My First 4ft Tropical Fish Tank

[HoZy]

Hey all I'm new to the site some of you may know my brother or his old tanks he is Cossack1977, Well for my birthday I've scored his old 4ft Jebo R3126 so I've been working flat out on it with help from Cossack1977

I started with a 20kg bag of gravel as well as 20kg of Richgrow substrate for the plants.

The tank consists of:
Lighting-
*2 Power-Glo
*1 Life-Glo

Filter setup-
*Internal 3 stage trickle filter

Plants-
*7 Val
*2 Broad Leafed Amazon Swords
*4 Green Millfoil Fern
*2 Radican Swords

Fish-
*40 Neon Tetra
*4 Koi Angels
*4 Lace Pearl Gouramis
*2 Silver Sharks
NEW
*2 Albino Sharks
*2 Rainbow Sharks
*5 Bristlenose
*5 Spotted/Marble Coreys

There is approx 8 pieces of rock all approx 4-5kg each as well as there is 4 pieces of driftwood.


I WILL GET BETTER PICTURES THROUGH THE WEEK WHEN I BORROW COSSACK1977'S DIGITAL CAM.

Now here are some pictures for all of you, Sorry for the quality Done from my mobile.



Ok well thanks for looking, Will have more pics up later today of the new additions... Off to the aquarium lol

Cheers
MaT

 

[Ludwig Venter]

Yes nice progressive picture (evolution) story there..... I've known old shoes to be "hand me downs" from big brothers.... now tanks???.... Wish I had a brother like that.

 

[blodhi74]

Looking good.

 

[HoZy]

Thanks for the comments, Just bought some more for the tank.

*2 rainbow sharks
*2 albino sharks
*5 bristlenose
*5 marble/spotted coreys

hehehe Will get pics once settled in.

CHeers
MaT

 

[shelaghfishface]

gee wizz, thats an awful lot of fish, some very large fish.. what the rate of turnover of the filter? and i would expect to lose the neons to the sharks,not sure about all the sharks being compatible either,i have a feeling you may need to retrn some fish,was the filter already cycled?? maybe start a thread in tropical discussion, there the experts will advise,

shelagh xxx

 

[Cossack1977]

hey all,
im slowly coming back. been out of the game for about 2 years.
Gave my brother my 4ft Jebo tank and have spent the last week and a bit setting it up.
Finished all the aquascapping on it yesterday.
Hope you all like it. Um yeah i sort have financed all the plants and fish and lets say the rock was a steel.

As for me yes im getting back in the game. Ive still got my 6ft in storage which ill pull out soon but ive got a 8x2x2 tank with a 5x2x2 sump on its way Going African cichlids. Cant wait. My 6ft tank when it comes out of storage will be turned into another planted tank.

gee wizz, thats an awful lot of fish, some very large fish.. what the rate of turnover of the filter? and i would expect to lose the neons to the sharks,not sure about all the sharks being compatible either,i have a feeling you may need to retrn some fish,was the filter already cycled?? maybe start a thread in tropical discussion, there the experts will advise,

shelagh xxx

really wouldnt worry about the sharks. this is nearly an exact mirror of how i had the tank set up 2.5 years ago. Pump is being changed to a higher flow which will be doing 8 turns an hr but as soon as my bro has some money his buying me 2 eheim thermofilters off me.

never had an issue losing neons to sharks in the past.

Cycle lets just say fishless cycle is the only way

Ive always gone against the mainstream as alot of people only say what theyve read and never tried. Ive always ran my tanks different to the norm and as long as the tank is aquascaped properly ive never had an issue with aggression in any fish

 

[paul_219]

Very nice setup wonderful done.

 

[Piltdownpaul]

Tank looks very nice unfortunately you didnt set it up correctly. It should have arrived at my house 1st!!!!

 

[HoZy]

Thanks for the posts guys, well the tanks been up an running for 6days with fish & before that it was up an running for a week... with no fish & just adding ammonia to get bacteria built up...

Ammonia levels are gradually dropping & not getting spikes, ammonia is at .5 tonight & ph 7. Fish are getting along great... The largest gourami has taken control of the tank which is ammusing aswell..

Cheers
MaT

 

[Cossack1977]

well my bro's tank is now looking awesome. ill go over in the next few days and take some decent pics on my camera.
deaths have been minimal and all fish are showing very good signs of health.
water is crystal clear.
The plants. wow what do i say. they've been trimmed back more then a few times. they love the tank and go wild any opportunity they get.
very awesome planted tank.

What about me. well the chichild tank didnt happen. But hey iv'e now got an 8ft great barrier reef marine tank sitting in my dinning room.
Pics and my post soon to come

 

[PRW1988]

Thanks for the comments, Just bought some more for the tank.

*2 rainbow sharks
*2 albino sharks
*5 bristlenose
*5 marble/spotted coreys

hehehe Will get pics once settled in.

CHeers
MaT

So you know, rainbow sharks and albino sharks share the same agression as red tailed black sharks, so I wouldn't recommend them with the neons. Also, the Silver sharks, do you mean Bala/tri color sharks? If so these are way too big for your tank and they should also be in schools of no less than 3.

 

[Cossack1977]

Thanks for the comments, Just bought some more for the tank.

*2 rainbow sharks
*2 albino sharks
*5 bristlenose
*5 marble/spotted coreys

hehehe Will get pics once settled in.

CHeers
MaT

So you know, rainbow sharks and albino sharks share the same agression as red tailed black sharks, so I wouldn't recommend them with the neons. Also, the Silver sharks, do you mean Bala/tri color sharks? If so these are way too big for your tank and they should also be in schools of no less than 3.

Is this something you have read or experienced. Rainbow sharks show nowhere near the same aggression as red tailed black sharks.Never have and never will. As i have kept rainbows for over 6 years and have never seen that type of aggression. Even though rainbows are omnivoures they do prefer vegetable matter. As for the silver tailed sharks once again i have kept them in quantities of 1 to 5 and they have been healthy and eating the entire time. No casualties have ever been seen in my tanks. If you have a properly set up and aquascaped tank you can nearly keep any fish with another as long as you have desinged your tank with many boundaries and plants. This is from first hand experience no ready information on the net. I have kept 2 male bettas with dwarf gouramis and tetras in a 4ft tank for over 2 years with no aggression or deaths. Once again the tank was aquascaped to provide enough boundaries and hidding areas that everyone felt comfortable. Everyone was fully colored up. Devoured food constantly. Even some breeding from the dwarf gouramis and the brisstlenose occured so i take it there was no stress as well.
So once again. If you set up your tank correctly. Aquascape it correctly, with alot of live plants, driftwood and rock you should nearly everytime not have a problem.