Ben's Tropical Tank

[L4byr1nth]

Hello everyone!

As I previously explained in the 'Welcome' section of the forum, I was given a small, used 28 litre tank by my girlfriend's dad. About a month on, I've become so obsessed with tropical fishkeeping, I've decided to make my own investment into the hobby, and buy my first new tank.

I've set my sights on the Juwel Rio 180 with matching cabinet. I feel this is a nice size, and my fish are going to be very happy with their spacious new home!

I intend to use the tank with the stock filter (Juwel 600 LPH, if I'm not mistaken), Juwel heater (200W), and Juwel lighting rig (2 x 100cm T5 High-Lights, running at 28W AFAIK).

A few questions for anyone with a little more experience with me;

1./ I'm planning on using a Hydor Ario 4 Colour aerator. As I understand it, this has a pump section that is buried below the tank substrate (in my case, Caribsea white sand), with a protruding section that comprises the LED and outlet systems.

Is this safe for use with smaller species of fish? I'm worried about them getting sucked in, etc. The fish I'm worried about are my shoal of Neon Tetra, BTW.

2./ For a background, I'm using the Juwel STR 600 'bark' style stick-on tiles. I understand these are of thin plastic construction, and need to be attached to the inside back pane of the aquarium using silicone sealant.

Any tips on doing this? Are they easy to trim to size? Are they modular - any problems joining two of them together?

3./ I'm planning on building my own tank features from rocks supplied by the retailer (in this case, Seapets), instead of buying overpriced and unrealistic plastic/resin ornaments (as I have in my current tank ).

The process for this isn't really explained in great detail anywhere, as far as I can see. I'm assuming I arrange the rocks into small structures to my liking, and then add silicone sealant to the joins?

Again, any tips on this would be fantastic!

Lastly;

4./ Plants.

Now, I'm a fan of 'natural' looking aquariums, but I do feel it can be overdone to some extent (if I'm taking all the time to look after the aquarium, I at least expect to be able to see the fish!). I appreciate, however, that the fish are happier with plants to use as hiding places (and food ), and so I want to do my best to oblige.

At the moment, I have a couple of plastic plants in my current aquarium, but I'm definitely going to be buying real plants for this new one.

Any low-maintenance types of plant out there that provide sufficient cover for the fish? How many should I get, and how often should I replace them?

Many thanks in advance!

Ben.

 

[waterdrop]

Hi Ben, I'll make a comment re: your number 4 question about plants. You are ahead of many other beginners in realizing that fish do like the plants for "cover." The tidbit you may find interesting is that fish having that cover available to them actually causes them to come out and appear -more- than if they didn't have the cover. Its almost an opposite effect than you might think!

I'll let others who might have the actual equipment comment on your other questions. Although there is one comment I'll make that ties the others together somewhat. It works really well to find your household ammonia (Boots usually have the right stuff) and get started with the fishless cycling ...while the tank is still bare or just has substrate in it. The ammonia and light can cause algae that might mess up your decorations and plants, so its better to be working on and finalizing those -outside- the tank during the weeks while you are growing the correct two species of bacteria. Its better to leave the tank lights switched off during the fishless cycle, except when you are taking water samples from the tank etc. You'll want a heater of course, with the temp at 29C/84F.

~~waterdrop~~
ps. Welcome to the beginner section!
pps. I like pistachio ice cream too!

 

[L4byr1nth]

Hi Waterdrop!

Thanks for the tip about the plants and fishless cycling/algae - I would have planted the tank immediately! You've probably saved me some bother there.

As for the look of the aquarium, I stated previously that I'm a fan of the 'natural' school of aquascaping, but to expand on this, I'd say I still want the tank to look 'clean', and I intend to be fairly minimalist with my choices and amount of plants.

Basically, I'm trying to scrape by with the bare minimum - it's more for the fish than for me!

Ben.

P.S. Pistachio ice cream is totally the best.

 

[OldMan47]

As WD said, the better the cover you can provide your fish, the more likely it seems that you will see them. I post this picture a lot when discussing plants but have a close look at it. You will see tons of fish very visible right at the front of the 18 inch deep tank. These fish are secure and not at all shy of being out in the open in a "vulnerable" location.

The few that can be easily seen are within 2 or 3 inches of the front of that well planted tank.
You also asked about replacing plants. Why replace any plants ever? Instead try checking which plants will do well with your lighting levels and simply grow the plants. That same tank started with 2 cryptocorynes and a half dozen jungle vals as the main planting. I added a java fern after a while but the huge number of vals and crypts all derive from my initial stocking. There have been no plant additions or fertilizer additions in over 3 years in that tank. I allow my plants to grow at their own speed and more or less ignore them. I figure, based on advice from Diana Walstad's book, that the fish food that goes into the tank is plenty to feed my plants and no fertilizers need to be added for good plant growth. So far it is turning out to be correct.

 

[waterdrop]

OM, what are your watts/gallon on that tank, can you find out for me? WD

 

[L4byr1nth]

Thanks for the hints OM - I'll be sure to bear that in mind when selecting a plant collection for the tank. Ideally, I'd like something that'll look nice with the Mopani driftwood I plan to use.

I'm also adding a question to this thread;

5./ The Juwel Rio 180 comes with a 600 LPH Juwel Bioflow Compact filter.

It has been said elsewhere on this forum that if I changed the pump in the filter to a Juwel 1000 LPH, it would help keep the water crystal clear (and not misty/slightly green tinged, as my current tank is at the moment ).

If I did this, would I have to change the impeller as well?

Many thanks,

Ben.

EDIT:: Never mind, 5./ has been answered by a very nice chap elsewhere on the forum.

Just the other four to go!

Ben.

 

[kporteo]

Question 2, If its anything like our Juwel decor which I'd imagine it will be. Measure the back of your tank and using a straight edge and stanley/craft knife score the decor from the flat/back side, when its almost through GENTLY bend the decor, youll see some cuts have gone straight through and using your stanley/craft knife (on the ridged/front side) cut away at the bits that havnt gone through from the rear cuts. Apply using silicone, we bought the Juwel silicone from petsupermarket.co.uk we also bought our backing from them too.

K

 

[L4byr1nth]

Thanks so much for the reply!

Was there much silicone left over? I'm hoping to make some rock ornaments as well.

Do they sort of slot together for a seamless finish (I'll need at least two of the large panels for my new tank), or is it a case of bodging it with a bit of silicone?

Ben.

 

[kporteo]

We used the whole tube of silicone to use it up, but I suppose you could use less than we did, as for slotting them together they have a L shaped edge so they can be butted up together pretty neat, With us having the corner tank we didnt have this issue. I forgot to mention on the last post that our backing is a sort of polystyrene material.

K

 

[Timmy_Bee]

Juwel Rio's are great tanks. The internal filter should be fine, unless you plan to over-stock the tank (i wouldnt recommend this until you are comfortable with your tank and set-up) - and at that point, i would recommend getting an external filter and chopping off the internal.

As for rocks - buy them from a garden centre and you might save yourself some cash (or even walk along the closest beach / other place with rocks and get some for free!). Just boil them off a bit and let the soak off any nasties and you will be fine.

As for question 1 - i have no idea what this is.... is it an air pump? if so, for about £3 you can buy a thing that clips on to your juwel powerhead and does the same job (i think)

And your lights - i would recommend getting one high-light and one 'warm' - personally i think that lights the tank a bit nicer, and you shouldn't get over-run with algae

Have you thought about what to stock your tank with yet?

As a final point, i got my Rio 180 2nd hand for £70 and its in pretty good shape. 2nd hand tanks can save you a lot of money, which you can then spend on fish!

 

[L4byr1nth]

Thank you everyone for the replies so far.

I'm not really on much of a tight budget, so it's not the prices of the equipment - it's the best setup for the fish in the long term that I'm concerned with.

Stock will be moved over from my existing small tank. They're all still babies, but won't be for much longer, which is why I'm sorting them a bigger home.

To add to the fish I've already got, though, I was thinking about keeping a male Opaline Gourami and a male Dwarf Gourami. Not sure if they'd get on, but could always give it a go. What do you think?

Ben.

 

[waterdrop]

Gouramis have the difficult quality that they vary in personality as -individuals-.. which is fairly rare among most of the species we keep. Both of the males you mention can (in -individual- cases) be rather aggressive toward other fish, especially if they are not occupied with about two females each of their respective species (again, in some cases a particular male will be quite happy with only one female, it varies among individuals and is unpredictable in my experience.) Opalines will be both aggressive (even somewhat more aggressive than the dwarves) and larger (thus aggressive to a larger number of fish in a tank with varying sizes of fish.) You -do- have a shot though, as your particular fish could turn out more passive than my words make it sound!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

Green tinged water is not the result of a filter issue at all. The green tinge comes from tiny free floating algae that can grow far faster than filters or water changes can deal with. It is almost always an indication that you have the lights on too long or your tank is getting sunlight from a window or something similar. With a reduction in light, the green tinge will disappear over a few weeks.

 

[L4byr1nth]

I once read the same thing about Red-Tailed Black Sharks, but the one I eventually chose (after much deliberation in the LFS) has a lovely temperament... Most of the time

I may just go for the one male Dwarf Gourami on his own. I can always add a Moonlight Gourami later on if the tank looks a little understocked (or a Samurai Gourami, if I'm lucky ).

As for the water, I've reduced the light I'm giving the tank - down from 10 hours to 8 per day. We'll see if this clears up my little algae bloom?

Many thanks to all for the kind replies.

Ben.

 

[L4byr1nth]

Double post, but what the heck.

It finally came time to put Operation: Cunning Plan into effect. Today, I went to my LFS and came away the owner of a brand-new Fluval Roma 240, which is being delivered tomorrow.

Substrate - I wanted the CaribSea white sand, but apparently this will affect my water hardness as it has additives in it for marine tanks? Will it be ok if I rinse the sand before I put it in the tank?

Will be going to a LFS tomorrow to pick up some aquarium silicone, some Juwel STR 600 background tiles, and to see what kind of bogwood and rocks they've got. Ideally, all the caves and structures in the tank will be made from natural rocks by me, but I'll have to see what I can get...

Tank came with Fluval 305 - anyone know if I'll need an aerator as an additional supply of oxygen in the tank, or will I be ok with just the 305?

Ben.