TCool
Aquarium Advice Activist
Hi everyone,
I stumbled across this site while doing some research for my aquarium. I have had a tank for about 6 years now; started with a 20 and about 4 years ago got a 55 gallon. I have to admit though that I never really took the time to educate myself and learned things the hard way (losing fish). I haven't lost a fish in quite some time, but after really getting back into the hobby (as opposed to neglecting my tank as I have done quite often in the past few years) I realize how lucky I am. I haven't kept up on water changes and testing, so now that I've finally educated myself I can't believe that my fish are still alive. I guess I just got lucky.
I just about got rid of my tank a couple weeks ago, but decided instead to drop about $300 into it and now I'm hooked again. I got a new hood that covers the entire tank because some of my fish liked to splash the wall (and me) through the holes in the back where my HOB filters were. So, since I got that new hood I had to buy a new in tank filter and got a Rio 2100 that filters 690gph. I knew a little bit about bio filters so the reason I started researching more was because I was worried about how to switch filters and not destroy my bio filter (which I think I ended up doing anyway, but not sure because I don't have the proper test equipment because I've been dumb the past few years). I took my bio sponges out of one of my old filters and wrapped one around my air stone and jammed the other between my internal filter and the side of the glass in hopes that this would help to boost the bio filter.
Because of the valuable information I've gotten from this site I learned enough that I have an AP master test kit on the way and a cheap version of the python (aqueon-I hope this works). So, thanks for that info.
Anyway, the reason I'm telling all this is(besides introducing myself) because I'm hoping to get some input into how I'm starting to do things now. I probably should've looked into all this before purchasing my new equipment, but like I said before I'm dumb sometimes. So, anything anyone sees that I'm still doing wrong, please let me know, I can handle it.
Oh yeah, here are the fish I have and how long ago I got them (and hoping its not too much for my tank):
2 Silver Tipped Sharks (4 years)
2 Bala Sharks (4 years)
1 Angel Fish (4 years)
1 Pleco (At least 6 years)
2 Rainbow Sharks (4 years)
1 Knife Fish (about 1 year)
2 Pictus Catfish (about 1 year)
And my new fish I got less than a month ago(yeah I was dumb enough to start looking into this stuff after putting in new fish):
1 Peacock Eel (at least I hope he's still in there, bugger is good at hiding).
1 African Leaf Fish (I think that's what its called)
3 Silver Dollar Fish
Now, what I don't want you to do is tell me my tank is so overstocked that I have to go out and buy a 200 gallon tank.
Here are some pictures of my tank. All the ones in this album are old pictures.
Fish Tank pictures by tcoltz - Photobucket
Here are a bunch from today:
3-04-10 pictures by tcoltz - Photobucket
I stumbled across this site while doing some research for my aquarium. I have had a tank for about 6 years now; started with a 20 and about 4 years ago got a 55 gallon. I have to admit though that I never really took the time to educate myself and learned things the hard way (losing fish). I haven't lost a fish in quite some time, but after really getting back into the hobby (as opposed to neglecting my tank as I have done quite often in the past few years) I realize how lucky I am. I haven't kept up on water changes and testing, so now that I've finally educated myself I can't believe that my fish are still alive. I guess I just got lucky.
I just about got rid of my tank a couple weeks ago, but decided instead to drop about $300 into it and now I'm hooked again. I got a new hood that covers the entire tank because some of my fish liked to splash the wall (and me) through the holes in the back where my HOB filters were. So, since I got that new hood I had to buy a new in tank filter and got a Rio 2100 that filters 690gph. I knew a little bit about bio filters so the reason I started researching more was because I was worried about how to switch filters and not destroy my bio filter (which I think I ended up doing anyway, but not sure because I don't have the proper test equipment because I've been dumb the past few years). I took my bio sponges out of one of my old filters and wrapped one around my air stone and jammed the other between my internal filter and the side of the glass in hopes that this would help to boost the bio filter.
Because of the valuable information I've gotten from this site I learned enough that I have an AP master test kit on the way and a cheap version of the python (aqueon-I hope this works). So, thanks for that info.
Anyway, the reason I'm telling all this is(besides introducing myself) because I'm hoping to get some input into how I'm starting to do things now. I probably should've looked into all this before purchasing my new equipment, but like I said before I'm dumb sometimes. So, anything anyone sees that I'm still doing wrong, please let me know, I can handle it.
Oh yeah, here are the fish I have and how long ago I got them (and hoping its not too much for my tank):
2 Silver Tipped Sharks (4 years)
2 Bala Sharks (4 years)
1 Angel Fish (4 years)
1 Pleco (At least 6 years)
2 Rainbow Sharks (4 years)
1 Knife Fish (about 1 year)
2 Pictus Catfish (about 1 year)
And my new fish I got less than a month ago(yeah I was dumb enough to start looking into this stuff after putting in new fish):
1 Peacock Eel (at least I hope he's still in there, bugger is good at hiding).
1 African Leaf Fish (I think that's what its called)
3 Silver Dollar Fish
Now, what I don't want you to do is tell me my tank is so overstocked that I have to go out and buy a 200 gallon tank.
Here are some pictures of my tank. All the ones in this album are old pictures.
Fish Tank pictures by tcoltz - Photobucket
Here are a bunch from today:
3-04-10 pictures by tcoltz - Photobucket