Sophie

Hmm.. I've officially decided to upgrade to T5 lighting. I can hear my bank account crying from here! Will have a look for the best price this week, Looking for just the 4ft 2 x 54w unit. I'm sure my plants will appreciate it!

Thanks for you're info guys! Very helpful. Re. Lighting, I think i will stick with the T8 for now, as i wasn't planning on getting any more plants. I will deffinatly be upgrading to T5 as soon as i can afford to though, I've heard alot of people have great results from them. Re. Ferts, The hairgrass should be arriving between Wednesday and Friday this week, so I'll make sure I've got some liquid fertilzer and some tablets ready, and fingers crossed it'll survive. I am using medium size gravel as a substrate. I also have a 3.5ft bubble wall and one Co2 diffuser so they should all be getting enough Co2 and the water circulation is good. I hope i can pull it off, I'm looking forward to getting the tank all nice and pretty! Thanks again for your input guys, This site is so useful for people like me, I don't know a great deal about this stuff but I love learning about it

Do you think I'd need to? I am happy for the plants to grow slower, I have noticed they are growing in the big tank, just at a MUCH slower rate. I don't want them to die or anything... Do you think they'll be ok with the light as it is?

Yeah, I was gonna leave the plants in the little tank untill the big one was done, but I heard it speeds up the cyling process and I'm pretty impatient! The little one is 2 x 40 w and the big one is also 2 x 40 w but obviously a bigger unit, and it's T8. One tube is called 'sunlight' which is gold and one 'tropical' which is pink. It covers the whole tank in length. I'm thinking I might need to replace the tubes with ones with a higher output but I'm not sure if I can put them in the same unit. It's an AquaOne.

Yeah, That's what i was thinking to, But I'm not very experienced with plant care. If it is that, then it's no real drama because there will be fish in there in just under 2 weeks anyway. :lol:

Hi guys, Being a newbie to the world of aquascaping, I'm not too sure if i should be adding suppliments/fertilizers to my plants. I currently have a 4ft tank, approximatly 200L. It has no fish yet, as it's still cycling(about 1.5 or 2 weeks left). I used ammonia to cycle it, as I'm not big on the 'disposable fish' method. I only put the plants in about a week ago, as the ammonia levels would have been too high for them before. Currently in the tank i have anubias nana, anubias barteri, hybrid hygrophilia and i have 5 pots of hairgrass arriving next Thursday. The plants all seem in good health, but they arn't growing as much as they were in my 80L 'older' tank. I'm wondering if it's because the tank is still new, or maybe they are lacking nutrients? Maybe I'm just being impatient, but I'd rather sort it out now before the plants start dying or something! Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks very much, I hope so to! They sound great, and it seems they're in the perfect new home then! :D

Oh Ok, I'll have to keep any eye out for that Thanks! :D

Hmm.. My BN is still only about 5cm and the Clown's are roughly the same, do you think some 30cm+ Amazon Swords & Java Fern would be ok? They havn't taken any interest in the two Amazon Swords i have in there..... Yet! :blink:

Thanks very much! :D

Aww it sounds like he was very well loved to live so long, and grow nice and big. So sorry you lost him, He sounds like he had quite the character. I hope mine will live that long. :)

Thanks, yeah I'll deffinatly post some up! :)

Thanks for the tips, re. Angel fish, yes i would be starting off with small ones, and i might well sell them on if they become overly agressive. Its a good idea. re. Clowns, I currently have only 3cm ones, and my new tank will be 4ft so when they outgrow that, the plan is to get a 6ft tank from a friend (6ft x 3ft x 4ft). From the research i did, they generally don't grow over 20cm except in extreme cases. Clearly the fish in those images are well over 20cm but if mine were to grow that big, i would be very happy. I would ensure they have ample swimming room as they grow, and ideal water conditions. Thanks again guys! :D

Joan - I Know, they're so cute! Well, I heard settling them in can take longer than some hardy species (like BN's), but to be honest mine seem to be right at home already. Apparently once they are comfortable they can cope with most water parameters, within reason. They prefer a pH of 5.5-8.5 and a temp of 24 - 30 but that suits the other fish in my tank equally, and a hardness of very soft to medium-hard. In my opinion that's pretty easy going, compared to some fish. Delyall - Yeah, supposedly they have been seen at 30cm in the wild, but the largest in aquariums is roughly 20cm according to google & a very trust worthy LFS. I can't wait to have them cruising around at that size haha, I'll never see a snail again! They're an awsome addition to my tank, and at the end of the year I'll be getting a bigger tank, and 3 more Clowns! Wayne- Yeah, i reckon they'd have to be very old to get that size. I have a couple of Cherry Shrimp left over from when i sold all mine off (i though i caught them all, sneaky buggers!) I expected to see the Clowns snap them up straight away, but so far they have only eaten one tiny one, between three of them! I suspect as they get bigger the Shrimp population will suddenly drop. Yeah i heard you shouldn't have any less than 3 at a time, but preferably more. So i decided i would get three now, to start getting rid of a ridiculous amount of snails, and then when i get a bigger tank in Dec then I'll get at least 3 more. When i read up about them people said they sleep on they're side, i thought i wouldn't see it for a while as i only got them yesterday, but sure enough - i switched on the tank light this morning and there was one, upside down between the heater and the glass haha. It was definitely a shock!

Here are my 3 little Clown Loaches, I got them yesterday afternoon but they seem to have settled right in already! I saw them this morning, playing with the Blue Tetra. They're so cute and lively, I'd recommend them for any community tank!