Hello and thank you for choosing me to be The Tank of The Month for this great website.
I was a late comer to this hobby and really, have just gotten started, so I’m afraid that much of the technical information that others have submitted will be lacking in my description of my tank. I think that my aquarium is the focal point of my living room. Your eyes are drawn to it and I have spent many hours just watching the activity in the tank. In addition to my aquarium, I’m also an avid team roper. This is a sport that is primarily men, but there are a few of us lady ropers out there. I am the “header”, meaning I rope the horns of the steer and turn it for the “heeler”. I find both of my hobbies to be unbelievable stress relievers.
I started out with a small 5 gallon Fluval Chi tank, which I kept for about 3 years before I decided to take a plunge and get a larger tank and go planted. I now have a 36 gallon bow front planted tank and it has been established for 2 years. I have a Aquatop CF300 canister filter, two Ehiem Jager heaters, and I use a power head as well. My lighting is 2 T5 HO.
The plants I have changed sometimes, but the main staple plants are Amazon Swords, Chain Swords, a Tiger Lily and I recently added some Ludwigia Repens. I also use manzanita branches and started the tank out with Eco Complete. I use root tabs, as well as liquid ferts and liquid CO2. My dosing is very irregular, but my plants are thriving.
My community tank has:
1 Black Marble Angel
Some neon tetras
A couple of Rasboras
6 German Blue Rams
1 Albino Pleco
I feed primarily high quality flake food that I buy from my LFS.
I had a couple of Mystery Snails, but for some reason they did not last in my tank and sadly I lost them both. I now have a couple of Assassin snails to help keep the population of the Malaysian Trumpet Snails down, but I really don’t have a problem with snails. They help keep the tank clean and are not over running my tank by any means.
My maintenance is simple; a partial water change each week with very light substrate cleaning.
I’m afraid that my narrative shows what a complete novice that I am to this hobby, but I was fortunate to find the Aquarium Advice website for help. People have been so very kind and helpful with all of my questions and have been a great resource to me. I appreciate all of the help.
Thank you.