A.Nonymous

Not sure where this belongs, but the lounge seems as good a place as any. I'm just getting back in to this hobby really hardcore. New job, extra money means I can put the time into the hobby I want to put into it.

I'm in the middle of two pretty big projects at the moment. I overhauled my 75g tank in my living room and am turning it into a planted tank. I've got pressurized co2, tons of plants, etc...... that I'm working the kinks out of my delivery system and getting all the planted stuff organized before I add any fish.

The other project is a brand new 29g that I'm setting up as a saltwater tank. I've kept freshwater fish for 10 years, but never saltwater fish so I have no clue at all what I'm doing. No fish in there yet, still working on getting the thing actually set up right. I think I mixed way, way, way too much salt into the water. This is the main reason I have no livestock yet. Still struggling w/the basics.

I've got two other FW tanks that are working just swimmingly though so four tanks total. Anyone else on here keep fish?

SiempreTuna

Only until I get around to cooking it ..

shelliewnj

my first thought was, "There's a fish app?" lol. I used to, but it got to be too much work with three littles running around and a full time job. sounds awesome, though. can't wait to see pics

A.Nonymous

I've got pics of my new SW setup as it is now, but it's a tank of water at the moment. I'll have to take some pics of my 75g planted. I have some before pics before I added everything, but no after.

A.Nonymous

So, this is my 75g planted tank from start to finish. You can see it from before I tore it down to where it is now. This has been a 3 month process so far as I get one component working and another falls apart and I've grown a crap ton of algae. My Co2 regulator comes in tonight and I'll be able to get my pressurized co2 system working. If I can work out the kinks over the weekend I can leave it running all next week and if I have no issues I can start stocking it. I didn't want to stock it and have the co2 go haywire and kill everything - https://plus.google.com/photos/100858616079675885603/albums/5841909009243850913?authkey=COK1i-_PrJDtwgE

And this is my 29g saltwater tank that is still a work in progress. I'm waiting for my test kit and refractometer to come in. Once I get a good base line, then I plan on stocking some live rock to cycle the thing. My ultimate plan is to have a pair of clown fish in there.

https://plus.google.com/photos/100858616079675885603/albums/5841457835739737009?authkey=CIW096XEmNqGLw

I've tried to caption all the pics so you at least know what you're looking at.

ocnbrze

you know i used to be in the hobby big time. i owned tanks ranging from a 250 gallon saltwater tank to a 5 gal mini reef. i have done reff tanks, salt water fish only, african cichlids, plant tanks, goldfish, koi, and even bred bettas. so you name it, i have most likely have done it.

i still have my own business licence for my own aquarium setup and maintenance business i had going.....that is until the economy went to poop.

lately i have had that itch to setup and a 40 gal aquarium i still have.

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ocnbrze

LOL i saw the first few pics and i was like ummmmm that is not a plant tank but an algea tank but that last bunch of pics......looks amazing.....nice job

curious on your plant tank what kind of water did you use?

A.Nonymous

Yeah, the before was bad times. The substrate was too fine. Kept trapping detritus and I couldn't control the algae blooms no matter what I did. So I added the

I'm just using regular old tap water. Dechlorinated of course. My Co2 regulator came in tonight. So hopefully I can get the pressurized co2 dialed in right by this weekend.

ocnbrze

well the thing is (of course i'm not sure how bad your tap water is) with tap water you get a lot of carbonates (hard water deposits) that will prevent the co2 from staying into that water which is what you want. you will be using a lot of c02 before you get any ph change. i recommend that you get reverse osmosis water. i know that it is expensive but it is worth it in the long run if you want your plants to grow and thrive. and when you do water changes you will only be needing 20 gal of clean water for water changes. other wise i do not see the advantage of using a c02 dispenser.

ocnbrze

and you actually want fine gravel. the finer the better actually. that is not to say that what you have will not work. i'm just going by one of the greatest aquarist and photographer of planted tanks.....takashi amano.

you should get this book:
Nature Aquarium World: How You Can Make A Most Beautiful Aquarium by takashi amano.

A.Nonymous

Our water around here comes from limestone so it can be fairly hard. I've got a KH of about 17. I don't know that I agree with you on the RO water just because it's going to flip in the breeze with a co2 injection not having any buffering capacity. That's my thinking anyway though I've never used RO/DI water in my tanks.

Every time I have tried fine gravel it has bit me in the ass. It just traps everything and you can't clean it w/o sucking up the gravel too.

ocnbrze

a kh of 17? that is pretty hard for a plant tank. you should really think about ro water. your ph will never get low enough to keep co2 in solution and thus will not be very effective. i have setup and maintained planted tanks for almost 15 years and i have always used ro water(i do not recommend DI as it is to pure) in all of my planted tanks and have had really good success.

here is a great article about water chemistry for planted tanks:
Aquarium Water Chemistry Planted Aquariums

shelliewnj

Wow, looks like a nice set-up to me! We had 10 and 20 g tanks when we did fish, mainly for two reasons... one, i don't have a place for a bigger tank and two, i don't have the time to keep up with them!

ocnbrze

you are correct in that ph will drop if you are not careful with how much co2 you inject. however, if you water is very hard your ph will not drop not matter how much you add co2 in the tank. this is do to that fact that you have a lot of carbonate in the water. the c02 will just bind with the carbonate and it will not be able to be used up by the plants. so you will get no co2 in the tank. you will have to buffer the hardness down before you will see any positive effects of co2 in the tank.

now i have used tap water that is fairly hard before with plant tanks. you will just need to add hardy plants that grow quick and are not picky with hardness. stick with anubias plants, swords, and my favorite rotala plants.

A.Nonymous

I know what you're saying, but my water isn't that hard. It dropped down .5 over night running the Co2. I need to get some timers and a couple of power strips so I can time everything properly as it makes no sense to run co2 overnight when the lights are out.

ocnbrze

funny i just got done watching finding nemo and all this talk about aquariums has got me itching to get back into the hobby. i have been wanting to do an african cichlid tank again. i might look into doing it this weekend. if i have the time and energy to dig out my old tank and clean it that is.......LOL

what kind of fish do you plan on putting in your tanks?

A.Nonymous

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure. In the SW tank I'm keeping it simple since it's my first SW tank. I'm going with a pair of clowns in a FOWLR setup. In the 75g I'm not sure. The CO2 regulator I ordered came in and is working far more beautifully than I imagined. I honestly thought, in the back of my mind, that I'd constantly struggle with getting the plants all straightened out and would never be able to stock. That's all falling in place now. I'm going to let it run a week or so and if the plants keep having no issues and the fish I've got in it are fine, then I'm going to start stocking.

I had considered two schools of 25 or so cardinals and neons and a school of cory cats. I'd also considered angels as a center piece and perhaps some swordtails or platies or rainbow fish. I had thought about kribs or rams as well. I really have no idea.

Rxpert83

I've kept everything from guppys to African cichlids to pufferfish.

I really enjoy having fish. Since I moved up north here I haven't had any but I've been looking for a pet store nearby

ocnbrze

for me my favorite all time fish to use as a center piece is altum angels. the are very beautiful but hard to find and hard to keep as well.

i found this awesome video of mr amano feeding his altum angels in his awesome tank. check it out:



here is a close up of them:


and i do love blue rams, but i could never keep them long enough so i always gave up on them.

as far as clowns go, i would try and get a pair of gold maroon clowns myself. or true percula clowns(they have more black in them).

A.Nonymous

I kept rams for a while many years ago. They were difficult to acclimate and very shy until they settled in. Even then they seemed to startle easily, but were really, really pretty fish. Honestly, I'm probably going to lean toward the neon/cardinal species tank. The two look very similar, but don't school together so I think it'll be interesting.

As for the clowns, I was looking at the smaller species (3" max length) though I don't recall the exact name.

ocnbrze

are we talking about fresh water (though they are really brackish) puffers?

do you remember what kind of africans you kept? malawi or tanganika?

i have a 40 gallon tank i might be setting up. trying to decide which way to go.

A.Nonymous

More than once I've toyed w/the idea of a faux reef tank. Aragonite sand. Coral base rock, Africans.

Rxpert83

Yes, brackish puffers. Green spotted to be exact.

Malawi cichlids- Electric yellow

ocnbrze

that is one type of tank that i have not done yet.....brackish. i never really liked the brackish fish except for archers and puffers. i had a green spotted puffer acclimated to saltwater. he was in my 20 gal salt tank that i had along with a couple of maroon clowns and a royal grama.

any ways i'm thinking of keeping these:

Altolomprologus compressiceps

i might even try and breed them as well.......still thinking though.

Rxpert83

Eventually the plan was to work mine up to salt as well, but I had to donate them to the local fish store when I moved.

keatingschick

I keep tropical fish. I've a 45l tank. At the moment I have 2 peppered corys and 2 albino corys, 2 rummy nosed tetras and 2 neon tetras, 3 ottos and a shed load of endlers guppies because they keep breeding!!

Mine is a planted tank and tbh I'm having algae problems so I want to get rid of my real plants and just go for decorative because my tank was a lot better when I had that before.

ocnbrze

yeah plant tanks take a lot more care and maintenance the other tanks. to get rid of algea you need to get rid of excess nutrients in the water and also reduce the amount of light in the tank. however, those things do not bode well for plants. once you get algae problems then it is hard to get rid of.

keatingschick

I know. It's also worse since my filter broke and I bought a new one. This doesn't seem to handle the water as well even though its made for a 50l tank. I'm going to get a new filter and get rid of the plants (and some guppies)

ocnbrze

careful when you switch filters. what do you have running now? a lot of filters use biological filtration as part of the filtration process. by removing the old filter you have removed a lot of the good bacteria to help break down the waste. try doing more frequent water changes to help out the new filter.

also get the water tested for amonia, nitrites, and nitrates as well.

A.Nonymous

I had the algae problems in my 75g before. Constantly battled with it even after breaking the tank down and restarting (see my album pics). You have to have a balance is what I'm finding out. You have to have enough plants to out compete the algae for nutrients. You have to have enough nutrients for the plants to stay alive and you have to have enough light that the plants can compete for the nutrients as well. It's a balancing act for sure. Planted tanks can be just a complex as a SW setup IMO.

Rxpert83

I had my freshwater tanks planted. Its a balancing act keeping the plants healthy and stopping algae growth

keatingschick

Yeah we had a huge tank years ago but never hand any problems, then this time I really struggled with it, had all sorts of problems, algae, ammonia etc. I joined a fishy forum and got advice from there (the tropical tank) and one guy said with a planted tank you are not just a fish keeper you are also a gardener. I'm not liking it though. Thing is, my hubby pushed for the fish, and he looks at them yet its me that maintains the tank and tbh I'm fed up of it now constantly trying to work out what's wrong, so I, going to make it minimal maintenance and get rid of the plants.

A.Nonymous

The thing with the planted tank is if you go overboard either way you get algae. You don't have enough plants, then you have too much light and too many nutrients so you get algae. You have enough plants, but not enough light and your plants die. The high nutrients just give you algae. You have enough plants and light, but not enough nutrients and the algae can out compete the plants just because it grows faster. So you get algae again.

Petrah

I just recently got into this hobby. I currently have 5 Tiger Barbs and a few Ghost Shrimp that will be going into a new 30 gallon setup soon. They're currently, and temporarily, in a 10 gallon tank (lesson #1, don't listen to your LFS). I can't put everything together just yet until my sweetie and I swap offices this weekend, and of course the new tank has to cycle before the Barbs go into it. At any rate, here's what I have thus far for the new setup:


Aqueon 30 Gallon Glass Tank (36 1/4 x 12 5/8 x 16 3/4)
Wrought Iron Stand (can hold two tanks)
Aqueon 36″ Glass Versa-Top
Aqueon 36″ Modular LED Light w/1 additional Colormax LED
Hagen Fluval C3 Power Filter (doing a return via Amazon/UPS as the first one was cracked)
Hagen Fluval M100 Glass Submersible Heater
Needed: Substrate and decorations


Here's a vid:

Tiger Barbs - YouTube

Any thoughts on what else I can add to the new setup that will work well with the Tiger Barbs and Ghost Shrimp? I was tossing around the idea of possibly 4 Panda Cory, 2 female German Gold Rams, and 1 Pearl Gourami. Could I have 2 Oto Catfish even though I have the Ghost Shrimp?

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ocnbrze

barbs can be fin nippers so do not get any fish that has long fins like angelfish or swordfish. they can also be a little aggressive as well. you want other fast moving fish like rainbows and mollies. no rams. some of the gourami's might be fine. cory cats are great little armored catfish. oto's should be fine or any plecostomus would be fine as well. and yes otos and ghost shrimp should be fine. and lastly any of the larger schooling tetra's should be fine. emporer tetras are my favorite.

Speed Daemon

I got to like Scatophagus argus "Scats" when I was running freshwater (hard and soft water) and marine tanks (one for invertebrates). Since I had done just about everything else, I started up a brackish water tank. It was an accomplishment...

Petrah

I'm using the Stocking Advisor, and didn't get any warnings about the Rams & Barbs, so I'm guessing two female Rams with them will work out nicely. From what I understand the Pleco's have a fairly high bio-load, so I probably won't get those. Oh yes, those emporer tetras are pretty fish! But I got a warning on the advisor that the Barbs are too aggressive for them.

I'm sure this neat little thing is not prone to mistakes, but it's an extremely nice guide when trying to stock your aquarium. Plus it gives some other pertinent advice as well (perams, temps, water change frequency, if your overstocking etc). AqAdvisor - Intelligent Freshwater Tropical Fish Aquarium Stocking Calculator and Aquarium Tank/Filter Advisor

Speed Daemon

IME problems like that happen in tanks that have areas (usually in the gravel) that go aerobic. Anaerobic bacteria are your worst enemy, and aerobic bacteria can be your best friend.

Back in the '70s when I had my aquariums, the concept of reverse flow filtration was brand new, and I had to build my own by combining under-gravel filters (that were too weak by themselves) with back mounted power filters that pumped clean water into the area underneath the gravel. A little experimentation with different gravel types and distribution, and a reverse flow tank pretty much takes care of itself after the aerobic bacteria are established.

I found plants to be more of a pain than anything else. You don't need greenery to have a balanced aquarium; oxygenation from air bubblers works just fine.

A.Nonymous

Rams and barbs are not going to work out well. Rams are about as laid back as you can get and the barbs will freak them out most likely. I would not do it. I wouldn't go with the gouramis either tbh. Barbs will nip at pretty much anything that won't nip back and can be big bullies.

A.Nonymous

Plants can be a PITA, but they look gorgeous when you've got them all going right. IMO planted tanks are some of the most beautiful FW tanks you can put together. I can't agree on the air bubblers though. I've run one in my tank maybe once, but got rid of it after a few months as I didn't care for the look. I don't think oxygenation is usually a problem on a fish tank. Especially not with today's power filters.

Speed Daemon

It's been a long time for me, but the power filters that I used didn't churn up the water at all, so I would put an air bubbler in the filters' reservoirs to make sure that the water flowing through the gravel was well-oxygenated. The look of crystal-clear water was pretty nice IMO.

Plants may look pretty to people who are into that kind of thing, but the live plants being sold weren't the natural environment for any of the fishes that I kept. I had mostly African lake Cichlids, South American river species and marine fishes. Especially with the Cichlids it was far easier to give them their natural environment than it was to work hard to enforce a fake one. Matter of preference, I suppose.

Petrah

Ok. Better to listen to those with experience. Can you think of some others I can house with the Barbs?

A.Nonymous

Cichlids in general aren't kind to plants. Africans certainly aren't. I wouldn't put live plants in my convicts tank. It would be pointless. I've just got into SW. No clue what plants even grow in a SW environment. I have no idea if any of the plants I have even grow in the same areas of the world. Honestly, I don't really care. I'm not after a biotope I just want a nice looking aquarium where the fish swim in circles. If the plants and the fish can co-exist peacefully then that's what I would prefer myself.

I don't buy the idea that you need a lot of surface agitation. Some of my tanks are perfectly still by design and the fish seem fine w/it and I run canisters on those guys to boot. No doubt some fish need/benefit from the extra oxygenation, but I don't think that's the standard.

ryancmatchett

I have kept and bred saltwater fish for years. Love the hobby.

Unfortunately we just moved at the end of the year, and our new rental does not allow a tank... Will get back to the hobby next year when our lease is up and we buy a new house. Moved from California to Texas, and had to disassemble all 12 tanks before the move... Heartbreaking. Glad to see that hobbies are not limited to digital! And thanks to everyone posting pics of their setups... Makes the lack of a tank more bearable.

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