Bigger aquarium

[bozco]

Hello,
I have been keeping an aquarium for a little over a year now. I currently have a 10gal and a 5gal but my dad wants to buy me a bigger tank for Christmas (he's so thoughtful). I was thinking maybe a 30 gal tank, a 40 or 50 would be nice but thats an awful lot of work and alot of money.

I wanted to know a few things. What kind of filter should I get? In my smaller tanks I use undergravel filters but the airpumps are suck a pain in the butt and so noisy too so I want something else for the larger tank. I don't know anything about filters, I'm a self taught aquarists...and I guess a slow learner. *L*

Also I want to switch from fake plants to real plants. I have some hornwort, vira spiralis (not sure I have that name right) and some star grass inmy ten and five gallons right now, but most of the plants are still plastic. What plants should I use and should I use a sand gravel mixture instead of just gravel?

What kind of fish would I be able to keep in a 30 gal? In my 10 and 5 gal I have glowlight tetras, guppies, redtail sharks, japanese algae eaters, and swordtails, also one cobra angel fish which for sure will move to the bigger tank. But what fish, larger than guppies and the little tetras, will be happy in a 30gal without being too big? (I already traded an angel fish for guppies because the angle grew way too big for my 10gal, and I don't want to make such a mistake again)

Sorry, thats alot of questions, and I'll probably have more later. Thanks.

 

[cblin]

The bigger the tank, the better of course. A 30 gallon is 3' long, 40 gallon is 4' long, 55 gallon is 4' long but a little bit taller than 40 gallon. One thing about purchasing tanks, buy the biggest one you can afford and one that you can also move. After keeping aquarium for a while, your tank is eventually going to look smaller and smaller.

http://www.all-glass.com/products/aquariums/index.html

Refer to that website for sizes of the tanks.

Bigger tank allows you to keep more fish and bigger fish.

I love my 55 gallon tank. I have sand in that tank as well as live plants. I use 110W (2x55) of power compact lighting. I'm keeping swords, penny worts, java fern, cabombas and water sprite w/ no problems. Keeping plastic plants is one thing, keeping live plants with success is another; you have to make sure you have high quality water, high quality lighting and fertilize them w/ trace elements.

My fish in the 55 gallon are:

1 angelfish
10 assorted tetras
2 rainbows
2 pearl gouarmis
10 cory cats
4 otos
1 farlowella
1 SAE

My filter is Eheim 2028.
A larger tank doesn't mean cheaper by any means. But it's a tank, you'll be happy with for a longer time, till you get a bigger one of course.

 

[bozco]

Actually I don't think we can afford anything bigger than a 30gal this year but thanks for the tips. Is that filter you mentioned an exterior filter? I'm fed up with my undergravel filters.

 

[cblin]

Yes, it is an external canister filter. Undergravel is probably the cheapest, less efficient and the most hassle way to go for a filter. It's a great idea, but a pain to clean.

If you decided to go with a 30 gallon, a HOB filter like AquaClear would be perfect. They're about $20-40 and also pretty quiet compared to something like Penguin (used to have one, had a biowheel, fed up with the splashes and the sound it made). You can put different media in the AquaClear. Most of the time, I just use 3 layers of foam. To polish the water a little or to get rid of medication; I'd use wife's panty hose, fill it up w/ some carbon, rinse it under the sink and throw it in the middle compartment between the two foams.
You can also rinse and reuse the foams, but one at a time because you want to keep the good bacteria.

There are also other great filters out there that I don't have experience with that you may want to get feedback on.

 

[TKOS]

Yes, go with a canister filter if you can or at the very least a HOB filter. I have a planted tank with gravel and it works fine. Just choose the appropriate plants. UGF filters will eventually get clogged with plant roots so they are out if you want a true planted tank. Try to buy a filter for 1.5 times your tank size or else one that can turn over the water 7-8 times per hour (400 gph on a 50 gallon tank).

Move the RTBS over to the new tank as well. A 5 or 10 gallon is too small for them and they will eventually get into serious fights with the algae eaters.

Look for the longest tank you can buy. This allow the fish more room to swim as most go back and forth not up and down. If the 40 is possible I would try hard to get it.

And bigger tanks aren't necessarily more work. There will be bigger water changes to do and more plants to clip but the water quality tends to stay better longer than the smaller tanks.

 

[~*LuvMyKribs*~]

Get African cichlids.

I just set up my new 33 gallon and added some malawi cichlids... and i have already fallen in love with these fish! THEY ARE SO AWESOME! All the different kinds school together and swim around the rocks and chase and play. So much fun to watch and sooo colorful! Most get pretty big, so a bigger tank (like 50 gals) would be better. Alas, I didn't have the space for one.

Very fun fish, but you can't do plants. Only vallisernia and anubias.

 

[JSchmidt]

Originally posted by TKOS
There will be bigger water changes to do and more plants to clip but the water quality tends to stay better longer than the smaller tanks.

Water quality will only be better if you stock more lightly (i.e., amount of fish per gallon) in the bigger tanks. Large tanks can go south just as fast as small tanks, except that it's easier (and more typical?) for smaller tanks to be overstocked.

Jim

 

[bozco]

Wow thanks guys you all got me taking notes. I might try for the 40 but we're short of pennys at the moment. The filter info is great. I always need more filter info, I'm so uninformed about filters its sad. I get lost looking at them in the fish stores and I just end up buying the cheapest I can find so your help is greatly appreciated?

And yes I have noticed some agression between my Jap Algea eaters and my Red Tails so I planned on moving the red tails as well. They were the first fish I ever got and very good tank starters in my experiance but they did get bigger than I thought.

I kind of wanted to stay away from too many Cichlids. I don't really know much about them but from what I've heard they are kind of aggressive and after my tiger bard experiance I don't want to deal with many more aggresive fish. (on that note though my angel fish is actually a perfect angel, never bothers anybody)

Anyway thanks and keep it coming folks, I need all the help I can get