Looking for advice about Fish Aquariums

[Psion]

Yeah,when you first start a tank, make sure to just have the tank set up with your decorations (except perhaps plants, I forgot if those go in right away or you wait a week or two. I put mine in my freshwater right away though, and they did fine. :3) Then after maybe a week of running while the nitrogen cycle sets up, or if you don't mind sacrifices, right away, put in some real hardy cheap fish (like zebra fish for tropical freshwater; goldfish works... a little too well, as theyre horribly messy and will flood your tank with crap, causing blooms and the like before the bacteria has established itself to break it down) After a couple weeks of that, check the PH and make sure everythings set, and you should be good to go to start adding fish a few at a time.

I was impatient, and added mine after a week, but I had a fairly large tank and mostly tougher fish, so excluding the ever so picky neon tetras (raaaage; the orange tetras or whatever they're called are MUCH hardier, even if not as cool ; They all took it quite well.

Oh, and apple snails are the devil. (petsmart has some called mystery snails... they're apple snails I think, but don't breed as bad as normal apple snails) If you don't mind an army of snails (like 100+), then they will happily keep your tank quite clean of algea, but they tend to take over. I had a blue mystery snail, but after a couple weeks started finding shitloads of little brown snails, leading to the next problem. ISOLATE NEW FISH/PLANTS/ETC.) Watch for diseases, hitchhikers, and the like before releasing them into your main tank. Just get a cheapy tank for this purpose, great for if you need to treat a sick fish as well, but helps to stop this from happening in the first place. Don't be like me and put new plants in right away, where they promply infest your tank with baby snails. -_-;

On the bright side, those snails weren't too annoying and left the plants alone, they just tended to crunch whenever I moved or cleaned something, being a nuisance. But the last thing you want is unwelcome guests.

Oh, and angelfish, even the dwarfs, can be quite feisty and mean little buggers if they don't get enough space like mine didn't. I had a blue gourami named (baron) vladamir, and a baby angelfish named jessica since the baron was always harrassing jessica at first. Then jessica grew bigger than him and declared all out vendetta against poor baron and did her darnest to kill him, though he managed to survive, thanks to hiding spaces. She also loved nipping at my rainbowfish's tail, though aurora always seemed to know when jessica was about to attack, and she never managed to grab it. Interestingly, no one ever bothered the tetras or other baby fish, and only jessica was stupid enough to bug my massive (nearly 8 inches, smilodon grew faaaast) algea eater. And she promply regreted it when he went absolutely berserk till she ran away, but then went on doing his thing and was never bothered again.

So yeah, don't overstock or fish will get angry with each other, as well as pushing the tanks limits. And live plants are beautiful, but you WILL have to trim them, especially the freshwater ones. Like at least once a week-two weeks, or they will quickly take over. It is sorta fun though.

Wish I had the money to continue it, but after a year I lost my job and couldn't pay for food even, and couldnt find another. After two months and somehow all the fish but a few neon tetras were still alive, I got a petsmart to adopt them and put them in their own fishtank in the employee breakroom lol. Smilodon got to be the king of a display tank too, since their last monster algae eater got sold and they were missing one.

I wanna try saltwater, but that requires a steady job. ;;

[Eratosthenes]

I used to keep a freshwater planted tank, but I never really took it very far. Plants like Cryptocorynes, especially Cryptocoryne Wendtii, are pretty easy to care for and cultivate, as long as your fish don't eat them. They do fine without super bright lights and carbon dioxide injection, which are the things you'll need for spectacular planted tanks but I couldn't afford when I was younger.

Oh, and plants will interfere with the nitrogen cycle. In my tank, the initial ammonia spike happened, but then the ammonia dropped, but it wasn't followed by a nitrite spike, which you're supposed to see in a new tank as the bio-filter develops. So if I made a new tank again, I wouldn't put plants in at the very beginning.

[willriker]

I must say that i love this thread. It is actualy getting me a lil excited about this sort of thing. How often do you take everything out and scrub down your tanks? Thats the main thing stopping me from looking into this.

[Amelya]

Never. Once the tank is set up you're not supposed to ever clean the whole thing out, or you start the whole cycling process over again (potentially killing all your fish in the process). For freshwater, you should really only need to vacuum the gravel/sand for debris, clean any algae off the glass and rinse the filter medium as needed. Obviously you'll need to do water changes also, I would recommend ~30% a week. It's really not that much work.

Get one of these if you're doing freshwater - best thing ever.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/ar...?articleid=848

[Rysa]

Yeah,when you first start a tank, make sure to just have the tank set up with your decorations (except perhaps plants, I forgot if those go in right away or you wait a week or two. I put mine in my freshwater right away though, and they did fine. :3) Then after maybe a week of running while the nitrogen cycle sets up, or if you don't mind sacrifices, right away, put in some real hardy cheap fish (like zebra fish for tropical freshwater; goldfish works... a little too well, as theyre horribly messy and will flood your tank with crap, causing blooms and the like before the bacteria has established itself to break it down) After a couple weeks of that, check the PH and make sure everythings set, and you should be good to go to start adding fish a few at a time.

You can buy some bacteria that cycles your tank instantly, the catch is, if the stuff isn't properly refrigerated it won't work when you get it. If you buy it from a store you should talk to a manager to make sure that it was immediately refrigerated when they got the shipment in. I forget the name of the stuff exactly, but back when I had some figure 8 puffer fish, I bought it at Big Al's and it worked great for my fish. This was a few years ago though. Also, make sure it is a reputable brand. There are many out there that don't do what they say.

[Amelya]

Bio Spira is the good stuff I think. Been a while. But yeah if it's not refrigerated don't waste your money, most of the "cycle" products are garbage.

[Lyrai]

Never. Once the tank is set up you're not supposed to ever clean the whole thing out, or you start the whole cycling process over again (potentially killing all your fish in the process). For freshwater, you should really only need to vacuum the gravel/sand for debris, clean any algae off the glass and rinse the filter medium as needed. Obviously you'll need to do water changes also, I would recommend ~30% a week. It's really not that much work.

Get one of these if you're doing freshwater - best thing ever.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/ar...?articleid=848

We actually use these at PetSmart, and yeah, they're great, and make things so much easier.

[Quixon]

Bio Spira is the good stuff I think. Been a while. But yeah if it's not refrigerated don't waste your money, most of the "cycle" products are garbage.

Don't other with Bio-Spira. It's never refridgerated properly when it's being shipped to the pet stores.

Never. Once the tank is set up you're not supposed to ever clean the whole thing out, or you start the whole cycling process over again (potentially killing all your fish in the process). For freshwater, you should really only need to vacuum the gravel/sand for debris, clean any algae off the glass and rinse the filter medium as needed. Obviously you'll need to do water changes also, I would recommend ~30% a week. It's really not that much work.

Let me tell you a secret ^_^d. Buy the hang on filters with the biowheel attachment, or for bigger tanks use a cannister filter. The bacteria you culture for the nitrogen cycle will reside in your filter media (95% of it anyways).

So, if you are using a hang on filter with replaceable cartridges.... every time you replace the cartridge you are throwing out all your bacteria.

Get a hang on with a biowheel. Run the filter with JUST the biowheel (no cartridge) until the tank is cycled. This will assure that all of your bacteria colonies are on the biowheel, and not the replaceable cartridge.

Once the tank is cycled add the cartridge in and replace once its clogged.

You can change 30% weekly if you want to. But honestly if you have a good filter 10% weekly should do fine.


As long as you set the tank up properly you can take the the decorations out and clean them as often as you want. In my freshwater tank I clean the decorations out once a month. I just let them sit in a bucket of diluted bleach solution for a couple hours, then move them to a bucket of freshwater with de-chlorinator. That will keep em perfectly clean.


My reef there is no real decoration.... everything is live. So obviously that stuff is never taken out and cleaned.



+1 to the Python too. Hands down THE greatest maintenance tool for a freshwater tank. I can change 30 gallons of water in 15-20 minutes with that thing.

[Amelya]

I don't use replaceable cartridges, I use HOB aquaclear filters with sponges and ceramic rings which get rinsed with tank water when needed. I found the wheels to be too noisy personally. :/ Maybe they're better now, I haven't used one in years.

[Electro]

Friend of mine said his buddy is trying to get rid of a 50 gallon fish tank with pump/underground heater/ and light. Wants 50 bucks for it. Is it a good deal? Saying nothing is wrong with it.

[Man0warr]

I have a 75 gallon freshwater with a 14 inch Tiger Oscar and 3x huge silver dollars - Oscars will eat anything they can fit in their mouth so they leave silver dollars alone.

I think my Oscar is 8 or 9 years old and the Silver Dollars are 5 or 6. The oscar is basically like a dog, likes to be petted, does tricks, begs for food, etc.

Most important part of the setup is your filters.

I have a Fluval 350? Canister - does the brunt of the work, mostly just filled with the white ceramic cylinder things for bacteria to live on, does most the chemical filtration. Eheim is better but a bit more expensive than Fluval.

AquaClear 500 - filled with 2x sponges, mainly for sucking up extra particles of food and disturbing the surface of the water.

Also have a Powerhead w/ sponge attachment just for creating oxygen.

Oscars are very messy but pretty easy to take care of, and have lots of personality. Just have to make sure to vacuum the tank regularly. Very easy with a Python (best thing you'll ever buy).

[Quixon]

Friend of mine said his buddy is trying to get rid of a 50 gallon fish tank with pump/underground heater/ and light. Wants 50 bucks for it. Is it a good deal? Saying nothing is wrong with it.

Yeah that deal isn't to bad. You can sometimes get a brand new tank from Petco for $1/Gallon, but they only do that sale a couple times a year. You're getting the light also, so that is a bonus.

Underground heaters suck, unless it's an Eheim Substrate Heater (it will say Eheim somewhere on the heater). Just toss that shit in the garbage and run with the rest of the equipment if it isn't an Eheim.

All aquarium heaters suck for the most part actually. I have a controller that has its own probes that I programmed to tell the heaters when to turn on and off. Without the controller I would pro-actively change my heaters out every year-18 months just to be sure.

Relying on the built in thermostat is asking for trouble. I know a lot of people that have lost $100's if not $1000's in fish and corals b/c their year old heater got stuck on and cooked their tank.

[Quixon]

Here's a couple more pictures of my Reef too. Maybe some of you guys/gals with aquariums can post some too.


Some pictures of the fish are kind of blurry, they are hard to photograph though >_<;; I use a Nikon D60, but I am far from an expert photographer. I just point the camera at what I want a picture of and click the button lol.

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/g...6/DSC_0076.jpg

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/g...6/DSC_0128.jpg

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/g...DSC_0013-1.jpg

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/g...DSC_0011-2.jpg

[Electro]

Sorry to necropost. I did just get a 75 Gallon aquarium for 20 bucks from my dad's friend who no longer has time. He sold the last of his fish via aquabid so now I have it. Going to pick it up after work. I will be doing a freshwater tank. Now to find fish to fill it with, got about $750 (so the wife says) to play with.

[Quixon]

Sorry to necropost. I did just get a 75 Gallon aquarium for 20 bucks from my dad's friend who no longer has time. He sold the last of his fish via aquabid so now I have it. Going to pick it up after work. I will be doing a freshwater tank. Now to find fish to fill it with, got about $750 (so the wife says) to play with.

You can do some nice things with $750 w/ a Freshwater Tank.

[Electro]

got any ideas
I enjoy other peoples ideas

[Quixon]

got any ideas
I enjoy other peoples ideas

If you are a beginner you can do a nice community tank. I prefer lots of small fish opposed to a few large ones.

If you are comfortable keeping tanks, I would go with African Cichlids.

[Linliel]

Small fish community tank is the best idea! You can get some nice pieces of driftwood and good plants and a really nice setup for that amount :D

[Auspice]

I'd vote for Cichlids, community fish are boring and not very hardy if you're starting out or are inexperienced. Cichlids have some of the most colorful freshwater fish out there and they're really fun to watch; they are a bit more expensive than community fish but they will sure as shit outlive them.

[AzazaelFenrir]

once I get my 2x2x2 cube done I will have to post pictures (reef).

the only thing that was said before that I will somewhat disagree with Quxion on is that a reef tank doesn't need MH. There are also florescent lighting options that can produce pretty much the same results but at less cost.

That being said I LOVE the shimmer effect of a MH, which is why my Cube will have 1 MH and be supported by a few T5 antics.