Hoorah! New fish tank for me.

SoSolid · 30 May 2009 at 00:38

vintage-x said:
Bit of advice for anyone setting up a new tank.
If you want a more natural look then get sand instead of gravel.
It makes it easer for the plants roots to grow.

The best part is though you can use Argos play sand which is £2.89 a 15kg bag.
That was more then enough to do my 2 small tanks with an inch of sand and i still have half a bag left.
On my next day off Im going to get another bag and do my big tank.

The gravel is quite fine.

vintage-x · 30 May 2009 at 01:30

SoSolid said:
The gravel is quite fine.

good point.
Still £2.89 for a 15kg bag is a lot cheaper then buying gravel and imho it looks better

Yrkoon · 30 May 2009 at 04:36

nice tank i have the same one, got my one stocked with a female bifactiatum about 8 inches (keeps laying eggs) a albino gibby pleco and 2 talking spotted catfish

chucked in a fluval 4+ filter to back up the 205 that came with it.

btw i wouldnt use sand as some guys are saying as grains of it can get into the impeller heads on filters etc and greatly reduce their life span and some sand can drastically alter the ph level eg raising it for malawi cichlids also wouldn't sand be a pain when using a gravel vac wont it just suck up tons of sand?

for the fishless cycling id just dump in some prawns and let them decompose that will add plenty ammonia and only when ammonia and nitrites are 0 with high nitrates i would do a big water change, then do another water test if nitrates are below 20 and the rest at 0 you can add the fish. (worked on a 2 foot tank very well before chucking in salvini fry/juvies)

Nexus · 30 May 2009 at 08:40

I've had sand, and I've had gravel. I'm currently in the process of moving house and will have to empty my tank and put all the fish into a little one, which is a bit of a nightmare.

I think I'm going to switch back to gravel though, as I find it a lot less fiddly than sand. Sand will dry up wherever it gets spilt, it's harder to clean using a sucker thing, as it tends to all get sucked through, unlike gravel. You get a lot of gas that builds up underneath sand after a while. Also when it gets dirty it's a lot more noticeable.

Abyss · 30 May 2009 at 10:45

Congratulations! I have the Fluval 180 however without the curved front, will post some pictures later.

Monkey Puzzle · 30 May 2009 at 11:38

needmorespeed said:
Amomonia doesn't break down the the fish waste it is the fish waste fish produce ammonia just like us so you have to get a source of ammonia in the tank to start the cycle going. Years ago this use to be done by adding a hardy speices of fish which could survive the conditions but it now mostly done on a fishless cycle.

Technically we don't really excrete much ammonia - we first convert it to urea via the urea/ornithine cycle.

/pedant

SoSolid · 30 May 2009 at 12:01

Yrkoon said:
nice tank i have the same one, got my one stocked with a female bifactiatum about 8 inches (keeps laying eggs) a albino gibby pleco and 2 talking spotted catfish

chucked in a fluval 4+ filter to back up the 205 that came with it.

btw i wouldnt use sand as some guys are saying as grains of it can get into the impeller heads on filters etc and greatly reduce their life span and some sand can drastically alter the ph level eg raising it for malawi cichlids also wouldn't sand be a pain when using a gravel vac wont it just suck up tons of sand?

for the fishless cycling id just dump in some prawns and let them decompose that will add plenty ammonia and only when ammonia and nitrites are 0 with high nitrates i would do a big water change, then do another water test if nitrates are below 20 and the rest at 0 you can add the fish. (worked on a 2 foot tank very well before chucking in salvini fry/juvies)

Thanks for the advice! I have just added some prawns to get the cycle started. I cannot wait to add fish to my tank. Aren't malawi cichlids too big for the tank?

gort · 30 May 2009 at 13:05

Hate said:
The fish are in my other tank, this tank is new and the water needs to go through the nitrogen cycle first. They'll be transferred in a couple weeks when the water is ready for them.

You'ld have been fine putting in the fish and all of the 60L of old tank water and old filter media into the new tank. It's only the equivalent of doing a 60-70% water change. All the seeded filter media will be there to cope with the fish.

Hate · 30 May 2009 at 15:14

gort said:
You'ld have been fine putting in the fish and all of the 60L of old tank water and old filter media into the new tank. It's only the equivalent of doing a 60-70% water change. All the seeded filter media will be there to cope with the fish.

I prefer to let things cycle first, plus the tank has been running and is now very well established. I'll take some pictures of it later!

SoSolid · 30 May 2009 at 17:15

My new pump is making a slight grinding sound, I will go sort it out soon but I hope it is not on its way out!

Euro_Hunter · 30 May 2009 at 19:57

ShaolinDreams said:
could we see some fish please DSLR optional

Here you go then, here's my latest additions Tropheus Bemba and the yellow fish are Neolamprologus leleupi:

and here is one of my shell dwellers (Lamprologus multifasciatus)guarding his shells:

Abyss · 30 May 2009 at 21:13

Abyss said:
Congratulations! I have the Fluval 180 however without the curved front, will post some pictures later.

As promised a photo of my Fluval. Has been running for a couple of months now and is maturing nicely. I have 6 leopard Danios, 6 Black Neon Tetras, 6 Checkerd Barb, 2 Clown Loach, 1 Clown Plec and 2 Bristlenosed Plecs.

SoSolid · 30 May 2009 at 21:21

That is one amazing tank. I thought clown loach's grow massive, I would like some but my tank is only 115 litres.

Silent UK · 30 May 2009 at 21:28

Loving the sub in the tank, could you give a link where you bought it please?

Abyss · 30 May 2009 at 21:33

SoSolid said:
That is one amazing tank. I thought clown loach's grow massive, I would like some but my tank is only 115 litres.

Thanks! They'll grow up to about 15cm which won't be a problem for a 180L tank as long as there are not too many other big fish in. It will take years though and longer term I want a bigger tank though once I've moved somewhere bigger.

Silent UK said:
Loving the sub in the tank, could you give a link where you bought it please?

It's from Maidenhead Acuatics near St. Albans (their flagship store I believe). It was around £70 if I remember.

arc@css · 30 May 2009 at 21:35

SoSolid said:
I have just purchased my first tropical fish tank. I have had a few coldwater tanks with standard goldfish, when I was a child. I also have a pond with goldfish and Koi so I know a little about fish already. I must say I was initially torn between getting a tropical tank and getting a coldwater tank. I do like goldfish and always thought tropical fish were too difficult to keep, as well as being rather small. However, after some research and a few trips to the garden centre, I parted with my cash and bought a 115 litre (25 gallon) tropical tank.

I set the tank up on sunday afternoon but realised I don't like the positioning of it in my room so I now have to drain the damn thing and start all over again. I am really pleased with how it all looks though, although it could do with a lot more plants. Do the plants grow big if given time? I am going to buy zebra Danios for my first addition to the tank as well as a mussel. How many danios should I get at first?

I wouldn't get less than around 5. An odd number is usually better. In your size tank, forgetting other fish just for the moment, I'd say 7 maybe 9 would be a nice number.

Euro_Hunter · 30 May 2009 at 23:02

Abyss said:
Thanks! They'll grow up to about 15cm which won't be a problem for a 180L tank as long as there are not too many other big fish in. It will take years though and longer term I want a bigger tank though once I've moved somewhere bigger.

I think you will find 15cm is the minimun size they can reach they usually grow much larger than that.

Quote from wiki:
"A harmless, very active and sociable fish, clown loaches are best kept in groups of 3-4 or more. Due to their potentially large size, a 60 to 100 gallon (230 to 380 litre) aquarium should be the minimum size used."

King4aDay · 30 May 2009 at 23:07

Nice one. That sub actually looks pretty cool.

I just got my tank up and running again a couple of months ago. 90L planted setup wit dwarf puffers and cherry shrimp. Going to be swithcing back over to a community setup soon though. It's still a work in progress, but is beginning to grow in:

arc@css · 31 May 2009 at 00:02

^^You've done an excellent job there.

Yrkoon · 31 May 2009 at 04:43

SoSolid said:
Thanks for the advice! I have just added some prawns to get the cycle started. I cannot wait to add fish to my tank. Aren't malawi cichlids too big for the tank?

np always glad to help a fellow fish keeper

and lake malawi cichlids (mbuna) could be kept in a tank that size but i wouldnt do it as the water changes would be more of a chore than i already have because to limit the aggressiveness of malawis you need to overcrowd the tank a bit. plus they are african cichlids that like higher ph levels. was just using them as an example as sand can raise ph levels

just remember to remove whats left of the mouldy prawns and i would recomend a chemical water test kit with glass test tubes over the paper ones for accurate results

im going to be lucky if i can keep my female bifa on its own in my one when she is fully grown and shes grown fast

what ever you do stay away from cute little oscars in pet shops my one was 1.5 inches and in 8 months or less it was about 8 inches. same tank as yours

the oscar is now about 12 inches and my dads one is about 14 inches and they are sharing a 120 gallon tank with some silver dollars downstairs