Setting up a new Freshwater Aquarium: Getting it Right

garylkoh

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So, here's the tank on Week 7. The UV sterilizer has cleared the water (contrast with the murky picture above), ammonia is at zero, nitrites are at zero, and nitrates are low at below 5ppm due to the low bio-load. I only have about 25 inches of fish in a 140 gallon tank and quite a lot of growing plants.

Week 7.jpg
 

garylkoh

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Here we are at 3 months. The tank is established and growing nicely. I had allowed algae to grow on the back and two sides of the tank. This helps with oxygenation and keeps the tank looking green and a little wild. The algae also feeds the dozen otocinclus and snails. There are cherry shrimp hiding in the bushes on the right. The fish load includes 9 Roseline Sharks, 8 Bloodfin Tetras, 3 Corydoras that I can't figure out yet, 1 Redtail Black Shark and the remnants of the fish that came from the previous tank and which helped to cycle this tank - 1 Black Molly, 3 Neon Tetras and 2 Serpae Tetras. Soon, I will get 4 Yoyo Loaches to help keep the snail population down a little.

Dec 18.jpg
 

garylkoh

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The idea is to build up an algae wall. So, it is not going to be removed. The algae also helps to remove pollutants from the water, helps oxygenate the water and provides food for the herbivore fish and snails in the tank.

I was initially thinking of a java moss wall, but that is a little more difficult to upkeep. This is what a moss wall could look like:

PL-MO03-06.jpg

To keep the front wall clean so that I can see the fish, I use a magnetic glass cleaner. I scrub the front down every time I do a water change (30% every 5 to 7 days).

http://www.marinedepot.com/Algae_Fr...ow_Sure_Grip-AF1111-FIMTAMCMFM-AF1115-vi.html
 

garylkoh

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The fish have grown (in size as well as in numbers) and the plants have grown. Water parameters have stabilized and it's minimal maintenance - feed once/twice a day and a 30% water change a week. The otocinclus, Siamese Algae Eaters and various snails keep algae and debris low.

Tank Feb17.jpg

I had an explosion in the snail population, so about a month ago I put in two Assassin Snails and a couple of Clown Loaches. The Assassins are usually grubbing under the gravel hunting down small snails, but here are the two Clown Loaches hunting for snails. In less than a month, they had the snail population so far down that I've had to end up feeding them.

Tank Feb17 Detail.jpg
 

garylkoh

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Haha! I think that the assassins have already taken care of most of the snails in my tank. I was looking for snails today, and all I saw were empty shells - including large ones.

Warning - graphic content :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXlAh-kGywk
 

garylkoh

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To complement the bigger tank in the office, my wife decided that she wanted a nano-tank. So, she set up a 6 gallon to be populated with shrimp and may be celestial pearl danios.

Here are a couple of her pets:

Harold the pet Marimo Ball

Marimo Ball.jpg

Amano Shrimp grazing on hair algae growing on Scarlet Temple. Being much less patient than I am, she put plants and creatures in within 2 weeks of setting up, and we have a bit of an algae issue.

Amano grazing.jpg

Hmmmm..... I think I'm out of space to post pictures.
 

LL21

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Gary, this is incredible. A lot of time and hard work to do this stuff...people talk about getting fish instead of a dog because its easier. I think having our dog seems a lot easier! Thanks for all the shots too...its like Jacques Cousteau around here!

BTW, i have to ask...but looking at your tank, do you ever think of Ebi sashimi? ;) Talk about fresh!
 

LL21

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Gary, this is incredible...its like Jacques Cousteau around here!

BTW, i have to ask...but looking at your tank, do you ever think of Ebi sashimi? ;) Talk about fresh!

... I believe that the servant fished it out and we ate it, but I was just a kid then and don't know for sure. I wonder if Carol remembers this, we were very young....... one day, my tinfoil barbs disappeared and appeared on the dining table. They were extremely bony, but steamed with black bean sauce, they were delicious.

Now, I'll only keep fish too small to eat :D

Hah! Just re-read and saw your answer!
 

JackD201

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The cherry shrimp looks a lot like amaebi. Hehehehe. :D
 

garylkoh

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Actually, now that it is established, the tank isn't much work at all. I feed the fish once a day, and change water once a week. While the water is being siphoned out, I clean the window, use the siphon to clean the gravel, and do a little pruning of the vegetation. When it's Summer, I'll get around to cleaning the canister filter (once every 4 to 6 months).

The cleaning routine is really therapeutic as is the feeding. It makes for a great relaxing break from work to watch the fish for a few minutes.
 

carolkoh

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BTW, i have to ask...but looking at your tank, do you ever think of Ebi sashimi? ;) Talk about fresh!

Let me tell you about the Yabby... We had an 80 gallon community tank in the house that Gary or I would add to occasionally. One day, Gary was wandering around in Petco and came home with two "Electric blue" crayfish. They grew and grew, and grew... fish kept disappearing, one day, one ate the other... then it ate my little black ghost knife! I did a Google image search. Turned out that it was a Yabby. An Australian Yabby - Cherax Destrustor - a voracious scavenger that Aussies keep in stock ponds.

Well, out came a nice sized pot, water at rolling boil, stuck a long chopstick at the aggressive little bugger. It bit, we fished it up, a minute later, yummy crayfish for Gary and son with a bit of butter. That was as expensive bite of crayfish tail.
 

treitz3

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Gary, that reminds me of a Chiclid we got from Lake Malawi in Africa. We got it from an independent pet store probably about 19-20 years ago. It was a beautiful Orange in color fish with florescent tones throughout and a bright yellow/orange dorsal fin and some of the most beautiful egg spots on the anal fin. The color of the egg spots would change depending on whether or not this fish was happy. When we got the fish, it was only about 1" long and I chose that fish specifically because of the florescent tones.

Well, time flew by and I had a very established tank (many years past the current establishment of yours). I am in no way disrespecting your tank (it's coming along nicely and it looks great!) but to let you place things in perspective, my back wall was nothing but solid and thick algae, which made the tank basically self sustained, even with food for the fish.

One year we had some babies. I couldn't tell who the parents were but I counted 13 babies. They were so small and there were SO many hiding places amidst the rocks and plants that there *could* have been many more. Anyhoo, I "officially" counted 13 with this particular batch. One of these babies started coming out of the rocks about 2 months later and it was the most beautiful Cichlid I had ever laid my eyes upon. Words could not even describe just how beautiful this fish was....and it was not your "typical" Cichlid colors. It was multi-colored with so much florescence that it looked like it was a saltwater fish and not a freshwater fish. At this time, I had Tetras and Cichlids all in that same tank, since they both come from the same lake in Africa.

Over the next couple of weeks, I notice the Tetras disappearing and some of the babies were never to be seen again. So, I bump up the feeding schedule. That one Orange fish I loved so much had now taken a turn. I caught him chasing the other fish around and witnessed him eating two of them. Now at this point, I wasn't worried about the multi-colored fish, which I considered my "prized" Cichlid. It was still considerably smaller than the Orange fish, which at this point was close to about 4" long, making the multi-colored fish able to get into safety areas that the Orange fish could not fit into.

Fast forward about 6 months. All of the Tetras are long gone. I come home and my prized fish's skeletal remains are floating at the bottom of the tank. :mad:

I didn't fry the Orange fish but lucky for him my neighbor stopped by at the exact moment I had the Orange fish in a bucket, ready to dump in the toilet. She ended up taking the fish (she didn't want it to die) and placing it in a smaller tank all by itself. That damned fish lived another 5 or 6 years before I was told the great news that it had passed on. I'm not one for vengeance but in this case, even after 5 or 6 years had passed, I threw a party on its passing into fish heaven.

I know it's stupid and I know it's just normal nature but I had to draw the line with that Orange fish at some point, much like you did with your Australian Yabby.

Tom
 

LL21

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Terrific stories!!! I am torn between hunger pangs and the loss of good pet fish. ;)
 

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