Post by geek2nurse on Jan 29, 2013 19:56:16 GMT -5
I got re-bitten by the aquarium bug recently and, after some Craigslist adventuring, ended up the proud owner of a 130-gallon 48"L x 24"W x 27"D monster tank. My previous aquariums were always of the undergravel filter / plastic plant sort, but this time I want to try having a planted tank.
I've been combing the Web for information and generally ending up more confused than enlightened. Today I stumbled across the articles on the Aquarium Information site and found them the most understandable and comprehensive I've found. Everything else I've read has been so peppered with confusing acronyms that I can't make any sense of the content!
I'm going the low-tech route, and have only had my tank set up for a couple of weeks. It's maybe half planted so far; I'll be getting a bunch more plants next week when I have some time off work for puttering with the tank. I just added some crystal red shrimp and a couple of reticulated hillstream loaches (sewellia lineolata) to help with cleanup duty. I didn't clean the mulm out of the sump, since I figured it would help the tank cycle faster, but maybe I should have, because it got stirred up when I was updating the plumbing on the pump, and now there's a fine layer of uck over everything in the tank. *sigh*
The good news is, however, that so far I haven't managed to kill anything. Except for a few bladder snails that rode in on the first plants, but madly squishing every one I see has done nothing to curb their population. Maybe at least they'll help the shrimp clean up the mess I made with the mulm, until the aquarium vacuum I ordered gets here!
Anyway, hi everyone, and I hope you can handle one more newbie with a million questions!
I've been combing the Web for information and generally ending up more confused than enlightened. Today I stumbled across the articles on the Aquarium Information site and found them the most understandable and comprehensive I've found. Everything else I've read has been so peppered with confusing acronyms that I can't make any sense of the content!
I'm going the low-tech route, and have only had my tank set up for a couple of weeks. It's maybe half planted so far; I'll be getting a bunch more plants next week when I have some time off work for puttering with the tank. I just added some crystal red shrimp and a couple of reticulated hillstream loaches (sewellia lineolata) to help with cleanup duty. I didn't clean the mulm out of the sump, since I figured it would help the tank cycle faster, but maybe I should have, because it got stirred up when I was updating the plumbing on the pump, and now there's a fine layer of uck over everything in the tank. *sigh*
The good news is, however, that so far I haven't managed to kill anything. Except for a few bladder snails that rode in on the first plants, but madly squishing every one I see has done nothing to curb their population. Maybe at least they'll help the shrimp clean up the mess I made with the mulm, until the aquarium vacuum I ordered gets here!
Anyway, hi everyone, and I hope you can handle one more newbie with a million questions!