New To The Game

[Aurora]

Hi everybody,
I am planning to buy a 240L tank hopefully this week. I have been looking around and also reading the posts on this site for a couple of weeks. There is a lot of good info on here. I saw a package deal on a 240L tank with cabinet, hood, heater*, filter*, lighting*,etc.
* = dont remember details.
There was two. One was for about $580, the other came with a sump, better filter, etc and was about $713. What does this sound like to people? good?
I am planning to replace the filter anyway with an Ehiem canister. The guy there said they had had problems with Fluvals and were sending some back or something.

I want to set up a planted discus aquarium and include some cardinals and maybe some bristlenose catfish. What would be some good plants?

Also I have noticed looking around some of the Aquarium shops that the Discus never seem to look quite as good as the ones I see on the net (and peoples in this forum). Flukes your from Melbourne, where do you get your fish? If you import them from interstate how do you know what you are getting if you dont see them first? I wish SLS was down here.....thought about opening a franchise Kev? :D

Sorry for so many questions at once, but as its my first post (DF virgin :D ) I just have so many to get off my chest.......anyway I'll stop now :D

Dave

[aza]

all the best mate hope you find a deal with your tank i used fluval cannisters till i changed over to sumps recently and never had a problem though i have found the sumps far better

[weird]

I have two fluvals at home for my discus, and prefer it to my eheim on my community tank when replacing media and cleaning. Just personal preference. But mechanically no problems.

plants, well ....

Foreground
Most people seem to use, glossostigma.

Other plants people seem to have success with are java fern, java moss, amazon sword, and anubia.

Blyxa, eleocharis acicularis, rotala rotundifolia (can you tell I have no idea what these plants are ? I cut and pasted them into a notepad doco at some time when I was investigating this)

I saw a beautiful planted discus tank and he had:
Foreground
Glossostigma elatinoides

Middle
Heteranthera zosterifolia

Background
Alternanthera reineckii ''lilacina'' ('Purple')
Hygrophila corymbosa ''angustifolia''
Rotala macrandra

Some excellent links I stole from plantgeek,

http://www.aquahobby.org/articles/e_plant.php
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_newtank.htm !!! excellent - read again
http://users.frii.com/gbooth/AquaticConcepts/index.htm

Place to consider buying from:
http://www.aquamail.com.au/plants.htm

[flukes]

Dave -
You can ship from interstate, SLS normally show you pictures first and you shouldnt be disapointed getting from them.

If you like PM and ill discuss it with you. You are right though the quality in Melbourne is a lot lower standard than else where around Aus.

[Aurora]

Thanks Dave, that was awfully quick with so much info...appreciated :D

[Aurora]

Alright flukes, I will, but i'll wait till I have got my tank and set it up, cycled, etc. What do you reckon about the deal though?

[africandiscus]

If you can afford ehiem rather buy eheim. Do a search on the internet for "problem with eheim canister" and "problem with fluvel canister". Generally the problems others are having will be the same problem you will experience. You will be shocked to see the problems out there with fluvel.

Just remember you pay for what you get.

[africandiscus]

Just keep this in the back of your mind. This is a true story. A mate of mine bought a cheap heater for his aquarium.

The cheap heater comes with a 6 month guarantee vs. the more expensive one which come with 2 year guarantee. (European vs Chineese)

Anyway , 11 moths later the heater broke and “fried” all his fish. He lost $1000 worth of fish, but at least he saved $20 on the heater, 11 months ago.

[flukes]

Dave to be honest i would be buying just the tank and stand. Personally i like too buy the accesories seperate.

This is just my prefrence and its up too you, filters and heaters wear and tear with use so your probably better getting new.

Also some filters are very expensive and you could make something cheaper that will do a better job. Is your heart set on a canister filter or you dont mind?

You could always buy the tank with a internal overflow filter installed. Then its just a matter of filling it with media; a sponge, bio balls, maybe some filter wool and then a power head or submersible too pump the water back.

Better too plan exactly what you want know, so you dont have to change your mind later and waste money.

Cannister filters are good but they are fairly expensive, just have a think about it. Also You could setup a sump so if you get anymore tanks in the future you can run them off the same sump.

That might be thinking a bit too far ahead but just a thought.

Work out what you need and what will suit it the best, a cannister filter might not be the best choice.

[Aurora]

Too late, I bought the setup and added the canister. It was expensive, but its the first so I thought I'll do it this way this time and in future all my efforts will probably be DYI.

Im in the processes of setting it up so when I do I'll put a pic.

I dont really have the room to be adding lots more tanks at the moment, so I probably dont need the sump. There was one that came with one inbuilt, but the guy at the shop said it was no good for a planted tank as it had too much surface area for the plants or something.

Anyway thanks for your help.

Hey, do you think 8-10 small guppies are enough to cycle a 240L tank? or you need something more.

[weird]

<Heartbreak> guppies to cycle ? Dude, go fishless cycling ... like I no longer keep guppies (last one eaten by a rainbow shark) but ... they are so cute !!!! Fisk killer ! lol. Go with power amonia from woolies.

[flukes]

I wont comment on how many guppies and why using fish too cycle is wrong, instead read this - Fishless Cycling Method (http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=895)

[Aurora]

OK sounds like a good idea. I'll try that.

BTW you were wondering how they could sell bacteria that need oxygen to live in a sealed bottle?
Well your right, all the bacteria in the bottle are dead. But those species of bacteria that they use are spore formers. That means that they would have been alive when they were put in there, but as the conditions were extremely harsh they would have died. In that situtation just before they die they produce a spore.
Spores are extremely hardly. They can survive years, and resist dissiction (drying), heat, chemicals, lots of things. Thats why there such a problem in the canned food industry.
Once you pour it into the tank the spores will germinate again to produce a happy colony of bacteria :)

BTW I study Microbiology......it wasnt just a dream I had :p

[Aurora]

Hey are Black Widows (the fish, not the spider :)) ok to keep with Discus, Cardinals and Bristlenose?