angiemike6
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2023
- Messages
- 13
Hi, now that I am retired at the age of 73 I thought I would take more interest in tropical fish communities. A little about my myself and my tank set first of all.
i retired 3 years ago after working until I was 70. I have been married for 45 years with 4 children and 9 soon to be 10 grandchildren.
I started in the hobby 30 years ago, and unbelievably was told to cycle my first tank with 6 cardinals. Surprisingly all 6 survived although in those days I believe the cardinals were of harder stock. I know have some difficulty in keeping cardinals mainly due i think to my water being hard GH 18 and with ph of 7.8. I was also advised to get a common plec in those days to keep control of the algae which it did a tremendous job. It lived for 28 years and got to 18 inches long.
My present tank is a Juwel Vision 180 which has a bow front and is a 40 gallon tank. This is a fantastic tank, easy to maintain especially the filter media.
Now for the controversy, as I know that I overstock my tank. The fish I have in my 40 gallon tank are 5 Albino Corydora, 2 Boesmani Rainbow Fish, 3 Bolivan Ram Cichlids, 1 common Bristonosed Plec, 2 Calico Bristlenosed Plecs, 2 Cardinal Tetras, 4 Clown Loaches, 1 Common Plec, 4 Congo Tetra's, 1 YoYo Loach and 2 Golden Dwarf Ciclids.
I am sure that many of you will tell me that my tank is grossly overstocked, but they are all happy, I never get any illness in my tank, and only lose fish due to old age, so I must be doing something right. Many of my fish are over 5 years old and I haven't purchased any new fish for probably 2 years.
My water chemistry is Ammonia 0, nitrites 0 ppm, nitrates 20 ppm, ph 7.8, GH 18 dKH and KH 4 dKH.
My tank maintenance is done weekly where I change 25% of the water and vacuum the top of the gravel to remove detriment. I clean all the media sponges in the filter every week in the water removed from the tank. I use tap water to replenish the tank using Seachem Prime to remove the chlorine. I use Seachem Stability weekly to ensure that the bacteria in my filter is maintained. Stability is normally used to cycle a new tank, but I use it weekly as I wash out the filter sponges. I also use Seachem which helps to safely eliminates sludge and detritus and increase water clarity.
I hope the above is a good introduction to myself and my tank, and I look forward to taking part in this forum in the future.
i retired 3 years ago after working until I was 70. I have been married for 45 years with 4 children and 9 soon to be 10 grandchildren.
I started in the hobby 30 years ago, and unbelievably was told to cycle my first tank with 6 cardinals. Surprisingly all 6 survived although in those days I believe the cardinals were of harder stock. I know have some difficulty in keeping cardinals mainly due i think to my water being hard GH 18 and with ph of 7.8. I was also advised to get a common plec in those days to keep control of the algae which it did a tremendous job. It lived for 28 years and got to 18 inches long.
My present tank is a Juwel Vision 180 which has a bow front and is a 40 gallon tank. This is a fantastic tank, easy to maintain especially the filter media.
Now for the controversy, as I know that I overstock my tank. The fish I have in my 40 gallon tank are 5 Albino Corydora, 2 Boesmani Rainbow Fish, 3 Bolivan Ram Cichlids, 1 common Bristonosed Plec, 2 Calico Bristlenosed Plecs, 2 Cardinal Tetras, 4 Clown Loaches, 1 Common Plec, 4 Congo Tetra's, 1 YoYo Loach and 2 Golden Dwarf Ciclids.
I am sure that many of you will tell me that my tank is grossly overstocked, but they are all happy, I never get any illness in my tank, and only lose fish due to old age, so I must be doing something right. Many of my fish are over 5 years old and I haven't purchased any new fish for probably 2 years.
My water chemistry is Ammonia 0, nitrites 0 ppm, nitrates 20 ppm, ph 7.8, GH 18 dKH and KH 4 dKH.
My tank maintenance is done weekly where I change 25% of the water and vacuum the top of the gravel to remove detriment. I clean all the media sponges in the filter every week in the water removed from the tank. I use tap water to replenish the tank using Seachem Prime to remove the chlorine. I use Seachem Stability weekly to ensure that the bacteria in my filter is maintained. Stability is normally used to cycle a new tank, but I use it weekly as I wash out the filter sponges. I also use Seachem which helps to safely eliminates sludge and detritus and increase water clarity.
I hope the above is a good introduction to myself and my tank, and I look forward to taking part in this forum in the future.
Yeah, things have changed some in the past 30 years. New fish have been found, more fish are now farmed vs wild and there are new diseases that didn't exist 30 years ago. You have to be more careful these days with where you get your fish from and quarantining them. It's a little more work than before but worth it to see the pretty fishies swimming around. 
