New Fish Keeper, New Tank

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glow12

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 2, 2010
6
0
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Uk, Oxfordshire
Hi all,

I'm new to this forum so forgive me if this post is in the wrong section. However i'm just looking for some opinion's on my first fish tank which i got last sat.

My tank is a 125 liter tank (33 us galon), its currently on the second floor of my house and half full at the moment, im somewhat nervous about filling the tank because of the weight on the floor. From what everyone has told me so far that a tank of that size will be completely fine and im just being silly, does anyone have any input on tank sizes and floor load?.

What i'm wanting is to get a pair of blue rams in the future, however i understand in a new tank I should start with some different fish to help mature the tank and im happy to do this. Im thinking about getting some tetra's to start with, can anyone suggest some nice unusual tetra's that will be happy with Ram's and be a good starting fish? or any suggestions of other fish which would be good to start with?

Also does anyone have any suggestions as to which fish i could keep with Ram's to stock my tank? My ideal tank would have included discus's however from what I've read my tank is far to small so I've scraped that idea.

Thanks for any advice :)

Peter
 
You are certainly on the right track, glow12.
33gal x 8 lbs. per gallon is 264 lbs. So if you aren't afraid to have a really obese person up there, the tank should be fine, too.
These days, few people are putting any fish through the life-shortening duty of cycling a tank. Most of us, I hope, I using pure ammonia. There are several articles about this process in the 'articles' section above. Or, if you know somebody who has an old aquarium with healthy bacteria, you can take a sponge from his filter and use that to seed the tank once your fish have produced enough waste to feed the culture. This is my preferred method of cycling.
 
:welcome: to MFK, Peter!

What material is your floor made of? Usually, an architect to oversee your building structure is your better route to have your questions related to the weight capacity answered. I'd suggest going to that route. Usually, with cemented floors though, I've never seen weight capacity issues especially with tanks as big as 100g. Wooden floors will require you to situate the tank footing on the beams to prevent the floor from giving way and crashing down. The beams can support the weight better than floor panels can.

I am glad you are researching very well your options. Not many people would have this patience to pull off a well thought plan and end up learning their lessons the hard way.

Have you started cycling the tank already? Are you familiar of the nitrogen cycle?

If you do not have a test kit yet, please invest in API liquid drops and check your ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH regularly. If possible, do fishless cycling. You want to buy pure ammonia in home depots. No fragrance, no suds...just pure ammonia and dose in your tank. Measure out the ammonia reading with your kit.

Make sure your test kit is reliable. It is why you will find API is most often recommended as it gives an accurate set of readings better than most brands can. Avoid the test strips as much as possible as they have the tendency to give misleading results.

Are you using a thermometer? If so, what model is it?
What brand is the heater you are using?
Filtration capacity?

As much as possible, get a good quality heater. Make sure you review online first your options. Not all heaters available are entirely reliable. Some can malfunction and fry your fish to death so be very careful of your options. If possible, get Eheim, Rena, Sera or Visitherm Stealth. I am not sure what other brands are that reliable in the UK though. Locate your heater near turbulent areas to disperse the heat very well.

For thermometers, I'd suggest getting the internal model so you can have accurate readings. Locate it at the opposite end from where the heater is so the temperature reading cannot be directly influenced by the heating device. Stick on thermometers are not to be relied on especially as they can read room temperature, not exactly what you want for accurate readings.

For ram tankmates, you have to bear in mind blue rams tend to be very finicky with their tankmates and water conditions. As they are tropical, an ideal temperature for blue rams is 78 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit. In my experience, they become sluggish once the temperature plummets below 78 degrees, something you must consider especially if you live in a cold climate.

Rummy nose tetras, cardinal tetras, penguin tetras, glass bloodfins and pencilfish make nice tankmates for rams. So do sterbai corydoras and bristlenose plecos. If possible, you could keep a lone angelfish in there as a nice centerpiece. You don't have to buy a pair or a group, just an individual as angels tend to be rather temperamental against each other but still able to fend for themselves even when kept alone.

Hope this helps.:)
 
^ Great advice from Lupin as always.

Welcome to the site and welcome to fish! it's good you are putting in your questions now. I, in my beginning days of keeping fish, didn't really know anything and like some people jumped in headlong with no prep. It's a sure way of learning through mistakes!

You'll do fine if you take everyone's advice.. But your tank should be fine on the hardwood floors. That size doesn't seem like much to worry about to me.
 
Can't wait to see the progress and welcome to the family.
 
Thank you for the responces they have been very helpful. Also thank you for the welcome messages :-)

My tank, heater, filter is all fluval which ive been told is a very good make, all of them came as a bundled kit, and the filter is good upto 150 liter i believe (can't see the box at the moment as im at work).

I've started to cycle the tank, so far i have 5 plants in there with a sand bed, and not much else, I've used a treatment on the water which is ment to start the bacteria cycling, and because ive used tap water ive treated the water to remove the calorie.

I'll get some test kits as suggested, ive already got a PH kit and i know the PH is currently high 7.6 maybe over (as thats the limit of the kit). I was expecting this as my tap water has a high PH, so ive got some water from my local fish shop today which has a low PH and im going to carry on filling the tank up with this water. I'm planning to buy some drift wood to put in this weekend, as i heard that helps keep PH levels down. Is it ok at weekend to add some more plants as well as the drift wood or should i be leaving it long?

I can't say i know the nitrogen cycle, so i will spend some time googling it a bit later

Thanks again for all the replies
 
Filling your tank with water from your LFS is pretty much a waste of time unless you plan on getting your water from there every single time you do a water change. 7.6 isn't really that high, nearly any fish you decide to keep will adapt to that just fine.
 
I don't think that size tank should present a load problem for your floor. If you do run into a concern, especially if you end up with a larger tank, plywood under the stand will help distribute the load over more aria.

I build my large tank stands with at least 3 sets of 4"x4" legs, more for tanks longer than 4' or wider than about 2'. The legs are setting on 2x4's with a sheet of plywood under that. This distributes the load over a much larger area than the four little legs most tank stands come with. For example a stand with four 1 inch square legs and a 200 pound load has a load 50 pounds per square inch. A 200 pound person with 10 square inches of there feet in contact with the floor has a load of 20 pounds per square inch and that load doesn't stay in one spot all the time.
 
Ok thanks for the advice, i might do the plywood idea to spread the load.

I'll be sure to take some pictures and upload them as i progress. :-)
 
Ok after taking helpful Lupin's advice, I've read up on the Nitrogen Cycle and this seems like quite a good artical http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/biologicalcycle/a/nitrogencycle.htm

It's given me much more of an insight into setting up my tank so thank you Lupin for your direction on this.

Now in this, it says that if ammonia is present in a PH above 7 it's toxic (mine being at least 7.6 PH), because of that alone should i be pushing to get my PH down? or is it not really and issue as bob965 suggests?

Peter
 
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