Hello, I've arrived....

Greetings to you all, I have been lurking for the best part of two weeks now
and have really enjoyed reading all the posts, replys and suggestions. I am
a "newbie" in more ways than one.
1) I recently returned to the hobby of keeping tropical fish. I used to keep
guppys, mollies and the like when I was back home in South Africa as a
teenager. Things were far from scientific then and I never tested a thing!
Just built the tank, let the silicon dry for a week or so, populated with
gravel, plants from the local stream and then filled with tap water. Allowed
to settle for about a week then added the fish, normally these were obtained
from friends or family. In the end between myself, my father, brother,
brother-in-law and cousins we must have had close on 20 tanks of different
sizes, shapes and occupants!
2) This is my first venture into the world of newsgroups, necessitated by my
desire to know more and to do it right this time! I have been an internet
user for close on 8 years, but have never had the need to navigate the
miriad of newsgroups.

Anyhow, I am now in the UK, midlands and set up my tank on the 13th Dec. I
got a lot of advice from my LFS and read Dick Mills' book cover to cover,
but I found I wanted to know more and still had questions. I naturally
turned to the Internet and found myself at www.thekrib.com hence the
introduction to these NG's. So thanks to the guys at thekrib, the rest of
you will just have to learn to put up with me ;-)

I went through a tough time as my tank cycled and lost 1 of 2 bronze
Corydoras. She developed a fungal growth on her tail and although I treated
her with Myxazin, she did not make it. Anyway after 28 days and with the
ammonia spike well and truly gone, I continued to get high but erratic
Nitrite readings. Eventually this past weekend I took a water sample to the
LFS and he tested it with a more sophisticated test kit, to find that the
true reading was 0.1ppm. The only explanation of course is that the test
kit I have although recently purchased must have been old stock. I therefore
purchased on of these dip stick kits which is giving a true reading. The
fish have been happy for a few weeks now my LFS has pronounced me cycled! So
I celebrated by purchasing a few more fish. 1x Bronze Corydoras to replace
the one sadly lost, (This made the surviving one extremely happy! In fact he
has undergone a major personality change, I know they are shoal fish, but I
wasn't expecting such a drastic change!) 1x Golden Loach to keep the algae
under control, I will add another in a week or so, (he has absolutely
gourged himself on the algae, I swear he has doubled in size since Saturday,
but the tank is spotless!) and 1x Striped Dora to get rid of the tiny crabs
which have materialised. (He is awesome when he comes out, so regal and
everyone respects him without asking questions!)

So the total specs of my tank a

80 litre tank, 76x30x38 cm (approx 17.6 imperial gallons)
pH Started at 7.8 but with the addition of Bogwood has settled at 7.2
Ammonia spiked at 1ppm but has been zero for 10 days now.
Nitrite spiked at 5ppm (I think because the test was inaccurate!)
Nitrate ranges from 1 to 25ppm
GH started at 15 degrees but has settled at 11.
KH is 6
Temp started at 24 degrees C, but LFS advised to raise to 28, as most
parasites can't survive above 27. I recall always having my temp at 27 in
SA, so I decided to try it. So far so good!

I have 4 different type of plants, 1 x Paniculatus, 1 x Windelov, 1 x
Hygrophila difformus, 1 x Nesaea Crassicaulis.

Filter is the Fluval 3 with Polyester and Carbon inserts, a heater and an
airpump with a 6 inch curtain style stone.

So now the full population of fishes is:
2 x Bronze Corydoras
2 x Peppered Corydoras
1 x Striped Dora
1 x Golden Loach

I think I can hear you all murmurring what is a Golden Loach and what is a
Striped Dora? Sorry guys, I can't help, this is what the LFS told me they
were and as yet I have been unable to ID them through the Internet. The Dora
is similar to the Chocolate Dora, except where the stripe on the Choc, ends
at the junction of the tail and the tail then has a vertical stripe, Mine
doesn't it continues through the tail horizontally. Obvious he is quite
ellusive so getting a really good look at him is a bit difficult. Maybe
someone here knows more about this. The same with Loach, I haven't been able
to ID him either. He is a long bodied loach completely golden in colour even
his fins and has the usual sucker mouth of an algae eater. He has been
extremely busy and so is hardly ever still. He seems very aloof and although
is not intimidated by anything, it's more like he does give a sh*t about
them rather! He really only scoots out of the way of the Dora, when he is
out, although during the day goes right into the Doras cave to clean up! I
may have to dig out the digital camera and see if I can get some decent
photos of these guys.

The sites I have searched so far for these two a

http://www.badmanstropicalfish.com/
http://www.fishprofiles.com/
http://www.planetcatfish.com/core/
http://www.loaches.com/index.html

This weekend I plan to add a few middle and top dwellers to balance things
out a bit! (That's if I can stop my wife from falling for all these catfish!

Anyhow, I now have RSI and you have all gone to sleep already, so I will
stop prattling on and say thanks for a great resource, I am pleased to know
that you guys (and gals!) are there in a time of need and who knows maybe
one day I will be able to help one of you too.

Keep it safe

Gordon.