Starting An Aquariam..need Help

[clowloachguy]

Well i have pretty much decided i'm going to buy a fairly large aquariam i'm not really positive about the size i need to sell my old tv etc etc to make room and then go shop around for one, i've decided i'd like to keep clown loach as they're my favourite fish and because they are fairly expensive i want to make sure i dont make any nooby errors that i'm other wise likely to make..
i have the following equipment already :
Filter
Sand
Ornament
plants (fake)
and heater.

i would like to know if i have anything missing from that list, and things such as :
Amonia level?
ph level?
nitrate level?
nitrite level?
Temp?
water change regieme?
and things like that which would mean that i am able to keep them well .. and i have probly missed other important things from that list..
if anyone could advise me i would be very greatful thanks in advance

 

[Truck]

your filter and heater are deemed useless until you know what size tank you want, i would go for a 5+foot tank if you want clown loaches.

 

[clowloachguy]

your filter and heater are deemed useless until you know what size tank you want, i would go for a 5+foot tank if you want clown loaches.

uhm my filter says 12-30 US gallon? how many in 5 foot ? lol

 

[Truck]

well most 5ft tanks are in the 100US gallons plus, so you will need a bigger filter, or more of them

 

[BobbyBray]

Pretty much everything you've got listed is completely dependent on the size of your tank. ie The size of your heater / filter, as well as the amount of sand / gravel and plants that you've got. Do some shopping for tanks to see what you can afford, and of course will still be adequate for clown loaches. Also be sure to get yourself a good water testing kit, preferably a liquid one that gives you specific number amounts rather than some of the 'instant' stick kinds.

Check this website out for more information on those clown loaches

 

[clowloachguy]

Amonia level?
ph level?
nitrate level?
nitrite level?
Temp?
water change regieme?

do those depend on the size of the tank also?

and i'm going to look for a 4-5 foot tank

 

[BobbyBray]

Amonia level?
ph level?
nitrate level?
nitrite level?
Temp?
water change regieme?

do those depend on the size of the tank also?

and i'm going to look for a 4-5 foot tank

No it doesn't depend on the size of the tank. Amonia and nitrite should be at zero in your tank. Nitrate should also be near zero, but its not nearly as lethal and can be removed by your weekly water changes. The temp isn't dependent on your tank so much as the particular fish you're going to house, though most tropical fish prefer the 76º-80º F range from what I've seen. pH is the same, but you'll want to check the pH level of your tap water and see what you're starting with. If its drastically different from what your clown loaches like, there are ways to change it, but I've read that it can get tricky, so you'll need to be careful with that.

Check these out if you haven't already:
Beginner's Resource Center
Tank Maintenance
Step by Step Guide to Tank Setup

 

[clowloachguy]

hmm ok and i hear that chlorine isnt a good thing to have either because it kills the good bacteria..but i also heard its tricky to dechlorinate?

 

[waterdrop]

The short answer is that "dechlorination" is not tricky, you simply buy a modern conditioner product and read the instructions, pour the right amount into the tap water and it instantly takes care of the chlorine for you. For basics, that's all you need to know (in other words try to ignore my long stuff below this, lol).


The long answer includes more bits of lore that hobbyists like to know. Public water distributions ("tap water") virtually always have chlorine or chloramine added to kill and deter bacteria in the pipes. Its meant to control the bacteria just during its time in the pipes and a short time thereafter, not all that long after. Chlorine is naturally a gas and will escape the water if it is left in an open container overnight. Chloramine is chlorine mixed with ammonia and it will persist in the water indefinately, until the water evaporates. You can contact your water authority and find out which method they use, but use of chloramines is getting much more the common one and if you don't know, you should always use a conditioner product. In fact, most aquarists use a good conditioner product because its cheap insurance and because it often does other good things like binding up trace metals and detoxifying ammonia for a while.

The answer to why you use it is indeed because you don't want the chlorine/chloramine to kill your precious bacteria. With a good tank setup procedure, you've spent one or two months sometimes growing full size colonies of Nitrosomonas and Nitrospira (or hopefully less time if the seeding from your mature media has taken successfully!) Another thing that happens sometimes is that water authorities will "toss in extra treatments" and the chlorine/chloramine will be too strong for a brief period. So there are some members who will dose their conditioner at 1.5 times or even 2 times the recommended amount (only while they are in a cycling situation usually and the colonies are still more fragile) in order to cover this problem. If you decide to do that, I'd recommend you not go over the 2x dosing, because higher than that is supposed to slow Nitrospira growth rates. I'd also recommend, for a 200g, that you study the dosing instructions on the backs of the "Pond Conditioners" and figure out which brand works out cheapest, as this will be your lowest cost, especially as compared to the littler bottles meant for aquariums and its the same stuff of course.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[clowloachguy]

lol thanks some confusin stuff there lol i think i'm going to go for some fish that are slightly easier to keep aka guppies and that

 

[waterdrop]

Didn't mean to confuse you clownloach, if the budget's not super tight you could just go with a large bottle of "Prime" and follow the intructions and you wouldn't go wrong.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[clowloachguy]

Didn't mean to confuse you clownloach, if the budget's not super tight you could just go with a large bottle of "Prime" and follow the intructions and you wouldn't go wrong.

~~waterdrop~~

fair enough i'll have a look out for it for now i think its best not to mess around with the tank their in too much

 

[bronzecat]

lol thanks some confusin stuff there lol i think i'm going to go for some fish that are slightly easier to keep aka guppies and that

hi there

It really doesn't matter what fish you get, you always have to use dechlorinator, you always have to have zero Ammonia and NitrIte. Your local fish shop has probably got a cheap book on the basics of keeping your tank safe. Mine has a few that start at a few pounds.

 

[clowloachguy]

hmm ok thanks i was also told that i could just leave water over night and this will eliminate chlorine but how do i then warm the water back up slightly so that it doesnt freeze my fish
and yea i think i need to buy a book or do a print out of some of the guides on here

 

[Miss Wiggle]

a lot of aquarium books are outdated, i would just make heavy use of the pinned topics on this forum.

re the dechlorination, there's two chlorine products that water companies use, normal chlorine and a chemical called chloramine. leaving the water overnight will work if your water company just uses chlorine, however it won't if your water company uses chloramine. that needs to be removed with dechlorinator.

it makes no odds if you go for easy community fish or larger ones like clown loaches, it's exactly the same process. so that in itself is no reason not to keep the fish you want!

Clown loaches do get big so they need a big tank, but they are very slow growing as well so you don't need to instantly get them a humungous tank, but I'd suggest at least a 4'x2'x2' to start out with. Of course if you have the room and the cash for a 5'2'2 or 6'2'2 now then go for that straight off.

if you got a 4'x2'x2' this would be around 120 us gallons, so you'd need a significantly bigger filter than the one you have!! Most like you'd need two large filters also I'd suggest two 250/300watt heaters would be needed.

theres a guide in my sig called 'step by step guide to setting up an aquarium' which details how to choose the right equipment for your tank.

for the water chemistry side of things you'll need a water testing kit, I'd suggest the api freshwater master test kit, it's usually on ebay for about 15 quid so no big deal, again this is exactly the same requirement for a small easy tank than for a big difficult one so that's no harder either.

in fact keeping a large tank can be much easier than a small one, the larger body of water is much more stable, equipment is mroe expensive and you'll need more of the day to day stuff like dechlor, but it's certainly not harder and possibly is actually easier.