I have recently set up a new fresh water tropical fish tank. I had some problems getting the plants to really flourish in my last tank so I decided to try using a house plant potting compost as the bottom layer of the substrate.
I added a layer of fine gravel to this and then finally a layer of sand. I had read a few negative comments about how difficult it is to keep sand clean but I think it is worth a try especially as I intend to keep several species of Corydoras in the tank.
Next I put the filter and heater in place and added the water. I did this straight from the tap using a jug as I don’t have a hose pipe available. This was fine as I just used a saucer at the bottom of the tank to stop any disturbance of the substrate. You can see from the condensation on the outside of the glass that the water as pretty cold. I guess this is not a sensible way to do it as it must put a lot of strain on the heater but I though this was better than using the hot tap.
The general consensus seems to be that tap water is quite safe in terms of chlorine if left to stand so I did not treat it. It was at this point, feeling very pleased with my efforts, that I discovered a small crack in the corner of the tank. The shop, Maidenhead Aquatics in Morganstown, Cardiff , where I bought the tank were absolutely fantastic. Despite the fact that I could not guarantee I had not broken the tank myself and had already filled it they replaced the tank the next day.
This did mean I had to re-do the substrate again. I had discarded the original potting compost layer so put in a fresh laye. I had kept the gravel and sand layers but these had become mixed so the new tank had this mixed layer plus a fresh layer of sand.
Having filled the second tank and got the temperature level and run the filter for a few days the next step was to add the plants to the tank. Most books and websites seem to show the planting being done before adding the water but I think it would be hard to see how the tank will look doing it this way. I certainly did not have any problems.
The plant were obtained via ebay from two sellers. Their shops are Aqua Plants UK and Aquarium Plant and DIY specialist. Both provided excellent plants that were well packaged. Both plants were delivered with weights however I removed these and planted straight into the sand.
The people that sell tropical plants on ebay have a stupid way of describing the number of plants sold. If they bunch five cuttings together this counts as 5 plants and not one. This is fine as long as you are aware it and the prices still represent good value. It’s just a little annoying. No doubt when one seller started to do this the others had to copy or else look very uncompetitive. In any case all the reputable sellers are up front about it in their product descriptions.
With this in mind I purchased packs of “fifty” plants from each seller. In retrospect this was propably overkill but I was expecting to lose some of the plants given my poor performance in the past. Planting into sand was much better than into gravel as I felt I could push the roots in without damaging them. However the sand was very easy to disturb. This is going to be a problem if I need to make extensive changes once the fish are in. Once all the sand had settled I was happy with the initial look.
The plants have been in for a couple of weeks and almost all are thriving. I am not sure though whether this is down to the compost substrate or the high quality bulb that came with the tank. The new bulb does seem a lot brighter than previous ones I have owned.
The only other change I have made is to add CO2 via a yeast based system (as opposed to compressed Co2).
About a week after all the planting I added water to the tank from an established set up and added food for about two weeks to get the nitrogen cycle going. The first additions were two adolescent guppy males from the established tank. This was in part as I new they were
healthy and strong and partly to separate the male guppies from the females for obvious reasons. I wanted to increase the stock slowly so did not introduce their father (the guppy with the black and red tail pictured) until a week later. After yet another week it was time for a trip back to Maidenhead Aquatics. I had previously kept Bronze Corydoras before and was keen to try a different species of Corydoras because they are J’s favourite sort of fish. We decided upon three Corydoras Sterbai as they don’t grow too big and are frankly the cutest fish ever. Another week past and the corys were well settled
but it became clear that the tank was out of balance. With the guppies at the top and the corys at the bottom the middle of the tank was more or less empty. The fish I decided to add to fill the middle of the tank were six Harlequin Rasbora. They have settled in really well too. The final addition last weekend was some more Corydoras Sterbai bringing the total shoal up to six.
