450L Tropical Tank

[Carmex]

My DH has got a 450L tank which we will begin cycling tomorrow... I know this will take ages BUT.. what would you stock it with and why??

I really love neon tetras and discus, would they live happily together?

Lol, oh dear! Well if they're not quite right she may as well not waste the calories

Hi Tree! How is your tank going?

We're fully stocked now. We have.... geos, silver dollas and a bloody eel!

Then a plec, corys, tetras and 2 rams.

The fish are all quite small now but some will get big, i'm so happy with what we have. and it's gloriously green! even though the silver dollas are trying to eat it all haha. I will update with a picture soon.

We got some fish from an online place as my DH boss gave him a voucher.... was a huge mistake, it made a lot of our fish ill and some died.... this was a while ago now. We'll never buy online again.

Oh dear, yeah the best thing is to buy fish only from a trusted source, and ideally only make minimal introductions rather than regular ones so you minimise the risk of introducing infection.

Let's have a photo update of your tank then! Would love to see how it's grown.

In afraid I've sold my tank now. It went to an enthusiastic aquascaper so it'll live on elsewhere.

I now have an 11 week old baby and I just could not find the time to dedicate to the tank (or even have time to enjoy it). We desperately needed the space anyway. I'll set another one up when I have more time in a few years!

Oh congratulations on your baby!!! How exciting. Yes, fish can wait ;)

It's just had a massive trim. I keep forgetting to take a picture. Here's a pic of our eel and geos though.

DH is getting a bit disheartened with it lately because of bits floating in the tank and algae on the wood etc. Everything is how it should be. He has a co2 thingymaboba for the plants etc but he can't seem to shift it. He's thinking of buying another filter and running 2.

Gorgeous fish! I love earth eaters. Beautiful.

Have you tried splitting the lighting period to control algae? I may have suggested this before.

They are all so peaceful. I love watching them sieve the sand. Really really beautiful fish. They're wild. We have 3 and 2 of them have paired.

He's tried to cut down on lighting to 6 hours a day. He's back up to 8 though. He's more cross at the bits floating. I think he'll end up with another external filter. The one he has, has 5 media trays. Do you think if he got another it would help? He said he thinks it's not turning the water over enough hourly.

Split the lighting into two four hour periods with a break of at least four hours between the two.

Yes, a tank that size should have two filters really. What filter is currently being used? Make and model?

It's a Hydon professional 600.

That filter is rated for 380-600 litres. You should be aiming for at least 900 litres of filtration in a tank that size. So yeah, get another. You always need to double the figures to achieve adequate filtration. I ran most of my tanks x3 times the filtration rating.

he's ordered another one, i think we may need a new house to fit everything in soon haha

Well, filter just arrived. It's a fluvial fx6. It's a monster. Will this with the other be enough?

Wow superb, yes that filter is the absolute dog's nuts (if you'll excuse the expression!) Very, very solid filter there. That's triple the filtration + the original filter so that's excellent. If he fits a good pre-filter sponge to the intake pipe and swills it through regularly he'll probably not need to clean the filter itself more than once a year.

Yey! He's just set it all up. Read him what you wrote and his eyes lit up haha. He was talking while he was doing it saying some people with planted tanks go for 10x the tank turn over >.>

Cool. You have some lucky fish there.