hey madasafish, Allivymar, Sati, ferret... (no longer hex'd)

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webmoose

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Just aquired a 58 gallon tank/stand/glass top/ light balast!

The tank is in my garage. I am going to get someone to help me place it over the weekend.. (have to do some stairs) pretty excited right now.. Finally will have a good home for my fish once I have it set up. I am going to take it slow with the moving over process.

I'll post some questions once I'm starting to set up. Just had to let ya all know since you helped me out so much. It was a really good deal (50% off). I also entered a draw for a tank. Haha..

MOOOOOOSE
 
Ya know, Moose, it's great when people follow up and let us know that our advice wasn't in vain, so thanks for posting this thread! :D

Glad to hear you got a good deal on the set-up. I'm guessing you paid somewhere in the region of $250, $300, is that about right? Don't mean to pry, but a lot of us like to get an idea of package set-up costs: mostly so we can take advantage of if they're in stores we frequent! :wink:

Enjoy the set-up. Put some serious thought into your fish choice before you get them, esp. if you're considering making this a planted tank. I regret many of my choices when I first got my 55 up and running, so I hope that you consider compatibility and aesthetic pleasure, among other things. And don't allow what your LFS has to dictate what you get. If you find a dish online which you have your heart set on, keep checking with fish stores near you, and leave a space for it in your tank.

And as I've done a lot recently, I highly recommend rainbowfish! I just got some Praecox Rainbows and they are a delight in the tank. Boesmanis are also fantastic fish when they mature. I'm always free to give advice if you're looking for a particular fish to fill a particular niche!
 
Cool Moose! Always exciting to get a new tank. Totally agree with madfsh, plan carefully and get what you really want. Don't "settle" for what's available, wait, order, scheme, connive, get what you want! Substrate, lights, plants, fish, everything. You'll be much happier in the long run, and so will all tank inhabitants.
 
Your pretty close on the price. To be honest I don't know the exact figure as it was a suprise gift to me. Guess people were tired of hearing about how I was going to get a new tank.. haha..

I currently have breeding cory pair / 4 cardinals / 2 neons / 2 oto's / 1 hillstream loach / and some guppy fry and cory fry... (mature guppys traded out for hillstream a few months back)

I was looking at the rainbows last night / remembered that post "anyone want to know about rainbows" watched them for a while.. They are pretty cool.

My focus will probably be to move my current stock into the new tank slowly and carefully. (otos for example and likely the hillstream as well will be pretty sensitive to moving...)

Still have to refresh my memory on the cycle process of a new tank. My other one is in the 1 year plus stage...
 
Substrate, lights, plants - is still being thought thru... I have the EMPEROR 400 with dual bio wheel for filter and Visi-Therm 300 watt.. (being set up in my basement). I'm having a hard time getting "Seachem's Fluorite Red." out of my head since I saw the photo of the month contest winner.. haha..
 
Haha. My picture! Right. Yeah, the Red is quite intense!

Fluorite, rather than Fluorite Red, is a lot easier to deal with when washing (IME, and in the experience of at least 2 other AA members), and it is almost as bright. Actually "Fluorite Red" is only minimally more red than the regular Fluorite--it's sort of a surprise to me that they even decided to make 2 different ones (though I'm sure the "red" has more Iron in it).

EcoComplete is another popular fert. substrate around here, so you might want to look into getting some of that... And, of course, there's always laterite. All good products.
 
Congrats on the new tank! My husband got me my 55 and my 12-gal Eclipse, but now I think everyone is praying I will just stop already... fat chance. :D

I am going to use EcoComplete when I redo my 55 in the spring - I have heard a lot about it and am anxious to try it. I was not happy with the tank I did using laterite with gravel on top - surprising amount of debris that continues to filter up through the gravel over time, and it does "wear out" in that it loses its effectiveness and has to be replaced, unlike Fluorite.

BTW, the rainbows in the LFS are usually not at their best color, and will color up much more once you get them home and settled, if you are interested in them.
 
madasafish said:
Fluorite, rather than Fluorite Red, is a lot easier to deal with when washing (IME, and in the experience of at least 2 other AA members), and it is almost as bright. Actually "Fluorite Red" is only minimally more red than the regular Fluorite--it's sort of a surprise to me that they even decided to make 2 different ones (though I'm sure the "red" has more Iron in it).

I'm glad because I opted not to get the red flourite! :D


Congratulations on the new tank, Moose! That's awesome. Lately I'm thinking that planning new tanks is one of the best parts of fish keeping. I love thinking about it all coming to life and planning all the details. You're gonna have a blast :)
 
Excellent caveat, Tankgirl. I should have mentioned that. BUT, in addition, it should be mentioned that Rainbowfish also tend to gain and gain color as they mature. Young Boesmanis are barely recognizable, and young Praecox are almost white. I think that my Praecox have improved in color hugely over the last 2 weeks! If you allow them to grow to a full 2.5-3 inches, they will really impress you with their color. The Boesmanis at the NYC aquarium are breathtaking!! (Oh, of course, if you see the females, they're slightly less brilliant.)
 
I know a while back when I was stocking the 55 and I was interested in rainbows based on research on the web, and when I saw them at the LFS they were basically silver and not terribly interesting, so I passed on them and I am sorry I did, in hindsight. A wonderful fish.
 
Agreed. I've passed on them many a time and have regretted it. Glad I finally bought these guys!

Then again, I have seen some mature Australian Rainbows in the LFS in a nice show tank and really don't see the big deal. Choose your species carefully. Boesmanis, Celebes, Threadfin, Praecox are all beautiful. There are many others I'm not as familiar with, but there are a lot of less interesting species out there.

Check out Rarefishatlax on Aquabid.com. He or she has quite nice specimens in his/her auctions, though I'm sure the pix don't truly do the fish justice!
http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwrainbows
 
Hehe, TankGirl and I (and Alli and others) are reprehensible... :wink: We live out our fish wishes vicariously through other site members. I remember somebody was thinking of setting up a 10 gallon, and wanted cories and guppies and we all responded "NO! Do something different--get Kribs, or Rams or Rainbows or Killis!!" Of course, since then, we've all gone out and gotten Kribs (I have) and rams (Alli and others have) and Rainbowfish (again, I have). Some other ppl. have gotten Killies.

Hehe. So, you still have agency here Moose, don't let us pressure you into getting rainbows if they're not your thing. :wink:

But, I will try to upload a couple of pics of my new rainbows if you're interested.
 
I find that all the fish I buy brighten up a lot once I get them home.

So Madasa, where are your rainbow fish pics? :)


EDIT: I just saw you're going to upload some. Cool :)
 
OK, making my own post now. No more hijacking!!! Rainbowfish pics will be up in 5 mins.
 
Hehe, TankGirl and I (and Alli and others) are reprehensible... We live out our fish wishes vicariously through other site members.
That is too true! I have a cozy little family of kribs in my Eclipse right now! (This replaced the group of dwarf puffers, so I guess I am backsliding...)
 
*giggles* I'm setting up my 15g right now (well, right before I typed this LOL) and will be moving my breeding rams into that tank; I'm also picking up a bunch of keyhole cichlids (I have the 10g QT up n running).

LOL So I hear ya moose; a new tank is ALWAYS exciting, even with a ton of tanks to begin with. And thats a really nice size tank; you can do some great stuff with it!
 
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