My first tank, well chuffed

[peter1209]

Hi,
So my 250l tank has finally finished cycling as is home to 6 cardinal tetra's and 7 guppies (did have 8 but I found one dead this morning, no idea why, all tests are perfect, 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites, 5ppm nitrates)

Everything is pretty much done with decor except the back which is in the process of been made from bamboo sticks, will post details in the DIY section along with my DIY hood and led lights.

 

[Taiken5968]

Great looking tank. I like those caves, where did you get thin. Did you make them?

 

[peter1209]

Oh yes we made the caves, we couldnt find anything we liked and the cost of bought ones is pretty high so we decided to make em. All they are is black plastic guttering, white stones from fish shop and aqua safe silicone. About £10 all in, the only issue was gluing all the little stones to the guttering, was very tedious but well worth the effort I think.

We wanted something sort of zen looking and also my mrs is from Hong Kong so we decided to have something based round that, can't wait to get the background on, drying as I type this, again very tedious sticking all the sticks in a row but I think the end result will be well worth it.

The only thing that is a little dissapointing is not been able to have fighting fish because of the guppies and also I plan to get one black, one white angel fish in a couple months once all the other fish have settled.

 

[Taiken5968]

Well you said this is your first tank. I would advise putting in a few at a time. You can stock more than the silly one inch per gallon rule. For you that would be about 4 liters per inch. I have a 29 gallon (about half the size as yours) that is stocked more than the advised amount. You just have to research how much poop your types of fish make, and if you have a filter that can filter out all the poop. If you have big problems don't give up. I killed almost all of my first stock, because I didn't know what I was doing. It takes time to learn the ropes. If you read the treads on here you can learn a lot too.

 

[peter1209]

I have been reading alot of threads on here and also got some great advice on my earlier problems with cycling the tank etc. It has been completely fishless cycled and we are building our fish stock up slowly. Over the next few weeks I will be adding some more cardinals and another guppy to replace the one that died today.

The guppies seem to love the 2 bubble walls either side of the statue, the are constantly swimming into it, getting pushed to the top of the tank and diving back down to do it again, hope thats normal but they seem to bee having a good time.

 

[Taiken5968]

I have been reading alot of threads on here and also got some great advice on my earlier problems with cycling the tank etc. It has been completely fishless cycled and we are building our fish stock up slowly. Over the next few weeks I will be adding some more cardinals and another guppy to replace the one that died today.

The guppies seem to love the 2 bubble walls either side of the statue, the are constantly swimming into it, getting pushed to the top of the tank and diving back down to do it again, hope thats normal but they seem to bee having a good time.

That's funny. My guppies always swim like crazy into the filter current.