HELLO FROM A NEW GUY in SLC, UTAH

hitman962

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 18, 2014
7
0
0
Salt Lake City
They suggested I make my first post now and introduce myself. I live in SLC, Utah and began keeping tropical fish in my early teens. I bought a 26 gallon aquarium, which I had a stand to out it on top, and I bought a 17 gallon aquarium and put it on the bottom of the stand. Both aquariums together looked great. At that time, tropical fish keeping in SLC was very popular. I bought the usual types of tropical fish: neons, angels, catfish, algae eaters, plecostomus (my favorite) and so on. I eventually bought a pair of piranha, but the big one ate the little one so I wound up with only one. I kept him for several years before giving him away with the aquarium. I was able to clean the inside of the glass while he was watching and he never tasted me.

Later, when I married, we bought a 55 gallon aquarium and again filled it with the same array of tropical fish, minus the piranha, and they all got much bigger. My plecostomus (I always name my pleco Festus) was 18" long when we were forced to give our aquarium to a neighbor, who sold him to a nearby fish store, the same one I later bought feeder goldfish (12 for $1.00) for my pond.

Since we no longer had an aquarium, I decided to dig my own pond. It is a circle, 13 feet across and 3 feet deep, which equals 3,000 gallons. We stocked it with $5.00 worth of feeder goldfish and usually kept 6-8 koi in the pond also. The koi grew to be 24" long. We also bought some shubukin.

Last year, a rodent of some kind burrowed down the side of my 45 mil EPDM roofing liner and chewed a hole in my liner 2 feet down. Now we are left with an empty hole in the ground. We kept 12" of water in it and I threw a handful of duckweed in just to see what would happen. Now we have an empty pond filled with duckweed, which we always wished we had. When we'd throw a handful in, it was like the fish thought the duckweed was ice cream cones because they disappeared in minutes.

Our pond was a marvelous place to be. It attracted wildlife of all types. A blue heron was a regular visitor, trying to eat breakfast. A deer visited one morning but jumped our 6 foot fence and was gone when it saw me. As I'd sit, feeding the fish, the hummingbirds would come, hovering near a cloud of gnats, then darting in to pick them off one at a time. We also attracted 4 different types of dragon flies. And, a garter snake (we named him Snicker) made his home near our pond. I'd often see him sunning himself on top of our waterlilies or plastic duck. He grew to be 3 feet long at last sighting.

Now that we won't have a pond for a few years, I managed to buy a 230 gallon aquarium (with a leak) for $75. I'm looking forward to making a stand for it, then I plan to completely reseal it, which I hope will solve the leaking problem. Someone sealed it, or resealed it with black silicone of some kind, and it spreads out 2" or more in places. It looks awful.

Now, I need to know how to set up a 230 gallon aquarium. The filtration will be larger and different. I've already been researching websites on filtration and some even have automatic water replacement systems.

Lighting too has come a long way in the 12 years I've been away from tropical fish. I need advice for that too. I have seen some LED systems that look marvelous.

That's all there is. I'll have fun perusing your photos and reading advice on the topics I need advice on, and I'll post as needed. hitman962

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Albino Rhino 3.JPG

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Fish 12.JPG

Kyoto & Nemo.JPG

Kyoto 09.JPG

lilies 11.JPG

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Heron 1.JPG

My Pond 26.jpg

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My Pond 27.jpg

Snicker on plastic duck in pond.jpg
 

tlindsey

Silver Tier VIP
MFK Member
Aug 6, 2011
23,258
24,119
1,660
Ohio
Welcome to MFK! Nice pics, and good looking koi.:) I'll let other members chime in with filtration experience.
 

DIDYSIS

Mantilla Stingray
MFK Member
Feb 9, 2012
5,542
307
1,946
West Jordan Utah
Welcome . I actually live in Kearns Utah. If you ever need any help or advice on anything please let me know and I can help you with it. Shoot me a private message anytime. Or email k6031@yahoo.com

Sent from the Monster Fish Keeping App
 

hitman962

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 18, 2014
7
0
0
Salt Lake City
Snicker was 36" long at last measuring this past summer, but we believe the magpies caught him as he crawled across the grass. We have another that is 24" long or more so we have a Snicker Jr now. I'm near 3600 W 4700 South. I''ll e-mail you. Would ove and come look at your tanks and fish.

Snickerthe Snake.jpg
 

tomojsg

Redtail Catfish
MFK Member
Apr 21, 2011
2,536
752
150
大韓民國 (서울) Korea
welcome to MFK!
 
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