Beginner with 75 gallon tank and questions :)

[candygrrl]

Hi all!
I am looking for some advice and guidance so I can set up my new tank the right way. I have purchased a book and know the importance of cycling and adding the fish slowly. Do you also need to add the plants slowly? Can anyone recommend beginner plants?

I am getting a 75 gallon tank that was used as a saltwater aquarium. I want to make it a freshwater aquarium.
It is coming with "stand, glass tops, light strip with 2 48" NO flourescent 20k lights", seaclone skimmer with maxijet 1200 to run it, and coral decorations". This is a quote from the email. Any comments on the items in this description? I understand it also has a power filter.

I had originally planned to buy a 30 gallon tank and do a molly only tank. Is this feasible now with this 75 gallon monster? Would a tank this big look right with only mollies in it? If not, what else can you put in with mollies for interest?

My local fish store doesn't encourage me to go with the mollies. He suggests either a tetra and rainbow combination or Cichlids. I would welcome suggestions. I want interesting looking fish that are active and friendly. I'm not a big fan of the "aggressive" tank. Can mollies and ranbows be put in the same tank? How many fish (molly and rainbow size) would I eventually be able to have in the 75 gal. tank?

I appreciate any help or suggestions you can give!

Candace :D

[125gJoe]

Originally posted by candygrrl
Hi all!
I am looking for some advice and guidance so I can set up my new tank the right way. I have purchased a book and know the importance of cycling and adding the fish slowly. Do you also need to add the plants slowly? Can anyone recommend beginner plants?..........I appreciate any help or suggestions you can give!
Candace :D
First of all -- Welcome to Aquaria Central!

One main thing to do when starting out with live plants is to plant 80% or so of the aquarium. This will greatly help prevent a bad algae outbreak. There are many plants to choose from. I'll look for a good plant website (I used to know a good one..), I'll see if I can find it. :) Oh yeah, you can remove some of the plants once things have settled (water parameters..).

[candygrrl]

Wow! 80% planted? Ok, that's a lot of plants, lol! I would love to see the plant site, when you get a chance. :)

Any other tips? :D

[carpguy]

Welcome to AqC :D !

The plants are a bit more complicated than Fish Only. This is a great place to start (http://64.191.28.50/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2529). Your just barely into low light, so you may want to look into more light. This is a nice site (http://www.tropica.com/default.asp) to check out different plants, but you may not be able to find them all locally. Mail order is an option.

I personally wouldn't want a molly tank, but thats a personal choice thing. I tend to like smaller fish and (when I finally get my 75) will stock it with mostly small schoolers. Stocking levels are a complicated subject and I'm a little too tired to get into them now: I'll try to post back about them tomorrow…

Coral decorations will raise your pH which is probably not a good thing. You'll need to get some test kits. If you can give us some info about your water we could advise better. The skimmer is probably a protein skimmer, a piece of equipment used in saltwater but not normally seen in freshwater. Not personally familiar with them. What kind of power filter do ou have?

[irishspy]

Hi Candace,

Welcome to AC! :D

You're lucky -- I wish someone would give me a 75 gallon tank.

A lot of the equipment you mentioned is for a saltwater set-up, so isn't needed in your proposed tank. At least, I've never heard of using a protein skimmer in a freshwater system. :confused: You also won't want the coral decorations: they'll bump the Ph gradually (which is fine for African cichlids) and they really won't fit aesthetically with many freshwater fish.

I'm not sure why the LFS guy try to turn you away from mollies -- if you like mollies, why not give them a nice 75g home? I'm sure they'll be grateful. :cool:

As for plants, here are a couple of good links:

Aqua Botanic (click here) (http://www.aquabotanic.com/)

True Aquarium Plants (click here) (http://homeaquarium.com/default.asp)

These plus the fora here should get you a good start. :)

hope this helps,
--Anthony

[Sensei_the_dojo]

Somebody recently posted this link for a method to figure stocking levels. Looks like it makes pretty good sense.

http://www.icesoftware.com/kdodds/fish/beginners.htm

[candygrrl]

I just got a reply from the guy at my water board. He said my water has a pH of 7.8 - 8.3 and a hardness of 98-99. What kind of effect will that have on what fish I choose? I am not sure how to interpret those numbers...

I don't know what brand of power filter it is, unfortunately. The person just said it was the largest power filter that Wal-mart carries. I guess if it turns out not to be satisfactory, I can always buy another, since I am getting such a good deal on the tank and equipment.

Well, the lfs guy doesn't stock mollies, that could be one reason. there is another fish store, but I have some reservations about them that I may address in a new post.

I won't use the protein skimmer and coral decorations, but I guess I will take them from the guy. Maybe I can trade them to someone for something I can use!

[carpguy]

If you're not happy with your local fish stores (aka LFSs), you might want to take a look here (http://fins.actwin.com/dir/stores.php?c=1&r=19). I wandered all over the NY metro area hunting down good fish stores, and while I found 1 (one!) that I liked in Manhattan, and 2 that were OK over here in Queens, my favorite is an hour away on Long Island. Worth the trouble, IMHO, but mollies shouldn't be that hard to find.

Your pH is on the high side and your water is hard (these two frequently go hand in hand). Its not excessively so for either. Livebearers, like mollys, do well in this kind of water, as do lots of other fish. fishbase (fishbase.org) will give you the natural range for just about any fish you can think of. For the sailfin molly poecilia velifera (http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.cfm?genusname=Poecilia&speciesname=velifera) it says "freshwater; brackish; pH range: 8.0 - 8.0; dH range: 13.0 - 19.0"

mongabay (mongabay.com) seems to be down just now, but if you click on the link for biotopes (aquaria > biotopes?) they give profiles of the water conditions in different parts of the world and the fish that live there. There is lots of info out there, and most fish can adapt to a certain point (personally I still feel its best to give them the water they like, but lots of folks successfully keep fish in water outside their native range).