New 120 Gal Freshwater

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Hey everyone. I just signed up for this forum and have loved it so much. So much good info on fishkeeping and everything. Here is my story so far on keeping a freshwater 120 gallon tank in my living room.

The tank itself was given to me by a family friend. The tank was cracked on the bottom and could not hold water at all. We cut a new slab of glass for the bottom and installed it a few months back. We filled it with water and it's been fine ever since. The tank came with the stand and the tank. We have since added a Rena Filstar xP3 canister filter and a 200 watt heater.

Once the tank was cycled (4 weeks) we introduced 15 bloodfin tetra and a few goldfish. A month later we finaly got Shipwreck (our motoro stingray) and 5 Japanese mystery snails. It's pretty much stocked as much as I think it can handle and I'm very happy with the look right now.

Water is at 78 degrees F.

There are also 4 live plants that were added very early in the tank setup. 3 of them are healthy, green and growing new leaves but one is browning around the edges and leaves are falling off... (this plant is found in the very middle of the tank and is the one with a brown leaf and lighter more yellowish leaves). I'm not sure what is wrong and the fish arent biting at it or anything. If anyone knows anything about this please let me know since I have never keep live plants and any tips would be great.

Here are some pics of the tank setup. I'll post more pics this week. They are a bit blurry and look foggy but I'l try and snap some good ones.

And one of me checking out Shipwreck.

This is basically a practise tank for the final goal wich is a reef tank for our shop. Really just learning the way things work to move up to salwater. Any comments, suggestions, tips are always welcome since this is my firsttank. This has been one of the coolest projects for me and has been so enjoyable and is turning out to be an ok addition to my living room.

Thanks
Bryce

 

[legendaryfrog]

whoa!! thats a crazy stocking and an awesome tank!!

glad to see everythings working out!

BTW, you should look into geting an additional filter; I have an XP4 and eheim 2217 on my 150 with a *similar* stocking and there are some problems with keeping everything clean.

 

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Yeah I think it's stocked to the max now. What would you suggest for this size to get optimal cleaning?

The am. and nitrites are alwasy 0 but nitrates are usually sitting at 20-30 ppm with this setup.

 

[OgreMkV]

That stingray is freaking awesome.

The plant that's browning is some kind of sword. I have a couple of them. You might get a test kit that does phosphates. My swords seem to get depressed when the phosphates are low.

 

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Ok thanks a lot. Yes it is a sword plant I know that for sure.

 

[irishspy]

You might want to put an additional filter on the tank: goldfish are major poop factories.

What do you feed the stingray?

 

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Yeah all the goldfish are from my fathers outdoor pond. Since it freezes over he asked me to keep them for the winter so they aren't my fave in the tank. True passion is the stingray.

He eats bloodworms, shrimp, and algae tablets. Usually 2 times daily.

 

[Firebelly__girl]

the sting ray looks awesome in the second pic, is he hard to take care off?? Ive always wanted one of them but people ive talked to said their high maintenance and die really easy, and aren't they suppose to have a sand substrate to safely burrow in? or does it not matter?

 

[the fox]

I like the sting but with a huge tank like that goldies are such a waste.

 

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The ray has been very easy to keep so far. As soon as I got him he burrowed in the substrate for 6 days and then suddenly came out and was searching for food. The only time he burrows now is when I am doing my weekly water change. He needs the water to be kept clean and to have food there to find and eat but that's pretty much it. And the water should be kept between 78-80.

As for the substrates the store kept him in that substrate and said anything finer can be bad for their filter so I purchased the stuff they were using in the tank. I have seen others with glass bottom tanks and the rays took a bit to get used to it but were comfortable after that. Personally I would never like the look of that or put my ray in it but I think he is happy in what he is in now. The left side of the tank is actually sand and doesn't effect my filter at all so he likes hovering over that stuff.

And as for the goldies I couldn't really think of anything else I wanted at the time besides the ray. Just took my fathers goldies into this tank for the winter. I'll be able to stock it with anything this spring.