Where Should I Go Next With My Aquarium?

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J

JesseJamez

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Sep 28, 2011
102
13
33
California
Hello, I've had my 160 gallon tank for months now. It used to not even have gravel in it, but I was about find a HUGE back of it at OSH for 5$, I thought it was a good buy, aside from the cleaning process I had to go to.

Now the tank has some gravel in it, as well as some decorations in the corner where the powerhead resides.

I really want to turn this aquarium into something beautiful.

All the fish in it have resided in the tank for a good while.

I recently got the tank recovered from an extreme algae bloom in which I had no idea how to fix. I turned off the aquarium light for a week and the water turned crystal clear again, I followed up with a water change and a complete cleaning of my Rena xp4 filter.

The fish I have now are as follows:
- One Largemouth Bass. I named him Cliff. (Metallica joke. Cliff, bass? Haha. Lol) :)
- One gigantic female Flowerhorn Cichlid
- Two Silver Dollars
- One Senegal Bichir
- One red-tailed Loach

I was thinking plants, but I'll have to get rid of the silver dollars. (Which I want to do, anyway.)
I'm thinking of trying to get rid of the cichlid. She's stupid.
I know bass and cichlid don't mix. I keep them both in an unheated aquarium and everything's fine.

I just really want to know where I should go with my tank. I'm 17 years old, this is kind of my little project that I plan on succeeding on. I've enclosed a picture of the tank in it's current state... Please, I am open to all suggestions. My budget is very limited.

http://i41.tinypic.com/fyopso.jpg (This is the tank)
 
Hey there you're already well off with a very nice size tank you can do a tremendous amount with that tank.

I would first start out by finding a nice piece of driftwood I always just walk around lakes or ponds or streams and look for a piece that would fit in your tank. I would try and soak it in a bucket and weigh it down with some rocks or something if it wasnt in the water where you found it. This will get rid of all the tannins which will stain your water.

The next thing I would add is some nice rocks like decent size rocks that you can also find in the woods or by a body of water. Both of these are free and will add a bit to your tank.

I would also add a background I think black looks the best. You will wanna go with a plain color background not wanna of those with a scene or special design. A lot of people paint the back others buy vinyl or some other material and put it on the back. I have vinyl as I was afraid to paint my brand new tank.

These things are basically free the background will be a couple bucks but it should be a good start. Then you can add plants (I like live plants) either fake or live but if you do get live plants you may need to upgrade your lights.

Let me know how the tank comes out!


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what about a native tank with a couple sunfish? Maybe one or two green sunfish and a long ear? As for plants you may want a different substrate, I never had much luck planted in gravel. Diy co2 is easy and makes a big difference. As for lighting Ive always used t8 shoplights with grow bulbs. The shoplights from home depot are about 2 inches more narrow and easier to hang multiples. If your 160 is a 6 foot tank you may also want some 2 foot shop lights.
 
Yeah lighting has been difficult for me... I have trouble finding lights 6' long.
But I don't want hanging lights.

I used to have three bluegill in the tank, but I released them back into their pond to reduce the load on my filter when my tank was having problems.
 
trick1441 said:
Hey there you're already well off with a very nice size tank you can do a tremendous amount with that tank.

I would first start out by finding a nice piece of driftwood I always just walk around lakes or ponds or streams and look for a piece that would fit in your tank. I would try and soak it in a bucket and weigh it down with some rocks or something if it wasnt in the water where you found it. This will get rid of all the tannins which will stain your water.

The next thing I would add is some nice rocks like decent size rocks that you can also find in the woods or by a body of water. Both of these are free and will add a bit to your tank.

I would also add a background I think black looks the best. You will wanna go with a plain color background not wanna of those with a scene or special design. A lot of people paint the back others buy vinyl or some other material and put it on the back. I have vinyl as I was afraid to paint my brand new tank.

These things are basically free the background will be a couple bucks but it should be a good start. Then you can add plants (I like live plants) either fake or live but if you do get live plants you may need to upgrade your lights.

Let me know how the tank comes out!


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
Click to expand...

I agree, the drift wood would be awesome and the rocks too. If your thinking of getting plants then your gonna have to get fish that don't move quickly or they'll have to be small if they do move fast. If you have fish that move fast and a lot then they will just rip up the plants and you won't get them to stay in.


Sent from my iPod touch using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
 
I wouldn't mind a black background, it's just that last time I used one all the particles and dirt that were on the outside of the tank showed up in the background.
 
Personally I would go with the driftwood and stones route. I used the bottom of a dead cyprus tree in a 125g and it looked great. Just whacked of what I needed with a bow-saw(chain saws can leave oil residue from the bar oil) and trimmed the roots to fit the tank. I soaked it in a clean barrel of water for about a month to help clean out some of the tannin. Add in some dark colored substrate (I like eco-complete black) and , tadaa, a little piece of the lake in your house. I haunt lowes for all my lighting needs. I build canopies for all my tanks, and purpose built lights are just to expensive. Just be creative. As far as a colored background goes, run to Wally world and pick up some Decoart acrylic paint. After it dries water won't hurt it and when you're tired of it or want to switch colors, it scrapes off easily with a razor scraper.
 
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