Thinking of getting a community tank going...

Sleepy

Don't have much of a budget to play with, maybe €200 tops but would like to get a second tank set-up to hold a bit of a community. I imagine a marine tank is way out of budget so for now would be thinking along the lines of a tropical tank of about 60 - 120 litres (depending on what I can get off adverts for my budget). I have a heater already which came with my 60l tank which I presume I can use if it's not under-powered for the tank size.

Preference would be for as many fish as possible and brightly coloured fish at that, thinking a small school of neon tetras would certainly be a nice-to-have.

Any suggestions of fish that play well with others and are nice to look at / advice in general?

Will be nice to have the time to plan this tank out and get it all cycled etc. before adding the fish and, all going well, I'll keep this thread updated with pics etc.

WIZE

I have a spare 100 ltr tank . PM me if interested

you can call over to see my tank and I have a lot of spare equipment

Sleepy

Thanks WIZE, may well get in touch over the next week.

I'm assuming a marine tank is simply too difficult / expensive to get going on a budget. My "dream tank" would involve live coral, clownfish, blue and yellow tangs, a Moorish Idol (basically the Finding Nemo cast!), partially because my daughter loves the movie but largely because I love the colours. I'm guessing it's not even worth attempting such a tank without more experience as a fishkeeper and/or a budget approaching a grand?

Was over in PetStop at lunchtime and find the lack of colour in much of their tropical stock quite disappointing. Can anyone suggest some brightly coloured tropicals which are suitable for an enthusiastic but inexperienced fishkeeper in a moderate sized tank?

Silverfish

Sleepy wrote: »

Thanks WIZE, may well get in touch over the next week.

I'm assuming a marine tank is simply too difficult / expensive to get going on a budget. My "dream tank" would involve live coral, clownfish, blue and yellow tangs, a Moorish Idol (basically the Finding Nemo cast!), partially because my daughter loves the movie but largely because I love the colours. I'm guessing it's not even worth attempting such a tank without more experience as a fishkeeper and/or a budget approaching a grand?

Was over in PetStop at lunchtime and find the lack of colour in much of their tropical stock quite disappointing. Can anyone suggest some brightly coloured tropicals which are suitable for an enthusiastic but inexperienced fishkeeper in a moderate sized tank?

Aw, you caught MTS*, I'm so sorry, it's incurable


Here's the problems with a Finding Nemo tank..

But I know you can buy a sortof 'Nemo' tank package here.

There's lots of colourful non-marine fish, such as rainbow gouramis, guppies, endlers, and so on.


*multiple tank syndrome.

Sleepy

Aye, I think the marine tank is best left until I'm more experienced with fish tanks, that kit looks great though (and a lot cheaper than I thought I'd be able to get into Marine keeping... maybe for Christmas or if I get a windfall sometime in the next month!

Will take a look at some of those suggestions this evening, time to get out of the office for now

Sleepy

How difficult would that Nemo starter package be to maintain?

A large part of the attraction of the marine tanks for me is the bold solid colours of the marine fish... ultimately I think I'll definitely be going for a very large marine setup if I can afford one.

The guppies look pretty, on to more research

WIZE

I keep

Guppies
Clown loach
Neon Tetras
Mollies
Angel fish
Barbs
Goldfish
Red tail Black Shark

Gets very colourful when u mix it up

Sleepy

Really thinking hard about that Nemo starter kit now Silverfish... would it take any more fish than it comes with? Anyone any experience with that tank? Looks to me like an Orca MT50...

Sleepy

If I buy a secondhand tank and it's been running up until the day I buy it, how would that affect the cycle time?

Assuming I had to remove all the water to transport the tank and had it re-filled within 5/6 hours would all the bacteria be dead and I'd need to start again? Or would I be looking at a full 6 week cycle to get it right again? (assuming filter and substrate remained in the tank)

WIZE

Are you talking about Fresh or Marine water ?

Sleepy

WIZE wrote: »

Are you talking about Fresh or Marine water ?

Fresh

WIZE

As long as you have clean containers to hold the water it will be fine

Sleepy

So, just agreed a price for an 180l Rio tank on adverts. Any suggestions for a nice colourful mix of fish that'll live happily together?

Will definitely be getting some Tetras of some sort I think

Silverfish

Sleepy wrote: »

So, just agreed a price for an 180l Rio tank on adverts. Any suggestions for a nice colourful mix of fish that'll live happily together?

Will definitely be getting some Tetras of some sort I think

I think you should move your goldfish to the Rio and put the tropicals in the other tank!

You're kinda spoilt for choice though with tropicals, your best bet is to go to a few shops and see what catches your eye. Make sure you find out though what the adult size of the fish will be.

WIZE

i suggest you start off slow

Tetras are hardy fish so you can get 4-6 first .

then wait a few weeks and keep testing your water.


when you are happy with it you can start adding more fish like Guppies and so on

Sleepy

So a fairly remarkable start... picked up my new tank this evening off a lovely guy who was upgrading to a larger tank. He left me the substrate and kept enough water in the bottom of the tank (about 15%) to keep the filter media wet and hopefully get the tank cycled in a couple of weeks. Also threw in a couple of plants to get me started.

Drove the tank home trying to take it easy on the way from out by Kilcock to Clontarf but hearing the gravel and water slosh about a bit every now and then... finally after much man-handling got it set up in the house. The water is, of course, very murky from the tank move and all the crud getting dug up out of the substrate. Filled the tank up and got the heater and filter going and then hear my other half near have a heart attack when she saw this little guy:



He survived the drive, the manhandling of the tank into position and a fairly rough re-fill (dumping buckets straight into the tank thinking it was empty and that I had plenty of time to level the gravel / reposition the plants etc!).

I've obviously contacted the seller to ask him if he wants to come rescue the little guy since he's in awful water conditions at the moment, but thought ye might get a kick out of the story!

Anyone know what he is?

Here's the new tank in all it's murky glory. Will update as I get it sorted

WIZE

Hes a Clown Loach

Sleepy

Was away for the last few days and just got back. Filter cleared the water nicely. But did the water tests aren't great:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 0.025
PH: 10

The Clown Loach is still in the tank and the guy I got the tank from is away so can't return him until next week some time. He's offered to let me keep him but I'm thinking the tank is too small and the PH is off the charts for a clown loach, they also seem to be pretty sensitive so not a good fish to have in a tank which isn't properly cycled.

I did a 30% water change this evening but the PH is still reading as high. The substrate got totally churned around on the drive back from the seller's house and I'm guessing all the crap that came up out of it is what's causing the high PH? Hoovered out quite a bit of it tonight but there's a hell of a lot more to get?

Sleepy

Another 20% water change this evening, added a 5th filter sponge (the previous owner had removed the carbon sponge, disinclined to use one myself due to the expense of changing it monthly and the risk of it leaking toxins back into the tank) and a new layer of poly pad and filter definitely seems to have cleared the post-change murkiness faster.

Also picked up some tank wood at the petstop. Knew it needed to be soaked before use but quite disappointed to read on-line that it's a matter of weeks/months worth of soaking before I can add it to the tank