A nextdoor neighbor of mine recently moved and left me with a 36 gallon bow front tank. I was able to move it into my house with no problem. I do not know where to go from here. Currently there are about 12 neon tetras and 2 of the same type of what he thinks are african chiclids. where do i go from here? I would like to add new fish and was wondering what you guys thought. I am fairly new to the hobby and dont know much. It currenty has a canister filter a heater substrat driftwood and some rocks and fake plants. He told me the filter is about 5 years old. does this need to be replaced or can i just change out the insides. any help would be awesome.
New To The Hobby
- Thread starter bkny27
- Start date
jmkgreen
Fishaholic
Welcome 
The filter cleans the water as you might have already guessed. It contains sponges or other media that bacteria grows on.
Basically:
1. Fish waste / uneaten food gives off ammonia. Toxic to fish.
2. Filter contains bacteria that consumes ammonia but releases nitrites instead. Nitrites are also toxic to fish
3. Filter contains a second set of bacteria that consumes nitrites and releases nitrates which is harmless.
If you don't have one already buy yourself a decent freshwater test kit such as the API liquid one - if you got given one check it's under a year old else you may get false readings. You're aiming for zero ammonia, zero nitrites and nitrates in the region 10-60ppm.
Every so often you need to change part of the water, I'd suggest 10-20% each time. When you refill it is important to use some de-chlorinator as the chlorine can kill the good bacteria. Make sure it's room temperature too.
As and when your filter slows the water flow down, take care to clean the sponges/whatever in old tank water - not under the tap (remember chlorine kills).
That's the chores over with, and there's loads of additional information on this forum.
As to the fish, did you have anything in mind? Bare in mind those african cichlids can get territorial and aggressive. Stick a photo of the fish up and we can check what they are and admire the tank!
The filter cleans the water as you might have already guessed. It contains sponges or other media that bacteria grows on.
Basically:
1. Fish waste / uneaten food gives off ammonia. Toxic to fish.
2. Filter contains bacteria that consumes ammonia but releases nitrites instead. Nitrites are also toxic to fish
3. Filter contains a second set of bacteria that consumes nitrites and releases nitrates which is harmless.
If you don't have one already buy yourself a decent freshwater test kit such as the API liquid one - if you got given one check it's under a year old else you may get false readings. You're aiming for zero ammonia, zero nitrites and nitrates in the region 10-60ppm.
Every so often you need to change part of the water, I'd suggest 10-20% each time. When you refill it is important to use some de-chlorinator as the chlorine can kill the good bacteria. Make sure it's room temperature too.
As and when your filter slows the water flow down, take care to clean the sponges/whatever in old tank water - not under the tap (remember chlorine kills).
That's the chores over with, and there's loads of additional information on this forum.
As to the fish, did you have anything in mind? Bare in mind those african cichlids can get territorial and aggressive. Stick a photo of the fish up and we can check what they are and admire the tank!
do you think the filter will still be good its a ehfrim conister filter i think is how it is spelled. is there any way to check. its currently set up should there be a certain amount of pressure that the filtered watter is coming out? i dont want to go and spend 100 bucks on a new one if this on is currently fine.
jmkgreen
Fishaholic
Eheim canister? They are the top brand at least in Europe. Do you know the model?
I doubt the filter itself needs replacing - they last years. Some people have the original ranges at 20 years and counting!
No, the area to focus on is keeping the media inside unclogged. This should be a periodical exercise of rinsing them in a bucket full of old tank water. The white poly pad can be cleaned under the tap or replaced as necessary. Don't worry about cleaning untiil you find very little water coming out though!
Definitely get the test kit though so you can get used to the readings from your tank and take any corrective measures before you get into trouble. Charterhouse Aquatics do the API one very cheaply indeed.
I doubt the filter itself needs replacing - they last years. Some people have the original ranges at 20 years and counting!
No, the area to focus on is keeping the media inside unclogged. This should be a periodical exercise of rinsing them in a bucket full of old tank water. The white poly pad can be cleaned under the tap or replaced as necessary. Don't worry about cleaning untiil you find very little water coming out though!
Definitely get the test kit though so you can get used to the readings from your tank and take any corrective measures before you get into trouble. Charterhouse Aquatics do the API one very cheaply indeed.
waterdrop
Enthusiastic "Re-Beginner"
Yes, agree with all the good advice JMK has been giving.
Another reason it will be good to obtain the good test kit and post up some measurements of the tank water and your tap water will be that then the members can assess whether there's any threat of "Old Tank Syndome." Whenever one receives a mature tank from another party, there is an element of the unknown (even if you think you know the person well I guess) about what their actual tank maintenance habits might have been. To maintain the water chemistry of an aquarium in excellent shape, assuming a fairly average tank as described here, one would have needed to ideally perform weekly deep gravel cleans and water changes. This is not too hard to do but many people find that this activity gets neglected as they get busy on weekends and the tank is not as new and exciting as it once was.
If the regular significantly sized water changes begin to not be performed as often as needed, there are hundreds of trace metals and organic molecules that very, very slowly will being to be more concentrated in the fixed volume of water (when water evaporates, it doesn't take these non-water substances with it!) The process is so slow that the fish will acclimate themselves to living in these greater concentrations of various chemicals, as if its a slow change, they can handle it.
So along you come as the new owner all set to "clean up" the nice bowfront and one of the first pieces of advice is about how nice big water changes are good for fish! (Which is quite true, but that's given a properly maintained tank whose water chem is very similar to the tap water.) You make a big water change and Bam! all the fish die. That's old tank syndrome.
OK, so for now, keep any water changes small, like the 10% JMK mentioned and post up those first results from your new kit (many of us like and use the API Freshwater Master Test Kit.) The members will pay particular attention to the API nitrate(NO3) result in this case and it needs to have -all- the shaking stopwatch times followed, perhaps even with slightly longer times of shaking if anything! If the Nitrates are quite high, particularly if they are a lot higher than your tap water (since the tank came from a nearby neighbor we'll assume the water source is nearly identical..) then we might have some concern about OTS and want the water changing regime to be placed on a "very slowly ramped up" schedule. If the nitrates are not so out of line then we can dispense with this worry, its important to rule it out but its usually only a small chance that things would be as bad as all this description makes it sound!
~~waterdrop~~
Another reason it will be good to obtain the good test kit and post up some measurements of the tank water and your tap water will be that then the members can assess whether there's any threat of "Old Tank Syndome." Whenever one receives a mature tank from another party, there is an element of the unknown (even if you think you know the person well I guess) about what their actual tank maintenance habits might have been. To maintain the water chemistry of an aquarium in excellent shape, assuming a fairly average tank as described here, one would have needed to ideally perform weekly deep gravel cleans and water changes. This is not too hard to do but many people find that this activity gets neglected as they get busy on weekends and the tank is not as new and exciting as it once was.
If the regular significantly sized water changes begin to not be performed as often as needed, there are hundreds of trace metals and organic molecules that very, very slowly will being to be more concentrated in the fixed volume of water (when water evaporates, it doesn't take these non-water substances with it!) The process is so slow that the fish will acclimate themselves to living in these greater concentrations of various chemicals, as if its a slow change, they can handle it.
So along you come as the new owner all set to "clean up" the nice bowfront and one of the first pieces of advice is about how nice big water changes are good for fish! (Which is quite true, but that's given a properly maintained tank whose water chem is very similar to the tap water.) You make a big water change and Bam! all the fish die. That's old tank syndrome.
OK, so for now, keep any water changes small, like the 10% JMK mentioned and post up those first results from your new kit (many of us like and use the API Freshwater Master Test Kit.) The members will pay particular attention to the API nitrate(NO3) result in this case and it needs to have -all- the shaking stopwatch times followed, perhaps even with slightly longer times of shaking if anything! If the Nitrates are quite high, particularly if they are a lot higher than your tap water (since the tank came from a nearby neighbor we'll assume the water source is nearly identical..) then we might have some concern about OTS and want the water changing regime to be placed on a "very slowly ramped up" schedule. If the nitrates are not so out of line then we can dispense with this worry, its important to rule it out but its usually only a small chance that things would be as bad as all this description makes it sound!
~~waterdrop~~
jmkgreen
Fishaholic
We really should ask - when you moved the tank did you remove all the old water then set it up with completely fresh water from the tap? Or did you transfer some or all of the old water?
When you post your test results include all of them - pH (high or normal whichever registers a close match), Ammonia, Nitritres and Nitrates. Do this both for the tank water and your tap water.
When you post your test results include all of them - pH (high or normal whichever registers a close match), Ammonia, Nitritres and Nitrates. Do this both for the tank water and your tap water.
he did give me a test kit but i think it is old as well. i will take samples with this test kit untill i am able to go out and get one tommorrow and ill post the results.
okay so the old test kit was no good and i have yet to been able to get a new one but what would be a good stock list for this tank. i would like a school of fish and then i would like a centerpiece fish maybe a pair of them. i would love active fish any suggestions.
okay so today i did a 25% water changed and cleaned all the glass sides except for the back. I also ordered a API Freshwater Master Test Kit which will be delivered in 2-3 days. i will post results once i get them and you guys will be able to further help me. thanks for your time.
jmkgreen
Fishaholic
GBRs are ok - you'll want to monitor your tank tests for a few days before adding them in case there are problems - cichlids can be pretty vulnerable to poor water conditions.
waterdrop
Enthusiastic "Re-Beginner"
yes, GBRs are actually -quite- sensitive to the water I believe...
yea i do not plan on adding fish for another couple of weeks want to make sure the filter is still functioning properly and want to run test for awhile. i currenty have a school of 12 neons what else would go well with the neons? maybe a better centerpiece fish then the GBRS?
waterdrop
Enthusiastic "Re-Beginner"
What happened to the two african cichlids you mentioned in the first post, are they still in there? If so we need to identify them. Do you have any idea of the age of the overall setup? I know you said the former owner said the filter was 5 years old but do we know if he just acquired it new or if that meant this particular setup with the current fish was 5 years old?
Ideally you'd like to combine knowing the history with the readings you get when you get your kit to determine the extent to which the setup is ready to have more fish introduced. So far, it at least seems on the surface of it that its a mature tank and that, depending on the size of those other two mystery fish, it should still have plenty of extra stocking capacity. We don't know the baseline tap and tank water stats yet though and that's another factor in choosing fish.
~~waterdrop~~
Ideally you'd like to combine knowing the history with the readings you get when you get your kit to determine the extent to which the setup is ready to have more fish introduced. So far, it at least seems on the surface of it that its a mature tank and that, depending on the size of those other two mystery fish, it should still have plenty of extra stocking capacity. We don't know the baseline tap and tank water stats yet though and that's another factor in choosing fish.
~~waterdrop~~
Okay he has had the whole setup for 5 years and the current setup has been running for 3 years and the current fish have been in there for around 2 years. The api test kit was shipped and i should be able to give readings tommorrow or friday. i got the best pic of the two cichlids and i will attemt to post it now.
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