ADM Diving Fish Tank
 Many visitors to the Trade Counter have been intrigued to see how well the plants grow in our Tropical Fish Tank and enjoy the life within it.
Andrew has about fifteen years of experience in fish keeping and growing superb tanks. He also got involved in keeping and breeding Killi Fish which allowed him to contribute to conservation work and special breeding programmes to reduce the spread of malaria by controlled repopulation of these extremely colourful Killi Fish (many enjoy life in the very temporary waterring holes of places such as Africa, when the soil/peat gets wet the eggs hatch and reach maturity in under two months and lay next rainfalls eggs - such growth rates mean they are verocious insect lavae eaters).
 Our Tropical tank is set up as a community of similar small and friendly Tetra's and Rasbora's as the mainstay. These fish are complemented with the ever busy Leopard Danio's and Live Bearing Cobalt Blue Platy's. To keep the tank all ship shape then I've gone for the Ancistrus Plec (A. Dolichopterus), the funny Clown Loach (to keep the snails at bay), and the unusual Kuhli Loach. These all enjoy a warm 26 degrees C environment with variable lighting to better simulate the wild and a PH of 6.3 and relatively soft water (4 degrees DH).
The trick to getting a nice tank is often not to meddle with it !! Sure it needs looking after and sure you need to care for the fish extremely well - but set it up right and with the right quality things. If you want really nice plants forget undergravel filters as many plants do not do well if the roots are disturbed or have little nutrients to absorb slowly.
 The best results Andrew has found is put a 2cm layer of Tetra Aqua Soil on the very bottom of the tank and then put 4cm to 6cm of coarse river sand (quality washed sand from a tropical fish shop - don't go dig this yourself) - then make your terraces and other contours using bog wood, slate or otther media appropriate to the tank habbitat you are trying to create. the bigger the tnak the better - go for 1.5m long, 70cm high and 50cm wide (or similar) - this size is a good size to establish a really good eco system and good water ballance. Do your tank maintenance over a 6 week schedule. every two weeks changing 10% of the water - this can be your syphoning to keep the substrate clean. At the four week point clean gently the large external filter - don't kill the good bacteria that help convert the nitrates, then at the six week point do the replanting and plant maintenance. Then restart this six week cylcle again.
 The fish get less of a shock to the immune system if you follow the 10% rule above you won't need to treat the water to netralise the chlorine - this will keep the infections down in the tank. If you do have to treat the tank (given all the plants) - use specialist medicines rather than chemicals. eSHa EXIT is a very good whitespot and velvet treatment. For fungus the natural treatments that use Aloe Vera are very effective. Feeding is key and Andrew has been very loyal to TetraMin food for all of his fish and he compliments this with frozen bloodworm and other frozen foods like brine shrimp. The fish go mad for this food !
For the plants to thrive then the water must not only have good minerals, trace elements and Iron - but it must have good light (about 12 hours a day on average), Aqua Lux and Grow Lux lights are a good choice, but it must also have a good supply of Carbon Dioxide, some of which will come from your fish !! Andrew has tried the CO2 cylinder and diffuser approach and whilst extremely good, he found the chemical production methods are a neat solution for low levels of CO2 infusion - a great product is the Sochting Carbonator delivering around 30g of CO2 a month/250L. Food and nutrients for the plants comes from Tetra PlantaMin added in thirds of recommended dose after every 2 week water change - over the month the dosage is nearly the same but again this is a gentle change to the water chemistry every two weeks.
Plants are now in abundance and Andrew's recommendation is get these as fresh as can be from the aquatic store (i.e. find out when they have new orders in etc), and ensure they are really good growers such as Tropica.
 The plants in the aqaurium in the foreground are:-
Uticularia graminfolia, Pogostemon helferi,
Lilaeopsis mauritiana, Lilaeopsis brasiliensis.
The plants that are near the right hand bog wood are:-
Hemianthus micranthemoides,
Cryptocoryne beckettii "petchii"
Vesicularia dubyana
 The plants that are near the left hand bog wood are:-
Cryptocoryne undulata
Cryptocoryne wendtii "Tropica"
Bacopa caroliniana
The plants in the back of the rest of the tank are:-
Cryptocoryne x willisii "lucens"
Cryptocoryne beckettii
Cryptocoryne wendtii "Mi Oya"
Microsorum pteropus
Aponogeton ulvaceus
Echinodorus bleheri (paniculatus)
Gymnocoronis spilanthoides
Heteranthera zosterifolia
Ludwigia inclinata var. verticillata "Cuba"
Anubias barteri var. barteri
Nymphaea lotus (zenkeri)
Eusteralis stellata
Cabomba caroliniana
Vallisneria spiralis "Tiger"
Many of the fish have found the water conditions just right and so far the following fish have succesfully bread in this tank:
The Ancistrus male Plec. is definately trying, but the female is having none of it! The tank is doing well and this is largely due to the excellent job the Clown Loaches and the Plecs. The Khuli Loaches i'm sure do their bit to help and thankfully they have lost a fair bit of their shyness and can be seen in the Amazon Sword plant or rummaging around the tank. The Clown Loaches have kicked the Plecs out of their plant pot and made it the 'Clown House' - no other fish goes in it as they have set up camp and they defend it as though it is a breeding nest (which it isn't).
Anyone who visits the Trade Counter will also see the three centimeter high Saturation Diver Andrew has mischieviously put on a marine rope and put this in - after all it is a technical and recreational dive facility...
Please feel free to Contact Us and talk to Andrew about how he created the tank and how on earth he has got the lilly to flower and produce 8inch diameter leaves... we are still amazed as are other aquarists...
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