My new tropical aquarium setup.

[DrPhill]

How come you gave up ? I keep hearing it alot that people did keep them but then decided to give up. Apparently the guy I bought the tank and fish from lost enthusiasm when he had two predatory fish go on a killing spree. Your tank setup sounds fascinating. I hate to ask but don't suppose you've got any pictures? I'm going to copy and paste the fish names in your thread to see how they look.

I gave up because I moved house a couple of times. Back then I had more money than sense - it can be a very expensive hobby until you find the 'sweet spot' where plants and fish survive. Then it is only slightly expensive.

These days money and sense have evened out a bit - solely due to having less money. When I get a bit older and sense degrades balance will swing again.

No pictures. Back then we did not have camera phones. Hell, we did not even have mobile phones.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Yes, some fish are destructive. Plecs will eat plants for pastime - oscars e.g. will dig them up overnight. Malawis need water so alkaline plants don't tend to grow well, and they're vegetarian so eat what little does grow. Small tanks often look better with shoals of one or two types of small fishes rather than a mixture - a dozen or fifteen tiger barbs look good. Some fish are shoalers and should be kept in numbers anyway. As mentioned above apistogrammas are good for a small tank - cichlids behaviour is a bit more interesting than most others especially when they breed as the look after their young. I used to breed apistogramma borellii.

 

[ColeyS1]

I'm think I'm all fished out tonight. So much to take in, it's quite overwhelming. Silicones curing which is the main thing. Temporary plastic containers are still holding and the pumps still running. Upwards and onwards tomorrow.
It's the tank potentially exploding that's really making me question whether I've done the right thing.
I guess 20mm thick glass with a stainless steel frame would be the only real way of ensuring there isn't a leak.

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[LancsRick]

Step back, decide what you want and come at it afresh. You don't have to do everything from day one but some things are easier to sort from the outset.

Personally my recommendation would be a low tech planted tank with good maintenance species in there, both fish and inverts. You can expand into high tech later on, and consider going beyond a rectangular tank once you're happy with flow patterns etc. I've deliberately thrown some jargon at you to give you a few research paths to go down hehehe

 

[sunnybob]

Talk about information overload! Dont try to run before you can walk, it will take you a long time to be comfortable with your tank and decide what you like the best, but its a very interesting hobby. Tanks DO NOT just explode. Theres always a reason and its either bad positioning on a rough surface, falling rocks or bogwood, or even an accidental knock. I made well over a 100 tanks, possibly 200, with nothing but glass and silicone and never had one leak.

Compatible fish are very important. before buying any ask the shopkeeper what will fit in with what youve got. If he's vague, then find another shop.

I liked deep tanks that were set up as a cross section of a river bed with lots of plants a off centre objects. My wife is slightly OCD, and her tanks always had one big item dead centre and all the other stuff evenly spaced.

I dont know how good this organisation are now, (its been a while since I was involved) but have a read of this.
http://www.fbas.co.uk/

 

[ColeyS1]

LancsRick-That sounds like a plan ! I'll Google the keywords tonight. I had a quick look on ukaps and saw some builds you did in 2003. Wowsers ! The other section I looked in was hard....something setups. Zero plants at all which also looked amazing.

They have tapatalk which means I'll be able to have a proper study once this plastic tank crisis is over. Thanks for the inspiration. I would have never dreamt a tank could have looked like that.

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[ColeyS1]

SunnyBob, what was your glass of choice on builds or did it vary ? Am i bonkers to even consider making a stand with built in funnel/reservoir of some sort ? 130 litres would cause a massive amount of damage. I was doing calculations at work yesterday trying to figure out how big an area would be covered in 6mm of water. I think it was about 30 square metres lol !

My fish at the moment are 4 tetras, the algie eater, clown loach and this one

The temporary tanks pretty well taped up so I won't know for sure if they've all survived until i put them back. What would you recommend for the size tank I have ? I bought some more fish food that the previous owner was using. They're red granules that float on the surface then slowly sink.

Silly question but is it best to setup the tank empty then fill with water ?

Thanks SunnyBob

Coley

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[sunnybob]

the fishes are a speckled molly and a tetra of some kind, hard to be exact from the fuzzy pic, and there are 100's of them all quite similar.
You are definitely overthinking this. There is no way to make an emergency dump of a 130 litres. live with a little danger in your life :shock: :lol:
Giving definite numbers of fish or food is non sensical. fish grow bigger (providing theyre fed) sometimes they want more sometimes they want less.
Use a good brand name. Tetra is one of the most famous. feed as much as they want to eat in 2 or 3 minutes. If its still floating or sinking after that youre just clogging up your filters.
Back when i was building tanks it was measured in 1/8th" which would do very small show tanks for individual fish, to 1/2" plate which would make a very big tank indeed. Cross braces across the top stopped the glass from bowing out. have a good look at the tanks in the fish shop next time you visit.
Theres just too much information to give you in one message thread no matter how long it is. You have to learn as you go. You will make mistakes, fish will die untill you get it right.

Avoid any brackish water fish, avoid marines like the plague untill you have much, much more experience. Theres no money pit deeper than marine fish at home. Guppies are the most common because of their long wavy tails, but then all the other fish eat the tails that are waved in front of them. its endless.
get the tank running, work out how to use the PH and the DH kits, discover what prefer what PH and DH, and go SLOWLY.

From my shop experience I know I'm banging my head against a wall with the excitement of a new hobby, but GO SLOWLY.

If your fish start eating tails and fins, up the food. If the water starts going cloudy, reduce the food.

 

[ColeyS1]

Thanks for your knowledge and advice SunnyBob. Molly does sound familiar.
I think you're right about over thinking it. I've checked my insurance and I'm covered against water escape so would only have the excess to pay if it did burst.

I made a tricoya and plywood sandwich earlier and have just finished assembling it.

Even if this gets soaking, any movement should be kept to an absolute minimum (I'm hoping) it's only temporary until the proper cupboard gets made.

The silicone had 2 days and 5 hours so far so I'm tempted to refill it tomorrow. A few friends want to come over for cider tomorrow but I'm a bit wary having the temporary plastic tank on the floor with a 5 litre keg of cider in the fridge. Do you think it's had long enough to go off yet ? The silicone around the edge was the widest part but wasn't anymore than 6mm thick.

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[sunnybob]

24 hours is all it needs, its ready to fill.
make sure the base is super clean before siting the tank.
make sure the tank is level and exactly where you want it be BEFORE you make it into a 300 kilo monster.

You can use warm water but NOT hot! (hot water onto cold glass equals cracked glass).
To save time while the water gets up to temp. get the temp to 78F (25c) before introducing the fish. Assuming you still have the fish, the best way to transfer them is to part fill a plastic food bag with the water they are in and put a couple fish in it. Roll the bag over at the top and then float that bag in the new tank for 10 minutes. This allows the water temps to equalise slowly. Then over the next five minutes, splash some of the new water into the bag so that the two different checmical make ups mix gradually.
Then release the fish into the new tank.
you can do this with as many bags as you want at a time.
The old water will have some good bacteria in it to start the process in your newly cleaned filter.
Do this in background room lighting, NOT with the fish jammed up against the tank lights and no way to escape.
Remember I keep repeating "slowly slowly". Any sudden change in temp or chemical composition will shock the fish, and if its already under huge stress, it wont survive.

 

[ColeyS1]

I'd guess I've still got 115 litres of the old water - 80 litres in plastic container, 25 and 10 litre drums so I'll only need to introduce maybe 15 new litres. I bought a backup heater and was thinking I'd fill the tank then let the heater get up to the same temperature as the plastic jobby.

One of my concerns was if a small shard of glass had got stuck between the underside of the glass and the plastic base. If I could have took the plastic base off I'd have probably stuck another 6mm on the bottom for good measure. I can't see how it's fixed on, so will have to stay like it is. I feel much more confident now the temporary flimsy plastic tank has lasted for a few days. The glass one is 6mm thick, the plastic effort is probably only 3-4mm (1,1 and 1mm).

Thanks
Coley


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[LancsRick]

Be aware a clown loach is a BIG fish. It will outgrow that tank at some point so be aware.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

They should really be kept with others, as well, they're shoalers.

 

[ColeyS1]

Be aware a clown loach is a BIG fish. It will outgrow that tank at some point so be aware.

That was a bad choice wasn't it ?- balls ! Apparently it was gonna help with the tanks snail problem. Is it common to keep fish till a certain size then look at rehoming them or is that considered cruel ?

I've loaded it with 110 kilos and there doesn't appear to be any rocking or issues with flatness.


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[sunnybob]

All fish have a maximum size that type will grow to. Provided they are fed well and water is healthy. Tank size is irrelevant. I was once called to an old housebound lady who wanted asdvice on her goldfish. She's had it 20 years from the fairground, and couldnt understand why it wouldnt stop growing. She had been told by the fairground stall holder it would only grow to three inches. It was seven inches easy. It was in the original bowl and could not swim a stroke with out hitting the other side. it could barely turn round. So i sold her a complete 18" tank set up and she was happy.
Speckled molly, around 4" would be a BIg one. Clown loach, from memory, will grow to 7" in a few years, but they do much better in a group.
No one fish will cure a snail problem. If you have snails, make it your lifes work to remove and crush them. When you buy new plants, either keep them in a quarantine tank for a week or you can get snail egg killer liquid. They are vermin in a tank (unless they are giant apple snails, they are conversation pieces, and are so large you can remove them any time you want)
Oscars (my personal favourites) are so big you give them names and talk to them easily past a foot, maybe even 15" for an old male.

But when buying fish, you need compatibility.
Barbs are very fast fish, they will nip tails of slower stuff
Almost all tetras are small and peaceful shoaling fish. Thats another classic "newbie" mistake, buying one of everything. Most small fish are much happier with their own kind, small tetras especially you should buy at least 6 at a time.

 

[LancsRick]

Snail killing options are many and varied...

1) You! Finger, tank, squish.
2) Botia striata, a small loach species, love to munch on snails.
3) Assassin snails - predatory type of snail which is actually quite pretty and will demolish all other snails in your tank.

 

[sunnybob]

After a very exhaustive search, involving two laptops, a CDROM, a USB transferance stick, I have finally found some pics of some of my fish.

But, they have not fared well. They were originally taken on 35 mm slides (remember them?), then transferred (badly) to a CD that I think is starting to deteriorate.

So be prepared,,,,,
This is one my favourites, an oscar with its eggs which I managed to get to hatch and attain sellable size. I will try to find some more that are usable, but they are in a really bad way.

 

[sunnybob]

That FBAS link I gave you, they used to sponsor national fish shows, with big trophies. people travelled all across the country with their fish in poly boxes and set them up in tiny glass tanks for the judges to score.
This one is from around the mid 80's.

 

[sunnybob]

There were serious pot hunters who would drive literally 100's of miles to win a particular class of fish trophy. I remember one group who drove from Essex to Somerset because we had a particular cup. And that was in the 80's before many of the motorways were built.

I used to organise shows for a few years, it was frightening how competitive some people got.

 

[ColeyS1]

They should really be kept with others, as well, they're shoalers.

What would you recommend given my current situation? Get more, or perhaps look at giving it away ?

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