Returning out of tank-retirement

Evening ladies and gentlemen;

It is with much excitement and anticipation that I am making a return to the hobby. I scrolled through the site earlier, and noticed that my last post on TASA was in 2016, when I decided to retire from the hobby.
In 2016 my second son was born, and maintaining tanks, along with family commitments financially and time-wise led me to retire the hobby.

Over the past 8 years, I haven broke away from my business partner, and opened up my own business. My Business has successful opened up various divisions within them; and continues to grow. My sons are now a lot older, with my eldest touching his teenage years soon. My wife and I are entering our 16th year of marriage soon. We also recently moved from our 3 bedroom complex home in Roodepoort to a much larger free-standing home in Fourways; and therefore space has become available.

About 2 weeks ago, I accidentally came across a 4 foot fish tank sitting on a custom built cabinet that was being sold at a steal, and having space available to fit it in the new house, I launched at the opportunity before I had a chance to think.

The tank is now sitting empty in my home-office, and slowly reminding me of how much I enjoyed my tanks many years ago.

It is interesting to note, that as a previous member and moderator of TASA, my knowledge was pretty good "back then", with some of my articles being published in local fishkeeping magazines. It is also sad to point out, that as I type this, most of that knowledge is forgotten, and possibly outdated.

My long term vision/hopes with the tank is to again go with a heavily planted tank, with the intention of keeping Discus. I do seem to recall that there is a mis-alignment in terms of water requirements between Discus and plants, so the vision may change.
I am also currently looking at putting in a sump under the tank, rather than the canister filters that I was used to; however, this is something that is foreign to me as well.

As such, I basically approach the hobby as a newbie again, and instead of me starting to threads asking questions that I know has been answered, I would like to ask the member to please assist in directing me to threads that can help me with the following questions:

• The Different plant substrates that are available at the moment, and what is the best. (I don't particularly want to go the DIY route)
• The different fertilizer options available. (Again, don't necessarily want to go DIY)
• How to build a custom sump, and what are the key factors to look out for? (Number of compartments, where to place heaters. Should I put an airstone in the sump? Can I do CO2 dosing in the sump rather than the tank?
• How to build a custom overflow box (tank is not drilled)
• What are the popular lighting solutions at the moment, considering I want to go planted.
• And obviously, the most obvious of all, I am based in JHB- Fourways, where is currently the best pet-shop that would sell equipment etc.
  

Thanking you all in advance for the directions and guidance to come.

(I have tried to register on APSA as well, but the site is throwing an error in my trying to register. If anyone know the moderators and can assist in that, this would be great too)

 

Hi Zoom, its been some time. I remember your old 4 ft tank

APSA I believe have shut down. Facebook has ruined good old forums.

 

Thanks Vis.
Pity about APSA; but understandable. Although how one can compare Facebook to a Forum, I don' tknow.

 

Yeah, no progress tracking etc.

 

Hi RF;

Thanks for the "hi".
Yes, I see the activity is- well- dead. Where do people go now for their information and interaction?

 

Welcome back. Looking forward to the epic creation.

 

Welcome back. Nobody ever gets out of this hobby, we just take sabbaticals from time to time

 

Wow--- when you said the forum was a mere shell, I think you were too kind.

I've been offline most of the day, and I return to find only 4 threads have new posts. Back in the day, we used to have 4 updated posts within a couple of minutes!!!

 

Hi @Zoom

Firstly I would like to welcome you back to the hobby and this forum. As an old member of using forums it depresses me to see what this has become and it's mainly due to YouTube and social media sites together with WhatsApp groups that have "simplified" the hobby. I don't see the simplicity because on a forum it's documented and archived for easy navigation but I guess it's a different time we live in today.

In regards to your tank, I was a full on cichlid keeper when I joined the hobby again and ofcourse the forum too and very soon after I was converted into a hobbyist with MTS! I currently have 4 tanks as follows:

1. African Cichlids aquarium 5ft
2. 80cm high tech tank low iron tank which I spared no cost in shaping it to something of my dreams. Definitely inspired by this forum shortly before most members went silent.
3. 40cm low iron tank. No co2 low maintenance for shrimp and a guppy colony. This was initially a paludarium for vampire crabs but when they all died I decided to flood it. It's a total jungle
4. A 50cm tank in my daughter's room. Low tech island style scape, half and half aquasoil.

Based on my experience in the above I can definitely vouch for the quality of Ada Amazonia V2 aqua soil. It's given me unparalleled results in both the 40cm and the 80cm. The daughters tank has cheap aqua soil and you can definitely see the difference in the same plants in the different soils.

Lighting: the 80cm has a chihiros wrgb 2 pro
The 40 a Chinese light
The 50 a medium budget hygger branded light. And definitely each light definitely shows the difference clear as day. I would swap out the ones I have for better lights but I have no algae and decent plant growth so I would rather not mess with the formula.

Ferts: I used apt complete, seachem flourish, some DIY that I bought off a guy and recently started with masterline. And my results were as follows:

• Seachem - slow growth, healthy plant, lacked vibrant colours
• DIY stuff - fast growth, good colour but some hair algae
• Apt - brilliant all round, but I had algae issues too
• Masterline - absolutely nothing negative to say. Slower growth but not as slow as seachem. Best colours and absolutely algae free without dosing the so called "algecides" that's recommended by the "pros"

Ofcourse your experience could be different from mine with ferts based on your tap water. I have extremely weird water where I am and thus the hobby was a little trickier.

Co2 I've tried conventional diffusers, co2 reactor and the fancy skimmer/reactor on the market and settled for the neo diffuser. Doesn't cloud up my tank with bubbles but the plants definitely show you that it works.

Anyway I'm really looking forward to seeing what you do with your 4ft and I'm patiently waiting for your input in reviving this forum back to it's old glory I remember in like 2015 when I first joined

 

Holy schmoly, welcome back Mr. Zoom! Think we last spoke before 2010 if I remember correctly. Glad that you're back.

1. ADA Amazonia II. This is the best out there, and given the prices of substrates these days, don't bother going with anything else. What I would recommend you do though, is that if you need to create height, use Lava Rock as the base, and cap with the Amazonia substrate. Not only is it a great cost saver, but also a porous environment for the bacteria to live on. Go and get the substrates additives namely, ADA Tourmaline, ADA Clear Super and ADA Bacter 100. Chuck those on the lava rock (or glass base) as directed by the instructions.
2. APT, Scape, ADA (I use APT and works great; it's just pricy. Can't see why a cheaper option like Scape won't work tbh)
3. If you're going sump, then get yourself a CO2 Reactor, connected after the sump's outlet and back into the tank. Four compartments minimum. Seeing you're going Discus route, you won't need to have floaters in the sump; just go mechanical and biological in the sump. Ensure thought that your CO2 has a solenoid connected so that you shut your CO2 when the lights go off.
4. Pass; I'm sure the Pros on here can help with this.
5. ADA, Twinstar and Chihiros. I'd recommend going Chihiros if you're on a budget. You can go with the WRGB range on Chihiros (which is cheaper), but I'd recommend to get 1 x Chichiros Pro for your tank size, and suspend it. And when I said 'on a budget', Chihiros still gives you a "Pro" vibe without spending the $ on the actual Pro range. ADA lights are of course the best out there.
6. Aqua Empire. I've bought from them before and only have had great experiences. Not the cheapest though, but for good reason. For plants, you can shop by www.aquaticplants.co.za ; great prices and great quality plants.

 

Welcome back @Zoom,

Glad you made your way back…

Some more substrate/soil options I’ve been using for some of my tanks is the Dennerle Scapers Soil & Tropica. Both have had amazing plant growth results.

Check them out and I look forward to seeing your setup real soon!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Thanks for the information guys; I took some time yesterday to stroll around Jungle Aquatics just to familiarize myself with what's available out there. Its interesting to start having a flood of memories and knowledge that returns as you start looking at the stuff. I was pleasantly surprized to see that some of the "premium" and "pro" stuff that use to be really hard to find is now more readily available. I remember how difficult it was to just find CO2 diffusers, now there's a whole shelf of different types!

So after talking with the guys at the shops, and please, feel free to chip in your opinion:

Substrate. A few were recommended, but ADA Amazonia II was punted the hardest.
Lights. I was originally looking at the Chihiros- which by no means is a "budget light" if compared to the others- however the sales assistant recommended me to first go with a hanging Deebow Neo-Helios. His reasoning was even if I went with 2 of them, it would still me cheaper than the Chihiros, (albeit, more expensive to run). Alternately, go with the Neo-Helios 120cm for the full tank, and then hand smaller ones over areas of the tank than needs more light.
Ferts. This actually confused me more than the whole lights, but I was advised, in order of preference: (1) ADA (2) Dr Tank (3) APT or Scape (4) Aquavitro/Seachem. I did however notice that the preferencial order was also in price order, so I need to do some extensive research here.

CO2 solenoid would be a "non-negotiable", which would be timed for on- 30 mins before light's, and off 30mins before lights again.

Discus might be sacrificed for other fish. The disconnect between the warm water needs of the fish, and the cooler water for the plants concerns me. If it came to choosing between plants vs fish, I would choose plants.

Other than that, nothing much more to report, just continuing with the research. I use to get so irritated back in the hay-days of TASA when someone said they taking it slow, because all I wanted to see was the result. Now I'm that guy.

P.S>
What's your experience with (1) Stainless STeel heaters and (2) carpet plants seeds?

 

Substrate - Agree with them. ADA Amazonia

Lights - Go Chihiros, full spectrum is what you need if plants hold a higher significance for you than fish. If you want better and have money to part with, go with the ADA Aquasky.

Ferts - If you going with ADA Amazonia substrate, then the ideal package deal would be to use the ADA Ferts too, but it's not a must. I started my cube Dutch tank with Amazonia using APT Zero...had amazing results.

CO2 - If you still going the sump route, then CO2 reactor I'd still advise. If not, Twinstar diffusers are mint (the best of all I sampled before).

PS - Can't comment, haven't done either yet.

 

I've seen a few heavily planted Discus tanks too, but I have also heard of the disconnect between the requirements, and the challenge that it brings. So for now, I might sacrifice that dream.

I've done the Angels in the past. They are "ok" until they pair up and become aggressive.

I will do some research into Apisto's... might be an option too.

But in all honesty, the tank is not for fish. for me, it's about the plants. The only reason why I would put fish in is because everyone asks about where the fish are. I would also be happy with a planted tank and about 50 or more neons