Starting a new tank - Looking for advice and ideas!

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Z

zhasan

Feeder Fish
Nov 24, 2011
4
0
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Richmond, BC, Canada
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[TD="class: alt1, bgcolor: #F5F5FF"]Hi Everyone!!

I'm planning to keep mini-monster 90 gallon tank.


Here is the plan:

Substrate: White pool filter sand from Langley By-Water Very thin layer of it.. basically to just cover the bottom.

Filter: 1 Fluval 404 or 2 Fluval 403s - Gimme your suggestion as to what would be a better option. I don't wanna run 2 filter and waste electricity if there is no need.

Heater: 300 watt Eheim? Jagger

Standard T8 light fixture to go on top.

Livestock:

Here is where I'm very confused and decide on something new everyday...

The idea of starting this tank came to me due to an urge of wanting to keep Oscars. Then I wanted to keep some other fish with them. So now here is all that I want to keep but I know I can't keep all of them as Oscars will get big and might want to have a go at some of these.

1 Albino Oscar - small one about 2 inches
1 Tiger Oscar - small one about 2 inches
1 Silver Arowana - Small one
1 Datnoid - don't know what kind... smaller one
2 Peacock bass - small ones
1 Ghost Knife - 2-3 inches
4-6 Geophagus tapakos or altifrons
1 Bala Shark
1 Catfish - don't know much about them... still gotta look for one that may go well with the rest of the stock. maybe you guys can suggest? I've seen some in pics and vids but don't know there names or how much they cost n stuff.

I know thats a lot of fish that I want in there and they are all going to get big soon and grow out of this tank.. I don't know how long it'll take... but I do plan on upgrading to a bigger tank maybe 200-300 gallon in the future say about a year or two maximum.

I want to keep it low maintenance as well. By low maintenance I mean water changed twice or thrice a month. Does that mean I should have very limited stock or just have it over filtered?

Thanks for everyones advice in advance! Looking forward to reading your posts.

I'll be starting up a journal on this tank as soon as I find some time.

Thanks, Zee.
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First off, you don't understand the Fluval numbers. 404=older version of 405 (and actually, the 406 just came out). As far as I know, there is no such thing as a 403. A 304 (or 305/306) on the other hand would be the size down from the 404 (405, 406).

If you want a low maintenance tank, I would suggest cutting down the stocking by about 90%. You could maybe get away with 2 oscars and that would be pushing it.
 
Sounds like a recipe for fish soup. LOL! Too many fish, too little filtration. Do yourself a favor and do some research on keeping fish. Lots of good information on this site.
 
yes, I got the numbers mixed... I have 1 404 and two 304s.

I've been keeping fish successfully for the last 2 years and never had a problem with water chemistry or fish dying due to water quality or anything. I'm still in the process of learning more about these fish that get really big. Its my first adventure in monster fish keeping.

@andyjs - If I were to drop the oscars, would I be able to keep most of the other fish? The feeling that I have right now after reading a little bit is that you either keep oscars or others, of course bio load and filtration have to be considered before deciding on the amount/number of fish depending on how big they get or how messy they are.
 
I would skip the aro, p bass, and bala. A dat could probably work for a while at least because they grow pretty slow from what I've heard. Geo. tapajos would be good and would be fine with a ghost knife. There are also hundreds of different cats that could work (and many that wouldn't so definitely research before actually getting one)
 
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[TD="class: alt1, bgcolor: #F5F5FF"]Okay so after doing a bit more research and looking at requirements for each fish I'm thinking of dropping Oscars, bala shark and ghost knife all together.

Here is what I'm thinking of stocking in this tank.

1 Silver Arowana
1 Datnoid
2 Pbass
4 Geos
and maybe a pleco or a catfish..

I hope I can get away with 50% water changes every 10 days or weekly if I have to. I'm planning on running 2 304s that I have for now.... what do you guys think? Hopefully I can find a good deal on a FX5 and have that run on my tank.

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hmmm.. so I'm guessing a minimum 6ft long tank for arowana then?

why do these damn things grow so fast? lol... it was going to be the Flagship fish of my tank!
 
Pictures don't seem to be loading for me... but i would say if you want to keep an Aro, then chances are you will also need a tank that is min. 3ft front to back, and about 6ft wide so that when it grows it can still turn around...
 
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