Hi everyone. I’ve set up my first tank in over a decade. It’s a 27 liter (~9 gallon) cube. After I did the soil capped with sand substrate and hardscape I couldn’t decide for the longest time what I wanted to do with it (over a year!), but a few weeks ago I decided I needed to put some water in it and get started. I live in a small town in central Portugal, and I only have one dedicated aquarium store within a reasonable drive, and they mainly specialize in saltwater stuff. They were helpful though, and sold me the setup, the substrate, the wood, and a pump driven sponge filter.
What I’ve decided on is a planted neocaridina tank. I decided to do a fish-in cycle using some emerald rasboras (yes, I know, but they were my only choice). Tank setup was on 17 January. Using bottled spring water from the mountains of Portugal. pH is around 6.8, with good KH and GH numbers. Using Seachem Stability daily. No heating, and the tank temp varies with the temperature of the living room. Usually between 18.5 and 20C (Portuguese houses are notoriously cold and difficult to heat effectively). Plants include two small cryptocorine petite, hygrophila, and rotala. Plants are doing well with the light you see in the photos, on for 8 hours per day. I’ve done ~10-15% water changes every couple of days. We even had a four day period after storm Kristin with no electricity, so no light and no filtration, and everything came through just fine.
As of this morning, my ammonia is at (or very near) zero, with nitrates and nitrites coming down close to zero.
Plan for now is to keep on with what I’m doing for several more weeks. I’ve lost at least one rasbora (as I figured), but the others are doing well.
My stocking plan is to let the rasboras stay (I couldn’t catch them if I wanted to), get some neocaridinas (probably 10-20 for starters), and a couple of otocinclus or other cory cats as I can find them.
What I’ve decided on is a planted neocaridina tank. I decided to do a fish-in cycle using some emerald rasboras (yes, I know, but they were my only choice). Tank setup was on 17 January. Using bottled spring water from the mountains of Portugal. pH is around 6.8, with good KH and GH numbers. Using Seachem Stability daily. No heating, and the tank temp varies with the temperature of the living room. Usually between 18.5 and 20C (Portuguese houses are notoriously cold and difficult to heat effectively). Plants include two small cryptocorine petite, hygrophila, and rotala. Plants are doing well with the light you see in the photos, on for 8 hours per day. I’ve done ~10-15% water changes every couple of days. We even had a four day period after storm Kristin with no electricity, so no light and no filtration, and everything came through just fine.
As of this morning, my ammonia is at (or very near) zero, with nitrates and nitrites coming down close to zero.
Plan for now is to keep on with what I’m doing for several more weeks. I’ve lost at least one rasbora (as I figured), but the others are doing well.
My stocking plan is to let the rasboras stay (I couldn’t catch them if I wanted to), get some neocaridinas (probably 10-20 for starters), and a couple of otocinclus or other cory cats as I can find them.
