I Have A Tank And It Is Set Up What Now?

[korn16ftl]

my question kind of go's off into a few various directions so i will try to make it as clear as possible


A. i hear and read a lot about the filter medium and taking bacteria culture from one pre existing tank and transfering it to another i think i under stand the point its just like transplanting flowers or somthing along those lines to move the usefull bacteria to a tank with no bacteria, but does it matter what kind of fish are in the tank the medium is removed from for example: i have one 55 GAL tank (never tested PH or any of that before) it contains 7 fish ( 1 Plecostomus, 1 black moor, 1 fancy gold fish of some sort, 1 aquatic frog, 1 giant gold fish about river carp size and 2 large Iridescent Sharks) will there bacteria be different than the fish i want to put in the new habitat such as neon tetras and brightly colored guppies?

would it be possible to simply remove a couple cups of the floor gravel from the 55 GAL habitat and add it to the new habitat (all my habitats contain both the hanging filters and air powered under gravel filters lift tubes and filter heads)

B. i want to know what would make good tank mates for neon tetras and guppies would prefer brightly colored fish as suggestions or albino as well as suggestions for a tank cleaner aside from a Plecostomus that stay relitivly small in size and will still carry the same function as cleaning the tank (possibly a dwarf Plecostomus ) maybe some angel fish im just open to suggestions i suppose for brightly colored fish


C. i once owned an eel (that the frog listed above ate ) it seemed to just hide and do its own thing how ever it was with the above listed fish which were rather larger than it (aside from its length of approximately 8" long) any how on to the point the eel i owned looked similar to this one minus the bright colors was more of the color of my sharks : eel
according to that site THAT particular eel is carnivorous i was curious if this was true for all eels and if so how much of a threat would this pose on my habbitat that i want to achieve or if it were possible to just add them to the tank and thay all just get along


well any how thanks for reading my thread and i would greatly appreciate any feed back provided

P.S would also like a suggestion for a good kit (as well as decently priced) that will test the PH and what not for the tank

 

[ALEXF]

my question kind of go's off into a few various directions so i will try to make it as clear as possible

??? which are ???

 

[Mikaila31]

Above all you must cycle, before adding fish. Their are many pinned topics on this forum about cycling, I suggest that you read them.

 

[korn16ftl]

sorry guys i hit the tab button to start of sections and hit enter posting the thread before i was able to complete the post my bad its all fixed now tho

 

[tenohfive]

A. It doesn't make any difference what the original tank contained, its all about size/volume of waste produced. As for undergravel systems, I have no idea.

B. What size (dimensions and capacity) tank are you planning on getting? I'd suggest you wait 3-4 monthes after you've cycled the tank before you add the tetra's and guppies-they aren't as hardy as they once were, and tend to have a better survival rate in mature tanks. Post up tank size and I'll post some suggestions.

C. No idea about eels, sorry.

 

[korn16ftl]

B. What size (dimensions and capacity) tank are you planning on getting? I'd suggest you wait 3-4 monthes after you've cycled the tank before you add the tetra's and guppies-they aren't as hardy as they once were, and tend to have a better survival rate in mature tanks. Post up tank size and I'll post some suggestions.

not shure of the exact gallon size i fount the tank at a yard sale its a hexagon shapes tank measuring 20" tall and each side measures 8 1/2 wide maybe a google is in order to find out the GAL size id guess roughly between 25 and 30 GAL myself (filled it with a 1 GAL ice cream pale i suppose i should of counted




**** according to aquarium calculator

it is 16.25 US gallons oddly this sounds smaller than i thought it was all tho this may be because i moved all the water by hand lol****

 

[tenohfive]

I'd try to do the maths to work that out but I used a ruler and pythagorus theorum to work out the size of my hexagonal tank, and upon doing a 50% water change found I was waaay off.

If its 25-30G you could consider platies as a first fish, or white cloud mountain minnows (though they're a bit dull in my experience)

Check out this article, and have a look through the fish database-some tetra's are suitable, so have a flick through and see what catches your eye.

http/www.thinkfish.co.uk/article/First_Fish

 

[korn16ftl]

B. I'd suggest you wait 3-4 monthes after you've cycled the tank before you add the tetra's and guppies-they aren't as hardy as they once were, and tend to have a better survival rate in mature tanks.

sounds like its gonna take a bit more than i was hoping all the colorfull fish are rated the same as a guppy acording to that link u posted

any suggestions on the PH, Amonia and what ever else is needed to be tested in a tank i need to find a suitible kit for testing as well as in my budget open to suggestions here

another quick question i thought the carbon filter removes amonia is amonia a key part to maturing the tank cycle and if so should i unplug the carbon filter head to prevent way to low of levels of amonia during the cycle peroid ?

 

[tenohfive]

API freshwater master test kit is the one most people on here use. They aren't cheap, but its worth it when you think that you're stopping your fish dying. Not to mention the financial aspect of not having to buy new fish every 5 minutes.

I'll do some digging and post up a few suitable first fish, though I'd definately recommend platies-very colourful and quite hardy.

another quick question i thought the carbon filter removes amonia is amonia a key part to maturing the tank cycle and if so should i unplug the carbon filter head to prevent way to low of levels of amonia during the cycle peroid ?

Carbon removes chemicals added (such as medication) not ammonia. Its the bacteria that builds up inside your filter that breaks down ammonia.

 

[tenohfive]

Ok, hardy fish:

Platy
Endlers Livebearer
Sailfin Molly
White cloud mountain minnows
Cherry barbs
Checkered barbs
Dwarf golden barbs

Its worth checking pic's out from here (front page-species index) as they tend to be better than the thinkfish ones.

You are slightly restricted by your size, Danio's do well in new tanks but need a long tank as they dart around alot.

 

[rabbut]

A. i hear and read a lot about the filter medium and taking bacteria culture from one pre existing tank and transfering it to another i think i under stand the point its just like transplanting flowers or somthing along those lines to move the usefull bacteria to a tank with no bacteria, but does it matter what kind of fish are in the tank the medium is removed from for example: i have one 55 GAL tank (never tested PH or any of that before) it contains 7 fish ( 1 Plecostomus, 1 black moor, 1 fancy gold fish of some sort, 1 aquatic frog, 1 giant gold fish about river carp size and 2 large Iridescent Sharks) will there bacteria be different than the fish i want to put in the new habitat such as neon tetras and brightly colored guppies?

would it be possible to simply remove a couple cups of the floor gravel from the 55 GAL habitat and add it to the new habitat (all my habitats contain both the hanging filters and air powered under gravel filters lift tubes and filter heads)

First off, to TFF

Yes, moving gravel from the established tank with UGF, and adding it to your new tank also with a UGF will work as well as moving foam or similar media from another filter It wouldn't usualy work, as 99% of benificial bacteria are in the filter, but in your case you are using the gravel as a filter due to the lift tubes and filter plates

Once you move the gravel across, complete a cycle using liquid ammonia before adding a full stocking, or use mebe 3-5 small and hardy fish to complete a cycle. A few cups from the other tank would IMO not be enough to make an imediately obvious difference to the new tank, so I'd use the liquid ammonia option, as it is less risky to the new fish

Have a read of the opening post in [topic="113861"]this thread[/topic] to learn about cycling with ammonia

B. i want to know what would make good tank mates for neon tetras and guppies would prefer brightly colored fish as suggestions or albino as well as suggestions for a tank cleaner aside from a Plecostomus that stay relitivly small in size and will still carry the same function as cleaning the tank (possibly a dwarf Plecostomus ) maybe some angel fish im just open to suggestions i suppose for brightly colored fish

IMO, the tank isn't large enough for angel fish They need a longer tank than yours, as they will get to 8 inches in length, which is a shame as you have a good height for them They also habe been known to predate Neons, as they would be their usual food in the wild

Neons IME are fine for a newly cycled tank, as are guppies, but as with any fish, they will do better once it has matured. You will likelybe limited to these and a small pleco and mebe some corries due to the size of the tank. Bebe think about;

10 neons
2 male guppies
either 4 female guppies or a Bristle nose/clown pleco
6 albin corries

That would bering you to fully stocked in a 25g IMO, especially considering its taller than it is wide or long. This will reduce the number of fish you can put in, as there is less surface area for gas exchange

C. i once owned an eel (that the frog listed above ate ) it seemed to just hide and do its own thing how ever it was with the above listed fish which were rather larger than it (aside from its length of approximately 8" long) any how on to the point the eel i owned looked similar to this one minus the bright colors was more of the color of my sharks : eel
according to that site THAT particular eel is carnivorous i was curious if this was true for all eels and if so how much of a threat would this pose on my habbitat that i want to achieve or if it were possible to just add them to the tank and thay all just get along


well any how thanks for reading my thread and i would greatly appreciate any feed back provided

P.S would also like a suggestion for a good kit (as well as decently priced) that will test the PH and what not for the tank

Most eels are preditory that I'm aware of, and will get too large for your new tank. I'd leave them out. I don't know of any the grow to less than a foot in length...

I use the Tetra liquid test kits. They are expencive compaired to other brands, but the only kit available to me... API are commonly recomended

Issues with the existing tank;

The ID sharks are tropical fish that grow to arround 18 inches. They also need a group of 6, so to keep these you would need a 300-500g tank realy The walls would also need to be acrilic or fibre glass, as normal and even reinforced glass can be broken by these fish swimming into a pane of glass I'd look to re-home them.

Do you know the type of frog you have? some are preditory, and thus a risk to the other fish. Others are realy nicley behaved also, but untill we know the type, you should be a bit caurtions of it

The Pleco may also need to be moved out, depending on the dimentions of the existing tank

HTH, and all the best
Rabbut

 

[aquila]

Alarm bells are ringing for me about the Iridescent Sharks (I am going to disagree with Rabbut on their size, as they grow to far larger than 18 inches), but on all other counts I suggest following his/her advice.

 

[korn16ftl]

The ID sharks are tropical fish that grow to arround 18 inches. They also need a group of 6, so to keep these you would need a 300-500g tank realy The walls would also need to be acrilic or fibre glass, as normal and even reinforced glass can be broken by these fish swimming into a pane of glass I'd look to re-home them.

y would tha need all that for re enforced glass and what not thay are far from agressive and y a group of 6 as a group of 2 thay seem to be fine (also note these sharks were bought from meijer so im not exactly shure of there species i just did a google pic search to find what looks like my fish) that is insane tho y rehouse fish when thay seem to b perffectly happy and fine where thay are?

IMO, the tank isn't large enough for angel fish sad1.gif They need a longer tank than yours, as they will get to 8 inches in length, which is a shame as you have a good height for them yes.gif They also habe been known to predate Neons, as they would be their usual food in the wild

i think an angel fish might possibly work tho cuz once thay grow to be too large for the tank y couldnt i put them in the 55 GAL tank (the dimensions for the 55 GAL tank are as follows: 48 X 12 1/2 X 21)

 

[rabbut]

Mixing trops and cold water spicies is far from ideal, and that would be what you are doing by moving the angel in with the goldies...

The sharks are skittish, and thus are prone to swimming into the walls of the tank when startled, hence why they are know to literally swim through pains of glass In a group of less then 6 they will be even more jumpy and thus more pone to injoring themselves by swimming into a tank...

They may be fine for the moment, but long-term they will not. The long and short is that your 55g is inappropriate, even for two alone at full size they wouldn't be able to turn arround or streach out

Angels are nippy when adult, so they my also have a go at fan-tailed goldies if moved out...

 

[korn16ftl]

Mixing trops and cold water spicies is far from ideal, and that would be what you are doing by moving the angel in with the goldies...

The sharks are skittish, and thus are prone to swimming into the walls of the tank when startled, hence why they are know to literally swim through pains of glass In a group of less then 6 they will be even more jumpy and thus more pone to injoring themselves by swimming into a tank...

They may be fine for the moment, but long-term they will not. The long and short is that your 55g is inappropriate, even for two alone at full size they wouldn't be able to turn arround or streach out

Angels are nippy when adult, so they my also have a go at fan-tailed goldies if moved out...

ya ok i can understand the mixinng of tropical and cold water fish as well as not ideal conditions how ever these harks have ben paired w/ these particular fish since ive had them home (about 3 yrs now) it also seems to me that the sharks dont spook as easily as u make it seem how ever my tanks are normally rather bare from hiding spaces (the new tank is not how ever) coud this have made a diffrence in there behavior and reactions (in refference to the skiddish statment) the only tim thay truly seem to be spooked is if i put my hand in the tank (recently moved gravel from one tank to another to cycle)

note by bare i mean no background and few mediun decorations these fish are big and constantly destroy the scenery there for i see no sence in having much how ever it could use a back ground lol