airdrie5

Thanks for the kind words. Actually the gentleman that I purchased the aquarium (was never used) built the stand himself. I love the looks of it but the wife would rather a more high tech looking one...too late now I won that battle.

Loving the system although it does seem to scratch very easily.

Very nice, natural looking tank! :thumbs:

Thanks to everyone for the kind welcome. Yes, we have the 230 setup already. It's been running now for about 7 weeks. It's a planted tank, we have spent $400+ (wife a little spending happy) in plants and then we discover that the lights we are using are not sufficient. LFS has suggested that I buy 2 lamps for the tank and they are $450 each so that may be my only option for the lighting. I have looked into DIY lighting and may look further into this. We have been trying to find the best combination in lighting possible but have had no luck yet. Not trying to loose our plants we have been using plant foods, fertilizers etc. We went crazy buying plants before looking into proper lighting so the newbies strike again! I wish I knew how to upload a picture on here so maybe someone could have a look and let us know if the plants are planted correctly and suggest some lighting combination. The 230 is a deep tank so I need some lighting that will reach the bottom. Hopefully we can resolve our lighting issue before we start loosing them. We have numerous fish in tank, Various Tetra's, Barb's, Bala's, ID's, Cory's and a Pleco and so far the fish seem to be doing very well. We are monitoring the water quality daily (to the best of our knowledge). I have purchased a CO2 system but have had no luck in finding the 5 or 10lb bottle that is needed. I have some new founded respect for all you aquarium Guru's.....there is a wide variety of information and knowledge needed to having a healthy tank that only comes with experience and time (books are good but i need some Guru input). All hale the GURU's! :thumbs:

Hello everyone from Airdrie, Alberta. Just wanted to say that we are excited to pick everyone's brains as we are very new to freshwater aquariums. Look out....newbies on the loose! Looking forward to getting to know members and contributing where we can. So far we have a 230 and a 175 gallon and hoping for a nice collection of tanks as we go. Thanks to anyone in advance for any "newbie questions" that may be posted by myself or my wife.