Newbie from Canberra

[Mickey C]

After a bit of a break from fishkeeping for a couple of years I've since bought (my first!) house, set up a 250L tank and am looking forward to keeping some discus as a "something to do on Friday Nights" type hobby. Working on cars in Canberra in winter - I think not!

I won't bore people to tears with details at the moment, I plan on having a community aquarium of about 4 discus and maybe 2 varieties of tetra. Hopefully I can share some of my limited experience with equipment and the like, otherwise if people know breeders down my way, shoot us a PM :D

- Mick

[swampy1972]

Hi Mick,

Welcome to DF and back to fishkeeping. I look forward to seeing your new tank.

I've sent a PM with a possible breeder down your way.

Swampy ;)

[Oygle2]

Hey Buddy.

Yeah, welcome to the site. Winter in Australia is sure a cold one, ........ I too would love to see your setup when you get it going, all ideas have merit. Speaking of merit, how big will your tetras be? Discus love live food. Just a cautionary note for you.

Are you sure about what you're about to get into? Water changes, water chemisty, water change period, tank mates, what else is there - oh, yeah. Ph, nitrite, nitrate cycles etc, etc.

What's the town water supply like? Is the fluoride in it? Make no mistake fluoride is a neuro toxin. Do you have access to tank water.

What filtration are you thinking about? What about a UV C sanitizer/santiser (spelling?)

Are you going to have domestic discus or wild caught? Wild caught are beautiful, but expensive.

That'll do for now.

Regards
Oygle2

[Mickey C]

Wow, that's a heap of questions! :D

I was going to get adult cardinals and rummy noses, I've had angelfish that decided everything the size of their mouth was food so I wanted to avoid that. If it looks like they're really not going to get along I have a 100L tank also setup as an emergency tank, I'll pull all the smaller fish out and put them in that.

I'd consider myself to be pretty methodical about looking after my tanks - I set aside either a Friday or Saturday night for water changes and check PH, ammonia and nitrates twice a week. Town water here is quote soft, though I hadn't thought about flouride. I was going to look at buying a reverse osmosis unit, or the fish store here sells water they've prepared.

So far I have a 3 chamber canister filter that trickles over ceramic noodles, and any day now I should also have an eheim wet and dry. The canister is setup in such a way that it's not creating a big current.

And I hadn't thought about what actual fish to buy yet, more worried about getting my water right. I might start with domestic - walk before I run ;)

EDIT: I purchased a submersible/internal 24W UV filter yesterday with its own 350L/h powerhead as well.

DOUBLE EDIT: I now also have a 5 stage reverse osmosis unit with UV sanitiser. Based on the flouride comment above I thought this might be a good idea, and the water in my area is noticably harder than it was a few years ago too! Can't be too safe :)

[Mickey C]

A small update on my situation, in case people read my other posts and wonder what I'm doing with my own tanks :)

I have 3 tanks running at the moment, my 240L display tank, a 120L tank that's cycling with guppies (I think I might put a pair of Angels in there, but it was free!), and my ~65L quarantine tank that's cycled and ready to go (currently has some neons and a couple of other tetra which came with the guppies).

My display tank has been changed - there's barely enough gravel to cover the floor, about 5 anubias on a piece of driftwood, an anubias on a rock with a little cave, and one or two crypts in the gravel. 15 Cardinals and 10 rummy noses also happily swim around in there.

That's all I'll write - I should be working :lol:

[goodoo]

Want to give me your 120, I need somewere to stick my girlfriend's two angels, jokes Im looking for a 2ft cube tank at moment, looking for a 2nd hand one. Once this round of winter bills hit home should be able to get a cheap one on all homes with cabinet hopefully. The male angel is starting to be an angel and he doesnt like my new expensive mosaic erruption.