Well I'm new to the hobby and thought I'd give a shout out here. I've been doing some lurking here for a couple of weeks and love all the information I've read. Even the contradictory stuff.
A little history: (skip if you want)
I used to have a small aquarium as a child long, long ago. Had it for years, but someone else set it all up for me back then since I was only 7 or 8. Around 11 my mother came to clean my room and decided my fish looked "cold." I think she was looking for dirty mags or something because she never came in my room to clean like that before. So she turned up my heater and nuked all my fish I had. Never got anymore after that because I was so pissed at my mom. Although over the past few years I've been wanting to get back into the hobby, I must say I really didn't know that much and was a bit daunted.
Fast forward to a month ago. (can also skip if you want)
Recently had my girlfriend move in with me into my house. She already had an established 29 gal tank with a couple of couple fish and neons. She had one small Oranda and one large Fantail goldfish. She had been running a single Aqueon 30 HOB filter for the tank with some gravel substrate with a couple medium sized decoration. We did a good move from her place to mine when she moved in. She had been having some algae problems, she's a neat freak, and hated the look of it. She had tried buying a couple of plecos in the past, but she told me they would literally die within minutes of getting them. I think she was getting some bad plecos from somewhere. So after she had been moved in with me for 2 months she decided she want to try and get another pleco. So we headed over to petsmart for a pleco. My GF though is like a starving kid in a candy store when she is in a pet shop. If I would let her should put a horses, cows, chickens, cats, dogs, pigs, turtles, and practically every other animal in on the planet in my little house. So of course she is wanting to buy dozens of fish there. Instead I am able to convince her to keep it small. She buys a small pleco, small tiger barb, and a small pictus catfish. Well by morning we wake up to a dead barb and some fungul growth over the intake of the Aqueon. At this time I really don't know squat about aquarium keeping and have no clue what to do. She says we should do a water change and clean off the gunk. so we take the barb out, clean out the gunk off the intake, and do a 20% ish water change. Over the next few days practically everything starts dying. My GF cried and cried. I didn't know what to do and started reading. We had the water checked but it came out fine on ammonia and nitrites at first. As more fish started dying those level started shooting up pretty high, especially the ammonia. I still didn't know much about what was happening and truth be told I think the only explanation is she shocked the tank too much somehow with the new fish. Basically only the pleco has survived and is still alive today. To keep her from being in a depressed state I said we'll build her tank back up and that I also wanted to start a big new tank. We ended up getting her a couple more tiger barbs, some danios, and black finned catfish sharks for the tank for now. Also picked up another Aqueon 30 to add to her filtration as well as sticking some Fluval edge pre fitler sponges on the intake valves this time. Everything in her tank seems fine at the moment and hopefully stays that way.
You can start reading here for what I'm currently doing.
I called in a local friend who was the specialty manager at petsmart for a number of years before managing a LFS. Now he's a manager for Budweiser deliveries. Anyhow he had a lot of great advice, along with a truck I could borrow, and I leaned on him heavily. I picked up the Marineland 60 gallon tank kit they had at petsmart for $275. Although I could have gone used for cheaper off craiglist, I was leery about that since I've had friends try that before and received broken or leaking tanks. I didn't want to go through that. I tested my water out of the tap and here in south Texas the water is HARD. It has a pH of 8.7 with a gH and kH that is literally off the scale. With that in mind I'm going with an African cichlid tank from the online research I've done. I picked up bunch of gravel (although people I've read on other forums kept saying I should be using sand) along with several pieces of Texas Holey rock to toss into the tank. This was all done 2 weeks ago. It's been cycling since with currently two Emperor 400s hanging on the back. While not being exceptionally loud, the noise of those filters are a bit more than I would like. I put a few fake plants that my friend says the cichlid shouldn't try to eat although they may try digging them up, but we'll just have to see how well the fake plants last in the tank. Also bought a piece of already treated driftwood from a LFS to toss in there. It didn't do a darn thing to my pH scale in the tank really.
My friend and LFS keep insisting I should start with an overstock of cichlids to keep down aggression. So I've though maybe I should add more filtration and such to at least go with the emp 400s. I might just get rid of the emp 400s later for their noise. So looking online I couldn't decide on what exactly I should get at first until I stumbled upon some threads here. I decided to go with a Aquatop (aka sunsun 404b) 500 as well as the Odyssea CFS 500. I plan on doing a few mods as others have done here to these guys. I know they are no Eheim, but I think they'll work well enough from the reviews here as long as I'm a bit more careful with them.
I've been cycling the tank with the emp 400s now for a couple of weeks. Originally I was doing it fishless but my friend said I should get some feeder fish instead. He has some Rosey Reds he keeps for his Oscars and gave me a dozen of them to toss in the 60g tank. I didn't want to do it, ut he says if they die it does matter. Just give them back to him so he can use them to feed his Oscars or crawfish. Which is what they were destined for in the first place. So far they seem to be doing fine although the ammonia level seems really high. I was hoping the ammonia would start going down soon but it hasn't at all. But I'm still waiting on my two canisters to arrive anyhow.
My GF also now wants to start up a tank for angelfish or discus. She isn't sure which she likes better. This time I might go with a tank I find off CL if I can find a good enough deal. If you guys want can take some pics later of the new tank I'm setting up. There one set of decorations I'm missing that I plan to stick in there that I think will be very cool looking. I've ordered some gypsum selenite tower lamps. I picked up a bunch ranging in sizes from 6 to 14 inches in length. If you don't know what these look like, they look like the crystals from Superman's Fortress of Solitude. The only downside is gypsum dissolves over time in water and might make the water WAY to high on the pH and hardness scales. So I plan on using water tight clear coat enamel to seal those suckers before putting them in there. I think over all the effect will be rather dramatic. I wanted to keep the colors in the tank very neutral with whites and blacks so that the colors of the African cichlids just pop out at you.
My friend and the LFS says once my tank is cycled and I have the canisters set up and good to go I should overstock my tank with around 30 fish that will have be a bunch of baby cichlids, plecos, and catfish. I also might stick in cyphotilapia as well since my GF really likes the look of fish with big heads. Don't ask me why. Both my friend and the LFS recommend me doing this much fish to prevent too much aggression now and later when the fish grow up.
If you guys want I can take some pictures of what I got going, although with the rosies in there it is pretty boring, when I get home.
A little history: (skip if you want)
I used to have a small aquarium as a child long, long ago. Had it for years, but someone else set it all up for me back then since I was only 7 or 8. Around 11 my mother came to clean my room and decided my fish looked "cold." I think she was looking for dirty mags or something because she never came in my room to clean like that before. So she turned up my heater and nuked all my fish I had. Never got anymore after that because I was so pissed at my mom. Although over the past few years I've been wanting to get back into the hobby, I must say I really didn't know that much and was a bit daunted.
Fast forward to a month ago. (can also skip if you want)
Recently had my girlfriend move in with me into my house. She already had an established 29 gal tank with a couple of couple fish and neons. She had one small Oranda and one large Fantail goldfish. She had been running a single Aqueon 30 HOB filter for the tank with some gravel substrate with a couple medium sized decoration. We did a good move from her place to mine when she moved in. She had been having some algae problems, she's a neat freak, and hated the look of it. She had tried buying a couple of plecos in the past, but she told me they would literally die within minutes of getting them. I think she was getting some bad plecos from somewhere. So after she had been moved in with me for 2 months she decided she want to try and get another pleco. So we headed over to petsmart for a pleco. My GF though is like a starving kid in a candy store when she is in a pet shop. If I would let her should put a horses, cows, chickens, cats, dogs, pigs, turtles, and practically every other animal in on the planet in my little house. So of course she is wanting to buy dozens of fish there. Instead I am able to convince her to keep it small. She buys a small pleco, small tiger barb, and a small pictus catfish. Well by morning we wake up to a dead barb and some fungul growth over the intake of the Aqueon. At this time I really don't know squat about aquarium keeping and have no clue what to do. She says we should do a water change and clean off the gunk. so we take the barb out, clean out the gunk off the intake, and do a 20% ish water change. Over the next few days practically everything starts dying. My GF cried and cried. I didn't know what to do and started reading. We had the water checked but it came out fine on ammonia and nitrites at first. As more fish started dying those level started shooting up pretty high, especially the ammonia. I still didn't know much about what was happening and truth be told I think the only explanation is she shocked the tank too much somehow with the new fish. Basically only the pleco has survived and is still alive today. To keep her from being in a depressed state I said we'll build her tank back up and that I also wanted to start a big new tank. We ended up getting her a couple more tiger barbs, some danios, and black finned catfish sharks for the tank for now. Also picked up another Aqueon 30 to add to her filtration as well as sticking some Fluval edge pre fitler sponges on the intake valves this time. Everything in her tank seems fine at the moment and hopefully stays that way.
You can start reading here for what I'm currently doing.
I called in a local friend who was the specialty manager at petsmart for a number of years before managing a LFS. Now he's a manager for Budweiser deliveries. Anyhow he had a lot of great advice, along with a truck I could borrow, and I leaned on him heavily. I picked up the Marineland 60 gallon tank kit they had at petsmart for $275. Although I could have gone used for cheaper off craiglist, I was leery about that since I've had friends try that before and received broken or leaking tanks. I didn't want to go through that. I tested my water out of the tap and here in south Texas the water is HARD. It has a pH of 8.7 with a gH and kH that is literally off the scale. With that in mind I'm going with an African cichlid tank from the online research I've done. I picked up bunch of gravel (although people I've read on other forums kept saying I should be using sand) along with several pieces of Texas Holey rock to toss into the tank. This was all done 2 weeks ago. It's been cycling since with currently two Emperor 400s hanging on the back. While not being exceptionally loud, the noise of those filters are a bit more than I would like. I put a few fake plants that my friend says the cichlid shouldn't try to eat although they may try digging them up, but we'll just have to see how well the fake plants last in the tank. Also bought a piece of already treated driftwood from a LFS to toss in there. It didn't do a darn thing to my pH scale in the tank really.
My friend and LFS keep insisting I should start with an overstock of cichlids to keep down aggression. So I've though maybe I should add more filtration and such to at least go with the emp 400s. I might just get rid of the emp 400s later for their noise. So looking online I couldn't decide on what exactly I should get at first until I stumbled upon some threads here. I decided to go with a Aquatop (aka sunsun 404b) 500 as well as the Odyssea CFS 500. I plan on doing a few mods as others have done here to these guys. I know they are no Eheim, but I think they'll work well enough from the reviews here as long as I'm a bit more careful with them.
I've been cycling the tank with the emp 400s now for a couple of weeks. Originally I was doing it fishless but my friend said I should get some feeder fish instead. He has some Rosey Reds he keeps for his Oscars and gave me a dozen of them to toss in the 60g tank. I didn't want to do it, ut he says if they die it does matter. Just give them back to him so he can use them to feed his Oscars or crawfish. Which is what they were destined for in the first place. So far they seem to be doing fine although the ammonia level seems really high. I was hoping the ammonia would start going down soon but it hasn't at all. But I'm still waiting on my two canisters to arrive anyhow.
My GF also now wants to start up a tank for angelfish or discus. She isn't sure which she likes better. This time I might go with a tank I find off CL if I can find a good enough deal. If you guys want can take some pics later of the new tank I'm setting up. There one set of decorations I'm missing that I plan to stick in there that I think will be very cool looking. I've ordered some gypsum selenite tower lamps. I picked up a bunch ranging in sizes from 6 to 14 inches in length. If you don't know what these look like, they look like the crystals from Superman's Fortress of Solitude. The only downside is gypsum dissolves over time in water and might make the water WAY to high on the pH and hardness scales. So I plan on using water tight clear coat enamel to seal those suckers before putting them in there. I think over all the effect will be rather dramatic. I wanted to keep the colors in the tank very neutral with whites and blacks so that the colors of the African cichlids just pop out at you.
My friend and the LFS says once my tank is cycled and I have the canisters set up and good to go I should overstock my tank with around 30 fish that will have be a bunch of baby cichlids, plecos, and catfish. I also might stick in cyphotilapia as well since my GF really likes the look of fish with big heads. Don't ask me why. Both my friend and the LFS recommend me doing this much fish to prevent too much aggression now and later when the fish grow up.
If you guys want I can take some pictures of what I got going, although with the rosies in there it is pretty boring, when I get home.
