by Harley » Sun Feb 22, 2015 3:33 pm
Now had my tank a year. I know some do not like the Bio tanks but I am happy with mine. I set it up as per instructions then went onto forums like this for more detailed info. I left it running with the supplied pump whilst I ordered an inteligent heater. This heater is preset to 76f in my tank, but it also works the pump and lighting. After about a month with nothing but silk plants in I had a sample of water tested. All go for fish. I bought 5 longfin zebra fish and 2 mollies, 1 black mollie & 1 lyretail. These were used as test fish just to be sure everythig was OK. I then bought 2 dwarf gourami. This was my first real problem. One of the gourami was dominant and chased everything in the tank. After loosing the lyretail I replaced the gourami with 1 platyfish. Not long after the other gourami died. I am sure this was because of bullying from the dominant gourami. I now had zebra fish, molly and platyfish. To add a bit of colour I added 5 cardinal tetras. My tank is now 6months old. Got up one morning and the molly was gone. I never found it. The platty had fry (all female) and 7 have survived. I have since lost 1 of the zebra fish and 3 tetras. All showing no symptoms of disease. So I now have 14 healthy fish in the tank. I have my own way of cleaning this tank. Because the opening is limited I use a syphon. I took the nozel from a tube of decorators filler and trimmed it to fit the syphon. I can now push this into the medium on the tank floor and remove most of the waste that does'nt go into the filter. I also have a bucket that holds about 8lt that I fill with tap water and stand in the hot water cupboard untill I need it. This also keeps it at the same tempas the tank water. When cleaning the fish tank I remove 8lt and replace with the clean. The fish seem OK doing it this way.
