1st Proper Fish Tank

wordy · 3 Jan 2009 at 22:33

Awhile ago the g/f won a Baby BiOrb 15l tank, and I promptly got it set up as a tropical tank with 6 cardinal Tetras in it. After doing some research, and my 1st 15% water change ended up killing two fish(long story) I've come to the conclusion that the Baby BiOrb is only fit for a quarantine tank I decided to buy a bigger tank.

So after looking around I found a tank that would fit in the space we have and went and bought it. It's an AquaTropic AT80 110 Litre tank & came with the heater, filter/pump & water treatment chemicals. The stand is a Juwel 125 stand which was bought seperately, it’s got a gravel substrate and 7 assorted plants, 2 pieces of bogwood, a piece of planted bogwood, and 3 bits of slate. It was set up on New Years Eve and is currently doing a fishless cycle before I start stocking it up and after another week or so (water conditions depending) I'll add my 4 surviving Cardinals and steadily add stock from there.

Here are the pics.

Aero · 3 Jan 2009 at 22:37

Looks very nice any idea what you'd like to stock it with yet? I am a big fan of the simple cherry barbs. A bit of java moss would be a nice filler plant for that tank. I'd also consider getting a feature plant for the back perhaps?

Aero

Killa_ken · 3 Jan 2009 at 22:41

looks fresh dawg, needs more green plants though! Get some java moss fo sho from ebay. What type of fish you gonna get? Get like 20 neon tetras so there's a small colonies and get a bunch of those mollies.

wordy · 3 Jan 2009 at 22:52

Thanks, I do plan on getting a decent sized plant for the middle background, but don't want to overtock on plants as they'll need room to grow. I plan on stocking it with 10 Cardinal Tetras, 2 female Siamese Fighters, 3 male and 1 female Guppies, and 2 Dalmation Mollies when the tank is more mature. I'd like to avoid overstocking the tank, and have worked out the stocking level.

Aero · 3 Jan 2009 at 23:01

Bit of advice with the guppies either get more females than males or none, they will harass her and exhaust her and kill her. If you want something a bit unusual also look into dwarf neon rainbow fish (same colour as cardinals). There are also threadfin rainbows and forktails which are nice small fish. Take a look into amano plant shrimps they'll add a little something extra to your tank without really increasing the load on it.

Aero

Bubo · 3 Jan 2009 at 23:12

Have you used bogwood in a tank before? When I used it in my old tank it tinted the water brown within a few days. Have you taken any precautions? I read somewhere you can varnish it to prevent the pigment leaching out of it.

wordy · 3 Jan 2009 at 23:14

Thanks for that, got a few books on tropical freshwater fish and they've said get a a female Guppy as the males need something to show off to, but if they're going to be that horny then I guess I'll just get males. I'd rather have 3 female and 1 male Siamese Fighters, but was told by someone in my local pets at home that the male fighters could attack the tetras due to their bright colours.

wordy · 3 Jan 2009 at 23:16

Bubo said:
Have you used bogwood in a tank before? When I used it in my old tank it tinted the water brown within a few days. Have you taken any precautions? I read somewhere you can varnish it to prevent the pigment leaching out of it.

The planted and the smaller piece were bought while in a tank, and the larger piece on the left was soaked in a bucket and the water kept getting changed until it stayed clear.

Bubo · 3 Jan 2009 at 23:21

wordy said:
the larger piece on the left was soaked in a bucket and the water kept getting changed until it stayed clear.

I did that with the bit I had, I even boiled it for ages and it still eventually leached. I guess I must have had an especially pigment laden piece of wood.

wordy · 3 Jan 2009 at 23:26

Question for you guys now, from what I've read up it says the 1st cycle can take from a week to 2 weeks, does it depend on the water test results as to when you start adding stock? and would adding water from my baby BiOrb help speed the cycle up? I'm adding treatement that came with the tank every other day to help mature the filter.

I'm quite eager to get my 4 Cardinals out of the Baby BiOrb as soon as possible, because frankly it's arse.

Aero · 3 Jan 2009 at 23:27

wordy said:
Thanks for that, got a few books on tropical freshwater fish and they've said get a a female Guppy as the males need something to show off to, but if they're going to be that horny then I guess I'll just get males. I'd rather have 3 female and 1 male Siamese Fighters, but was told by someone in my local pets at home that the male fighters could attack the tetras due to their bright colours.

To be honest you are more likely to have an issue with the guppies for the same problem but people get away with it. Give plenty of plants for them to escape in

. Its also not unheard of for female fighters to kill males but i'll stop telling you horror stories

. One thing I would suggest is to not use pets at home. Generally, you will get poor advice and i've never found the fish to be kept in the best condition. Go to a local aquatics shop. Practical fishkeeping (pfk), have a magazine and a website which should give you an idea of some good stores in your area. Talk to the staff and they should be able to offer you good advice. If you have an more questions feel free to ask I used to work in one of pfk's top 40 shops for 6 years but there are plenty of other very knowledgeable fishkeepers on here. Its about finding your level of interest in the hobby. Don't go rushing into filling your tank and take a good browse around because I can assure you there will be plenty of wonderful fish you won't have seen yet.

Aero

Aero · 3 Jan 2009 at 23:30

wordy said:
Question for you guys now, from what I've read up it says the 1st cycle can take from a week to 2 weeks, does it depend on the water test results as to when you start adding stock? and would adding water from my baby BiOrb help speed the cycle up? I'm adding treatement that came with the tank every other day to help mature the filter.

I'm quite eager to get my 4 Cardinals out of the Baby BiOrb as soon as possible, because frankly it's arse.

Your best attempt would be to get some of the filter gunk from your biorb onto the new sponges in your new tank. If you go to a reputable shop they should be able to test your water for you and guide you from there. Tetra do a product called fresh start I believe which is very good for establishing a tank but its quite expensive.

Aero

EDIT: On a side note reading into the biorb problem, why was it such a pain?

wordy · 3 Jan 2009 at 23:38

Again, thanks for the info, the local pets at home do the free water testing and the girl who does it seems genuinely knowledgeable and gave me some advice that I've confirmed on t'internet, sites like www.fishforums.net etc. We do have some cracking local aquatics shops round here aswell. but I will be buying Practical Fishkeeping when I go to get the water tested.

I'm keen on developing the tank into a plant focused tank in about a year or so after getting expirience with the ones I've got, but will obviously need to have fish in that tank aswell.

Aero · 3 Jan 2009 at 23:43

Fair enough you get good advice everywhere I'm just generalizing. A small fermentation co2 kit and a flora-glo bulb will get you going with most easy plants.

Aero

wordy · 4 Jan 2009 at 00:09

We seem to have a few very small grey snails in the tank now that I must've missed when checking the plants before plating, are they harmful to the plants, and if they are will they provide a snack for my fish?

pumaz · 4 Jan 2009 at 00:52

Snails, those things breed like rabbits and by themselfs, There's no real way of getting rid of them as they will be introduced into your tank when you buy plants etc. But you can control them and the best way is via fish.

In our tank we have 2 clown loach and 2 Bochi loach, not only are they nice looking fish they also love to eat snails and they're community fish so you won't have any problems

We did a fishless cycle and it took about 6 weeks, we also used bog wood but we soaked it in boiling water a couple of time and left it to soak for a week in a bucket which got rid of most of the colour bleed.

In our tank we have.

2 x Bristle nose plecs
2 x Clown loach
2 x YoYo loach
4 x Prestiler Tetra's
4 x Bloodfin Tetra's
10 x Neon Tetras
4 x blue gouramis

And they all get along just fine

We also have a smaller 70ltr Tank with a breeding pair of Blue Rams

The Fishforums is the best place for all things fishy btw

wordy · 4 Jan 2009 at 12:23

Aero said:
EDIT: On a side note reading into the biorb problem, why was it such a pain?

It's pretty small, it's a 15 ltr tank and when I'd come to do a water change the fish panic and dive straight down and work their way into the ceramic media and end up getting trapped. After the 1st water change I found I was two missing, so I had to remove everything out of the tank and found that they'd worked their way under all the media and into the filter. After being freed they all seemed fine, but by night time one was laid upside down on the bottom barely moving and he died during the night. Two nights later one developed like a cotton wool like infection on some scales that must've been damaged when he was trapped, I was going to get some treatment for it the following day but he died during the night.

To sum up a 15% water change ended up being about a 45% water change all the media and the filter had to be removed & replaced. This took about 2 hours and 2 of my 6 fish died.

After the 2nd water change I did the same happened again, thankfully none of them died this time. So to be honest I'm really loathe to try another water change in the biorb even though ones due, in the hope that my new tank will be ready soon and I can get them out of the biorb.

Aero · 4 Jan 2009 at 12:33

This is why I was never a massive fan of the biorb brand. The information suggests on the box you should replace the sponge + carbon every month or so. You can just wash the sponge out in some water FROM the tank (i.e. not tap water). Buy a small box of loose carbon (look at external filter media) and replace the carbon with that. How often do you do a water change and for what reason, i.e. because the water smells?, Looks cloudy? Or just because you should?

Aero

RoboCod · 4 Jan 2009 at 12:42

A little advice on the substrate. Fish don't normally live in places with crazy coloured pretty looking gravel. A good substrate is this black stuff my mate uses (I cannot for the life of me remember the name at the mo though). It has fine and not so fine pieces. The sandy fine pieces settle at the bottom and make good base for your plant roots. The surface is good for collecting muck that can easily be swept off. Once I find out it's name I'll let you know, my mate swears by it and he has tropical and marine tanks throughout his house.

EDIT: Might be this
http://aquarium-journal.com/2007/05/eco-complete-planted-aquarium-substrate.html

wordy · 4 Jan 2009 at 12:43

Aero said:
This is why I was never a massive fan of the biorb brand. The information suggests on the box you should replace the sponge + carbon every month or so. You can just wash the sponge out in some water FROM the tank (i.e. not tap water). Buy a small box of loose carbon (look at external filter media) and replace the carbon with that. How often do you do a water change and for what reason, i.e. because the water smells?, Looks cloudy? Or just because you should?

Aero

Because I should really, due to the tank being so small I read it was important to do a 15% water changes quite often. At the moment the water looks clear and the fish are pretty lively.