Gday all,
Thought i would say hello and introduce myself. Since i was a kid i have loved aquariums, with my very first fish being an axolotl before i was school age. Now i am old enough to look after myself you can be sure that the aquarium is back!
It all kicked off with my trialing aquaponics. I bought a small aquarium with i was planning on starting a trial system with. It didnt take long before i was using an IBC for my aquaponics, so that left me a free aquarium. I was running neon tetras as the like, however the dwarf flame gourami always caught my attention. I tried a few times with them but i have always been unsuccessful with them. So rather than constantly killing fish, i left them to learn more about what i was doing. I have always enjoyed looking at the cichlids at the LFS, but the high price has always turned me off them after the gourami.
So here i am to trawl through your forums and learn what i can so that hopefully in the next 12 months or so i can actually think about getting some bigger fish.
My system as it stands is a tiered system consisting of 2 x 3 foot tanks and my grow bed. The grow bed is on the top, with a grow light, then my main tank that flows into the bottom sump/display tank which pumps up to the grow bed. I know that this is very different to how a lot of you guys run your tanks, but i have enjoyed a very high level of water stability. Early on, i had someone looking after my tanks for a week while i was away and it got about 3 months worth of food. Aside from the mess in the tank, there was no ammonia or nitrite spike at all.
I do fortnightly to monthly water changes, purely because the plants in the grow bed can not use the nitrates quick enough at the moment. I have been trialing new plants (succulents if you can believe it!) that seem to be taking off, so hopefully before long i can push the water changes out further. I know that is probably a contentious issue here, but i am confident that no water changes should be required at all if the plants can use up the nitrates. I dont use meds in my system at all, so i dont think there will be anything building up in the system that the plants wont be using. Of course with more delicate species i could be entirely wrong 
I also have compost worms in both tanks and the grow beds to break down any solids from the fish.
I am definitely more keen on the planted tanks rather than the more 'sterile' sand and rocks, as beautiful as they can be. It definitely makes me jealous seeing all the plants you guys n gals down in perth have access too My lower tank is empty at the moment, so i may try dipping my toes in with a hardy cichlid species if i can find some up this way.
I will try and get some photos up in a few days time to show you all how everything is set up. Ill also go through my blog and try to find a few photos. It is all very agricultural at the moment, using pvc etc. I wanted to learn what i was doing before i invested too heavily
Cheers
Ryan
