort out the yellow water,i made the same mistake with mine when i started,best of luck with the tank,anything you need to know you'll get plenty of good answers here,i'd have been lost without it

add a bag of decent activated carbon and that yellow will be gone in a day. i dunno where you live but if your anyway close to tallaght, get yourself a filter sock and i will fill it up for you. i dunno you may be able to fit it into your filter which wud be ideal.
welcome aboaed mate.
paddy

Hiya Katherine
Welcome along to the forum...feel free to ask any questions and i'm sure someone will have an answer for you,The tank looks well,I prefer the tint in the water to be honest with you, I think it looks a bit more natural but each to their own...Just one thing to be aware of is when you clean your filter make sure you wash the sponge out in water which was removed from your tank,the ideal time to do this is during a water change,washing the filter sponge under a tap will kill off any of the beneficial bacteria in the sponge.

All the best with your new tank
Lar

Hi,
welcome to the forum.Feel free to ask any questions.
Regards,Tim

Thanks a million! Unfortunately, I am not able to come to Tallagh although I'd love to. I live in Portlaoise. I just wonder if it is possible to replace my sponge in the filter to carbon to come back to clear water colour or maybe it is enough to put it on the bottom of the tank nearby the working filter... Water become to be more brownish than yellowish and doesn't look nice. Obviously, I won't be cleaning the filter under the tap water but I wanted to do it at the beginning. Now, I know why I shouldn't do it.

"Furnishing" of my tank has not been finished yet. It is in progress. I was looking at the pictures from AGA competition (I found link on this forum and I am dreaming about something similar). So, I'm waiting for the delivery of some silk and artificial plants to have them before I buy "live" plants and new inhabitants to the tank. I didn't know that if I wanted to have ordinary plants I should have bought a substrate. So, I'm looking forward to the delivery to Petmania to buy it as well as additional bags of gravel.

One good thing: my fish have plenty of different food: First Bites (Hikari), TetraMin Baby, Tetra Prima Complete food, MultiFit redworms, Vitakraft's Vita tropical fish food (flakes). I mix it for them. I was told fry should be given different food.

I wanted to buy some java mess but I couldn't find it neither in Portlaoise nor in Nass (Maxizoo). I found it on the e-bay. Does anybody have any experience with buying plants on e-bay or amazon? Do you know any reliable supplier?

hi Katherine
just to let you know that there is a fish club near you - the IMAS (see details below) our next meeting is due to be held on weds 20th jan you would be very welcome to come out and meet the guys and gals, what colour gravel do you need I have a half bag here (about 10kg)never used it's mainly white in colour and your welcome to it ,(I'll try and get a picture of it up soon) let me know if you would like it,also its not strictly true to say that you need a substrate to plant into I've always just planted into gravel.
Cheers...
Lar

Midlands - Irish Midlands Aquatic Society (IMAS) - Meetings on the 2nd Wed of the month in Tracey's Thatch, old Dublin Rd, Portlaoise at 8pm - Contact : Tom

Welcome Katherine,


I also have a yellowish tint in my tank water, lots of bog wood and blackwood leeching into the water.

I had to remove certain pieces and actually give em a little scrub using another small piece while under water soaking to remove a lot of loose layers on the surface of the wood that turned my tank brown. This took me a whole day. Even still I get a yellowish water but it can't be seen till a water is put into a bucket. Nice mature water will also be yellowish as in my Cory catfish tank, they love that kind of water.

Better to fix the source of the discolouration, if it is affecting you fish or ability to view the aquarium.

Good luck. Have a look though the forum, plenty of really helpful topics and advice that has helped me quite a bit.

Always check and never assume when it comes to your aquarium health.

Mark

Hi Lar,

Yes, I'd like to come but is the meeting on 13th (2nd Wednesday) or 20th January (3rd Wednesday)? I know Dublin Road (who doesn't know such a famous road in this town ) but I do not know where Old Dublin Road is. Even when I asked 'Portlaoisers' for the direction nobody was able to tell me!

Thank you for your offer for gravel. I will think about it. Actually, I was thinking about having a 'natural' one More brown gravel than white one. I bought both white and brown last time to mix them and I spent an hour on washing white one and I wasn't fully satisfied with the result of my work (still some dust on it) while washing exactly the same amount (2.5 kg) of brown gravel took me only 15 minutes and it was perfectly clean. On the other hand after an hour of work on the white gravel it became a little gray with such nice darker gray lines on it. When I put mixed gravel on the bottom of my tank it looked much lighter even too bright for me. Thanks for your help.

If you planted your plants directly into gravel, you were to give some fertilizers, didn't you? I am just wondering if substrate can eliminate fertilizers for a while?

Thanks,
Katherine

Hi Katherine
Due to the bad weather the meeting which was supposed to be held on the 13th is now postponed until the 20th,normally we would meet on the 2nd weds directions to venue below,
Re - planting into gravel...i tend to use the tablet fertiliser around the plant roots when planting into gravel,also dosing with liquid ferts at water changes

Lar

maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&source=hp&ie=...4710629666194&li=lmd

Hi Lar,

Indeed weather is not very good although I love snow outside but I hate my heating system to be broken every second day... But it is real, cold winder now.

So, the meeting place is in The Heat! I was looking at the map of Portlaoise So, I have to turn left to Portarlington road and then turn right just behind the big pub on the right hand side. It is so easy but looked so complicated! Thank you!

Katherine