Saltwater & Reef

Grannysneo · 09-02-2014, 05:36 AM

Hi. My brother is giving me an old 125 gallon tank. Hubby making me a stand. I'm going to take the filter from my 10 gallon n run it in there for a couple days plus I bought bacteria starter . I'm planning on adding a couple dozen feeder guppies. Then letting it run a couple of weeks. I want to start out with 2 parrot fish and 3 clown loaches. Give thematic could of weeks then add 2 convicts. After a couple of months add an oscar A couple months after that I want to add 2 jack Dempsey and a green terror.

Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

**Autumnsky** · 09-03-2014, 02:27 PM

I am not an experienced Cichlid stocking person so I will skip that part.

But the time you are mentioning for the speed of stocking might be a little bit too fast. It will take about 5-6 weeks generally for BB to be grown and fully functional. To complete the cycle, which the seeding of the 10G filter will help. You will need to test to make sure when your cycling time completes.

Here is some good info on fish in cycling.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/fishin...tep-dark-side/

dalto · 09-03-2014, 04:32 PM

3 clown loaches, a gt, an oscar, 2 "parrot fish", 2 convicts and 2 JDs.

IMO that is too many aggressive CA cichlids, even in a 6ft tank.

Jmunroe · 09-07-2014, 02:17 AM

Yup.. far too much for a 125. Oscar and a parrot or oscar and the gt or oscar and the convicts(breeding pair will kill the oscar so get 2 males or females) or oscar and a JD. Or 2 JD's or the cons and the parrots or the loaches and the oscar or loaches and gt or loaches and parrots. You get the idea. But all of what you suggested won't work because of aggression and water quality. I have an oscar and a male HRP in my 125 and am considering adding another smallish cichlid or pleco. I need to change 60-75% of the water every 5 days to keep water params in check. I will need to do it every 3 days after I had another fish. If your tank is not a 6 foot 125 then I would stay away from mixing the large cichlids together for territorial reasons.

Grannysneo · 09-07-2014, 04:20 AM

Yeah the tank is 6 ' long. It's all in planning stages now. Hubby has gotten stand about 1/2 built He's got to sand n paint the plywood then stain it Then brace the floor where it will sit. I'm just kinda trying to kinda figure out what I want in tank. I've got a couple of my neighbors that fish on lookout for drift wood. Is it possible to have 1 gt n I jack. This way they wouldn't be breeding I been lookin at lfs. & kinda wishing & drooling but the variety around here is nothing like it was15 yrs ago. The aquatic sections have geared now more toward the community type fish. Years ago when I was more into the hobby we had several fish only pet stores which have closed down. Even our petsmart. Has taken out over half their tanks. I've not even seen the large bags of gravel like I bought way back when I had a 55 gallon goldfish tank

Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

**Autumnsky** · 09-07-2014, 05:12 PM

What about the possibility of Discus?

The lfs have certainly dwindled since they can't keep up with the wide varieties of fish types, tanks, SW / FW, options and prices people can choose from online.

Grannysneo · 09-09-2014, 04:03 PM

I've been told that discus are not a hardy fish. That they need more than a occasional sweep of the vacuum hose

Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice