So I got this for 30 bucks

[Mstansbury0704]

I bought the tetra 30-60 filter and the bubble stone.
Tank came with lid, light, and stand, 3 cichlids, substrate, Cheap aqueon heater, thermometer, decorations, and a 1000cc air pump. Also one of those siphon style substrate cleaners. It’s currently hooked up to a 10” bubble stone and is working better than I thought it would. The tank came with a filter but it was kind of small and incredibly dirty with slime and had no filter media.

 

[Mstansbury0704]

Here it is with lid and light on. Tank is a little dirty and water is kind of cloudy, however I think that’s cause tank is dirty. I had to scrub the lid with Lysol wipes to get all of the hard water calcium off of it.

 

[howard_hopkinson]

What an absolute bargain. I always seem to have to pay through the nose for most everything lol.

 

[FishGuest5123]

Great deal! What size tank?

 

[Mstansbury0704]

It’s a 29 gallon tank. The only other tank I have is a 5 gallon betta tank that I just did a 50% change in..So I had no real cycled water to put in. So I don’t want to do too much in terms of feeding and stocking. As it’s all 100% new water and the one fish is pretty large. I did use the quick start and stresscoat+. The owner said he was tired of having to clean it every 2 weeks. I’ve never had to scrub my betta fish tank however the pump I have on his is more than enough. I’m hoping this is the case with these guys. As I think this pump is 330gph with dual elements. And the pump he provided was about the cheapest 20 dollar pump they sell at Walmart. The question is what can I put with these cichlids? I would like a golden mystery snail but I think they’d eat his antennas. However would some ghost or cherry shrimp work? I think that’s a staple diet of these fish however lol. I either want something to make maintenance easier or a schooling fish that’s nice on the eyes. Hopefully the cloudiness will reside off this tank without serious trouble.
ALSO as a note please check things like Facebook marketplace. I’d been hunting for a 40 gallon or bigger and have seen bunches of them for super cheap, some with stands for around 50 bucks. However my fiancé seen this one and hopped on it lol. Like I said I didn’t want cichlids really however they came along for the ride lol

 

[Essjay]

Water does not contain any of the bacteria we want. But if you kept the substrate, decor, filter etc damp they will have the bacteria you need.

As for cleaning the tank, a water change of at least 50% should be done every week, and a substrate clean at the same time. The filter media should be washed in old tank water every couple of weeks. The previous owner would probably surprised to find he should have been doing more tank maintenance than he was.

 

[Mstansbury0704]

The filter is new and decor was dry out of tank. Had bigger aquarium gravel which did have a bit of water in it. I’m hoping the haze goes away as I used a an algae scrubber on a bit of the glass with no change. I don’t think it’s the glass that’s dirty it’s just the water is slightly cloudy. Anything I can add to clear up the water? Also any smaller bottom tank cleaners compatible with these fish?

this is the tank. You can see the water is not as clear as my smaller tank. Unsure why

 

[qquake2k]

The water looks clear to me when viewed through the top. For that matter, it looks clear through the glass, too.

 

[Colin_T]

The cichlids in the tank are going to fight when they mature. There is a couple of peaceful ones but also a real agro one in the tank. The 2 peaceful fish are the electric yellow (hiding in the ornament) and a livingstoni or similar (brown and white patchy thing). The agro fish is the zebra on the left side of the tank. The zebra is already dominating the tank as can be seen by the other 2 staying on the right side.

The zebra cichlid needs to be put in a bigger tank with other agro fish.

The livingstoni? will end up too big for the tank it is in. They grow to about 8 inches. However, it will be ok with the electric yellow for a while. But watch the zebra (Pseudotropheus sp).

 

[Mstansbury0704]

The video it’s a bit hard to pick it up. It was kind of a hazy look. I said the previous owner had some water left in the gravel and he gave us the fish in a bucket. Their water smelled like some old pond water...so the haze may have been the unclean water in the bottom harboring some bacteria or something...however the water is actually a bit clearer now that it’s been cycling through the big filter. Unsure if having the bubble stone running has helped any with the haziness too. Also can anyone tell me what kind of fish these are, I’m a newb really and I have no idea what types of cichlids these are...I’m wanting to have some type of Small schooling type fish for some action or something with some color. However I don’t know if 29 gallon tanks are really dimensionally good for small schooling types. As I’m sure they’d rather swim around than swim up and down lol. Anything colorful I can put in here with these fish? Im hoping that there’s something I can do to keep these fish and then have some pretty looking tank mates. I’d rather not take them back, however open to all options as they do hinder a lot of things I’d like to do with the tank

also here is a video I took today, hard to notice after all of the compressing and things for uploading to YouTube, but the water is starting to clear. You can notice is on the small driftwood cave in the middle of the tank doesn’t have that greenish hue to it looking down

 

[Mstansbury0704]

F

The zebra cichlid needs to be put in a bigger tank with other agro fish.

The livingstoni? will end up too big for the tank it is in. They grow to about 8 inches. However, it will be ok with the electric yellow for a while. But watch the zebra (Pseudotropheus sp).

Funny when I was googling the different species I never would’ve thought this was a zebra. It’s a pinkish color with red albino like eyes However now I look up the albino zebra and it looks exactly like it. And yes I’ve started to notice he’s trying to rule the tank, however I’ve seen the electric yellow dart out and take a nip at his fin and put him into hiding for a couple minutes. I actually want to get rid of this pink red eyed fish and see how the other fish behave. If anything Id like to just have a pair of yellows and some schooling dither fish. As right now the yellow is by far the coolest to watch when he comes out.

 

[Mstansbury0704]

Just an update. I just picked up a 55 gallon tank, lid, and two lights, whisper 60(no filters) a box of filter carbon, test strips, algae control, a penn Plax silent air x3 with hose and two 5 inch Bubble bars, unsure of them but they are round and the bubbles are SUPER fine...a bag of cleaning bacteria and a tub of tetramin tropical flakes.
I paid 30 bucks for it all. There is a sad history behind this tank, so I rinsed it out a couple times with the garden hose, I currently have the filter running with a hot water and vinegar solution into my large sink and the air strones and line in the water as well

 

[Mstansbury0704]

Also came with 125 watt eheim jager

 

[FishGuest5123]

Another great fine. What was the sad story? If a fish disease then I would bleach the tank.

 

[Mstansbury0704]

Another great fine. What was the sad story? If a fish disease then I would bleach the tank.

The previous owner had about 14 fish. And his little daughter decided to help clean the tank. Apparently she sprayed some type of bathroom cleaner. I’m going to get some gravel and let that zebra fish be the first one in it