New Aquarium

Hi FC, you seem to be plodding on quite well . I used to have a Echinodorus bleheri ( Amazon sword )lovely large arch leaves but It had grown massive and nearly took over the tank, I end up removing it. I have grown the Bacopa monnieri as well , it never really did well in my tank it lived but never thrived. I have grow mostly Cryptocoryne, very slow growing and low maintenance, other plants I have Java fern / narrow leaf - Anubias nana / bonsai - Vallis - Bolbitis - Bucephalandra. I love to have moss but it never takes even though its supposed to be the easiest plant to grow, I am sure the SAE trashes it

 

Dont put yourself down....in days of yor we used lead strip to weight down plants...If you use a finer gravel or sand top layer it all becomes a lot easier

 

Java Fern and Hygrophilia polysperma along with Ambulia are hard to kill even for a novice

 

I think it was Anubias Nana that I got to root on some bog wood. I tried
lots of times to grow plants in my Jewel tanks but they always seemed to die or look a mess with algae on them, so I took them out. I did get them to root in the end and I also got cuttings to root.

 

When you buy plants just be careful of snails. Get one in your tank and not notice it and you end up with thousands off the darn things and its a nightmare to get rid of them.

 

Squish on sight...or dwarf puffer....(but cause more problems than they are worth)

 

I forgot to mention be FC I use long nose tweezers to plant plants in the substrate, I find it easier but its still a little fiddly

 

Whenever we bought fish or plants from Pets at Home, days later we always found snails so stopped buying from them.

@Perki you are more organised than we were, we just pushed the roots under the gravel and hoped for the best

 

I would never buy fish from [email protected] a shop that are actual fish keepers through and through.
In all my experience the one piece of solid advice I could pass on to and avid fishkeeper would be to join a local Aquarist Society..there are still quite a few about (not as many as there once was and you may have to travel a bit more) but these little clubs are a goldmine of information, advice and could save you £££'s. (Chester springs to mind and is possibly the largest still in existence) as many are professional like breeders, they will hold auctions from time to time as folks clear their stocks of fish plants and equipment usually at bargain prices.....try it you wont regret it.
Whilst I lived in Bradford throughout the eighties and nineties I was a member of Bradford and District A.S. and such a wealth of information was forthcomming from the Yorkshire scene Y.A.A.S....I met new long lasting friends and fishkeeping became a whole new entity..I then went on to higher levels UK and Global based Organisations but the lowly club was my roots...

 

When I bought my first tank years ago I had no idea what to do so I joined a Yahoo group on keeping tropical fish and bought a couple of books. I also used to buy most of my fish from an aquatic store which was a bit of a drive but it has the biggest stock of fish I have ever seen, kept in a large converted warehouse. The fish always look healthy although they are always a little bit more expensive than fish from the local garden centre or pet shop. They have a floor to ceiling 1500 gallon display tank with huge fish in it and stock everything from tropicals to rays. They used to even have a crocodile upstairs. If you are ever near Pinxton (junction 28 of the M1) Wharf Aquatics is well worth a visit.

Wharf Aquatics - Tropical Fish, Marine, Pond, Aquarium, Reptile

 

If I remember rightly, our local PaH have new fish delivered on a Friday morning. They are then in quarantine (can’t be sold) for the rest of that day and are available for sale on the Saturday. I think Maidenhead Aquatics quarantine their new fish for a week.

 

Wharf is a major player in the ornamental fishkeeping industry one of the best if not THE best in the country...many a prize Best in Show fish have been bough at Wharf...Been in many a time when I'm over...Highly Recommended. Top Quality fish by people who know what they are actually talking about...