Aquarium Talk: Fish/Reptiles/Lizards/Insectivoids...

[Matt308]

In your dreams...

[evangilder]

You know, after looking at the pics of my old tanks, and everyone else's, I will at some point get back into it. I love the ambience of a tank, and it's very relaxing to sit and watch the fish.

I had cichlids for 6 years, and never added any salt to the tank. They seemed fine without it. I did however, feed them frozen brine shrimp 2-3 times a week, which might have helped the salt level. I also used spirulina flake, which really brought out the color in the Africans.

Do you guys do the nitrogen cycle with, or without fish? I did one without fish once and it was the healthiest tank I ever had. It's a real simple way to do it. You set up the tank and get all your filtration running, etc. Then without fish, add a little ammonia (amount depends on water volume) to the water and let it sit for 2-4 weeks. Check the levels. The ammonia will start to drop and when it normalizes and your other levels stabilize, you are done with the cycle and you won't have stressed fish from the cycle. It worked great and after introducing the fish into the tank, they all thrived. I didn't lose any.

[comiso90]

great tip on the cycle.. next time i need to start over... I'll give it a shot.

BTW.. Salt promotes gill health helps keep the algae under control.

it also leaves a pesky salt residue on the top of the tank

[Matt308]

For a 55 gal tank without saltwater, how often do you guys clean yours? Or does it depend upon the types of fish/snails/etc?

[comiso90]

Originally Posted by Matt308

For a 55 gal tank without saltwater, how often do you guys clean yours? Or does it depend upon the types of fish/snails/etc?

The conversations above about salt pertain to specialized freshwater fish that benefit from salt added. No one has mentioned a saltwater marine tank yet (except Adler) I don't have one. all the photos are of freshwater fish.

The larger the tank, the less u have to clean it. IMO, 55 gal is too small for salt. Although it can be done, it will be a lot of work for a starter tank.

Get African Cichlids!

NEVER GET SNAILS

[Matt308]

So let's say a Dumb*** novice like me wants a freshwater 100 gal tank. What type of fish, treatment and special items would I need to minimize my cleaning and still enjoy a beginner's tank? How often would I have to completely remove the water and replenish? And what is involved in cleaning the sand medium?

[lesofprimus]

And I say get New World Cichlids, they are more aggressive and prettier...

[comiso90]

Originally Posted by Matt308

In your dreams...

Nuff said!

[evangilder]

Originally Posted by Matt308

So let's say a Dumb*** novice like me wants a freshwater 100 gal tank. What type of fish, treatment and special items would I need to minimize my cleaning and still enjoy a beginner's tank? How often would I have to completely remove the water and replenish? And what is involved in cleaning the sand medium?

Start with a good filter setup. You will also need at least one heater (I always use 2, just in case one craps out). Depending on a number of things, you may or may not want or need an air pump and air stone. Visit a local fish store, they have a wealth of knowledge and experience and can be very helpful getting things started.

In my years of tank ownership, I have never had to completely remove and replace all of the water. A typical cleaning , which includes using a gravel vacuum (to clean the sand/gravel in the bottom of the tank), you will replace about 10-20% of the water in the tank. I use old sparkletts bottles to prep the water with the water prep that removes the Chlorine, chloramine and the heavy metals.

It's certainly not rocket science, but you will learn a lot about water chemistry and the like. My helpful son one day decided to feed my cichlids...about a full container of food! That was about enough food for 6 months. That will make the water brackish and smelly. In that instance, I was doing 50% water changes daily for about a week to clear it up again. That also included daily filter cleaning and gravel vac too. AND that also had me relocate the food to a higher position!

Cichlids are great fish, hearty and active. They are also pretty colorful and a lot of fun to keep. Just make sure that your local fish store knows cichlids well. They can advise which ones will cohabitate well together. If you get cichlids, I think a number of us can give you plenty of advice on them.

[comiso90]

Originally Posted by Matt308

So let's say a Dumb*** novice like me wants a freshwater 100 gal tank. What type of fish, treatment and special items would I need to minimize my cleaning and still enjoy a beginner's tank? How often would I have to completely remove the water and replenish? And what is involved in cleaning the sand medium?

You'll want to visit your local fish store for a frame of referance but here are some thoughts:

The most common types of freshwater tanks are Tropical Community Tanks and Cichlid tanks.

Tropical Community Tanks: Very inexpensive fish-- (sword tails, black mollies, zebra danios, neons, Grommies etc... etc) can be very nice looking fish but i find them boring and fragile. They get diseases easy... and well.. they just don't do much... they seem stupid

Cichlid Tanks: They're South American and African Cichlids. Like Les said the south americans tend to be more aggresive and do better in smaller numbers... cause they try to kill each other.

African Cichilds are aggressive too but seem to fair better in numbers.

All Cichlids are cool because they are MUCH more social then community fish. They're much more fun to watch... they're more like a pack of excited dogs. It has been my experience that they are more hardy too... very tolerant fish that you have to try and kill... I've NEVER seen a Cichlid disease (fingers crossed) I've seen tons of tropical community fished diseased. They will soldier on.

all tanks need bottom feeders (plecostomus, catfish, algae eaters)

40 gallons is a good size for a beginner. Check the Python link I post earlier... it is a MUST have!

I do a 20% water change once every 2-3 weeks

there is a ton of info out there... Lord Google will help thee

A Guide to Cichlids: the beginner :: FishGeeks :: Tropical fish - Marine Fish - Aquarium Fish - Pond Fish - Aquatic Plants

[comiso90]

Evan..
Have you tried useing gold fish to get the cycle started in a new tank? It's my impression that they are too dirty even for that purpose.

They crap faster than it can decay

[Soundbreaker Welch?]

In les's tank, I like the black and grey fish, with the big jaw and a grumpy man's face.

He just looks like a character.

[lesofprimus]

Which fella u talkin about Welsh???? Is he in the pics or the vid clip???

[evangilder]

Originally Posted by comiso90

Evan..
Have you tried useing gold fish to get the cycle started in a new tank? It's my impression that they are too dirty even for that purpose.

They crap faster than it can decay

Nope, never used a goldfish for that reason. They are really dirty fish and I'm not particularly crazy about goldfish anyway.

I have had tropical and cichlid tanks and I think you are right about diseases with cichlids. All of mine were either attacked by other fish, or died of old age. But then again, Africans have a tendency to go after the weak too, so maybe that helps keep the disease from spreading.

My community tank had platys, swordtails and tetras. The platys thrived in our old house and were breeding regularly. Occasionally, I would get a platy with dropsy, which, fortunately never effected the other fish. I usually quarantined them in a hospital tank anyway. It usually was a female that had recently had babies. They get real prone to that after having them.

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Originally Posted by Matt308

For a 55 gal tank without saltwater, how often do you guys clean yours? Or does it depend upon the types of fish/snails/etc?

About every two weeks we clean out the filters and do a 20 percent water change. You dont want to change the whole wather just about 20 percent.