Hi there, everyone. I'm from Shelton, WA, which is about 20 minutes from our capital city of Olympia, on the peninsula. It's okay that you've never heard of it, lol.
My boyfriend and I bought our house in September of last year, and I was really excited to be able to set up our 30 gallon community freshwater tank in the living room. (This was before I knew the struggles we'd have with algae in the water here... argh!) It wasn't long before I'd picked up a 20 gallon and it now resides in the den.
We purchased three cichlids (female (?) Kenyi, male albino peacock hybrid, male albino red tiger- and yes, they all seem to get along for now but they've just barely hit the 3" mark so God only knows when they get bigger) to try out something a little more aggressive. We (correctly) figured that we really couldn't hurt the cichlids from the "mixed cichlids" bin at Petco. We knew when we bought the cichlids that at some point we'd need a larger tank. In the 20 gal we have the three cichlids, a 5+ inch blue three-spot gourami (my own personal monster named Murderface because he loves to kill other fish), two gold barbs, a baby albino rainbow shark, and a julii corydoras- a bit too much for that tank.
We began looking on Craigslist for a larger tank; I was thinking 75g at the very most, but we got a great deal on a 135gal with stand and complete setup (no fish) and will be picking it up in two weeks! This is bigger than any tank I ever thought I'd have, and I honestly have no clue how to set it up- hopefully the seller will be willing to show us how because right now we only have backpack and biowheel filters which are, of course, extremely easy to figure out.
The plan is for the cichlids and gourami to go into the 135g, and probably the lone pink kissing gourami from the 30g. Everybody else will go into the 30g with the guppies, platys, etc. The tiger barbs will probably go into the 135g (we have 7 and would like more, they are awesome). We would like to get a pleco and feel that 135g is big enough to consider it. Corydoras are my favorite fish but they aren't enough for a tank like that by themselves, lol.
I would love to hear any tips/suggestions/links you have to share to help us get started on our own mini monster tank! As well as fish suggestions!
My boyfriend and I bought our house in September of last year, and I was really excited to be able to set up our 30 gallon community freshwater tank in the living room. (This was before I knew the struggles we'd have with algae in the water here... argh!) It wasn't long before I'd picked up a 20 gallon and it now resides in the den.
We purchased three cichlids (female (?) Kenyi, male albino peacock hybrid, male albino red tiger- and yes, they all seem to get along for now but they've just barely hit the 3" mark so God only knows when they get bigger) to try out something a little more aggressive. We (correctly) figured that we really couldn't hurt the cichlids from the "mixed cichlids" bin at Petco. We knew when we bought the cichlids that at some point we'd need a larger tank. In the 20 gal we have the three cichlids, a 5+ inch blue three-spot gourami (my own personal monster named Murderface because he loves to kill other fish), two gold barbs, a baby albino rainbow shark, and a julii corydoras- a bit too much for that tank.
We began looking on Craigslist for a larger tank; I was thinking 75g at the very most, but we got a great deal on a 135gal with stand and complete setup (no fish) and will be picking it up in two weeks! This is bigger than any tank I ever thought I'd have, and I honestly have no clue how to set it up- hopefully the seller will be willing to show us how because right now we only have backpack and biowheel filters which are, of course, extremely easy to figure out.
The plan is for the cichlids and gourami to go into the 135g, and probably the lone pink kissing gourami from the 30g. Everybody else will go into the 30g with the guppies, platys, etc. The tiger barbs will probably go into the 135g (we have 7 and would like more, they are awesome). We would like to get a pleco and feel that 135g is big enough to consider it. Corydoras are my favorite fish but they aren't enough for a tank like that by themselves, lol.
I would love to hear any tips/suggestions/links you have to share to help us get started on our own mini monster tank! As well as fish suggestions!
