Your current Fish tank Setups!

Haven’t posted for a while.



Some up and downs. Tank looking great and water stable. Lost one of my favourite fish, our fire fish, for no apparent reason. Everything else thriving.

We’ve also ordered our 5ft turtle aquarium, but there’s a 3 month build time.
 
Hi I found a tank, the woman at pets at home said its a 55 gallon tank I think

She said Its only big enough for one fish. Is that right?

I was going to get one of the big goldfish.

It's a cold water tank.
 
katy81 said:
Hi I found a tank, the woman at pets at home said its a 55 gallon tank I think

She said Its only big enough for one fish. Is that right?

I was going to get one of the big goldfish.

It's a cold water tank.
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Goldfish, yes 1.
You could get other types of cold water fish if you would like more. However, you will generally be better off going tropical if you would like a larger selection.
This would mean you need a heater.
You will also need a filter if you do not already have one. You will then need to leave the tank running to cycle it. This is essentially letting the filter build up beneficial bacteria. It can take a few weeks.

Do you have a picture of the tank?
 
CaptainRAVE said:
Haven’t posted for a while.



Some up and downs. Tank looking great and water stable. Lost one of my favourite fish, our fire fish, for no apparent reason. Everything else thriving.

We’ve also ordered our 5ft turtle aquarium, but there’s a 3 month build time.
Click to expand...

You know it's weird, out of everything in my old marine tank, I miss my shrimps the most. Cleaner shrimp are just delightful.
Never had a boxer shrimp though, those things can burn in hell!

Lovely looking tank btw.
 
Malt_Vinegar said:
Goldfish, yes 1.
You could get other types of cold water fish if you would like more. However, you will generally be better off going tropical if you would like a larger selection.
This would mean you need a heater.
You will also need a filter if you do not already have one. You will then need to leave the tank running to cycle it. This is essentially letting the filter build up beneficial bacteria. It can take a few weeks.

Do you have a picture of the tank?
Click to expand...
Yeah I have a filter. Got a pump to don't know why.

They said set the tank up, put the chlorene thing in and run it for 24hrs and then I'm good to get a fish.

They also said I can bring a water sample and they will make sure its ready.



 
24 hours is not accurate really, that will mean you will be doing a "fish in" cycle.
If you are going to do a "fish in" cycle (which I am an advocate of personally) you will need to be testing water parameters daily and doing large water changes for the first couple of weeks at least till the parameters are correct.
It's more work, and if you don't do the work correctly you will lose fish.
I suspect a golf fish will be more hardy than tropical for a fish in cycle, but i have not kept cold water for decades, so not sure.

Additionally, I am very doubtfully that is a 55 gallon tank. That's a 200 litres.

That looks more like a 40/50 litre tank to me.
80Litre001.jpg

That's my daughters 80 litre tank for reference
 
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katy81 said:
Yeah I have a filter. Got a pump to don't know why.

They said set the tank up, put the chlorene thing in and run it for 24hrs and then I'm good to get a fish.
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A newly setup tank and filter normally needs ~5 weeks of "fishless cycling" before adding fish.

If you added some fish food to the tank today, it isn't going to significantly breakdown for at least several days, so a water sample tomorrow isn't going to show presence of ammonia or nitrite on a test kit.

But this does not mean the tank is safe for fish tomorrow.

If I recall correctly, I think the guideline is one "fancy" goldfish in a 125 litre tank (because they are messy fish) and then at least 25 litres extra per additional "fancy" goldfish.

What are the tank dimensions? A long/narrow/shallow tank opens up far more stocking options and gives active fish decent "lengths" to swim end to end.
 
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A fish in or fishless cycle is drastically sped up using bottled bacteria. You can get it done in a week on a fish in cycle if the bacteria is in good condition and you go easy on the food.
 
katy81 said:
Yeah I have a filter. Got a pump to don't know why.

They said set the tank up, put the chlorene thing in and run it for 24hrs and then I'm good to get a fish.

They also said I can bring a water sample and they will make sure its ready.



Click to expand...

That's not a 55 Gallon Tank, it's a 17 Gallon tank, i've got the same one as a secondary tank with Shrimp in it. That's way too small for Goldfish. You also don't want to be putting fish in it after only 24h, the last tank I set up took me 4 weeks to get the nitrogen cycle up & running.

You've also submerged the filter, the top inch or so is meant to be above the water surface, it's meant to hang on the back, it won't do anything like that. If you look on the front left it's got a line which says "Water Level" on it, don't go above that. Also you need to make sure the lid is closed so that water is forced through the correct parts.

You also need to make sure the entire base is on a flat sturdy surface, it's hanging off the back of a round table there, it's either going to end up knocked off or leaking.

You need the filter like this -
20240113-231752.jpg
 
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CaptainRAVE said:
Haven’t posted for a while.



Some up and downs. Tank looking great and water stable. Lost one of my favourite fish, our fire fish, for no apparent reason. Everything else thriving.

We’ve also ordered our 5ft turtle aquarium, but there’s a 3 month build time.
Click to expand...

I'd kill for a marine tank, do you find it hard to maintain etc?
 
Vidar said:
I'd kill for a marine tank, do you find it hard to maintain etc?
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We pay a guy who set it up and maintains it for us. The added bonus of this is that we sped through the typical cycling and maturity process. I just do upkeep in between his visits, dosings, feedings etc. I could do it myself now though, but time would be an issue. It’s definitely more intensive than a freshwater aquarium, but it’s far more interesting imo. We’ll hopefully be adding a few more fish soon.

Our custom freshwater turtle tank is currently being made, probably 2-3 months away from delivery. Cost has gone up slightly due to it needing stronger wood for the cabinet and thicker glass due to its size.
 
DEL 707 said:
I've been out of the marine hobby for a very long time, but the old rule stays the same, the bigger the tank, the easier it is to maintain. The more water you have, the more stable the conditions.
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Definitely, whilst also not overstocking and keeping to some more tolerant species. Ours can be left for quite a few days with the auto feeder and not doing anything to it.
 
Our reef aquarium is going well. Coral thriving, fish growing, water pretty stable barring a tiny uptick in algae growth recently.





I am slowly losing patience with our banded shrimp though. 5 new blue star damsels yesterday, 4 today!

Waiting for our freshwater tank still, hopefully arrives by the end of the month.
 
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