Yet another new guy seeking advice

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lightninjim

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 4, 2009
20
0
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Scotland
Hi,
I've recently re-aquired a tank I used to own and intend to fill it with fish for my kids.

When I had this tank previously it held 3 Gourami's and 1 Plecostomus. I had no problems with it then but I can see some problems coming my way.
My wife wants me to stock the tank to capacity with colourful small fish for the kids to enjoy.

The details so far:
48"x18"x24" tank (75 UK/90 US Gallons)
24"x12"x12" sump (still under construcion)
400w of heaters
100w of lights

A second sump of the same size will be added when I can find a cheap enough 24" tank.
My wife and I have trawled the internet and tried to work a few things out, here's the fish list
15 Neon Tetra's
6 male Guppy's
5 Zebra Danio
4 Odessa Barb
3 False Corydorus (remember my dads ones and love um:))
2 Marbled Hatchet Fish
2 Black Molly's
2 Sailfin Molly's
Haven't got a plant list yet but want between 15-30 plants

My dad was an avid aquarist when i was a kid (in the 80's) and kept several beuatiful tanks (including 4 6ft tanks at my school and 2 4ft tanks at my dentist). He's told me I need a rethink!
He says 3 times as much lighting will be needed (300w minimum)
He says another heater will be required (to bring the total to 500w)
He says I should build both sumps before even setting up the main tank and half my intended stocking levels. Also to forget the barbs as in his experience they can ALL be fin nippers.

Any advice appreciated and welcome.(sorry for the length of this)
Thanks in advance
Jim
 
alot of barbs can be nippy.

A general rule of thumb for heaters is you need 3 watts per gallon. So one 300 will be more than enough.

Most people would not even bother with a sump for a 90g tank. So if you want to set up one, that will be more than enough.

Just try to match your pump to your tank size. A general rule of thumb for filtration is to have around 4-6x turn over rate minimum with a sump filter. 7-9x with a canister and 10x plus with hang on the back style filters.

So make your pump around 400 gallons per hour plus.

Other then that just practice a good cycling method to get the tank ready for fish and it sounds like your all set.

I would read up on fish less aquarium cycling
 
Sorry, forgot to ask if my dads right or not.
We tried to pick community fish and tried to work to the 1" per gallon rule
 
about the barbs yes.

and about the heaters he probably is right for heaters in his era. But not for current technology.

Oh and i forgot the plants,

well we could be here all day talking about plants. But yes around 3 watts per gallon of good quality compact florescent or high out put t5 light will be needed for most plants.

Generally plants are grouped in low med and high light needs. If you stick with med then around 3wt per gallon should be ok. Less light and look for low light plants.

But with you being a new planted tank keeper, expect failure and struggle and algae out breaksto be part of your life for a while. Until you figure out what you need.
 
Thanks for the advice. Much appreciated.
I want a sump for the tank this time because I hated seeing the equipment inside the tank last time. Gives me a chance to learn something new too.

As for plants we haven't found anything we like locally as most have high light demands and grow huge.

Can plants be shipped or will they suffer?

The fish list came from whats available in our area and I would've liked the same for plants. The local petshops keep telling me to go plastic but IMO even the better quality ones look like crap.
 
That'll be a fancy feeder tank =P
It'll be nice with all of those colours. Hybrid is right, get as much information on cycling as you can and you'll be fine.
Plants can certainly be shipped and should be fine if they're packed well and the trip isn't too long.
 
those franchise pet shops just wanna sell you whatever they can, but i did find some (pretty expensive) fake plants that do look decent at best..plants can be shipped without problems, it's how they got to that local pet shop. like hybridtheory said, expect some problems if you're new to keeping planted tanks...some if not all of these preventable by studying and researching the plants you want beforehand. i'm sure your kids will love it, my dad had a 30 with a bunch of neons and guppies in it when i was little, i thought it was the greatest thing ever..
 
lightninjim;3254338; said:
Sorry, forgot to ask if my dads right or not.
We tried to pick community fish and tried to work to the 1" per gallon rule
Click to expand...

just a quick note for you.....with the small community fish your stocking, you can sort of go by that rule. however, keep in mind, if you ever get into fish that get bigger than say 2-3", that rule will go out the window, and becomes bad advice to follow
 
RE fishless cycling: Last time I had this tank I used ammonia to cycle it. I got spikes in my ammonia and nitrites after doing the (60%) water change and adding my fish. Not to sure what I did wrong but I'll do a bit more reading this time.

Another question: Can I plant the aquarium before starting to cycle the tank.

As for franchise petshops: I was in one about dinnertime today with my sons to see if they liked the chosen fish (which they mostly do :) ). Every tropical tank had dead fish in, two tanks had a few dead fish and some dead invertibrates, they had some large cichlids stocked with smaller fish such as barbs about 1.5cm long. I talked to staff about the condition of their tanks. The only response the staff had was that their water was clear. GUESS WHERE I WONT BE SHOPPING!!
 
Can anyone tell me if freshwater invertibrates are hard to keep or point me to a decent write up or somesuch please.
The kids absolutely loved the couple of shrimp that were still alive. There was a crab with red claws they liked too but for the moment I'm happy with shrimp.
 
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