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Posted 20 hours ago

Superfish Scaper 45 Aquarium Starter Set Up, White,Black

£9.9£99Clearance
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About this deal

Notice in the substrate on the right mystery plant number 3 (a red lotus? a red lilly? a red lotus lilly?) from first trip to LFS all I know is that it will get a lot bigger (wife saw a fully grown one in the shop and fell in love with it), though it is taking its sweet time over it. No sign of a bulb though, so does that rule out a lotus? So, the day before “the big reveal” my wife and I ventured to our LFS, I was prepared to bluff my way past the scandalous fish in cycling bit, but it turns out that was actually their advised method anyway. “Just be sure to keep an eye on Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate levels, and keep changing water as needed” … so, another test kit then, this time for all three nasties (as well as pH, KH and GH). The Chief Technical Officer - never had any fish, was always jealous of their cousin’s fish tank as a kid (a “Japanese Fighting Fish” as it was known then, and some neon tetras). Prone to over-researching/over-thinking every decision, either beforehand (invariably leading to Analysis Paralysis), or afterwards (invariably leading to Buyer’s Remorse). Often somehow manages to achieve both with the same decision. Noticed afterwards that a lot of the products I was advised to get were "Aqua" which appears to be MA's own brand. Funny that. Did we get there in the end? Yes. Come midnight I was finally able to get to bed with a tank with some water, some plants, and some fish in it, reasonably secure that they would all still be alive in the morning.

The Scaper LED lighting is tailor-made for the Scaper Aquariums it sits nicely above the aquarium so it doesn’t distribute the view and can provide even coverage of lighting. With a high light output, it’s optimal for plant growth. The highly energy efficient LED light can be controlled by a finger touch dimmable switch.

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So, while I’m sure it is doing great stuff for the plants (and they are mostly growing pretty well), I wish I had instead gone for a sand-capped low organics soil substrate with water column dosing (and perhaps occasional root tabs). But these are all concepts I learned about afterwards. Oh well. Onto the internal filter. This has a spray bar, initially I had the spray bar above the water level (the instructions aren’t very clear, but in one part it seems as if this is mandatory for the filter) if I aim it across the tank I get splashes onto the shelf above (not a good idea, unless I fancy a mould farm), if I aim it straight down I’m not sure I’ll get much circulation, I end up aiming it at the side, not least because it is quieter that way.

Did I realise I realise how hard it would be to maintain a planted tank when there is a shelf above it obscuring about half of the top of the tank? No Ok, so probably a good time to go into that “ substrate regret” mentioned in the first post. Other than the cost, my two concerns are :So, with that trigger warning out of the way, the story is ready to begin. Are you sitting comfortably? I mean it, there are a lot of words coming up, and the occasional badly taken iphone photo. The Client was very pleased, but almost immediately followed up with “why are they so small, are they going to get any bigger?” “ermmmm …” So, how did that birthday reveal go? We wrapped up the pot of fish food as a “clue”. Inevitably, this led to confusion, which promptly led (immediately after cries of “no, no, don’t open it the lid!”) to smelly fish food flakes being spilled all over our bed (fish-keeping disaster #1 in a series of, no doubt, many).

A couple of months ago, The Creative Director announced to The Chief Technical Officer that she’d like to get The Client a goldfish (in a traditional bowl/small tank) for his sixth birthday. “I’m not sure that’s considered fair on the goldfish these days” said The Chief Technical Officer “Let me just do some research”. I should warn the faint of heart that I’ll talk about water testing a lot here. I know that a lot of users of this forum consider them inaccurate and pointless. Well, partly I was testing a lot at the start because at that point nothing I read had suggested otherwise. But also, for me as a complete beginner I still feel they are “good enough” to spot various trends and issues I might not otherwise have discovered (until it was too late anyway). I accept that they are flawed, and that using your eyes, nose and common sense is often more helpful, but until you get your eyes and nose tuned in with experience, these are not that much use either (and sadly, in my case, common sense may never come).

Best UK Aquascaping

The hope was to establish a wide diversity of microflora and microfauna in the tank, and to establish a bit of an ecosystem, even if not exactly “closed” because I am having to provide some inputs (ie food) and deal with some outputs (ie water changes). I was doing this not because I thought it meant I could get away with no cleaning or water changes, but because an ecosystem, or just a slice of nature, is much more interesting and beautiful to me than a sterile glass box with some plants and fish in it. I also hoped, and believed based on lots of reading (albeit perhaps self-selected reading), that the more diverse the life in the tank, the more resilient it would be. Speaking of filters, this is an exemplar of the “Descent into madness” part of the process for me. I have spent a huge amount of time and energy over the past month worrying (ie. overthinking) about many things with regards to the tank, and a big chunk of that is endlessly worrying about position, angle and flow with the filters. The Scaper LED lighting is tailor-made for the Scaper Aquariums it sits nicely above the aquarium so it doesn't distribute the view and can provide even coverage of lighting. With a high light output, it's optimal for plant growth. The highly energy efficient LEDlight can be controlled by a finger touch dimmable switch. Is it really Seiryu though? I’d never heard of it, and when I later looked it up it seemed unlikely it would actually be authentic Seiryu stone. But seeing as I’d not been in search of it, it doesn’t bother me if it is just something similar (and it wasn't particularly expensive). I like how it looks which is the main thing ... or is it? Large pallet items like aquariums are deemed delivered successfully with no damage once the the driver has left the property. If a report of damage is submitted after the driver has left we may be unable to assist with replacements. We recommend refusing a damaged delivery, this is the fastest resolution.

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