Getting back into the hobby...

[Pariah]

Good evening! We are Ben, Tasha and kiddos from Amish country Ohio. We are just recently getting back into the hobby after 12 years absence. Prior to now we mostly kept oscars and convicts. We spent a good portion of our lives in a small town just outside of Fairbanks, Alaska before settling in Ohio to raise a family.

Recently we stumbled across two gently used 40 breeders (my favorite of the "smaller" tanks) by chance for $40 for BOTH. Jackpot! Now that our two kiddos are a little older (3 & 6), we jumped on the deal. Both are riparium style. Eventually we hope to upgrade to 125+ gallon so we can keep oscars again. Or when we win the Powerball, a swimming pool sized native aquarium featuring bass, crappie, various sunfish, bowfin and a big ugly catfish of some type.

Tank #1:
40 breeder
Two juvenile convict cichlids
Two Whisper 40i filters ($11.19 on sale at our LFS, woot!)
Mopani and local driftwood
20/40 coal slag substrate (I think it was mislabeled, it's actually very fine)
Ghetto plastic plants until I find a good deal on live plants
Pothos, Aglaonema, Syngonium and Chamaedorea in filters and shower caddies

Tank #2 (my wife's):
40 breeder
Currently empty, but will be home to a trio of axolotl once we find the exact ones my wife wants.
Two Whisper 40i filters
20/40 pool filter sand
Mopani wood
Ghetto plastic plants until we get real plants
Resin rock cave
Pothos and Aglaonema in filters

Anyways, I've rambled enough. Cheers!

*waits for applause*

 

[dudley]

? Welcome to AC!! Nice to see another Ohioan here. It will only be a matter of time until you add more tanks.

 

[Pariah]

? Welcome to AC!! Nice to see another Ohioan here. It will only be a matter of time until you add more tanks.

Thank you. We're in Holmes county.

We are at our limit at our apartment with the two, but once we buy a house, it'll be game on. We also miss keeping snakes, blue tongue skinks, tortoises and tarantulas as well, but we can't have those here.

 

[FreshyFresh]

Nice! Welcome back to the hobby.

Sounds like great ideas for setups. All those whisper filters are going to be a pain though and cost you in terms of replacing filter pads in the long run, plus the design of them is horrible for housing a good amount of beneficial bacteria. You can rinse and reuse the cartridges for awhile, but they tend to fall apart.