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New to Hobby in Northwest Florida
Hello all! My wife and I recently moved to NW Florida (specifically
Crestview) and I'd like to introduce myself in the hopes that I can meet some like minded individuals. Let me start by saying that I am probably the worst sort of aquarium person ever. I rarely maintained the last tank my wife and I set up, but everything went fairly smoothly for the 2 years we kept it. I think we had only two or 3 fish die (except the damn Mollies which we took back because they kept killing each other). Algae was a frequent problem but I never understood why. Here we go, with the usual newbie questions (keep in mind I am reading the usual FAQ's available on the web, mainly the libraries at www.aquabotanic.com). I fear I made some terrible mistakes on the outset - well, maybe not terrible. Here goes: 1) Are there any clubs in NW Florida for non-marine aquarium enthusiasts? My boss is a nut for marine tanks - he cultures coral - but I haven't met anyone here who's into freshwater tanks (yet). Most of the stores around here seem to be marine places. 2) My tank set-up is as follows: 28 gallons 1 - under gravel filter with 1 - AquaClear Powerhead 301 (Hagen?) 1 - 22' light bulb, about 3/4" diameter (don't know the wattage or spectrum - plants didn't do well in the last tank we had) About 2.5 - 3 inches of cultured gravel assorted sizes (we got a nice mix, I thought it would help to hold plants in) Please don't cringe. I should have read up a week ago before we bought the gravel and such, but that's what I got. I have a test kit that I use infrequently, so if you guys think it's right (as I am beginning to suspect it is) I can get chemical readings. For fish, we have 6 rasboras (can't remember the variety - as I said, I'm new!) 3 tetras (Shadow?) and 2 (Black) Plecostamus (plecostamii?). We have some plant food (Kent Freshwater Plant Micronutrient Supplement) that I used whenever the whim took me. As you can probably guess, the water's still cloudy after about a week of stabilizing - mostly I guess because of the total lack of filtration of the cultured gravel. My actual question is this - can I hold the fish in a fishbowl or something while I put down a plant-friendly substrate? I'm thinking about trying to get a bunch of Florida native aquatic plants and trying to set up a lot of microfauna that I'm finding lately (I work part-time for the state sampling salamander populations at Washington Point). How long does it take for a nice system to get up and running? Can I just add sand and hope the fish will get do the work of colonizing the substrate? I think we made a mess of things before we even started... 3) Assuming we can save the fish, what sort of Florida native aquatics should I keep an eye out for? I'd like to keep to low-light levels, low tech (although I'd like to experiment with CO2 injection later, maybe). Is my equipment enough to support this system? I know it was a lot, but if any of you nice folks would like to take a beginner under their wing, I would appreciate it. Heck, if you live in NW Florida, I might come bring you a 6 pack for your troubles. Whew! Thanks again, Noah |
#2
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New to Hobby in Northwest Florida
I suggest removing or capping off and not using the underground filtration
system. It can and will cause green water. "noahms456" wrote in message ... Hello all! My wife and I recently moved to NW Florida (specifically Crestview) and I'd like to introduce myself in the hopes that I can meet some like minded individuals. Let me start by saying that I am probably the worst sort of aquarium person ever. I rarely maintained the last tank my wife and I set up, but everything went fairly smoothly for the 2 years we kept it. I think we had only two or 3 fish die (except the damn Mollies which we took back because they kept killing each other). Algae was a frequent problem but I never understood why. Here we go, with the usual newbie questions (keep in mind I am reading the usual FAQ's available on the web, mainly the libraries at www.aquabotanic.com). I fear I made some terrible mistakes on the outset - well, maybe not terrible. Here goes: 1) Are there any clubs in NW Florida for non-marine aquarium enthusiasts? My boss is a nut for marine tanks - he cultures coral - but I haven't met anyone here who's into freshwater tanks (yet). Most of the stores around here seem to be marine places. 2) My tank set-up is as follows: 28 gallons 1 - under gravel filter with 1 - AquaClear Powerhead 301 (Hagen?) 1 - 22' light bulb, about 3/4" diameter (don't know the wattage or spectrum - plants didn't do well in the last tank we had) About 2.5 - 3 inches of cultured gravel assorted sizes (we got a nice mix, I thought it would help to hold plants in) Please don't cringe. I should have read up a week ago before we bought the gravel and such, but that's what I got. I have a test kit that I use infrequently, so if you guys think it's right (as I am beginning to suspect it is) I can get chemical readings. For fish, we have 6 rasboras (can't remember the variety - as I said, I'm new!) 3 tetras (Shadow?) and 2 (Black) Plecostamus (plecostamii?). We have some plant food (Kent Freshwater Plant Micronutrient Supplement) that I used whenever the whim took me. As you can probably guess, the water's still cloudy after about a week of stabilizing - mostly I guess because of the total lack of filtration of the cultured gravel. My actual question is this - can I hold the fish in a fishbowl or something while I put down a plant-friendly substrate? I'm thinking about trying to get a bunch of Florida native aquatic plants and trying to set up a lot of microfauna that I'm finding lately (I work part-time for the state sampling salamander populations at Washington Point). How long does it take for a nice system to get up and running? Can I just add sand and hope the fish will get do the work of colonizing the substrate? I think we made a mess of things before we even started... 3) Assuming we can save the fish, what sort of Florida native aquatics should I keep an eye out for? I'd like to keep to low-light levels, low tech (although I'd like to experiment with CO2 injection later, maybe). Is my equipment enough to support this system? I know it was a lot, but if any of you nice folks would like to take a beginner under their wing, I would appreciate it. Heck, if you live in NW Florida, I might come bring you a 6 pack for your troubles. Whew! Thanks again, Noah |
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