true, but nowadays you can't find submersed hc for sale in LFS though, unless you mean some hobbyist trim it for you...

then get time to get lily pipe? hehe

10kg???? how big is your tank? how many tanks will be using it at once?
if only a 2-3 bps for one tank, it can last you for 2 years. 10kg? do you really need that huge one?
even a 4kg tank i got problem to put it in my cabinet already.

hi guys, i got 8 pieces of neon tetra + 1 mysterious fish to give away, please pm me. self collect.

This post has been edited by tehoice: Feb 1 2013, 08:45 PM

lol nola, come take the 8 pieces of neon and the mysterious fish hehehe!

no one want fishieeee?

@derick, no photo la, just neon tetra only ma, you want it? i'm sure your 4 ft tank can house them comfortably. speaking of the mysterious fish, I donno what is its name, it looks like pencil fish without the horizontal line, but it's in pink in colour. 1 piece only.

@syafiq and thoseeyes, pmmed you guys, please check. thanks!

the pinkie fishie took by my neighbour kids, now 8 neon tetra for free, please pm me, self collect, or cod subang, pj area. thanks.

syafiq, you want the neon tetra?

ok no problem, anyone want it?

yes free! chinese new year gift for you! haha... anyway, only 8 pieces.
i'm in ara damansara. let me know if you want it, where is your area?

Crush your fish food into powder form like. Throw bunch of them near to the fry area, they can survive, don't worry, I don't bother to move them into another tank also.

Dear kytz,

If you are serious about fish keeping, may i ask if you are intending to have planted aquarium since this is planted aquarium thread, but of course, we would love to answer anything about fish keeping if we can help.

may I suggest you something, totally tear off your tank first.

1) do you want to have a planted tank? with soil? with holland sand? or just some "easy to take care" type of plants tied to driftwood, or mosses on wood or rocks?

2) then identify what kind of set up you would like to have in your tank? for example, iwagumi, island type setup or what?

3) after identifying your potential setup, gather the necessary to start off, i.e. driftwood, rocks, or any other hardscape.

4) after all hardscape are ready, start putting them into your tank in an organizing way as close to your potential scape as possible.

5) fill water, if you want crystal clear water, do "water-in, water-out" method.

6) run filter, fan 24hrs. lighting, co2 system as per schedule, about 4 hours during the initial week, increase lighting and co2 period for an extra hour subsequently during the next 3 weeks or so, being 7-8 hours the max photoperiod for your tank.

7) let your tank cycle completely first. previous, i think arrow has posted a few links about tank cycling... this is so so so so IMPORTANT!

8) after about 2 weeks, clean up crew may go in to the tank first (Otto, SAE etc...)

9) after about 3 weeks or a month, you may start stocking livestocks already.... (Guppy, tetra, angel fish, or even arowana but definitely not goldfish)
usually, your tank would have been properly cycled for this period, you must have the patience during the initial stage, for you to see a relatively stable tank for near future.

this is why you always see a family happily buy tank,a cheap rm1 anti-chlorine, lights, filter and fish, then come back few days later complaining all fishes died... a classic example is your cute little pearscale gold fish.

explanation for the above is for planted tank setup, but even i do the same for my non planted tank setup.

In my opinion, I dont think there's a need for those test kits, it's a luxury to have of course, but i think the RM100 spend on test kits would have been better spent elsewhere. As for my case, I have never use any test kit before except for the co2 indicator which comes together during my purchase of my co2 system. My tank has a very low death rate of fishes except for those jumped out, maybe due to stress, non stable water condition/parameter or maybe my tank water was too high, about 0.5cm from the tank top.

a food for thought for newbie, pls select nice edged tank, not those curved tank that usually comes with filter/lighting, those lighting is not sufficient most of the time. preferably white colour or almost transparent colour glass glue, black colour are not so nice, IMO. like the one bought buy a forumer for RM25 from xian leng or somewhere.

feel free to ask more question, we would love to help!

just for sharing.
initial setup of my tank.


close to 3 months down the road.

golden algae eater are more aggressive in your community tank.

just upload la, then we can see before and after pic... like what i've posted. hehe...

i remove all catridges, i just put in filtration media/bio balls or rings, then in between them i put sponge, but before the outflow, i use fine wool filter to filter out fine particles.

i dont have any test kit before

er well, this is for photo taking purposes, we're not saying you cant do it in a curved edges tank, but for photoshooting wise, normal edges are always better, those that you see on the internet, IAPLC or etc, are all normal edges.

my HC? i thought they grow so slow in my tank, but they are starting to blossom already... yeah, i'm also re-using my 1yr old new amazonia, hc takes a lot of time to root...

well, many aqua hobbyist that i know also try to achieve a slightly yellowish indicator, this is obviously a good sign for plants, however, for fishes? well, as long as you don't see them gasping for oxygen on the surface, that would suffice, and you must have a very well circulated tank, so both the oxygen and carbon dioxide can circulate well in every corners of your tank.

no, what i did was, first week about 4 hours... 2nd week about 5 hours, 3rd week about 6 hours, then i now capped at 8 hours or less for photo period.

bro, did you have any co2? just a reminder, if you are using a HOB filter for those co2 tank, pls top up your water as much as you can until it reaches the outflow of the filter. this way, your co2 pumped into your tank will not be wasted. why? because co2 itself is very hard to dissolved in the water, and if you have a gap between water outflow and the surface, this will create some bubbles into your tank? and these oxygen brought into your tank will even make your co2 harder to be dissolved in your tank.

NA otto so expensive meh? i last bought was about rm4 per piece, but 1 died and 1 jumped out from my tank

well, i have friend used this before, but it creates some noise after a while... and it's not so cheap though... but the cooling was quite ok though. but nothing beat a cheap diy pc fan =)

you are welcome my friend... take a bit of time, think of what you wanna achieve, dont just rush into things.... it might not turn out great...

well, small tanks can also turn out to be a world class beater tank, but it is way harder to maintain due to its low volume and very small room for error that might fatal your whole tank...

we always suggest 2ft as a starter...

iwagumi hiding spots are only behind those rocks, unless you have another tall background plants that enable them to hide, like the one in your picture. what plants are easier to grow and maintain? hmmm, i would say most of the plants are not so hard to grow when you have everything right for them, lighting, co2, temperature and etc... but maintaining? it depends on you, weekly water changes consider a must for myself, but you surely will face some algae issue... take it slow and steady....

if you are interested in iwagumi, you can try glosso, hc, mini hairgrass etc...

for the water in water out (WIWO) method, it's not in my picture, those are inlets and outlets for my filter.

WIWO simply means pumping water into the tank and meanwhile you have water being sucked out from another end, this enable you to get crystal clear water say after an hour or 2. instant result, and this is only for one time during the initial setup stage.

how big is your tank? if you have 4ft and above, maybe you can try derick as he sells industrial type of ac fans which could be really useful.
if not just search up for a DIY fan online, it's kinda easy to do it if you follow the instruction carefully... =)

no comments on your potential scape for now, most likely you need to sketch one for all to comment, also, on the selection of hardscape is bit tough since your tank is not so big, hmmm...

Meanwhile, you can't really conceal your filter even though if your grass is tall enough as background plant. To the best of my knowledge, I do not know anyone who tried to use plants to conceal the filter, reason why you see nice tank shots, especially those in IAPLC, those are with filter removed, clean up crew removed, no filter running for those shots...

to answer your questions.

1) setup your tank already, add in water... then you can get your filter running, lights and CO2 as per schedule. <<< this is what we call start cycling ad. For me, to be on the safer side, i recommend only add in livestock after say 3 weeks or so, clean up crew can go in during week 2 (they might die too). But i notice you've got the bacteria promoting liquid, i reckon you can use that if you want to...

2) you dont have to use any livestock to cycle your tank, if you use ADA new amazonia, it releases some tiny ammonia which will help in cycling your tank. again, don't be so obsess about testing those parameters, trial and error, no other way to test other than test kit, after the cycling complete, your tank's ammonia would have been zero already.

3) I recommend to use new amazonia, it's not so pricey afterall compared to other soil, this soil has very very rich nutrients that your plants need till the extend that you need to put some other plant for the first 2 weeks to suck those excessive nutrients.

4) how long for the grass to grow? they will start growing after settling in your tank with the right parameters.

5) when you have a balanced/natural eco system in your tank, those fish waste will be automatically been break down into phosphorus and other mineral which is also useful in maintaining the balance of your eco system. In my humble opinion, you don't have to take special care of the fish waste, the balanced eco system would do the job, unless you have gold fish again!

6) i'm using automated pressurized co2 system, don't have to worry about forgetting in switching on and off the regulator.

hope the above helps.

i reckon the tank is too small for the sloping soil, or it would be a really steep one...