Ok, I want to preface this with I tend to get a little long winded.... be warned.
First I'd like to share my background. I've always been interested in fish and a couple friends I met a few years ago were really into it, with big discus tanks and all. After bugging one of them with questions and constantly staring at his tank he got fed up and gave me a 10 gallon set up he had laying around and a book to get started.
I went to work setting everything up, stocked it with 8 tiger barbs and got it going. Had a couple of live plants (2 broad sword leaf and something else). After about 3 months I was fully hooked. The 10 gallon had me pretty limited in what I could do and I was drooling at the opportunity of getting a bigger tank and having a lot of fun aquascaping and all.
However a new job and all kept me from being able to do anything about that, so I enjoyed my 10 gallon as much as I could. Well about a month ago, something went wrong... and I lost everything in the matter of about 6 hours. I'm not positive what happened, but I'm fairly certain I had a large ammonia spike. The warning was there, the fish were acting funny, and I didn't put 2 and 2 together. The spike happened so fast I didn't even have the opportunity to attempt a water change to fix anything. I just woke up to floating fish. Everything but the pleco died.
After some deliberation, I got the urge to look on Craigslist for people selling aquariums in the area. I found a great deal for $300 that came with the stand, aquarium, 2 canister filters, heater, everything I needed even fish. I ended up buying it that weekend.
That was about 3 weeks ago. Its been up and running, almost perfectly. Here's the set up:
75 gallon tank
Ehiem 2215 canister
Marineland heater
Tetra air pump
a single bulb light fixture
I have another canister (Eheim 2213) that isn't currently running, though I've contemplated getting it going for redundancy's sake.
The fish that came with the tank are:
A huge pleco of some kind.(between 7"-10")
Large angelfish (I believe hes marble, has red eyes with black stripe in them)
Albino Cory
some other kind of pleco
2 gourami (blue and gold both 4"-5")
2 feeder goldfish (that never got eaten and grew up)
1 black goldfish (my fiance wanted him... calls him frankie
)
1 common pleco (remainder from the 10 gallon)
10 tiger barbs (I couldn't help myself)
Now, that you have the background, on to the questions.
When I bought the tank I had already decided I wanted to plant it heavily. When I bought it, I immediately pulled out the under gravel filter, switched out the substrate for more natural looking stuff and mixed in a bag of black flourite to help with the future inhabitants. The problem is, I really don't know what to get, plant wise. I'd love to hear suggestions on easier to keep leafy plants, that will grow well and look great. I would love to avoid any kind of CO2 injection.
I also would like suggestions on a solid light fixture to support these plants, without sacrificing an arm and leg. I know proper plant lighting is around 3-5w per gallon, however, the friend that got me started said T-5HO bulbs were more efficient and you didnt need quite that much. Is that true? Any suggestions to fixtures that would be appropriate?
I'm also aware I have a lot of algae eating fish, and I'm slightly worried they are going to have issues finding enough food, especially the big guy. All he does is pretty much sit still until the lights are off so I have no idea how well he's really doing. I've been dropping and algae wafer in every night, and it disappears, but I've seen the goldfish going after it before so I'm not sure if they are eating it instead. Any suggestions with this? I've read somewhere that bigger plecos love people vegetables like cucumber and romaine lettuce. Would this be the right way to go about feeding him?
And last, I'm thinking about setting the 10 gallon up as a medical tank, since one of the gourami seems to need some TLC. What would be the best way to seed it and get it in similar conditions as the bigger one? Do you guys leave your med tanks running all the time empty until there is an issue?
I guess that's it for now. I want to grill you guys on fish selection also, however I want to focus on the aquascaping first. I want to put some slate and build some elevated areas to plant in the corners, maybe a cave of some kind, and get a bigger piece of driftwood in too. Plus I have to figure out what to do with these stupid goldfish.
Oh, and pictures are to come, and I'm going to document the whole thing as it evolves. I've trolled a little bit this week and can tell you all like pictures
So anyways, yeah.... hows that for a first post eh?
First I'd like to share my background. I've always been interested in fish and a couple friends I met a few years ago were really into it, with big discus tanks and all. After bugging one of them with questions and constantly staring at his tank he got fed up and gave me a 10 gallon set up he had laying around and a book to get started.
I went to work setting everything up, stocked it with 8 tiger barbs and got it going. Had a couple of live plants (2 broad sword leaf and something else). After about 3 months I was fully hooked. The 10 gallon had me pretty limited in what I could do and I was drooling at the opportunity of getting a bigger tank and having a lot of fun aquascaping and all.
However a new job and all kept me from being able to do anything about that, so I enjoyed my 10 gallon as much as I could. Well about a month ago, something went wrong... and I lost everything in the matter of about 6 hours. I'm not positive what happened, but I'm fairly certain I had a large ammonia spike. The warning was there, the fish were acting funny, and I didn't put 2 and 2 together. The spike happened so fast I didn't even have the opportunity to attempt a water change to fix anything. I just woke up to floating fish. Everything but the pleco died.
After some deliberation, I got the urge to look on Craigslist for people selling aquariums in the area. I found a great deal for $300 that came with the stand, aquarium, 2 canister filters, heater, everything I needed even fish. I ended up buying it that weekend.
That was about 3 weeks ago. Its been up and running, almost perfectly. Here's the set up:
75 gallon tank
Ehiem 2215 canister
Marineland heater
Tetra air pump
a single bulb light fixture
I have another canister (Eheim 2213) that isn't currently running, though I've contemplated getting it going for redundancy's sake.
The fish that came with the tank are:
A huge pleco of some kind.(between 7"-10")
Large angelfish (I believe hes marble, has red eyes with black stripe in them)
Albino Cory
some other kind of pleco
2 gourami (blue and gold both 4"-5")
2 feeder goldfish (that never got eaten and grew up)
1 black goldfish (my fiance wanted him... calls him frankie
)1 common pleco (remainder from the 10 gallon)
10 tiger barbs (I couldn't help myself)
Now, that you have the background, on to the questions.
When I bought the tank I had already decided I wanted to plant it heavily. When I bought it, I immediately pulled out the under gravel filter, switched out the substrate for more natural looking stuff and mixed in a bag of black flourite to help with the future inhabitants. The problem is, I really don't know what to get, plant wise. I'd love to hear suggestions on easier to keep leafy plants, that will grow well and look great. I would love to avoid any kind of CO2 injection.
I also would like suggestions on a solid light fixture to support these plants, without sacrificing an arm and leg. I know proper plant lighting is around 3-5w per gallon, however, the friend that got me started said T-5HO bulbs were more efficient and you didnt need quite that much. Is that true? Any suggestions to fixtures that would be appropriate?
I'm also aware I have a lot of algae eating fish, and I'm slightly worried they are going to have issues finding enough food, especially the big guy. All he does is pretty much sit still until the lights are off so I have no idea how well he's really doing. I've been dropping and algae wafer in every night, and it disappears, but I've seen the goldfish going after it before so I'm not sure if they are eating it instead. Any suggestions with this? I've read somewhere that bigger plecos love people vegetables like cucumber and romaine lettuce. Would this be the right way to go about feeding him?
And last, I'm thinking about setting the 10 gallon up as a medical tank, since one of the gourami seems to need some TLC. What would be the best way to seed it and get it in similar conditions as the bigger one? Do you guys leave your med tanks running all the time empty until there is an issue?
I guess that's it for now. I want to grill you guys on fish selection also, however I want to focus on the aquascaping first. I want to put some slate and build some elevated areas to plant in the corners, maybe a cave of some kind, and get a bigger piece of driftwood in too. Plus I have to figure out what to do with these stupid goldfish.
Oh, and pictures are to come, and I'm going to document the whole thing as it evolves. I've trolled a little bit this week and can tell you all like pictures
So anyways, yeah.... hows that for a first post eh?
