Small tanks- discussion thread

[justintoxicated]

I have a 3 gallon eclipse I'm still working on...

It has 1 Bumble Bee Gobie, and a few growing guppies (3 of them) (they are growing fast since I removed the others.) And one Ghost Shrimp.


I just discovered some kind of baby snail I have not yet IDed. I have no idea where it came from as I have not added anything to the tank in a long time other than some salt for the BB Gobie. Somehow it is in there though! Very strange I think it might be a trumpet snail but untill it is larger i dunno.

I just found a way to mmodify the stock eclipse filter, I carefully ripped up one side and removed teh skimmpy few pieces of charcoal they give you. Instead I filled the inside of it up with charcoal (about 5 times what comes in there) And rinsed the filter in old tank water. I try to keep up with my water changes but I like having the charcoal in there just in case I also think it helps to polish the water.

 

[misopeenut]

does charcoal helps clear the water that much?? i took the charcoal off from my eheim and now i have black water from using peat and putting driftwood but my fish are putting color taht ive never seen before so i guess im gonna leave it like this..

 

[justintoxicated]

It seems to help for me, but it probably depends why your water is not clear. It also needs to be changed often. I don't always change it as often as I should but when I do it does seem to help.

 

[tricksterpup]

2 Gallon

BEFORE (ugly)
Inhabitants:
3 Ghost Shrimp

AFTER: (decent)

Well what do you think? I'm most pleased by the 0.2L bowl..

This would be a great tank for the dwarf livebearer. In a tank this "big" you could atleast keep 10 happy with regular water changes.

 

[misopeenut]

What are endlers?

 

[tricksterpup]

Endlers are a small live bearer that is closely related to the Guppy. They are brightly colored and very active fish. I also raise them myself, very nice fish.
Go ahead and google them, you will see plenty of pictures of the fish.

 

[tuvok]

I just had to chime in. This is a great thread (I wish it was a sticky or an article as has been said before). I think this thread does the community a great service by giving people information on how to responsibly stock a small tank. Right now I have a 38g tank (only 16g of water in it) and a 10g. I have to say that the 10g seems to be doing quite well and is a pleasure to watch. Another factor that will likely see me running smaller tanks is simply that the only place I can keep my large tank is in the basement due to space considerations. While this works in a practical sense, and I'm down there every day to look after the fish, I always wish that I could have the fish somewhere that I spend more time such as the living room or home office. In my house this requires a small tank. This was a lot typing to basically say "great thread". I hope that it keeps getting read because I feel it has a lot to offer.

 

[rosita]

EMG, thank you so much for starting this thread!!! I think the small aquaria
are absolutely beautiful when done right, and if the keeper is intelligent
enough to research and put correct size fish, without overcrowding and
changing water often enough, what's the problem? We gots yer big fishies, we gots yer giant fishies, we gots your average fishies, and we gots yer minie fishies!!! Fishies is fishies.

 

[born2lovefish]

I have a sweet 2.5 gallon glass tank and I love it. I have a deep sand bottom built up to one side with some river rocks in there. The only filter I run on it is a little palmer one and I use a filter pad and bio cyclinder in it. I have three amazon swords in it and they are growing like crazy. I also have some java fern in there on some drift wood that sticks out like a branch from the built up sand. You ask why anyone would keep a small tank and the answer is simple. I do it because I want the challange of it. I do a 50% water change once a month and add minerals to the RO water and blackwater extract along with plant fertilizer. I have kept one cardinal tetra in there with no prob, and also a pymy cat. Looks great sittle on a night stand of even a desk. call me crazy but I want to try turnering another 2.5 gallon into a small saltwater tank. Sure I have a 75 gallon and a 29 and some other tanks, but after a while fish keepers just need a challange, especially when others say it can not be down.

 

[Emg]

50% water change once a month doesn't sound like enough, but if all is well with the tank that's great !