New Tank, Need Advice..

[swazoid]

Many of my friends have very fancy tanks in their houses and i complement them.
I am jealous however and have decided to start up a tank myself
they all have large 100+ gallon tanks with salt water coral and fish

With alot of research i have found that the fish i would like to buy are pirahnas!
fresh water i would imagine is easier to maintain than salt?

When talking to the guy at a pet store near my house he said he would give me
a deal on a 75 gallon tank with 2 flourencent lights and a cover

Questions: 1.To "cycle" my tank can i just add Biozyme and heat up the tank?
2. How many pirahnas could i hold in this size tank?
3. What conditions in the tank are needed to add wood and have live plants and grass grow

 

[Thirdfloor]

Read This Thread

 

[Luketendo]

You could get 4 Red Bellys in that tank.

 

[loachman]

Questions: 1.To "cycle" my tank can i just add Biozyme and heat up the tank?

Read the sticky. You'll need to cultivate a bacteria colony in the tank to breakdown fish wastes. It'll take 2-3 weeks in most cases.

Most all of the products in a bottle are junk.

If any of your friends have freshwater tanks, you can speed this up immensely. Get some of their filter material, keep it soaked in tank water then bring it home and add all the "crap" to your tank. Nearly Insta-cycle. You still should check the tank like you were doing a fishless cycle, but it'll go from start to finish in MUCH less time.

2. How many pirahnas could i hold in this size tank?

not up on piranhas myself. Likely on a few
.

3. What conditions in the tank are needed to add wood and have live plants and grass grow

Nothing for wood, just be sure it's "clean." Most all wood will stain your tank brownish for a while. It's perfectly safe for the fish and potentially benefiical to amazonian fish like piranhas.

Plants really depend on which types, elodea, vals, java ferns and moss typically will grow in about anything. Crypts and swords grow in anything that has nutrients in the substrate (you can just add some root tabs near them for the easy way). Most others require more equipment and care.

 

[zerosum]

get some nurafin CYCLE and aqua plus, let it run with substrate in it for about 10 days before adding fish (do all your test first of course, ph, ammonia etc)
4-6 piranha for a 75 gal
for plants you can set up a co2 system if you want healthier plants and to reduce the risk of them dying, but piranha tend to tear up plants
Good luck!