jimboNZ

Got a new big siphon today and did my water change, not as bad as I thought it would be, took me about 1/2 an hour in total.

I have some corys in there and a reasonable amount of plants, should I be getting that little bit more wet in order to gravel vac? or could I leave it?

Ive got a question for experienced keepers with large tanks. I recently got my 260L tank and am coming up to doing my first water change/clean. Is cleaning a larger tank any different to a smaller tank? as in siphoning the gravel etc...? I think I need to get a longer siphon.........

For those who are interested, here is my new setup: Put my harlequin group in there along with a couple of corys and they seem to be loving it, temp this morning was at about 26.5, and the heater is set to 28 so thats all good. Oh, and just for cuteness factor:

After talking to the LFS I have pumped up the temp on the heater to 28 and will see how temperature changes from there, I can already see an improvement, in the past 30mins since ive changed it the temp has already gone up another degree

Just got home and the temp is just below 25 so it is still going up which is good.

oooooooooooooo I thought of another question :lol: Do I need to put a air pump with the tank? The filter circulates the water a bit and I would think that the plants provide a lot of O2 for the tank, do I need an airstone or something?

To save me googling do you happen to know the wattage on the T5 lights?

Just being doing some googling and the sites ive seen all say that the lighting is T5 not T8, can someone please explain the difference?

Cool thanks for the advice, the house does get quite cold sometimes (only at night though, during the day we get glorious sunshine into the lounge which warms it up a bit) but ill see how things go first, ill be heading home soon and see what the temp is like and then go from there

My 60L has neons, harlequins, corys, a bristlenose and a few guppies in it so id start out by transfering them slowly into it and then add some more community groups (more harlequins, :heart Harlequins:) and some bigger fish like a male betta, maybe a couple of blue rams, not too sure yet though, thats a long way off.

Thanks for the advice. Ill try polystyrene first as I have some left over from the packaging the tank came in. With the blanket I was thinking of throwing one over the tank before I go to bed at night i.e. when the lights are off and then taking it off in the morning. Ill set the lights to come on at 1-2pm and turn off at about 10pm. Anyway, ill try your suggestions and see how I go, I just want to put some fish in there as its looking a little bare

Yea thats what I thought, maybe ill just give it some more time. Ideas for insulation? Im going to get some polystyrene for the sides and then at night (when its winter) would it be advisable to put a blanket or something over the tank?

Hey thanks for the reply, The heater is a 200W Jager Heater. From what I can tell it has been on the entire time since I pluged it in yesterday but then again I wasn't up all night watching it so I can't tell what happened during the night, I'll check again what the temp is when I get home from Uni

Hi all, Somewhat new at this, I have had a 60L tropical tank for a while and now ive upgraded to a 260L Fluval Vicenza setup. Just had a few questions regarding tank maintenance: How long should the lights of the tank be left on? I have some plants growing and this tank has a built in light timer which I want to setup but am not sure how long for. I set it up yesterday and have had the heater running since mid afternoon yesterday but the temp this morning is at 23 (I have the heater at 26), is it normal for the heater to take this long to heat the tank up? or should I be looking for insulation? Thanks in advance for any advice given