I'm Hooked - Here's My First Tropical Tank

[bigpee]

Hi - I'm new to this forum and just thought I'd share the startings of my first tropical tank with you. It started a few months back when I bought a biOrb baby (15l) on a bit of a whim. I'd always liked the idea of fish keeping but had been sceptical about the amount of work required. At the time the baby biOrb seemed perfect. I followed all the instructions about leaving the water a week and then adding fish slowly. One week later I bought two American Flag fish which have been doing very well since. A week later I got 5 danios to keep them company.

Sadly the tank is just too small for my taste - I really wanted to get something bigger so I could have room for lots of plants and shoals of fish. And that brings me to my new tank. Compared to the biOrb it's much bigger although I know I can go even larger! I bought I Juwel Rekord 800 which holds up to 110l. Mine has about 95 - 100 l though due to gravel taking up the rest of the space. It's only been up and running today so all there is is 8 plants, a rock, a log and some gravel. In a week I shall be transfering my flag fish and if they survive the danios will follow a week later. After that hopefully the tank will be nicely cycled and I'll get my first shoal. Ultimately I am looking to at least double the plants and go for about 50 small fish. Does this sound about right? I am thinking of a shoal of tetras, one of guppies, another of barbs and lastly some bottom feeders.

Here's some snaps of the tank coming together. All the gravel was washed and the log boiled and soaked so hopefully the water'll stay nice and clear. That said I've managed to get oily patches on the surface already. I reckon this is from having my arms in and out of the tank so I'll be more careful in future. If anyone has any pointers or good ideas for plants / fish / decorations I'd love to hear them. This is all new to me and I've only scratched the surface so far.

 

[weejen]

hi and welcome.
if you are moving fish you need to move some mature media to. which in a biorb is gravel i think someone will confirm that for me tho. as leaving a tank for a week is not cycling there is a pinned topic on cycling here is the link
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=175355

its alot to take in as a beginer but read it a couple of times and ppl on here will be more than willing to help with any advce along the way. get your self a good liquid test kit alot of ppl on here use the api master liquid teat kit (myself included) and you can get it on ebay. as it tests for ammonia and nitrite which are poisionous for fish.

can i ask how long your biorb has been running?

 

[bigpee]

My biOrb's been going several months now. I was thinking of bring the biorb gravel across for asthetic values anyway so good to know it will also help.

Looks like I'll have to do a bit of reading about cycles and when to bring my fish across. I'm normally the impatient type but I'm showing restraint at the moment as I'd hate to harm my fish.

 

[weejen]

well done it is hard to hold off moving or getting fish but it is worth it in the end when fish live a long and happy life.

 

[arobinson1984]

Also once your tank is fully cycled (6-8 weeks) I think 50 fish will be too many for that size tank.

Many of the tetras such as neons grow to 1 - 1.5" at adult size and you should go by the general guideline of 1" of fish per gallon of water. Your tank is 22 UK gallons or 26 US gallons so you'd be looking around 25" worth of fish.

Also consider that many of the tetra family, neons especially need a more mature tank of at least 6 months old.

Andy

 

[Davo86]

My biOrb's been going several months now. I was thinking of bring the biorb gravel across for asthetic values anyway so good to know it will also help.

Looks like I'll have to do a bit of reading about cycles and when to bring my fish across. I'm normally the impatient type but I'm showing restraint at the moment as I'd hate to harm my fish.

Hi, you can put the biorb sponge into the new tank somewhere in or around the filter, this way you can directly move all of the fish straight over.

Also i'm glad to see that you are upgrading as tbh you were incredibly overstocked in the baby biorb which in reality isn't suitable for much more than a few shrimp.

In the new tank you should stick to around 33" of fish for the first 6 months and then if everything remains fine you should be able to increase this to 50"

 

[waterdrop]

agree with Andy and weegen -wd-

 

[bigpee]

I'm interested to hear I can move my fish straight over if I bring the filter and medium over. Is this definately going to be ok as I'd hate to harm the fish. The water was treated with tap conditioner (the api stress coat) and I also added some api stress zyme.

 

[weejen]

your filter just now will be coping with the fish u have so moving it is no prob cause the fish will still produce the same ammount of waste that filter is used to.

 

[Davo86]

I'm interested to hear I can move my fish straight over if I bring the filter and medium over. Is this definately going to be ok as I'd hate to harm the fish. The water was treated with tap conditioner (the api stress coat) and I also added some api stress zyme.

You may get a small spike but if your moving the foam media from the filter on top of the ceramic media that you have already stated you are adding then the fish should be fine to add, Just don't add anymore for at least the next two weeks

Make sure you have a test kit though so you can monitor the stats for the first 48 hours or so after the move,


I should also add that the two species you currently own are actually Sub-tropical species, and require cooler temps of between 18-22C

 

[bigpee]

Thanks for all the advice so far - very helpful.

In relation to my fish being sub-tropical I had thought that (currently being kept at around 20C) but my local shop seemed to think they'd be ok. I'm going to keep a very close eye on them. API master test kit on order now - ebay was definately the place to go there. Half the price of the shop!

 

[ChiNA MaN]

for one i dont recommend transfering fish into a tank that has only been up and running for 3 weeks so wait for about 5-6 weeks atleast and let the tank finish its cycle, and second 50 fish is way to much for 90-100l so lower the count a bit and good luck =)

 

[bigpee]

Thanks again for all the advice. I'm afraid my impatience got the better of me and I transferred over my American Flag Fish and Danios after about a week. I did also transfer over all my old media and filter sponge and tested regularly. Thankfully my fish seem to have thrived and love their new tank (and so they should - it's 7 times larger than their old one ).

Since then I have added a lot more plants and a week ago I added 5 Tiger Barbs. From here and books I see they have a bit of a reputation as fin nippers. I am pleased to report mine are very well behaved and stick together like glue. My male flag fish is a little bit of a bully from time to time though but most of my fish seem to ignore him.

Today I invested in two sucking loaches to help keep the glass clean on the inside. On top of this I got a co2 delivery system for my plants and a timer switch for the lights. The CO2 is nothing fancy - just a can system but hopefully it'll keep my plants going.

I've been carrying out weekly 15% water changes and here are my current stats:

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5 mg/l
pH - 8.1
Temp - 24.5

The only real worry I can see there is the pH - is this something I should worry about and lower or seeing as everything is very happy shall I leave alone?

Lastly after all the above advice and looking at my tank I can see that 50 fish is far far too much. Currently I have 2 American Flag fish, 2 albino danios, 3 zebra danios, 5 tiger barbs and 2 sucking loaches making a total of 14 small fish. I'm thinking a shoal of 10 tetras (not sure which ones yet) and I'm done. (Probably going in in a month. I know I should wait longer and will try my best .) Does this sound about right?

 

[waterdrop]

No, you shouldn't need to worry about a pH of 8.1 as your happy fish are telling you more than that number anyway! As for stocking, making a tank to "busy" is a way to make it less pretty sometimes.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Curiosity101]

Just a thought but do you have the actual name of the 'sucking loaches' that you have bought? A picture of them would be very good as sadly many 'sucking loaches' are actually evil little killing machines as they grow. Especially in a tank that size with 2 of them.
Do they look like

or