Looking for advice about Fish Aquariums

[Chun Liroy]

Lemme outline a bit of my knowledge for you lol. Past 4 years i've been in vocational school geared towards marine biology. In the school we had more fish than we did students lol. I've helped taken care of numerous terrapins including notching them. For a year a couple friends of mine ran our own saltwater tank (granted hardy saltwater, far far far far from tropical species, it is NJ after all). Last year I helped take care of a... shit idk the size of the thing fucking huge, but it had a flounder, grouper and other little things in it, but that's about as far as it goes. Money thing... I have no Idea, we are far from rich but I don't think he realizes how much its going to cost. I'm bored, no parties to go to, all my friends from FL live nowhere near me and all my NJ friends are taking finals so I need something to do. I'm up for it, and I could spend forever obsessing over it as long as it keeps me interested (I've played ffxi forever... that shouldn't be hard). The only thing i'm really concerned about it is the upkeep for him since I won't be around the monitor it.

[Amelya]

From my experience, planted tanks are a pain in the ass. XD If you want to grow the fancy shit they needs special lights, special nutrients, special medium, special PH etc. (which grows algae really well too! >.>), but they can certainly be beautiful if you do them right. However, you will be limited on what type of fish you keep in them. Most of the hardcore planted tank people are more about the plants than they are the fish. Tetras, corydoras, guppies, anything that won't dig, eat or uproot plants is best.

Some people find african cichlids interesting. They're very bright and colorful and pretty easy to care for. Downside is they can be very nasty to each other, and because of their preferred high PH most bottom dwellers won't do well (plecos, corys). I think Syndontis catfish are good in the high PH. Best not to have plants with these guys as they will eat them. I personally think their personality sucks but a lot of people like them, lol.

South/central american cichlids can be a little duller in color than the africans but I think their personality is better. Could look into sajicas, firemouths, nanoluteus, electric blue jack dempsey, rainbow cichlids, cutteri for the less agressive types. Hardy plants only with these guys as they love to dig.

If this was a fish board I would probably be crucified, but I like hybrids. Almost all of my fish are parrotfish or flowerhorns besides my fancy plecos and one lone carpinte. Parrots you can keep several in a 75. They're colorful, personable, and you can keep a variety of other fish with them. Your gf would probably like them, lol, they're kind of "girly" fish I guess.

Flowerhorns, one to a tank (they don't call them "glass bangers" for nothing). They get huge but are very cool fish IMO. Midas and red devils are similar in temperment. It sounds stupid, but they're smart. 75 gallon tank minimum for one IMO.

Edit: could do a pair of these guys in a 75 probably.
http://www.flower-horn.de/Arowana_ga...chlid_pair.jpg

[Electro]

Okey Dokey.


My Reef tank consumes my life..... so let me lay it down for you lol.


Do you have a lot of disposable income?
Do you have experience keeping freshwater fish?
Are you prepared to constantly check on and maintenance the tank and equipment therein?


If you answered yes to all of the above you can CONSIDER salt water.

Don't get me wrong, there is nothing more relaxing than watching a salt water reef you created on your own..... . but god damn is it hard. I've got a 180 Gallon Reef right now, and a 90 Gallon freshwater tank.


I'm actually leaving from work now. Give me a couple hours and I'll be back with a ton more info for you.


If anyone has any other specific questions ask here or PM me.

Income is not a problem whatsoever.
Not a lot of experience keeping freshwater fish.
I don't mind checking fish/equipment.

Meaning I will start with a Freshwater for the experience

Will hit you up when I leave; I am leaving work now as well.

[Trelution]

Don't get me wrong, there is nothing more relaxing than watching a salt water reef you created on your own..... . but god damn is it hard. I've got a 180 Gallon Reef right now, and a 90 Gallon freshwater tank.

180 Gallons geebers! Got any pics of that monster?

[Chun Liroy]

How big would you say a tank that's about 3 feet tall, 8~ feet long and about 4~5 feet wide? Gallon wise that is. Also sorry about kinda jacking your thread Electo XD

[Amelya]

How big would you say a tank that's about 3 feet tall, 8~ feet long and about 4~5 feet wide? Gallon wise that is. Also sorry about kinda jacking your thread Electo XD

700+ according to http://animal-world.com/encyclo/info...ume Calculator
Hope you have a nice slab foundation. XD lol

[Linliel]

My bf had a really good freshwater tank, he did a lot of research into what fish would work well together and ended up with (in a rather large tank, i don't remember how big):
a beautiful sailfin pleco (he was the centrepiece of the tank, he had so much personality!)
2 flying foxes
4 kuhli loaches
a bunch of rasboras
a bunch of neon and glowlight tetras
a bunch of platys, which then bred and became a HUGE bunch of platys, so we had to take them back to the shop

All of these made for a really peaceful and nice community tank. There was always something going on -- the pleco made for a wonderful personality fish, the flying foxes were always skipping around, and the tetras and rasboras made for nice schooling fish.

[Chun Liroy]

My bf had a really good freshwater tank, he did a lot of research into what fish would work well together and ended up with (in a rather large tank, i don't remember how big):
a beautiful sailfin pleco (he was the centrepiece of the tank, he had so much personality!)
2 flying foxes
4 kuhli loaches
a bunch of rasboras
a bunch of neon and glowlight tetras
a bunch of platys, which then bred and became a HUGE bunch of platys, so we had to take them back to the shop

All of these made for a really peaceful and nice community tank. There was always something going on -- the pleco made for a wonderful personality fish, the flying foxes were always skipping around, and the tetras and rasboras made for nice schooling fish.

How the fuck did he genetically manipulate bats to breathe under water?

Yeah.. Amelya, they were home made fish tanks that my rich teacher made for her room, 3 of them in total, could sleep in that shit comfortably if I wanted.

[Electro]

How big would you say a tank that's about 3 feet tall, 8~ feet long and about 4~5 feet wide? Gallon wise that is. Also sorry about kinda jacking your thread Electo XD

I don't mind; not to mention I didn't find any posts similar to this on BG. Who knows maybe this will become a big thread of people who are just interested in fish lol..

[Quixon]

Ok (Just finished taking care of the fish tank lol)

First thing, especially for your first tank. Go as big as you can fit/afford. The larger water volume will give you a much better chance of success. I got from your tone you will be doing freshwater, good choice.

Saltwater aquariums you can plan on $10-$15 per gallon just to get the tank up and running. Freshwater you can cut that in half. My tank (I'll post pictures at the end), has cost me upwards of 10 grand. That is actually a very conservative estimate also.



As far as size (this is going to sound big), get a 90 or 120 Gallon Tank. Don't bother with a planted tank, they are almost as much of a pain as a saltwater tank is lol.

The dimmensions for a 90 Gallon are 48L x 18W x 24T I believe, the 120 Gallon is 48L x 24W x 24W

For freshwater you don't need anything special. Go with All Glass (Now called Aqueon actually), or Perfecto. They are good quality and affordable. I've owned the all glass 90 Gallon and the All Glass 75 Gallon. My 180 is Oceanic, much nicer.... but about double the price of All Glass.


For freshwater (with fish only), you are are going to need the following:

-Cannister Filter (Don't cheap out on this.)
I would recommend an Eheim or Fluval Cannister.

-Lighting
Don't need anything special for fish only. Just enough for you to be able to see the fish.

-Substrate
Use the smallest sized gravel you can get that isn't sand. I prefer a natural looking gravel, but the look is up to you.

-Decoration
Up to you, and depends on what fish you want to keep.

-UV Sterilizer
Not needed, but will help with algae blooms and certain fish diseases you may come across as a newbie. I do not use these myself, but no many people who do.


That's pretty much it for freshwater, aside from consumables like food.


I'm actually going to post my tank and all the crap that goes along with it on the next post so it doesn't clutter this one up lol.

[Quixon]

Here's my Reef:

180 Gallon Oceanic (6' x 2' x 2')

This set up has only been up for a few months, the livestock all came from my old 90 Gallon Reef:

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/g...DSC_0058-1.jpg

Some of the livestock:

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/g.../DSC_00222.jpg
http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/g...6/DSC_0046.jpg
http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/g...6/DSC_0065.jpg




I can get more into the equipment behind the tank as well if anyone is interested.... I didn't want to bore anyone with that without a request for it lol.

[Lyrai]

Not sure if it's been said, but make sure you set up your tank and have it run for a while before you add fish. I work for PetSmart, and one of the most common issues that I run into is people adding expensive fish right away before they get the levels of their tank correct for the type of fish they want.

We also have our own tank at the front of the store with snails and Glo-fish usually. The biggest issue we have with it, is overgrowth of algae and cloudy water because it gets so much sunlight during the day. That's one of the reasons you'd want to keep it away from a window, in addition to drafts.

I would start with a few small fish, depending on the size of your tank, such as Guppies or Mollys. Even if you don't buy fish from PetSmart, we do free water testing. Just bring in a small sample of your water and they can give you a wide variety of results to rule out possible problems in your tank if you're having issues.

[Chun Liroy]

Quixon, what would you say the Gallon is of 49"x19"x13"? I plugged it into the calculator listed above, but it said it's only 50 gallon, but I"m not so sure...

[Auspice]

There's plenty of awesome looking freshwater fish; don't be fooled into thinking you are limiting yourself by going freshwater. I've got a 75 and 55 right now but used to have tons more when I lived at home with my parents. The 75 is home to a bunch of cichlids and a few polypterus and the 55 has my lungfish.

Also, to the people who posted tanks with live plants in it; that shit is a NIGHTMARE to keep up. Plants need CO2 but fish need O2 so if you have too strong of a system you're not going to have enough CO2 for the plants to grow healthy not to mention you need a lot of light for the plants to grow which means you're also probably going to have algae problems which you will be unable to take care of because algae killers will also own your plants. Plecos are fine and dandy sometimes but they get massive and can't always keep a tank algae free.

Holy fuck I'm rambling.

[Chun Liroy]

I can get more into the equipment behind the tank as well if anyone is interested.... I didn't want to bore anyone with that without a request for it lol.

I was just wondering if you're bored enough to list out each part that I would need to buy, starting from scratch (Got a 55 Gal. Tank already). That would help a lot. I can worry about the types of fish and stuff later, just want to get the basics down to get it running. Then worry about what specific parameters I need for the water for the fish that we get, unless you feel like listing that as well XD. Any help greatly appreciated.

[Kerberoz]

Planted freshwater tanks are just as much maintenance, if not more, than reef tanks. Seriously, live plants are a pain in the ass to maintain. Larger (reef) tanks are actually easier to maintain because more water = more room for error without killing everything in it.

If you want an easy freshwater setup, go for large cichlids. Oscars, etc are pretty cool fish, imo, and they're easy/cheap as hell to keep alive and grow to be pretty impressive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHBzzCuv1VQ

Another option for "easy" saltwater is a mantis shrimp with some basic coral/live rock and maybe top-dwelling fish:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq4X7bSPB_0

[Quixon]

I was just wondering if you're bored enough to list out each part that I would need to buy, starting from scratch (Got a 55 Gal. Tank already). That would help a lot. I can worry about the types of fish and stuff later, just want to get the basics down to get it running. Then worry about what specific parameters I need for the water for the fish that we get, unless you feel like listing that as well XD. Any help greatly appreciated.

Please read through this first. Then check my equipment list out. I've tried (and wasted alot of money doing so) ALOT of reef equipment. What I list here is what I would buy if it were my tank.

Here is the link:
http://www.melevsreef.com/tanks.html



Now:


[b]Lighting[b/]:
For a 55 Gallon Reef I would use (3)150 Watt HQI Metal Halides. For a fish only, any lighting will do.

Biological Filtration:
55-70 LBS of good quality Live Rock.

Filtration (Other)
MSX160 Protein Skimmer. You can find them here: www.marinesolutionsinc.com

Circulation (One of your most important things to keep an eye on)
Corals need different circulation depending on which you are looking into. At the minimum you want 5-10x turnover per hour. So for a 55 you want around 300-500 Gallons per hour.

Koralia Powerheads are on the cheaper end, and get the job done. Pick which size is appropriate for your needs. It's best to get a couple smaller ones, as opposed to 1 big one.

I used (3) Ecotech Vortech MP40's. They are around $400 a piece though.

Substrate
Use Caribsea Direct Seafloor Grade Reef Sand. You want a shallow sand bed, just enough to cover the bottom.


That is the bare minimum right there. Read up on getting a drilled tank, and a "sump". Basically it adds water volume to the system (it's basically a tank under your display tank). The water drains through some holes in your display tank and down to the sump. The sump will house your heaters (which I forgot to mention above), protein skimmer, and any other filter goodies you may get into once you have your feet wet.

You will then have a return pump that will pump the water back up to the display tank.


For a return pump I would recommend a Mag7. Sump you could use a 29 Gallon aquarium and divide it with plate glass using silicone. It's tough to explain, so just researching it a bit will be better than me trying to explain lol.

[Quixon]

Also... I will undoubtedly miss something. So here is some places to research:


www.Reefcentral.com

www.wetwebmedia.com



Reef Central is an absolutely massive world wide forum, devoted to keeping reefs and saltwater tanks. Wet web media is another good site, but not as organized as reef central is.

[Chun Liroy]

Thanks a ton man, I will certainly check out those links and do lots of research, I'll be sure to let you know how it turns out :D

[Quixon]

It's all good man, no problem at all. If you ever have any questions just PM me. I can shoot you over my cell number as well.