beginner tank 20 gal hex

[ditherfish]

Before:

I had cleaned and rebuilt the old broken hex, and blithely stocked it with the old gravel, etc, along with some abused cycle fish: black ruby barbs. Unfortunately, the bottom cracked- probably a pressure point, and I woke up to a soaked basement and dead fish.

Careful rethought, research, and rebuild, and here is try#2, after an amazing fishless cycle. It's probably old news now, but I am still so enthused about this way of starting a tank! No abused fish, and I was able to add everybody at once.

After:

Tank has plastic plants now until I can locate some low light plants: Java fern, anubias...

4 angels (to become 2), 6 cories, and 1 clown pleco

Babies:

[ABwildrose]

nice pics. I used the fishless cycling method too. It worked great, plus I learned how to test my water and stuff.

[ditherfish]

Thanks. My camera is sooooo slow- it shoots about 3 seconds after I have the shot composed. Very hard to get good pics. The white balance just can't handle the tank lighting - I have to Photoshop them for anything decent. I'm getting a new bulb, but with a single tube- I don't think it will help much, but it may increase the spectrum, and provide better colour depth.

My 4 angels became 2 much more quickly than I thought - I have had a 50% loss in the tank. The angel shown above was the second to go. It was my fave. I also lost 3 of the 6 cories. Pleco is fine tho.

Given the daily water tests, and 5 gal partial changes every second day - I'm not too happy. I can see the angels not being thrilled with the pH (7.5), but they appeared nicely acclimatized, and the remaining fish show absolutely normal behaviour and appearance.

I'm baffled.

But I won't be exchanging the dead angels for more at that store. I'll wait until I can go to Calgary and get better fish for less money. I'll try the cories though. Only found 1 cory corpse - no trace of the others.