new tank

onepawnup

onepawnup

AC Members
Jan 2, 2006
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I am very new to this hobby
I bought an established tank from a friend 45 gal it contained an ocsar (12 inches) a pleco (about 8 inches) and a clown loach (4-5 inches) my wife really disliked the oscar as he was a bully so i gave him to a friend where he lives in a 50 gal with a pleco. i have added mostly cheap fish (mollies platies, danos, and neons (they disapeared, not sure what ate them ) i wanted to make sure i could keep them alive before adding other more expensive fish
my question for this tank is about the clown loach, i have never seen him eat
i have had the tank for two months so im sure he does also he is very shy.. would adding anothe clown loach help even if its much smaller ??

2nd question
Now that im getting hooked on all this
i found a friend that can get me a tank built for cost so im looking at getting one thats 7-8 ft by 28 inches deep by 2.5 tall aprox 285-300 gal
according to volume calc i found on the net. Any way tank is all i would have so i will be needing filters lighting ect ect. im thinking of housing african cichlids in it but not sure

what all do i need ? how many fish can i keep ect
all help is appreciated ...i know next to nothing so please talk as simply as possible
if you had a bare 300 gal tank what would you do ???

Thanks
onepawnup
 
A tank that big is gonna be a chore and very expensive for enough filtration most people go by the rule 1" of fish per gallon. IMO American cichlids are also much easier to take care of than Africans just not as pretty and they grow bigger personally I like them better.

If you had very small fish my guess is you loach ate them in the middle of the night.
 
BTW you are gonna need water quality test kits, Several Heaters, Fliters of your choice.
 
Thats a lot of tank to start off with! Its like just learning to ride a 250cc motorcycle, barely feeling comfortable with it and then driving it to the bike shop to trade it in for an 1100cc. Not trying to discourage you at all but many of poeple get into this hobby and after some time they sell it all off, the novelty was gone or it was too much work. I'm not saying that this would happen to you but to get a tank of that size is a big expense. In my opinion, use the tank that you have and experiment with it. You may find that you may want to get into salt water or even a freshwater planted tank. Take some time, do some research and try not to rush things. If you do decide to go with the big tank there are plenty of people here that would be more helpfull than your local fish store.
Good luck,

Terry.
 
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