On Sat, 29 Jul 2006 15:48:48 +0100, Pete
wrote:


Hi Pete,

You chemistry types seem to ask for problems. I take the simple
approach, but limit the variety of plants. Just to show what I mean
by simple:

I make 20% water changes twice weekly, no additives, the refill is
straight from the tap. I use no fertilizers for the live plants, they
live on the waste from the fish. I don't use bio filters, just a
simple filter media, no charcoal, no CO2. The lights are all (5
tanks) "low light" and the plants chosen for low light conditions.

I can understand the desire for exotic environments, but there does
appear to be a price to be paid. I just have to weed my plants every
few months.

dick

Hi Dick
Oh so very true!!

I've kept tropicals for 30+ years. As a teeneager I had 5 or 6 tanks
in an outside shed and much the same as you, my main community tank
looked nice but not spectacular.
I set up just 1 community tank when I moved here 20yrs ago and I done
a water change about once every 3 months, cleaned the glass every few
weeks and that was about all the maintenance I needed to do.

Then, about 3 months ago the tank started looking rather poorly, the
plants were not growing and I had an outbreak of beard algae which
really started to take over, so some helpful folks on another
newsgroup suggested getting rid of my undergravel filters/powerheads,
so I done that. At the same time I changed all the gravel (I never
liked the colour of the old stuff much anyway). Then it was suggested
that I needed a bio-filter, so I 'invested' £200 in an eheim 2329 to
compliment my existing eheim 2217.
Then it was suggested that the light levels were not enough (3x 36w
triton tubes), so I 'invested' £250 in 2 x 150w Metal Halide lamps,
then I'm told that I need CO2, so I 'invested' another £300 on a
pressurised CO2 setup (which is arriving next week), then I need plant
fertilisers - £75............. so it's cost me an arm and leg so far.

I have to confess that the tanks does now look good, and I'm hoping
that when the CO2 goes on it will look spectacular after a while -
just hope it doesn't end up costing another arm and a leg! - cos then
I'd be left with none!!

There's a few pics of the tank as it was before it got poorly and some
of the new setup at -
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/speedy99uk/my_photos
if you're interested.

Best wishes
Pete

Fine looking tank Pete.

dick