90cmx45cmx60cm (36"x18"x24")

[mattsilvester]

Hi Guys,

I am enquiring on behalf of a friend who I am helping to set up a tank.

The tank is to be 90cmx45cmx60cm (36"x18"x24") - LxWxH. I reckon that the Eheim-professionell-ii-thermo-2128 is probably the one to go for in terms of filteration.

I personally keep marine fish, which he likes, however as its his first tank he's going to go with fresh water - and I reckon that the "closest" you will get to marines is malawi's (Mbuna). I dunno if Youtube links are allowed here - hopefully its ok (apologies if not)...... I am hoping I can organise something like this for him:
http/www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=QSFzHpnN...feature=related

Generally speaking, given the size of the tank, could I ask:
(1) How many fish should he be looking at (roughly)?
(2) Is the filter I am proposing about right?

The tank will be viewed from both sides and the end (its a sort of room divider) and I am quite good with the aquascaping so I will probably do the aquascaping for him using flat rock & miliput (or similar) - and stack it fairly tall with lots of nooks and crannies.

Many thanks for any advice you can offer.
Regards,

Matt

 

[Ludwig Venter]

The room has to be pretty small to be devided by a 36" tank.... Yes nothing wrong with your filter idea.... If it's gonna be Mbunas, ... max 4 of 'em in that tank. (IMO)

 

[cowbla1]

36" is too small mbunas need at least 48".

 

[kj23502]

The tank is to be 90cmx45cmx60cm (36"x18"x24") - LxWxH. I reckon that the Eheim-professionell-ii-thermo-2128 is probably the one to go for in terms of filteration.

Mbuna really need at least a 4 foot tank, although it's possible to have successful 36" tanks, however the fact that's it's a foot and a half wide makes me think it could be possible. 275gph is the flowrate of the eheim. That will be less when you factor in the media that's put in it and how far it has to pump the water back into the tank. If you're going to stock on the heavy side it's a good idea to have at least 8x turnover per hour, with 10x the better option. According to the calculations the tank is 67 gallons?? right... That would ideally be 670 gph, although a little less is ok. If you stock on the lighter side then you won't need to add much filtration. The minimum recommended is 5x turnover =335pgh.

I personally keep marine fish, which he likes, however as its his first tank he's going to go with fresh water - and I reckon that the "closest" you will get to marines is malawi's (Mbuna). I dunno if Youtube links are allowed here - hopefully its ok (apologies if not)......

I agree with that statement. I'm beginning to move into marines now

I am hoping I can organise something like this for him:
[URL="http/www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=QSFzHpnN...feature=related"]http/www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=QSFzHpnN...feature=related[/URL]

The only fish that I can tell would work in here are the yellow labs. I can't ok the blue fish w/the yellow tail b/c they are pseudotropheus acei and get to 7" long. If you had a 48" tank, I'd say go for it. Have you seen a pseudtropheus demasoni & yellow lab tank?
http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5JbFh3ETwo...feature=related

The demasoni get beautiful as they get older. But it's recommended to have at least 12 fish with only 1 male. They work well w/yellow labs b/c they are so different and don't see the yellow labs as much of a threat b/c of that. I'd say 19 fish on the high side. That'd be 12 demasoni and 7 yellow labs. It's possible to get away w/10 or 11 dems and up the yellow lab #'s but that is a cautionary possibility as it may not work. Again you'll need more filtration to stock this much. Look around on youtube or on here to see full grown demasoni.

Generally speaking, given the size of the tank, could I ask:
(1) How many fish should he be looking at (roughly)?

About 19 max.

(2) Is the filter I am proposing about right?

Need more, but this is an excellent start. Even a really good large biowheel will help loads if he doesn't want to spend the $ on another canister

Let us know what you decide

 

[mattsilvester]

Thanks guys - great replies. I will filter through same in detial this evening.

Yes - 3' would seem small as a room divider. Its actually going in the wall at the top of the stairs (1st floor living area) so the stair well is about 40" wide - the biggest tank you could get in there "structurally" is about 36". You will then see the tank from the livinging area, and through one end........

Main here is that we don't want to be "taking chances" i.e. if its a "they MIGHT be ok" then prehaps we'll re-think. I'll be giving him a hand and a fair amount of supervision, so he is as such not a "beginner". Anyway - I personally think that "beginner" fish are actually harder than some of the so called "more difficult" species..... BUT, if you can think of any nice active hardy colourful alternatives please speak up

Cheers,

Matt