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The eldest of my sterbai fry have gotten big enough that they're schooling up with their parents  They're just shy of an inch now, crazy how fast they grow when they're babies. I just saw another fairly recently hatched one today that was more dried rice grain size so I guess they're still hard at it. I did finally break down and get some assassin snails, my local store had some in stock so I just snagged 'em. They've been in there a week so far but I feel like they're going after the MTS moreso than the bullshit pest snails. I haven't had any more plants completely razed though, so there's that at least.
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Jul 8, 2018 00:21
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So I have the new filters hooked up. It's the Odyssea CFS 130 First thing of note, if you do use HoB filters, you'll need about double the space between your tank and a wall. Possibly even a little bit more cause this girl be thicc. I do like the ability to change direction of the outflows though. With the spray bars I have them rotated to deflect off the glass and it leaves my plants alone. The Tetras like to swim over to one now and dare each other to swim through the current. Setup was easy enough, the instructions are printed on the inside of the box lid. All you have to do is put the hanging brackets on the canister and a small rubber screw on the bottom that rests against the tank to keep the filter level. Fill the canister with water, close the lid, hang on the tank and screw in the tubes for the intake/outflow. Water surface is a bit smoother now meaning my floating plants don't have to be harnessed in to avoid getting swirled around in the old HoB outflow. I've read lots of comments elsewhere it's noisy and hard to set up. I can only assume these are mouthbreathers that dump fish into uncycled tanks and don't understand why they die. both of mine were stupid easy to set up....it was harder pulling the old filters off. And both are whisper quiet SocketWrench fucked around with this message at 12:48 on Jul 8, 2018 |
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Jul 8, 2018 12:38
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Shakenbaker posted:The eldest of my sterbai fry have gotten big enough that they're schooling up with their parents I demand pictures!
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Jul 8, 2018 16:54
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Bulky Bartokomous posted:I demand pictures! Sorry it's so blurry, the grown-ups still haven't forgiven me for moving them and hide from me:  The little ones are much more chill because, as children, they will live forever gently caress you dad.
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Jul 10, 2018 14:24
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Shakenbaker posted:Sorry it's so blurry, the grown-ups still haven't forgiven me for moving them and hide from me: 
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Jul 10, 2018 14:39
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Shakenbaker posted:The little ones are much more chill because, as children, they will live forever gently caress you dad. omg that's so true, the little dudes that I've moved in to my juwel tank happily push around on the bottom for food completely unfazed by the ~15cm yoyo loaches squashing them and pushing them over, and that really surprised me. But of course you're right. They swim up in the midwater where the big rasbora hangs out and he doesn't seem to faze them either.
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Jul 10, 2018 20:17
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33 gallon tank with an led lightt off of facebook for $50 Canadian! what should I do with it? would pea puffers be ridiculous?
w00tmonger fucked around with this message at 20:32 on Jul 10, 2018 |
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Jul 10, 2018 20:19
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Pea puffers are pretty neat, but be careful how many of them you put together. They're incredibly territorial.
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Jul 10, 2018 21:25
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CrashScreen posted:Pea puffers are pretty neat, but be careful how many of them you put together. They're incredibly territorial. I've looked into them before, and I know I'd only be able to put in a few of them, but I'm not sure if the short long tank would get in the way of their requirements
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Jul 10, 2018 22:17
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So the ick problem solved itself apparently, no more ick! Added a few more caught fish including a baby Tilapia. I'm constructing a fish trap because the adult mollys are too smart and fast to catch with a net, I've seen some incredibly beautiful mollys in this pond so I'm crossing my fingers. Gonna build this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuGhEnkK3W4 Also wanted to know opinions on filters, when should they be changed?
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Jul 11, 2018 02:23
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Different parts of the filter need different frequencies of maintenance. Any pre-filter sponge or large pore sponge trapping big debris particles at the start of the path of water flow needs to be rinsed fairly often or it will impede flow going into the filter. You don’t want bits of rotting leaf or food waste or turds sitting in your filter releasing ammonia and organics, so I usually rinse those out when I do a water change. Any filter floss or polishing pads should be replaced or rinsed fairly often too again because you don’t want flow to be impeded. As soon as parts of a filter clog up, the water will start finding easier paths and channeling through the filter instead of getting even flow across all of the media, and this reduces the effective capacity of the filter. For large blocks of finer sponge in my canisters or for air driven sponge filters I don’t rinse them very often at all, maybe every couple of months or if they look particularly clogged. I pretty much don’t replace ceramic media ever, maybe rinse it every now and then. I rely on pre-filtering to keep the deeper parts of my filter clean, and suck up any of the bigger loose bits of debris when I do my water changes. It’s also fine to let your filter suck that debris up but it just means you have to clean the filter and check for clogged bits more often. Lots of people have set schedules they do these things on (this is particularly important for chemical filtration such as carbon, resins such as purigen etc that “fill up” or wear out) but mostly I just watch the tank and filter itself, if there is a reduced flow at the filter outlet then something’s clogged, if there are visible particles or cloudiness then the filter floss is probably full, etc. If nitrates start building up despite water changes then there is probably a lot of gunk rotting in the canister and so on. And don’t forget the pump impeller can get a biofilm build up that needs to be cleaned off maybe monthly. A lot of people get a big canister filter and let it run for months without doing anything with it at all and it works fine for them and their fish are fine, and so on; it always depends on your specific scenario. If you feed heavily, or have a crowded tank, if you have a planted tank with dying leaves or fragile plants that easily shed leaves, if you have animals that make a lot of mess or poop regardless (plecos) then you will always have to clean more than someone who has 10 neon tetras in a 30g with plastic plants that feeds them every second day. I think it’s more important to keep up with water changes than to worry too much about how “clean” a filter is, you really don’t want your filter to be too clean and you don’t want to rinse all of it at once, to preserve the beneficial bacteria. In theory there should be beneficial bacteria all over your tank, in your substrate and on every surface but the filter is where the flow is and where most of the magic happens. It is not unusual for a new fishkeeper with a new non-mature tank to rinse too much away and end up with a mini-cycle where ammonia starts building up and hurting or killing their fish because they got their filter too clean. Ok I got to the end of writing all this and realised maybe your hang on back filter has replaceable cartridges. They’re often designed so that you’re throwing away all your beneficial bacteria every time, and usually have some chemical filtration built in to tide you over until hopefully the bacteria builds up again. If there’s room and you can add extra ceramic media to your filter, you’re able to keep that when you change cartridges and it will retain a lot more bacteria. Sometimes there are like fibrous pads that you can rinse and reuse a few times which again keeps your bacteria around for longer. Any component that has carbon/activated charcoal does wear out after about 3 weeks or so, so if you are relying on that chemical filtration you need to replace that monthly I would say. Edit to add: I have tried lots of different kinds of ceramic media and I am particularly fond of Seachem matrix (artificial pumice) because you can get it in small sized pieces which you can put in a media bag and shove just about anywhere. It’s porosity is extremely good, and a good way to test that is to touch a piece of the media to the surface of water. Matrix wicks the water up into itself through its porous structure so it clearly has a massive internal surface area, you can see it getting wetter and wetter. A lot of the noodle style ceramics have a good rough surface on the outside but are too solid on the inside and so you don’t get the same surface area per volume. They don’t wick water much if at all. Another one I like but is less convenient is Bio home, as I’ve only been able to get that in little log shaped pieces. I think a gravel style is available but I couldn’t get it here. Even something like crushed rinsed scoria or pumice gravel would be good though if you haven’t got access to ceramic media. Stoca Zola fucked around with this message at 09:02 on Jul 11, 2018 |
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Jul 11, 2018 08:51
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I'm just posting to add that I was just watching a video about filters on youtube and the guy doing the video reckons activated charcoal lasts 7 or 8 weeks in a filter. So I honestly don't know how long it lasts as I've heard different numbers from different reputable sources now. And how would you even measure it anyway I guess, there isn't an easy way to measure whether it's taking organics out or not, or to tell when it's stopped working and organics are building up again.
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Jul 11, 2018 14:16
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Stoca Zola posted:I'm just posting to add that I was just watching a video about filters on youtube and the guy doing the video reckons activated charcoal lasts 7 or 8 weeks in a filter. So I honestly don't know how long it lasts as I've heard different numbers from different reputable sources now. And how would you even measure it anyway I guess, there isn't an easy way to measure whether it's taking organics out or not, or to tell when it's stopped working and organics are building up again. I think the activated carbon loses effectiveness much faster than people expect as the tiny pores get clogged with organics. It would act more like a biological filter than a chemical adsorption media.
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Jul 11, 2018 15:45
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Yeah I have the cartridge type and was worried about losing beneficial bacteria when swapping it for a new one. As far as ceramic media with the filter, do you mean cutting open the filer and adding it to the charcoal? Or like putting some sort of ceramic media in front or behind the filter?
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Jul 12, 2018 03:45
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It depends on the filter layout but there is often a bit of room in front of the cartridge for ceramic media, you want the water flow to go: coarse mechanical filtration (sponge), fine mechanical (floss), then ceramic. If you have a cartridge that is more like a box maybe you can layer ceramic on top. Random YouTube example: https://youtu.be/t0CiNpRpC04 There's no perfect way to do it, lots of people have come up with different tweaks. I have an aqua clear that had enough room so I added more sponge and more ceramic, and another brand hang on filter that had little plastic boxes with tiny sponge and tiny ceramic and I just took the boxes out altogether and put one big sponge and a big bag of media.
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Jul 12, 2018 05:11
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^ Yes, don't put it on the inflow side of the filter because it'll just get all scummy and grody and not do anythingStoca Zola posted:I'm just posting to add that I was just watching a video about filters on youtube and the guy doing the video reckons activated charcoal lasts 7 or 8 weeks in a filter. So I honestly don't know how long it lasts as I've heard different numbers from different reputable sources now. And how would you even measure it anyway I guess, there isn't an easy way to measure whether it's taking organics out or not, or to tell when it's stopped working and organics are building up again. Honestly when it comes to HoB I wouldn't trust the charcoal to last very long as there's very little in it and it more often than most settles into little clumps at the most bottom portion of the gridwork inside the filter Latest news I got some Rummynose Tetras to add to the tank and these guys are flashy and school like champs. Just a ball of fish wherever they go. Compliments to the people I bought them off. They came faded like all fish do but it only took about 20 minutes and their colors were full on vibrant. All my Emperors are getting their adult finnage and colors now. You can tell where the twig catfish has been on the bamboo as there's tracks of bare bamboo through the algae that grew on it. Also discovered one of my heaters went bad. I've got a nick on my finger and was getting a sting from the water. Unplugged both heaters and everything was fine, plugged one in and still fine, plugged the other in and the tingle was back
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Jul 12, 2018 12:08
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I know some people do planted tanks without any filter at all, maybe with just some cherry shrimp in it, but it seems like you'd have to be pretty confident in the stability of your tank to attempt that... I also wonder if the water movement from the filter alone is beneficial? Just to update on my tank, I wish I had my algae back, the shrimp devoured it all very quickly. Hah. But everything is doing well, saw a molted shell this morning so maybe there will be babies at some point?
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Jul 12, 2018 14:31
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Mozi posted:I know some people do planted tanks without any filter at all, maybe with just some cherry shrimp in it, but it seems like you'd have to be pretty confident in the stability of your tank to attempt that... I also wonder if the water movement from the filter alone is beneficial? This is one of those things which is technically true, but a filter is going to make things way easier regardless. Your basically using the plants as filtration in leiu of something more industrial
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Jul 12, 2018 15:58
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Did my first water change and all the fish died within a few hours, what the gently caress? What did I do wrong I thought changing the water was a good thing not a horrible thing  [e] I did about a 30% change, water temp was good, right about the same as the tank give or take a few degrees. Applebees Appetizer fucked around with this message at 01:14 on Jul 13, 2018 |
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Jul 12, 2018 23:54
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Applebees Appetizer posted:Did my first water change and all the fish died within a few hours, what the gently caress? What did I do wrong I thought changing the water was a good thing not a horrible thing Dechlorinatior? Contamination somewhere like soap on the container? Different water source? I'd lean towards something like that Any weird behaviour before they died?
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Jul 13, 2018 01:01
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I didn't see the behavior, my son got home about five hours later and they were all dead. All the shrimp survived tho. I used a disposable plastic cup to take the water out and filled it with a plastic plant watering can, the same thing I used to fill the tank initially. I did not use a dechlorinator, that must be it
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Jul 13, 2018 01:19
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Applebees Appetizer posted:I didn't see the behavior, my son got home about five hours later and they were all dead. All the shrimp survived tho. Yeah that would be it. I'd throw some in now for the Shrimp. That stuff happens and it's definitely not fun. I used some emergency water because my condos pipes burst, and definitely nuked all my fish a couple months ago. Water had a much higher metal/chlorine content then what I had in the taps and they all died overnight
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Jul 13, 2018 01:22
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God I really feel like poo poo, they were doing so well.....My son was crushed
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Jul 13, 2018 03:44
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Aw no that’s awful It happens though, if it makes you feel any better, I think almost every single one of us in here has either come home to or woken up to a tank full of dead or dying fish/shrimp (or in some cases an empty tank that the inhabitants escaped from), for varying reasons; either mistakes, breakdowns, illnesses, unforeseen or invisible changes that we didn’t catch in time. All you can do is work out what went wrong and work out how to avoid it in future and don’t give up! It’s part of becoming a better fish keeper, and this kind of thing happens so often to new hobbyists that it is usually the make or break point. A lot of people decide after something like this that fish keeping is not for them and sell all their gear, never to return to the hobby - I think that’s one of the reasons the hobby is dying out around here, there are no clubs and very few fish stores in my area. I don’t think fish keeping is hard, but it is complex in that there are a lot of invisible factors to keep balanced in a safe range, and slipping out of this zone can have catastrophic consequences. The total responsibility we have for the survival of our fish is kind of invisible too until something like this happens, it’s so easy to relax and let your guard down when things are going well. As a teenager I wanted some fish and was sold a danio and an oto for a 3 gallon unfiltered unheated tank and was given no care information and had no idea - so of course, everything died within a week. I’d thought it would be okay because I was using rainwater in their tank but they were gasping and trying to jump out, in obvious extreme distress and I had no idea how to help them. I was so devastated by how badly I’d failed these fish that it took me 20 years before I was able to try again. Dying fish that I was unable to save was a fairly regular feature in my nightmares for that time. I hope you stick with keeping fish and that you and your son continue to learn and grow as fish keepers after a challenge like this.
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Jul 13, 2018 07:09
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Hey fish thread, I don't have a tank, but I've been wanting to start on this hobby for ages. I have a question about water changes. I guess the normal way to do it is bulk changes, like pull a quarter of tank water out and pour a quarter of fresh water in. Would it be effective, or has anyone heard of doing it constantly and gradually, like say having a metered syphon and/or pump filling a bucket with tank water while drawing up fresh from another? The effect being the same amount of water being changed in the same amount of time, just spread out over that interval.
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Jul 13, 2018 13:16
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Finger Prince posted:Hey fish thread, I don't have a tank, but I've been wanting to start on this hobby for ages. I have a question about water changes. I guess the normal way to do it is bulk changes, like pull a quarter of tank water out and pour a quarter of fresh water in. Would it be effective, or has anyone heard of doing it constantly and gradually, like say having a metered syphon and/or pump filling a bucket with tank water while drawing up fresh from another? The effect being the same amount of water being changed in the same amount of time, just spread out over that interval. People for sure do that but it's real involved and people usually have a whole rig to do it with .ultiple tanks. If you have solid bacteria and your nitrates don't go too high then wekyl water changes should be effectively as good w00tmonger fucked around with this message at 14:33 on Jul 13, 2018 |
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Jul 13, 2018 13:46
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 Discovered that the goldfish had gotten bored with their other plants, and decided to all gang up at once on the sword plant. I looked over and they were all tearing away at the same one. You can see the tears in those leaves, but what you can't see is that the plant is now half the size it was before. It's really a reminder of how destructive they can be. On the plus side, most of the other plants I thought were beyond recovery have bounced back. The foreground of the tank is no longer just a collection of stems. It's interesting how they get bored and just mark a plant to team up and devour on.
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Jul 13, 2018 15:18
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Finger Prince posted:I have a question about water changes. I guess the normal way to do it is bulk changes, like pull a quarter of tank water out and pour a quarter of fresh water in. Would it be effective, or has anyone heard of doing it constantly and gradually, like say having a metered syphon and/or pump filling a bucket with tank water while drawing up fresh from another? There are breeders who run their tanks like this 24/7, (but slower than water change speed) which results in extremely clean water for very healthy fish and fry. Works best when the source water doesn't need chlorine removal or other treatment i.e. well water or if you're running it all through a carbon block filter. But they don't do it using a siphon; rather, they drill their tanks and overflow the water into drains via plumbing. This way the tanks can't siphon dry if something goes wrong like a power failure. There are usually measures in place in case the overflow gets blocked because you don't want a flood on the floor from overfilling. You really don't need to do water changes this way unless you have extremely overcrowded tanks or are trying to breed at maximum efficiency; if you aren't running it all the time this kind of system is too complicated to bother with and too many things could go wrong. You want to keep things as simple as possible and most ornamental fish can handle weekly water changes. With the right sized siphon (or if you're lazy and don't need to gravel vac, attach a hose to the filter pump to drain your tank) it doesn't take that long to get your water out of the tank, and it doesn't take that long to bucket it back in. It's a lot faster if you have a python or equivalent, again this works better if your source water doesn't need treatment. Ideally if you need to treat your water, you treat it and store it overnight to give the chemicals a chance to work. It is important to know whether your water is treated with chlorine or chloramine, since the latter sticks around, doesn't off-gas and needs about 4 times as much dechlorinator to get rid of than just plain chlorine. In a pinch you add the water dechlorinator to the tank after you take the old water out, but before you put the new water in, let it mix, then add your new water and hopefully it will dechlorinate fast enough that it won't hurt your fish or filter. As for how much you take out - I aim for 25% or so and I have to monitor it in case nitrates start climbing (plants do help with that). People keeping crowded no plants cichlid tanks or barebottom discus tanks tend to do 50% or higher water changes to prevent anything from building up in the water. Here's a tool to play with to get an idea of what happens with different water change amounts: https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/EffectiveWaterChange.php Stoca Zola fucked around with this message at 15:30 on Jul 13, 2018 |
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Jul 13, 2018 15:22
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Thanks for the feedback. I travel a lot, and I'm pretty forgetful, so automation has its appeal. What do you do about going away for a week or two for feeding? Little timer release feed hoppers? Another question about substrate (apologies if this has been covered itt), is sand good/ok/difficult for fresh water tanks? I had a friend with a marine tank that had a sand base, and it looked really nice. Would you recommend it to a noob?
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Jul 13, 2018 16:24
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I don't travel much at all so it hasn't come up for me but I've heard some stories. Holiday food blocks are worse than useless and make a huge mess. For just a week, most fish would be fine with no food at all, although certain more enthusiastic fish (loaches) might start snacking on tank mates if they get too hungry. I think those auto feeders do take a bit of fiddling to get set correctly but a lot of people have success with them. I'd worry that they would malfunction and dump too much food in the tank, you can probably get around that by putting minimal food in them and setting them to feed a minimum amount. Too much food is more dangerous than not enough! That's the trouble with getting someone to come and feed your fish for you, they almost always feed too much and I've heard lots of people coming home from holidays to find milky tank water with dead fish floating in it from all the food that's rotting at the bottom. If you go that route, tell them to come every second or third day, or portion the food beforehand. Some people freeze food into cubes and get their fishsitter to add the right number of cubes per day. I am a fan of sand for fishtanks, I have pool filter sand, river sand, black iron sand and Tahitian moon sand in various tanks. It depends largely on what you want to do with your tank. Plants that need to root into the substrate will not do well with fine sand as it can compact and not allow root penetration or transfer of nutrients. Pool filter sand doesn't seem to have this problem, and you can feed any plants that need nutrients at their roots with root tabs. Many bottom dwelling fish prefer fine, smooth sand to gravel. The big advantage of sand is that it doesn't allow chunks of waste or uneaten food to sink in and rot like coarse gravel can. Instead of needing to do deep vacuums like you do with gravel, you can skim the surface with your siphon to remove unwanted chunks - an aquarium with adequate water flow should move those chunks to where the filter can pick them up anyway. There are quite a few prepared aquarium soils that have nutrients for plants that can act similar to sand for the needs of bottom dwelling fish but all that stuff is too expensive for me to get shipped here so I haven't used any. Noob plants like anubias and java fern don't need to be rooted in anything, instead you tie them to wood or rocks and they'll eventually grip it themselves. Noob plants like cryptocoryne seem to grow fine in sand as long as they get root tabs every couple of months. It's a good idea to put your fishtank's lights on a timer, this helps to avoid algae by having the light on too long. If you start finding algae in the tank you can just adjust the timer to have less and less light until the algae goes away. Edit to add: the most important advice I ever heard as a noob fishkeeper was to get the biggest tank you can fit/afford. The more water you have, the more stable everything is, the easier maintenance is, and the more choices you have for which fish you can keep. Small tanks are hard mode, and I would call anything 15 gallons (60litres) or smaller a small tank. Exception to this is probably a single betta in a 10g or shrimp in a 15g, they are both a bit easier than other small tanks. Stoca Zola fucked around with this message at 18:45 on Jul 13, 2018 |
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Jul 13, 2018 18:40
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Definitely agree with that last part... I did not get that advice and now I'm thinking of how to transfer what I have to a larger tank. The water parameters seem fine but I know the temperature swings quite a bit, never outside of an acceptable level (74 to 81) but a larger tank would be much more stable in that respect.
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Jul 13, 2018 19:48
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poo poo now I'm wishing I went with a larger tank, at least to a 30 or 40 gallon, I'm at 20 now.
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Jul 13, 2018 19:58
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There’s certainly nothing wrong with having two tanks, if you have room! I’d say two tanks is even better flexibility wise since you can cater the tanks to suit specific species or plants; or start looking at replicating particular environments in each tank, like a hillstream, or black water pond, or a Rift lake environment for example. Beware of multiple tank syndrome though; since keeping two tanks is not significantly harder than keeping one, you might find you then need a third tank to grow out some fry you’re raising. Then you see some fish you want that would work well in your community tank but by now you have learned about quarantining so you need a fourth tank to house the new fish until you’re sure they are safe to put in your main tank. Then once the quarantine tank is empty, it seems a shame not to use it to try out that new technique for breeding egg-scattering fish that you read about... and it goes on from there. If someone told me in 2015 that I’d be running 17 tanks today I wouldn’t have believed them. I still barely believe it, until I count them and prove to myself that it’s true. Admittedly some of them are temporary... I’m working towards shutting down a lot of my smaller tanks but I’m not there yet. Not everyone gets the bug but it could happen!
Stoca Zola fucked around with this message at 20:58 on Jul 13, 2018 |
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Jul 13, 2018 20:55
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Well my son has the bug big time, I just need him to start taking more responsibility here soon so he can start learning as well, he has big plans for all the fish he wants lol. I upgraded the filter like the youtube video you posted, I ended up using two sponges, a charcoal bag and then the Biomax bag. Can I be confident the the water is running through it all and not just up and over the top of it? The sponges are pretty porous so I figured it shouldn't restrict the flow much at all. I still need to order a sponge for the end of the pickup, they didn't have them at the store. We talked to the guy at the local fish store and he was amazed that I was able to keep the native tank going for so long before the water change killed them, he said it was probably the native plants I put in supplying the good and native bacteria they needed, so I'm going to go to the pond and get some more plants, wait a week or so and start adding fish again. We built a trap this time so hopefully we will be able to catch some of the big and pretty male mollys.
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Jul 13, 2018 23:14
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Stoca Zola posted:I don't travel much at all so it hasn't come up for me but I've heard some stories. Holiday food blocks are worse than useless and make a huge mess. For just a week, most fish would be fine with no food at all, although certain more enthusiastic fish (loaches) might start snacking on tank mates if they get too hungry. I think those auto feeders do take a bit of fiddling to get set correctly but a lot of people have success with them. I'd worry that they would malfunction and dump too much food in the tank, you can probably get around that by putting minimal food in them and setting them to feed a minimum amount. Too much food is more dangerous than not enough! That's the trouble with getting someone to come and feed your fish for you, they almost always feed too much and I've heard lots of people coming home from holidays to find milky tank water with dead fish floating in it from all the food that's rotting at the bottom. If you go that route, tell them to come every second or third day, or portion the food beforehand. Some people freeze food into cubes and get their fishsitter to add the right number of cubes per day. Thanks for the advice. Yeah I'd be looking at sort of 25gal/100l to 40gal/150l range. Big enough. Do tank dimensions matter much to the fish, or is it more just a personal preference? Or species specific? I've always wanted a ton of small schooling fish like tetras and danios, but I often wonder whats best for schooling - tall tanks, long tanks, or deep tanks. I like tiger barbs too, but I gather they'd end up eating all the tetras.
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Jul 14, 2018 04:57
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The limiting factor for how many fish you can keep in a tank is how much surface area is available for oxygen exchange. So tall narrow tanks are the worst, longer tanks are better, and long wide tanks are the best. I think this is why 40g breeder tanks are a very popular size, they are only 6 inches longer and wider than a 20 long at at 36” x 18” but double the volume, and not so deep that maintenance and lighting become an issue. Schooling fish tend to move horizontally so they prefer length and width to move around in, you only really need tall tanks for tall bodied fish like angels that have tall fins and long dangly fins and take up a lot of vertical space. Discus too maybe? I have a two foot cube tank and a couple of approx 4 foot long by 1 foot wide tanks. In theory the surface area is the same, but the cube is taller and holds about 60g fully filled while the 4 foot tank holds a bit over half that. But you can’t just look at the volume and say the cube is the better tank. The longer tank has the advantage that there is more separation possible for territorial fish, any males could get further away from each other. It’s also more suitable for any of the active schooling fish such as danios, in a cube tank they’d be stuck swimming around in circles which is less than ideal. But the 4 foot tanks are quite narrow which means I’m a bit limited in what I can do decoration and planting wise. Maintenance in the cube tank is going to be a challenge due to how tall it is vs how long my arms are so I am going to try and keep it fairly simple with either slow growing plants or no plants at all at the bottom. Tall tanks are harder to light for plants as the light has to penetrate deeper. Another reason to consider taller tanks over low tanks is if you are selecting fish based on where they normally swim in the water column, for example corydoras by and large stay in the bottom half of the tank, danios, some tetras, golden wonder killis and more only swim at the top third of the tank. Some fish such as barbs and some other tetras go all over the tank. I do like the look of having different fish and different activity levels in different regions in the tank! So it will depend again on what kind of fish you want to keep, whether you want a busy community with colourful fish going everywhere or tranquil layers of fish doing their thing and keeping out of each other’s business. My big tank is a mix of the two, with yoyo loaches adding the movement at all levels and getting into *everyone’s* business.
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Jul 14, 2018 09:17
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Finger Prince posted:I like tiger barbs too, but I gather they'd end up eating all the tetras.
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Jul 14, 2018 09:26
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Stoca Zola posted:There’s certainly nothing wrong with having two tanks, if you have room! I’d say two tanks is even better flexibility wise since you can cater the tanks to suit specific species or plants; or start looking at replicating particular environments in each tank, like a hillstream, or black water pond, or a Rift lake environment for example. Beware of multiple tank syndrome though; since keeping two tanks is not significantly harder than keeping one, you might find you then need a third tank to grow out some fry you’re raising. Then you see some fish you want that would work well in your community tank but by now you have learned about quarantining so you need a fourth tank to house the new fish until you’re sure they are safe to put in your main tank. Then once the quarantine tank is empty, it seems a shame not to use it to try out that new technique for breeding egg-scattering fish that you read about... and it goes on from there. If someone told me in 2015 that I’d be running 17 tanks today I wouldn’t have believed them. I still barely believe it, until I count them and prove to myself that it’s true. Admittedly some of them are temporary... I’m working towards shutting down a lot of my smaller tanks but I’m not there yet. Not everyone gets the bug but it could happen! Fortunately I don't have the space or I'd likely have a shitton of betta tanks. I've seen lots that I really liked, and my tank now could house one with no issues, but I have shrimp and I like them a lot. I'd even do a small outdoor pond, but my neighbors door is only a few feet away and they ruined my planters last time using them as cigarette butt cans and beer dumps. I can only imagine the horrors of what they'd do to a pond. I don't think it would even surprise me to find piss or a dookie floating in it Finger Prince posted:Thanks for the advice. Yeah I'd be looking at sort of 25gal/100l to 40gal/150l range. Big enough. Do tank dimensions matter much to the fish, or is it more just a personal preference? Or species specific? I've always wanted a ton of small schooling fish like tetras and danios, but I often wonder whats best for schooling - tall tanks, long tanks, or deep tanks. Schooling go for long. Fish have their set levels they school (top, mid, and bottom of the tank) but length will give them distance to travel. My Rummies school mostly near the bottom and go from one side to the other and back. The only time they leave it is when one of the Emperors dares them to swim in the filter outflow or when they see food Stoca Zola posted:You can get larger tetras such as rummynose Don't sell these guys short, red head and black and white tail aside, when they school (which they do in tight bunches) their bodies flash silver when the light hits them. SocketWrench fucked around with this message at 13:53 on Jul 14, 2018 |
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Jul 14, 2018 13:42
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Aesthetically the kind of fish I'd like to keep is a bunch of schooling/shoaling silvery, reflective, but mainly monochrome fish (diamond tetras, tiger barbs, black neons, etc, though a bit of colour like those rummynose tetras is cool too) and then a few ridiculously OTT fancy guppies. Add a few interesting invertebrates/crustaceans to pick around on the bottom and that's what I want to achieve. If I ever get started in the first place that is!
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Jul 14, 2018 14:34
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| # ? May 25, 2024 14:59 |
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If fancy guppies are a must, you will have to pick your schooling fish carefully as the guppy's flowing fins are a tempting target for fin-nipping fish. Some schooling fish species jostle and nip each other to establish a hierarchy and sometimes this spills over to other community inhabitants, who don't know the rules and as a result get nipped. Quite a few tetra species are nippy, and tiger barbs have probably the worst reputation as nippers. By making sure they have a big enough school to disperse the aggression you can sometimes avoid problems but you are going to have to watch things closely and have a plan B ready in case your fish don't get along - or be sure you only select peaceful schoolers, not boisterous ones.
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Jul 14, 2018 15:59
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