Setting up first tank

[aelen]

Hey all, been lurking on the forums for a little while now and I've slowly been progressing to getting my first tank set up. The past week I've spent time designing and building an aquarium stand which is pretty much done and my aquarium should be arriving for pick-up at the shop either tomorrow or the day after.

At that point, I'm ready to start setting up the tank. I've bought a bunch of stuff already and I'd love to get some feedback on what I've bought so far and my overall plan. I'm open to any feedback!

Stuff I bought so far:

- Oase Scaperline 100 (~230L/60G)
- 2x Oase Biomaster Thermo 250
- JBL Aqua In-Out water changer
- JBL AquaPad 100x50
- Twinstar Light III 900EA
- JBL ProScape Volcano Mineral
- Tropica Aquarium Soil Powder
- JBL Sansibar River
- HS Aqua Bacto
- Tropica Wave Scissors
- Tropica Tweezers
- A couple pieces of bog wood
- A bunch of petrified wood rocks
- A bunch of mesh filter media bags

Stuff I still need to get:

- Some kind of lid (probably plexiglass - we have cats)
- Cyanoacrylate glue / aquarium-safe silicon
- Ammonia
- A/some nets
- Glass lily pipes, probably
- Plants (I intend to use real plants)
- Fish! (And shrimp! Still working out which ones, but I definitely like cardinal tetras and some kind of plecos, probably amano shrimp for cleanup as well)

My plan so far is (once the aquarium is sitting on the aquapad with the light hooked up) is to use put the volcano mineral in filter media bags as the base layer at the very back of the aquarium to create height, on top + in front of that I intend to put a layer of the aquasoil (also in filter media bags) and then finally cap that all off with the sansibar river substrate (a thin layer so the aquasoil does not get choked out)

On top of that I'll set up the bog wood + rocks in the middle of the tank - I'd like the fish to be able to swim around it on all sides - glueing/siliconing them together as needed to prevent them from floating up and then it's time to hit the shops for a bunch of plants!

Once the plants are in, I'll hook up the canister filters, one towards the front, one towards the back, pushing the water around in a circular pattern. Then fill up the tank, put in some of the beneficial bacteria as well as adding the first batch of ammonia, following the guide for fishless cycling.

Then, by the time the tank is fully cycled I hope to have figured out more or less what I want in terms of fish (endler guppies seem likely - my gf really likes black mollies but they get a bit too big for the aquarium I think, she'd like something matte black).

So, I was just curious if there's anything glaringly obvious I am missing, or if I am messing something up with this plan.

I appreciate any and all input!

Cheers,
Aelen

 

[aelen]

Here's a couple of shots of the stand I built, as well as the wood and rocks I got: https://imgur.com/a/XRNuz0P

 

[aelen]

Oh also: I live in the Netherlands and there is no chlorine in the water here (according to my LFS) - is there any other treatment I should do regardless for my water? I have yet to test my water (but I have a testing kit already).

 

[Aiken Drum]

Sounds like a plan.

Im not sure on glueing all your aquascape together. It will make removing it difficult should you need to for maintenanceor just want to move things around. You can pre-soak driftwood or boil it to help with buoyancy. Or just temporarily weigh it down until it stays sunk.

Ive just been reading about water treatment in the Netherlands and you don't treat with chlorine, its filtered and UV treated and is the best quality water in Europe. Yay for The Netherlands. Some areas do use chloramine which would need use of a water conditioner. Do you have a local aquarium club to ask if they get away with in water conditioner?

 

[aelen]

Hmm so I've searched around a bit and the only thing I could find on the contents of the water is on this page: https://www.waternet.nl/service-en-contact/drinkwater/waterkwaliteit/.

It is in dutch but there is a table there which contains all the data. The columns are:

- What did we measure
- Unit of measure
- Lowest reading
- Average reading
- Highest reading
- Minimum by law
- Maximum by law

I don't see chloramine in the list, only chloride. I don't know if that's the same, but the guy in the LFS said I shouldn't need to treat the water.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Chlorine and chloramine are slightly different water treatments. Chlorine is just that, chlorine gas disolved in the water. Kills bacteria in the water and even small amounts will kill fish pretty quickly. Water conditioners will remove the chlorine. As chlorine is a gas it will offgas given time. For that reason some people opt to leave their water intended for water changes out overnight to remove chlorine rather than using a water conditioner.

Chloramine is chlorine and ammonia chemically bonded. This is becoming a more common water treatment because it doesn't offgas the same as chlorine so it stays in the water longer and can be used in higher concentrations. Its considered a more effective way of treating tap water. But it will kill fish just the same as chlorine.

Most water conditioners will also treat chloramine. It does this by breaking the chemical bond, releasing chlorine and ammonia into the water. The water conditioner also removes the chlorine, leaving ammonia. If you have researched the nitrogen cycle you know a cycled tank will process out the ammonia into nitrate pretty quickly. Its not ideal but people keep fish in water treated with chloramine just fine.

Its up to you about how risk averse you are. If your fish store keeps fish using local water supplies and your water report doesnt say anything about chlorine/chloramine in your area, and you trust them, then you probably are good. The article i read on water treatment in your country specifically says Amsterdam isnt treated with chlorine or chloramine.

One thing to be aware. Even in areas where chlorine/chloramine isnt used, there is the possibility that the water company periodically flushes out pipework with chloramine treated water, for instance to clean up after maintenance work. If you happen to do a water change immediately afterwards you will put your fish at risk.

For a belt and braces approach, i would speak to your water company and ask if this is a possibility and if so do they notify affected customers after treatment.

 

[aelen]

Yeah I talked to the owner of another LFS today and he said there's plenty of stuff other than chlorine/chloramine that gets treated.by the conditioner, so I just took some today,. it's not that expensive on the end - can't hurt.