Ferg's Tanks

[Ferg1985]

The impatience has got the better of me I thought I'd start my thread even though neither tank has come, but they're sure enough on their way. Just thought I'd throw some ideas out for the stocking of the tanks, perhaps take some suggestions and then once the tanks arrive I can start adding the pictures

My main tank will be a ND Aquarium, 425ltr (150 x 45 x 60):

- Filtration I'm thinking Tetra EX2400.. I want to ensure superb filtration, do these larger external filters have a hose-type end to disperse the water back over the width of the tank, rather than the interal filters which just have a very narrow stream.. I'd like the water to flow out near enough the entire width of the tank to ensure a more even distribution.

- Lighting, not sure yet .. this is what is confusing me the most, I want motion-cycle lighting and don't know if I should go for Aquaray Grobeam's with a controller or spend big and get the Profilux

- C02, I'll give it a go.. but nothing substantial, I want the plants to establish, but not become majorly overgrown.

- Substrate - thinking Sand, Slate and perhaps some black gravel to surround plants as little islands.

- Livestock.. Naturally I'm changing my list on a daily basis, but I'm thinking the finalised inhabitants would be:

* 5 x Rosy Barb
* 5 x Schuberti/Gold Barb
* 8 x Green Tiger Barb
* 8 x Albino Tiger Barb
* 8 x Red Eye Tetra
* 6 x Black Widow Tetra
* 10 x Serpae Tetra
----------------------------
* 6 x Julii Cory
* 3 x Upside Down Catfish
* 8 x Amano Shrimp (or similiar)
* 1 x Siamese Algae Eater

According to AqAdvisor this would leave me slightly overstocked once they were all fully overgrown, but with a 137% filtration capacity, at 33% weekly water change. Obviously I would build this up very slowly, I'm thinking perhaps 1 shoal per 6 weeks (tank will be started with mature filter media).

 

[Ferg1985]

The 2nd tank (As I've discussed in the other thread) will be an Aqua One Aquastart 500 65l (50 x 35 x 49) and primarily used as a nursery/quarantine tank.. as this will arive 6 weeks (aprox) before the main tank, I want to get started sooner than later and have the plants growing in a CO2 setup til the big tank arrives, and transfer stuff across when its of an adequate size.. then when both tanks are running smoothly I'll buy fish gradually and use the 65ltr to monitor them.

After the big tank is full, I'm then tempted to use the 65ltr for:

2 x Chocolate Gourami (Or some Dwarf Variety)
10 x Harlequin Rasbora
4 x Cory (not sure which yet.. would feel guilty having Julii if there was some having a whale of a time in the 425ltr Perhaps Panda's
6 x Shrimp (perhaps Cherry)

and perhaps maybe a Snail.. uhm

 

[Wills]

Just forget Aqadvisor it is 1000% wrong in this case you are in no way overstocked in a 112 gallon tank. The list you have put up looks maybe 50% stock to me? Also the 1 school per six weeks after cycle is way to cautious no need for it. A good guide is to go for about 2 weeks between adding around 6 fish but in a tank this size with those size fish dont worry about it at all.

First thing you can do is up all your schools inc the cories to 10 apart from the tigers, the albino and greens are the same fish just line bred, so the 16 of them will be good together

One thing that concerns me a bit about that list is that you have quite a lot of nippy fish in there the tigers, red eyes and serpaes all have reputations for fin nipping, though once they are in schools of 10 or so it should cut down. But I would still worry how they would interfere with the other fish particularly the cories and the black widows.

An other comment on the stocking of the big tank, it seems there are not that any feature fish in there? I mean if you want a schooling tank thats cool can totally understand why. In smaller tanks you have to choose between schools or feature fish. But in 100gallons you can easily balance both and I mean non of your schooling fish are that small so you could easily go for some of the larger fish with ease and no worry of them being eaten. Also when you first add these fish at about 1 - 2 inches the tank will look seriously empty.

With regards to the filters, I dont have experience with tetratecs but I would always recommend Fluval FX5s for big tanks I have one on mine which is smaller than yours but I keep messy fish so I need the suction to deal with the poop But on a tank your size you want probably somewhere in the region of 3000 liter per hour turn over, just had a google and that tetra does 2400 lph which isnt bad but perhaps consider supplementing it with a second filter, this is often a good idea to run 2 on big tanks as in the event of one failing you have a back up and also in a tank that large it is possible you will get dead spots around the tank where the water current just does not pick up all the material if you see what I mean? Alternatively you could increase current with powerheads angled around the tank but I would probably just get a second filter for the filtration benefits, it does not need to be as big as the 2400 as that will take care of most of it but somewhere in the 1000 lph region will bring the tank together.

I think the stocking in your 65 liter tank will be absolutely stunning! Only thing I would change is to get pygmy cories in a group of 8 and hold out to find some chocolate or licorice gourami, they are sometimes a bit fragile and need a lower Ph but all the fish on your list prefer lower Ph so I would recommend looking into getting some almond leaves which will naturaly lower your Ph its not vital but it will help you keep fragile fish like these gouramis but like I say its just a suggestion. I bet that tank will look stunning.

I honestly can not stress enough how wrong aqadvisor was in the case of your big tank, I mean even taking my personal feelings out it is just wrong here. The stock list you have at present is what I would consider for a tank my size which is half the size of yours. And I genuinely think it would be a massive shame to see a tank of this size go to waste.

Just to give you an idea of how you could stock a tank of this size, have a look at a member called Minxyfish s photos of her tanks and her stock lists those are tanks around the same size as yours and just gives you an idea of what is possible, though just to add she is very experienced and there are some fish I would avoid as a beginner but you can kind of see what Im saying here.

Hope thats helped

Wills

 

[kaivalagi]

As far as the filters go I have 1 active EX1200 (used on my 125L) and another to supplement it when to move over to 320L/84G, I have used the EX1200 for 4 months and it's great. All good external filters come with a spray bar arrangement for pumping water back in, the EX1200 comes with a 3 piece bar so the length can be set by adding/removing these.

I agree that it's best to have 2 filters to give some redundancy in case one fails, dare I suggest you get 2 EX1200's for your tank instead of 1 ex2400? I haven't looked at pricing so am not sure whether this option would increase the costs considerably or not.

If I were you I would leave the CO2 out for now, the chances are you're plants will do well with liquid ferts alone

Everything else looks great, how about a nice big piece of interesting bogwood in the tank too?

 

[Ferg1985]

Thanks for the info guys! Greatly appreciated

As for the stocking, I was wanting to be better safe than sorry, haha.. I didn't intend to go for purely schooling fish and I did fancy a pair of bigger body fish but not sure what would go with all the barbs, something that wouldn't mind the boisterous fish. I'll beef up the numbers then to add to the schoal affect, I'm hoping that with enough of each time in there and the space available they'll pick with each other and not the smaller fish. I did want a pair of sharks but the common species I've seen are either not much larger or too large for this tank. Another option I thought was a small shoal of Silver Dollars, if they'd tolerate my selection of fish. *EDIT* Yet another fish I've seen that may provide that sole big fella title is a Marbled Headstander, yet even that is only 15cm..I like the Distochodus but that is 35cm and would no doubt eat half the fish if it wanted to.. Still got some thinking to do on that.

As for filters, it could be done.. it'll be a dear do either way but I'll manage - would two filters on at the same time not be far too powerful re-entering the tank and deter some fish from going to end of the tank? Regarding the bogwood.. at the moment the only things I have are 3 resin branch-type basis which will look fab with some planting, loads of intertwined branches and voids for fish to hide in - need to think what else will go with that, if not I'll put one of those in the 65ltr and then having something else in the big tank. It's just so darn exciting haha

 

[Wills]

Ah cool! Silver dollars would be fine again a group of 5 would be needed but they are essentially disk like lawn mowers so if you had any hope of plants forget them Headstanders! I fantastic group of fish that are quite often over looked and again one of my favorites, your tank would be really good for them as it is often best to have about 6 of them to spread aggression among the group I have a trio of Anostomus Ternetzi which is the gold striped ones but the smallest of the three Anostomus group in the hobby and also one of the most peaceful so I can maintain the trio but with the marbled you would need 5 or 6 but that would look awesome in your tank.

Personally I like to group fish in tanks from one region so like asian, african or american as I find it often easier to link fish to each other if you see what I mean. The reason I say that is, is because I can pre judge that the headstanders would work with the tetras and the cories but feel a bit unchartered with the barbs however I know of people that go for it with a big mix and it works fantastic if you see what I mean. Im trying to rack my brain for Asian fish that would work in there and I keep avoiding gourami in my head because I worry about prolonged nipping. Oooo humphead glass fish I bet they could be interesting in that tank and I bet that would look pretty interesting against the headstanders as well.

As for feature fish..... (this list might mess with your stock list a fair bit ) Severums I cant see a 100g tank and not recommend them, you get your Super reds and red spots, heros notatus, heros sp. Belum, hero severus gorgeous fish and my absolute favorite. Then you have your Geophagus like Geophagus Tapajo sp Red Head a group of those would work well in that tank but not with some of the schools you mentioned. Female nicuraguans, Geophagus surinimensis (you wont get these as they are really rare but a lot are similar). Also your stock list at present is robust enough to handle some of the central americans as well like Sajica, yellow convict, Salvini (maybe).

Ill leave it at that for now

Wills

 

[kaivalagi]

I keep hearing about Severums, as I am upsizing tank setup shortly I could take them, but honestly, what is so special about them? Is it their behaviour and compatibility?

@Ferg - looks like you have a lot of options...For what it's worth: I made the decision recently to have a variety of male CA/SA cichlids. I have gone with less aggressive cichlids for the most part with one male firemouth, blue convict, port acara and geo red head tapajos - their heirachy in the tank follows this same order with the firemouth at the top, but only though size They're all still juvi's and it will be interesting how things change when they move into their new bigger 84G tank I say mix it up and get lots of varieties of fish...it's a nice size tank

 

[Wills]

I keep hearing about Severums, as I am upsizing tank setup shortly I could take them, but honestly, what is so special about them? Is it their behaviour and compatibility?

Severums are special because of the interaction, colour, peacefulness, availability, quick growth and passiveness and they can mix with alsorts of fish even when they are big. The ones you see in the shops most commonly are things like the golds, super red and green these are all Heros Efasctisous which get to about 10-12 inches so for these you need 75g minimum. The family that severums are in is called Heros and in there you have 3 more described species, Notatus, Severus and Spirilum. Notatus gets to about the same as the Efasctisous but Severus is a bit smaller maxing at about 8/9 inches and the Spirilum is the smallest but also the rarest because no one goes out specifically to catch it (which is a shame) so it just comes in with wild caught fish occasionally.

Im getting a Severus today for my tank and I cant wait for me they are the holy grail lol. Just have a look in the NW section at Minxyfishes big super red and Markandhisfishs green and gold they are just stunning fish as adult. Ill be getting pics of mine on later and youll see what Im on about

Wills

 

[kaivalagi]

@Wills - Thanks for the info, still waiting for those pics on the other topic

 

[Wills]

no probs they are up now updating my pic thread here as well

 

[yhbae]

Just forget Aqadvisor it is 1000% wrong in this case you are in no way overstocked in a 112 gallon tank. The list you have put up looks maybe 50% stock to me? Also the 1 school per six weeks after cycle is way to cautious no need for it. A good guide is to go for about 2 weeks between adding around 6 fish but in a tank this size with those size fish dont worry about it at all.

One thing that concerns me a bit about that list is that you have quite a lot of nippy fish in there the tigers, red eyes and serpaes all have reputations for fin nipping, though once they are in schools of 10 or so it should cut down. But I would still worry how they would interfere with the other fish particularly the cories and the black widows.

I honestly can not stress enough how wrong aqadvisor was in the case of your big tank, I mean even taking my personal feelings out it is just wrong here. The stock list you have at present is what I would consider for a tank my size which is half the size of yours. And I genuinely think it would be a massive shame to see a tank of this size go to waste.

Just to give you an idea of how you could stock a tank of this size, have a look at a member called Minxyfish s photos of her tanks and her stock lists those are tanks around the same size as yours and just gives you an idea of what is possible, though just to add she is very experienced and there are some fish I would avoid as a beginner but you can kind of see what Im saying here.

Now I understand where your message came from about AqAdvisor.com.

Stocking is highly subjective. Given the same tank setup, one person can go one extreme, while the other may give you the other extreme even purely looking at it from bioload perspective (compatibility is another story altogether). Just to give you an example, for this particular setup, you are saying it is only 50% stocked. I've also had other feedback that says AqAdvisor is reporting too conservative numbers! And this is using similar species and similar tank sizes (tetras, barbs, common species etc). In reality, there is a range that will work and I will admit AqAdvisor will stick to more on the conservative side to be safe.

If this was my stocking plan, I would not put all of those species in a tank that is 50% smaller than this 110g tank. All that in a 55g tank?

 

[Ferg1985]

The 65 litre is coming on Friday

Busy ordering my substrate, test kits etc as I type.. My brother said he will do a water change on his tank on Saturday, so I'll pop over and get his water, take my new filter and give it a good seeing to and let the tank do the rest afterwards. It seems a bit like having a baby (I'd imagine) I did all the re-reading and research but now its time for it to arrive I feel I don't know anything be reet as we say in these parts, can't wait!!!!

 

[Ferg1985]

Tank arrived at 10 this morning then I had to go to work

On the way I went to my brothers and gave my sister in law the filter that came with the tank (as its for a 30l tank) and asked would they put it in their established tank for the night whilst I set up the gravel and substrate in mine. Tomorrow I'll go to pick it up, take as much tank water as I can (along with some squeezes of their filter media) and get some bogwood from the LFS.

Just let me dinner settle and I'll get cleaning my gravel I just wish I could find my camera charger so I can document it all

 

[Ferg1985]

Just sat down now, midnight!!!?! after spending a couple of hours cleaning the sand and getting it in. The good news is I found the camera! So whilst I was cleaning I had it on charge and taken some initial snaps, turned my room into a disaster zone the place is a tip! The bathroom suite is now black parents won't be pleased with that in the morning, but I assure them I'll clean it

I was considering bogwood as a centre piece, but after trying out two of the three rocks I ordered from Aqua Essentials (which were for the main tank when it arrives) I've decided to have them in this one instead. I have NEVER been so excited about looking at two rocks in glass box I'm beyond impressed with the shape of them and the way the light hits all the grooves is beautiful, the camera couldn't pick it up properly because of the flash. Just can't wait to get some water in it tomorrow now

pictures:

goes well with the telly

 

[c-dub]

Can't wait to see it stocked!