Any fishkeepers here?

[Big J]

Hi all,

 

As a fairly recent rediscoverer of a love for keeping tropical fish (had them as a child), I thought I'd start a thread to see if anyone kept fish (tropical, marine or coldwater).

 

I had a basic tropical set up as a kid, with a succession of fish that didn't like as long as they should have. A few months back I thought sod it, and got a 90ltr tropical set up that quickly got pimped out with an external filter to allow for more fish. A chance on a 330ltr corner tank came up, which I set up at the weekend, moving my old tank stock, tank water and external filter over, as well as all the plants.

 

It's looking great (water still not quite crystal clear, and will hold off posting photos until it is), and is a heavily planted tank, with lots of bogwood and some slate. Silica sand substrate. Fish are:

 

6 Denison barbs (torpedo barbs by another name)

6 Cardinal tetras

6 Penguin tetras

4 zebra danios

 

1 gold nugget plec

1 blue phantom plec

1 green phantom plec

 

1 corydorus julii (soon to be 8-9)

4 kuhli loach

1 pictus catfish

1 hoplo catfish

1 synodontis decorum

 

2 geophagus jurupari

1 black ghost knife fish

 

Might seem like quite a lot but the tank is huge and was set up with mature filters, mature water and plants. Very much understocked until they grow a bit. The jurupari are fascinating and quite territorial. The black ghost knife moves like no other fish I've ever seen and inhales earthworms. The plecs are stunning and the barbs are a wonderful focal point. Other than a few extra corydorus, the only thing that might possibly be added later is a handful of discus. Water needs to be 0ppm nitrate/nitrite/ammonia before that's considered. My old tank achieved that without any issues.

 

Interested to see what other folk are keeping. In a miserably cold and damp Scottish climate, it's wonderful to have something tropical in the living room.

 

Jonathan

[derbyshiretreeservices]

your a brave man changing all of the water and rock and plants in one go, personaly I would have set the big tank up, get the water up to temp (and mature)but still enough to take the extra water from the old tank to add or top up your new system, I am sure some other people would do it differantly, but your right to use the same filter, but I would wait a few weeks untill its all setteld down before you add more fish. i also keep Koi and have done so for twenty years,

[derbyshiretreeservices]

your corner tank is 75 gallons, wow thats quite big, mind you those pesky teritorial ciclids like there room

[Big J]

your corner tank is 75 gallons, wow thats quite big, mind you those pesky teritorial ciclids like there room

 

It's certainly a feature! We don't have a TV as such, so it's not much bigger than many people's flatscreens.

 

Many of the fish in that list weren't in my smaller tank. Rather than the 3 L number plecs I now have, I had a couple of Gibbiceps, but they had grown quite alarmingly and I figured I had to get rid of them at that juncture as catching them in the big tank would be impossible. So the chap at the aquatics shop took them and I though sod it, I'll get some more fish to fill the tank a bit!

 

I did check with the shop as to how to switch over the tanks and he reckoned it would be fine. We just didn't have space in the living room for both. I don't think I've lost any fish, not even the shrimp (I have two armoured and two bamboo shrimp).

 

The jurupari (cichlids) will likely end up numbering 4 to reduce territory issues. As a pair, one is completely dominant.

[matelot]

I've got a 110 litre tank and I really love it

 

A good tip is to put carbon in to help the plants. I've been putting liquid carbon in and that's really helped my plants, it also completely eradicated an algae problem I was having. I literally ordered a fire extinguisher pressurised CO2 system yesterday.

 

If you're feeling flush you should look at LED lighting from TMC. They are expensive but the quality of the light is so good.

[scraggs]

We have a 46 litre fluval edge as a nano marine tank.

In it we have a pair of percula clowns, a rainsford goby, a scooter blenny, 3 hermit crabs, a peppermint shrimp and various soft corals.

I made my own LED lighting for it, just bought the correct colour spectrum LED's, wired them up onto a heatsink and put a fan on it, cost about £15.00 in all with the driver and it works well, some of those shop bought LED lights are insane prices.

My dad has the most increadible reef tank, but he has spent years getting it like it.

[Big J]

I've got a 110 litre tank and I really love it

 

A good tip is to put carbon in to help the plants. I've been putting liquid carbon in and that's really helped my plants, it also completely eradicated an algae problem I was having. I literally ordered a fire extinguisher pressurised CO2 system yesterday.

 

If you're feeling flush you should look at LED lighting from TMC. They are expensive but the quality of the light is so good.

 

I don't want to encourage them to grow any more quickly! I've a couple of bunches of green cambomba that grows at about an inch a day!

 

I'll have a think about LED lighting. The chap who supplied the tank changed one of the bulbs from standard to bring out more colours in the fish and I think it works.

 

Tank much less cloudy this morning, almost gin clear. Will take photos this evening.

 

What do you have in your tank matelot?

[matelot]

I wish my plants would grow quickly enough to be a problem! I was finding that when I first bought them they do well for a couple of months then they slowly "melted" and died. I think the secret is to add carbon.

 

The LEDs cost me about £140 for my tank, to be fair you sometimes get second hand ones on ebay that are a lot cheaper.

 

I can never remember what my fish are; but I do have a red tailed shark, scissortails, catfish and some female fighting fish. Whitespot killed a lot of my fish a few months back...

 

I've found "filter aid" to be good at clearing a cloudy tank.

[Big J]

Gin clear by this afternoon. Added the last of the plants - will take some photos tonight. I had to cut 4-6 inches off of some of the cambomba at the same time.

[GlobalNewark]

 

This is my tank, I've kept tropical fish most of my life but now had enough. Going to extend my pond instead. It's 60x18x18 and for sale if anyone is interested.