[ArTigor]

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

Kissing Gourami's look odd in that little tank. I can't seem to id the cichlids in your photo, I can see what looks like Rosy Barbs. Few more pics?
Lose the pleco.
Get a hang on back filter for bio filtration for now. 50% water changes every week. Hope you washed the sand nicely before adding the fishes.
Would suggest fishes that don't grow big like some tetras for your tank.

Thanks for those wonderful suggestions, is the tank too small for the Kissing Gourami's? should I remove them too?
I am super confused now if they are all
a) 6 cichlids or
b) 2 rosy barbs and 4 cichlids,

attaching a few more pictures.











I will give away the pleco, fine with downsizing the population to just 6 of them in tank i.e. 4 cichlids and 2 of the Kissing Gourami's, if it comes to really letting off, which one shall I let go the Cichlids or the Gourami's?

I am concerned that I missed the whole tank cycling process, will adhere to the water change recommendation.
Yes the Sand was washed couple of times.
In the last 24 hours I have read multiple writeups and understood the following mistakes:-

I should have cycled the tank: now that I haven't, in order to build up good bacteria would a product like OZPOLISH Bio Cure Standard, be helpful at this stage?
Pouring the Fish Shops water(which came in the bag along the fish) in my tank is another mistake I committed. Have changed almost 70% of the water today within 48 hours of filling the tank.
Over populated tank: I will remove the pleco, and at least 2 cichlids,
Undersized Filter: As suggested I will buy a bio filter now, but my tank cover will not allow the hang on back filter type, is there any other type?

Thank you again for the valuable suggestions.

[deathwalkr]

Originally Posted by ArTigor

Thanks for those wonderful suggestions, is the tank too small for the Kissing Gourami's? should I remove them too?
I am super confused now if they are all
a) 6 cichlids or
b) 2 rosy barbs and 4 cichlids,

Looking at the pics, i can see Rosy Barbs and Mollies along with the Gouramis. If i were you i would give back the Gouramis and stick with the Rosy barbs and Mollies.

For those fishes, you don't have to worry too much if you stick to your water change schedule.

You could also add one more bio-sponge filter if required or get a bigger one.

We all make mistakes and we learn with experience. Don't worry too much

[Maverick Avi]

Originally Posted by ArTigor

I am concerned that I missed the whole tank cycling process, will adhere to the water change recommendation.
Yes the Sand was washed couple of times.
In the last 24 hours I have read multiple writeups and understood the following mistakes:-

I should have cycled the tank: now that I haven't, in order to build up good bacteria would a product like OZPOLISH Bio Cure Standard, be helpful at this stage?
Pouring the Fish Shops water(which came in the bag along the fish) in my tank is another mistake I committed. Have changed almost 70% of the water today within 48 hours of filling the tank.
Over populated tank: I will remove the pleco, and at least 2 cichlids,
Undersized Filter: As suggested I will buy a bio filter now, but my tank cover will not allow the hang on back filter type, is there any other type?

Thank you again for the valuable suggestions.

Don't bother about Ozpolish and stuff. You are now essentially doing a fish in cycle where waste produced by the fishes would generate ammonia which will kick start the cycling process. If you really want to invest in some worthwhile stuff then Seachem stability and API water test kit would be helpful in long run. Stability has beneficial bacteria along with ammonia and nitrite neutralising agents which help during new tank setups or in emergency situations.

You also have skope to fill up the tank more since you have a lid. Another sponge filter would also be a good idea.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Still a lot to come and quite tiring compared to just changing the water or replanting the whole tank.

Done with the setup to a great extent. Need a new set of lights since my ADA Aquasky is not able to fill the corners with light and a bit of piping changes for the filter.

Base readied and placed


Soil and wood in


Initial water fill


Plants in


After plants went in I let the water settle and changed 30% and after a day of running the filter I introduced the fish


Now waiting for the ferns to naturally align themselves and then the setup should look surreal and much more natural compared to my old setup. I'm planning on reducing the other plants and only keeping the fern around the driftwood, some background plants and for the foreground I already have monte Carlo carpet that will pop up from the soil in a few days.

[Maverick Avi]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Done with the setup to a great extent. Need a new set of lights since my ADA Aquasky is not able to fill the corners with light and a bit of piping changes for the filter.


After plants went in I let the water settle and changed 30% and after a day of running the filter I introduced the fish


Now waiting for the ferns to naturally align themselves and then the setup should look surreal and much more natural compared to my old setup. I'm planning on reducing the other plants and only keeping the fern around the driftwood, some background plants and for the foreground I already have monte Carlo carpet that will pop up from the soil in a few days.

Nice, clean looking tank!! I personally add in lot of quick growing stem plants in new setups just to avoid initial algae issues(also due to no CO2 injection). Once tank is stabilized then I take the liberty to play around with the plants and remove the ones I don't feel good about.

I have had good experience with Sunsun ADE series of lights for low tech tanks. You can try giving it a shot.

Guess you are running your old filter which is already cycled and that's the reason you immediately added the fishes to new tank. If you added in new aquasoil then do check your water parameters regularly as the new soil would leach lot of ammonia in the initial few weeks. Alternate day water changes are highly recommended initially.

The exciting time for you just got started! I just love this phase of waking up to new fresh sprouts and watch them grow day by day into a lush green tank!!!

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by Maverick Avi

I have had good experience with Sunsun ADE series of lights for low tech tanks. You can try giving it a shot.

Guess you are running your old filter which is already cycled and that's the reason you immediately added the fishes to new tank. If you added in new aquasoil then do check your water parameters regularly as the new soil would leach lot of ammonia in the initial few weeks. Alternate day water changes are highly recommended initially.
!

The soil is not entirely new, only 30% is new. The rest is old soil at the bottom with some ADA Super 4 fertilizer topped with Tropica soil. I used to have ADA Amazonia earlier as the substrate but it would hardly stay intact and would break easily. Tropica has lasted well and I was able to recover almost 90% of the soil from the old tank. The filter is old, it has a layer of coarse foam, followed by fine foam and then activated carbon and ceramic rings.

I use an anti algae additive and that has immensely helped since a few weeks ago I had an outbreak of fine hair algae and this additive helped to completely eradicate the algae within a few days with no other changes.

However I will change a bit of the water in the coming days just to ensure there are no issues with excess organic content.

I am currently exploring Sunsun lights. There are two popular series ADP and ADS. The ADPs look to be weaker and slimmer and I dont think they will help even at the higher sizes. The ADS on the other hand look good, but I am not able to decide on the configuration. My idea was to have two lighting modules along the width of the tank instead of having one single module running across the length and I am not able to find a suitable model for my 15inch tank width

I had got the Ada Aquasky at a huge discount since I had purchased quite some stuff from them but now the available ones cost 52000 for a two feet light which is beyond what I would want to spend on the light.

[Maverick Avi]

Originally Posted by audioholic

I am currently exploring Sunsun lights. There are two popular series ADP and ADS. The ADPs look to be weaker and slimmer and I dont think they will help even at the higher sizes. The ADS on the other hand look good, but I am not able to decide on the configuration. My idea was to have two lighting modules along the width of the tank instead of having one single module running across the length and I am not able to find a suitable model for my 15inch tank width

I had got the Ada Aquasky at a huge discount since I had purchased quite some stuff from them but now the available ones cost 52000 for a two feet light which is beyond what I would want to spend on the light.

Sunsun ADS 700C(70 cm - 45 watt) would be perfect for your tank and should cost somewhere around 6k. Its a pretty well built bright led suitable for high tech tanks. But as you have a 2 feet deep tank it should serve you equally well. I personally use ADE 700C(26 watt) for my 90cm tank and still need to reduce the intensity by placing it higher as it's pretty bright. Do note that these lights give a slightly warm tone to your tanks if that matters.

[ArTigor]

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

You could also add one more bio-sponge filter if required or get a bigger one.
We all make mistakes and we learn with experience. Don't worry too much

Thanks for the advise, without these suggestions my tank would have been in a bad situation.

Originally Posted by Maverick Avi

Don't bother about Ozpolish and stuff. You are now essentially doing a fish in cycle.
You also have skope to fill up the tank more since you have a lid. Another sponge filter would also be a good idea.

Yes filling up water till the brim now, doing 50% water change within every 48 hours.
Have got the Bio-cure Standard,



I thot this would be useful for some good bacteria, so added some of it(1/4th of a teaspoon approx.) to the water during last water change. Also adding another sponge filter today.

The smaller fish seems to be happy and swift, the Kissing Gouramis are not eating any food though since I have bought them, they also are mostly stationary towards the bottom of the tank, they do move once in a while and touch each other.
I hope the fish in cycle goes right and a bio balance is achieved in my tank.

I have one question, as my tank has the white coarse sand at the base, should I also clean it? How frequently do I clean it? How do I clean it?

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by Maverick Avi

Sunsun ADS 700C(70 cm - 45 watt) would be perfect for your tank and should cost somewhere around 6k. Its a pretty well built bright led suitable for high tech tanks. But as you have a 2 feet deep tank it should serve you equally well. I personally use ADE 700C(26 watt) for my 90cm tank and still need to reduce the intensity by placing it higher as it's pretty bright. Do note that these lights give a slightly warm tone to your tanks if that matters.

I did go ahead and purchase the 500C as 700 was not available. But somehow I ended up disliking the warm tone and the light started flickering after a few hours of use So decided to return it and now again the hunt starts. My Aquasky 301 has ran for 12hrs a day every single day in the last 8 years and it's been so reliable.

[Maverick Avi]

Originally Posted by ArTigor

I have one question, as my tank has the white coarse sand at the base, should I also clean it? How frequently do I clean it? How do I clean it?

Vaccuming gravel or substrate is part of regular tank maintenance. I usually do it once a week during water change. You can easily get a siphon from LFS and use that for cleaning the waste from the gravel. It will be tricky initially as sand also gets sucked up but will get the hang of it with repeated use. There are some attachments that help with gravel vaccuming too.

Originally Posted by audioholic

I did go ahead and purchase the 500C as 700 was not available. But somehow I ended up disliking the warm tone and the light started flickering after a few hours of use So decided to return it and now again the hunt starts. My Aquasky 301 has ran for 12hrs a day every single day in the last 8 years and it's been so reliable.

Yeah, that warm tone can be a downer as green plants can look yellowish. But reliability wise sunsun has been pretty good for me and have heard good feedbacks from other owners too. Maybe it was some issue with that particular piece.

[Mortis]

Originally Posted by audioholic

I did go ahead and purchase the 500C as 700 was not available. But somehow I ended up disliking the warm tone and the light started flickering after a few hours of use So decided to return it and now again the hunt starts. My Aquasky 301 has ran for 12hrs a day every single day in the last 8 years and it's been so reliable.

Check out the B series from Chihiros. I think they have a 45cm version. It's mostly white LEDs with a few RGBs (not tunable) for colour pop. Light can be dimmed and timer set via the Chihiros App. Should be under 5k

[gadadhar]

Originally Posted by Maverick Avi

Best4pets.in is a good option for live fishes and shrimps.They have comparatively better fishkeeping practices and their shipping and packaging is top notch(packing cost is higher also)

Best4pets.in seems to be a scam.

It is been 1 week since I ordered through Best4pets.in and now the order status shows fulfilled in their website, but it is not delivered. Their phone number is switched off, there is no reply to emails and messages. Multiple people have reported same issue in the Google reviews and have called them cheats, it even seems the physical shop shown in the website does not even exist.

It is my mistake that I did run a background check before ordering, I may end up losing 1.5K that I paid. Request BHPians to be cautious.

I have been buying from Bunnycart for ages without issues, but they never had a good stock of tetras, hence looked at alternate options

Adding current update:

Just got below message on the chat window on their website. I might be wrong is calling them as a scam. Admins can chose to delete this post. I will share my experience later

"When your order is marked fulfilled it basically means we have allotted your order a day/date of dispatch. Once your order is dispatched, you will receive the tracking link and number next day before 5pm in the email you have provided while placing the order. "

[Maverick Avi]

Originally Posted by gadadhar

Best4pets.in seems to be a scam.

It is been 1 week since I ordered through Best4pets.in and now the order status shows fulfilled in their website, but it is not delivered. Their phone number is switched off, there is no reply to emails and messages. Multiple people have reported same issue in the Google reviews and have called them cheats, it even seems the physical shop shown in the website does not even exist.

It is my mistake that I did run a background check before ordering, I may end up losing 1.5K that I paid. Request BHPians to be cautious.
[/i]

I too just read a few reviews lately regarding their delays and unprofessional attitude. Would be wary of ordering from them in future. Thanks for sharing your experience.

Utkarsh agrochem is another such company from which I have had good experience buying aquarium dry fertilisers and root tabs earlier but doesn't seem to exist now. I had to restock some dry salts and their site wasn't functional. Called up their customer support number and the guy said that their site has some issue but they still ship so I can provide him the details. I felt something is not right and just dropped the idea of buying from them. These days we gotta be very careful with online orders specially the independent vendors. Some with good history are also ending up in a mess.

[gadadhar]

Originally Posted by Maverick Avi

I too just read a few reviews lately regarding their delays and unprofessional attitude. Would be wary of ordering from them in future. Thanks for sharing your experience.

Everything got delivered yesterday night at 8.30 pm (yes, it came little late in the night), all the fishes were alive and they looks healthy.

I am not sure if I will use their service in future.

[abhi3284]

Originally Posted by abhi3284

Meet Sparkles, the new handsome member of our Home.

Thought of sharing 2 Months Growth Update of Sparkles as well as Progress update of me handling him. It has been a joy so far with Sparkles and he has become very comfortable and playful now. I have got fairly comfortable putting my hand in the water to play with him and touching his Nuchal Hump aka 'Kok' He's not that aggressive for now. Though i do instigate him sometimes via certain hand actions that makes him swim rapidly from from end to the other and also bump his head on the aquarium glass on occasions. I feed him Okiko Platinum pellets twice a day, 6-8 pellets each time, in a fun way via a small spoon and make him jump and splash to get his Pellets.
Have also got a Water Test Kit for pH, Ammonia, Nitrate and Nitrite testing. Have just used it twice so far and the numbers were within acceptable limits.

Quick query...is Deworming process really required for FH Fishes? I have the Deworming Kit with me as the LFS from where i got Sparkles advised to deworm once every 2 months.
Open for any other feedback or suggestions.

All in all, it has been an amazing experience so far owning a single fish like a pet and i have definitely bonded with Sparkles.