Howdy peeps

Been checking out the forums for a couple of months now, thought its time to say howdy, am 43 yrs old, had a couple of small tanks about 15 yrs ago, left the hobby as I set up a cichlid tank in a 4 ft I think it was, well there was carnage for a while until I had one big fire Oscar left in a shredded tank, I wish I had had these forums then!!, that experience kind of put me off for a bit.

Then about a month ago I get a small 57 lt tank thinking to have a small set up in my home office, tried to follow all the advice I read here, simple system, gravel substrate, I cycle tank for a month and all looking cool, feeling like quite a pro, Ha Ha, even skulking around the marine tank site.

So I come into the office Monday morning and there is water everywhere, eish, laminate floor, double eish.
the tank bottom had cracked and the rest as they say is history, my 3 Platys that I got on the Saturday were laying in small pools in gravel, 2 casualties, one survivor (Rambo) ended up in a bucket while I cleaned up and rushed around to get another tank organized.

Luckilly the pet shop guy was cool about the whole thing, gave me all my money back for the tank that bust, gave me a good discount on a new tank and supplied me pre conditioned water etc to get the thing running ASAP. Awesome! (I got a bigger better set up this time, no more busted glass!)

So that is my sorry tale but with a happy conclusion for now.
going to fiddle with my blackberry now to see if I can get some piccies up,
I still dig this amazing hobby and have enjoyed learning from everyone on this great site!!

Cheers for now
Keith,
Lonehill.

 

Welcome to TASA Keith!! Sorry to hear about your tank Beware, once you get one tank, you will need more to sustain your desires.......... its an addiction, not a hobby!

 

Hi Keith and welcome to TASA

WOW! That must have been a nightmarish experience. Glad you got it sorted out so quickly. And well done to that pet shop for fixing things. Did you get the same size tank?

 

Hi Keith - well, I laughed - having similarly come back to childhood fascination 3 yrs ago - my reintroduction was worse - leaking tank, malfunctioning heater - at least it sounds like you have a reasonable lps- WELCOME!

 

ok so i think the piccies will appear in the thread, not sure if i got this right but here goes,one pic is the empty planted tank (self explanatory)the other pic is my wet floor (self explanatory)the last pic is my new tank (yaaaaayyy!!)sole resident is one extremely lonely Platy (Rambo), will get some buddies when tank settles down.ps, Rambo is not a "sole", ummm nevermind (fish joke?)

 

no doubt FishLover, why else would one buy a new tank for one Platy? I think i am already infected!!

 

Hi Jenn,
I cant say it was a barrel of laughs especially on a monday morning, but hey worse things happen at sea? (oops another fish joke)

I got a 120lt tank as opposed to a 57, i think will be a good size to easily maintain and keep H20 parameters in line.

 

Not a bad upgrade Gotta be good for the sole haha - to continue the bad fish joke theme :wacko:

 

Hi Keith. Welcome aboard!! Always nice to have someone come back into the hobby after a leave of absence. Sorry to hear about your first tank but it was for the best cos u got something bigger and better. Good to see at least one fishy made it out. May i suggest a school of neon blue dwarf rainbows for your new tank!!

 

Welcome to tASA! Could you try to give me a clearer pic of the plants? I suspect the one is a non aquatic so want to save you the drama from that as well

 

Welcome

 

A beautiful setup, so sorry the other one burst.

And here's to many years of happy fishkeeping!

 

Hi there Angie,

Here is a pic of the plants a bit closer, hope they are all aquatic ? LPS said they were and they still look ok in the tank.
The difference between the old tank and the new is enormous, the lighting is a lot better, cant believe how different it looks compared to old tank, filtration is much better too so should be easier to maintain too!

setup looks pretty bleak compared to many that i have seen on this site but given time will get it to look better am sure.
Thanks to all for welcome and comments.

 

The spike plant in the back is non -aquatic(dracaena deremensis)

 

so does that mean it will die soon or should i remove it ?

 

So I got some mates for Rambo (rambette actually as is female), got another 4 Plattys, 2 with black tails, thinking to pur in some white clouds and some Harlequin Rasboras when am sure tank is stabilised, will add them slowly ie rasboras first and see how we go, maybe some floating plants?

 

Hi @Keith

White clouds prefer colder temps - 22 degrees. Stick with the Harlequin Rasbora and maybe some type of tetra?

 

Hi @MarcHawke, ok no white clouds, got the Harlequin rasboras? do they sometimes get called Harlequin tetras by the LFS ?

I saw them here on the community tank forums and googled pics so they are definitely the Harlequin Rasbora but the LFS had them marked as Harlequin Tetra?

Anyhoo, I got 10 of them and they look amazing, still small but shoal in top left corner in pic, between them and the Platys i dont know who is more active, Awesome!
I also got some long leafed plant the guy at LFS said is "giant Vallisneria", breaks up the upper parts of the tank so am happy with the result.

 

@Keith

Sorry I was kinda busy the last few days fighting with Telscum to fix our internet at home.

Like Dewald mentioned the dark green broad leaved plant is a non aquatic - remove it asap and plant it in your garden.
You can also break up the grassy plant in the front into a few smaller clumps - spread it out and if they are happy they will carpet lovely.