I purchased the Fluval 55 kit.
Managed to get it into the house unaided, after emptying every ounce of weight out of the box first. Just the box and aquarium was at the limit of my ability to handle alone. Weight, combined with awkward large size. Made sure the area was clear first, so my first lift would be the only one.
Location is in the middle of three rooms, on a sturdy island base cupboard. Can be seen fully from kitchen and dining room, top half from living room. The aquarium is 4 feet long, leaving 6 inches of counter at each end. About a foot wide, leaving almost two feet of counter in front. A nice fit. One of the three cupboards underneath will be devoted to aquarium supplies, tools and filter. Right now, most things are scattered about.
I started with 30 Kg of Marina gravel, it is black, grey and white. 3/8 inch and smaller bits. Rounded off edges. Now, I find the white bits to be a bit too bright. I would prefer a darker bottom. I used 2 1/2 of the 10 Kg bags.
Three natural looking, but fake decorations. Spaced end to end, they leave several inches between them and the sides. Now I find that I only really like one of them. I am considering buying two more of the same one, and positioning them differently. Remove the other two.
I cycled the tank for a week, using the included chemicals. Got API test strips. Things looked OK. Time for plants. I looked up information on tough plants that grow easy. Decided on Elodea and Amazon Swords. Got three bunches of each. Wasn't sure about media requirements, so I got some soil as well.
I split up the Elodea to go at each end of the tank. Decided to try and anchor the Swords, one to each ornament. I cleared an area for the Elodea and put soil down. ( tank is full of water ) I pre wet the soil, but it still produced massive clouds. It was hard to corral the gravel and soil where I wanted it. I ended up planting the Elodea in pretty random media. From just gravel, to much soil. As advertised, it does not care and is growing like the weed it is. After less than a month, many have reached the surface. Branching and dropping roots.
The Swords were some trouble. Word was to tie them onto the decorations. That is a slippery, somewhat frustrating proposition. One ornament worked out not too badly. It was floating several inches above it, looking silly. Held it down and poured a bit of gravel onto the roots. That made it just cling in place. Trying to tie the other ones on was too pathetic. I still had a lot of soil left. So I decided to cement them on. Mixed up a thick mortar of soil and glued the plants on. So far it is working. Two Swords have put out runners. All three look better than when I got them. But.... Of course I have changed my mind about the whole plant landscape. I will be making one end heavily planted. Large, tall, rock decoration, off center towards the other end. A little bit of plant on the other side of that.
So all the plants are in and doing fine. Water tests good. Time for fish. Type in the usual "Hard to kill.....". I get five of each, Neon Tetra, Blackline Tetra, two Cory cats, one Pleco. Did not read enough about Plecoes. You're going to need a bigger boat, I mean, tank. One Neon Tetra began getting pale and bloated. Didn't take any chances. Removed it. After a couple weeks, all the fish seemed happy. But I decided to upgrade the filter. Went from the included hang on back C4 to a Fluval 306. Just because it was working fine, is no reason to not install more power. ARGHhh AHaHahh.
Just added more Tetras, to bring each species up to school of eight. They seemed to like that. The two species get along fine. Mingling, separating randomly. The Blackline Tetras seem to like upper level more than the Neons, especially in low light. Oh. I don't like the included light either, of course. Will go for an adjustable one soon.
The kit worked fine. I will just keep on messing about, changing out things. Soon have enough extras to start another tank I suppose. After about six weeks, I have a happy planted tank with nineteen fish. And about one snail a day. The snails are not happy for long.....
Managed to get it into the house unaided, after emptying every ounce of weight out of the box first. Just the box and aquarium was at the limit of my ability to handle alone. Weight, combined with awkward large size. Made sure the area was clear first, so my first lift would be the only one.
Location is in the middle of three rooms, on a sturdy island base cupboard. Can be seen fully from kitchen and dining room, top half from living room. The aquarium is 4 feet long, leaving 6 inches of counter at each end. About a foot wide, leaving almost two feet of counter in front. A nice fit. One of the three cupboards underneath will be devoted to aquarium supplies, tools and filter. Right now, most things are scattered about.
I started with 30 Kg of Marina gravel, it is black, grey and white. 3/8 inch and smaller bits. Rounded off edges. Now, I find the white bits to be a bit too bright. I would prefer a darker bottom. I used 2 1/2 of the 10 Kg bags.
Three natural looking, but fake decorations. Spaced end to end, they leave several inches between them and the sides. Now I find that I only really like one of them. I am considering buying two more of the same one, and positioning them differently. Remove the other two.
I cycled the tank for a week, using the included chemicals. Got API test strips. Things looked OK. Time for plants. I looked up information on tough plants that grow easy. Decided on Elodea and Amazon Swords. Got three bunches of each. Wasn't sure about media requirements, so I got some soil as well.
I split up the Elodea to go at each end of the tank. Decided to try and anchor the Swords, one to each ornament. I cleared an area for the Elodea and put soil down. ( tank is full of water ) I pre wet the soil, but it still produced massive clouds. It was hard to corral the gravel and soil where I wanted it. I ended up planting the Elodea in pretty random media. From just gravel, to much soil. As advertised, it does not care and is growing like the weed it is. After less than a month, many have reached the surface. Branching and dropping roots.
The Swords were some trouble. Word was to tie them onto the decorations. That is a slippery, somewhat frustrating proposition. One ornament worked out not too badly. It was floating several inches above it, looking silly. Held it down and poured a bit of gravel onto the roots. That made it just cling in place. Trying to tie the other ones on was too pathetic. I still had a lot of soil left. So I decided to cement them on. Mixed up a thick mortar of soil and glued the plants on. So far it is working. Two Swords have put out runners. All three look better than when I got them. But.... Of course I have changed my mind about the whole plant landscape. I will be making one end heavily planted. Large, tall, rock decoration, off center towards the other end. A little bit of plant on the other side of that.
So all the plants are in and doing fine. Water tests good. Time for fish. Type in the usual "Hard to kill.....". I get five of each, Neon Tetra, Blackline Tetra, two Cory cats, one Pleco. Did not read enough about Plecoes. You're going to need a bigger boat, I mean, tank. One Neon Tetra began getting pale and bloated. Didn't take any chances. Removed it. After a couple weeks, all the fish seemed happy. But I decided to upgrade the filter. Went from the included hang on back C4 to a Fluval 306. Just because it was working fine, is no reason to not install more power. ARGHhh AHaHahh.
Just added more Tetras, to bring each species up to school of eight. They seemed to like that. The two species get along fine. Mingling, separating randomly. The Blackline Tetras seem to like upper level more than the Neons, especially in low light. Oh. I don't like the included light either, of course. Will go for an adjustable one soon.
The kit worked fine. I will just keep on messing about, changing out things. Soon have enough extras to start another tank I suppose. After about six weeks, I have a happy planted tank with nineteen fish. And about one snail a day. The snails are not happy for long.....