OK, so the tank is now mature. I added lots of stuff to make it work of course. Some of the guides are really good on how to actually build the tank but they don't talk very much about how you actually fill the thing with all the equipment you need and all the other paraphernalia.
So basically - any tank needs to run for like quite a few weeks to make sure its not toxic. This is because nitrate and nitrite build up in the water as it starts to cycle. After a few weeks it start to fall depending on lots of factors. The bacteria that causes this to happen is naturally occurring - but introducing fish causes it to happen faster. There is lots of stuff written about this - you can look it up, but basically it takes a while before you can add anything in significant amounts.
The fish are very small, the tank is very large in comparison as it should be - the plants are really the most prominent thing. I plan to add a few more later on.
Tank basics here,
Firstly - water quality. Its a tiny tank and making sure the water quality is good is paramount. Lots of products exist for testing this, but my personal choice is dip strips. Dead easy - you stick in the strip and compare to a colour chart. They are cheap and dead simple to use. Im not going to bother to put in an eBay link - they always fail after a while, so just search dip sticks + aquarium
In addition you need a product to neutralise all the crap that the supplier puts in. Clorine mostly. That is a must - unless you happen to have a supply of RO ( reverse osmosis ) water - and if you happen to have a pet shop / aquarium shop nearby it might be a solution. But you need to refresh the tank weekly - and top it up as water is lost due to evaporation. So more likely you will have to use a product like this.
Other items
You could choose to use all sorts of things, but here is my pick.
Gravel - holds bacteria and just makes the tank look complete.
Filter - this removes harmful nirates from the water and helps oxigination.
Heater - Im in the UK, so temperatures vary greatly. At the moment here, its -1 deg C.
Light - most important this. Not only does it look great, but all living things need light.
Light - This is a very basic LED but it has the right colour wavelengths to supply enugh light to both plants and fish. Price - £16
Filter - this one has a little bar that feeds the water back into the tank in a nice smooth trickle. The upper part contains a filter medium. As the tank is so small I don't have any other filtration in there. Price £10
Heater - this is the smallest one I could find - 25W. Essential in my country due to low temperatures - even though its inside, it would still reach a point thats too low without. Price £8
Finally after all that, and the tank is cycled with conditioned water, you can add plants and fish! I have Neon Tetra and Im not sure what the other type is but they are all tiny. As you can see from the first photo.
So - to wrap it up, this Maquarium is a bit of an oddity, as it was an idea a very long time ago - Im guess some of the original ones were set up after the compact became extinct - like around 1994 maybe? so making one now is just me wanting one - but I think its still pretty cool.
