I've adopted a 40-gallon aquarium. Guide me!

In My Humble Opinion
1

So here’s the situation:

My sister had a 40-gallon aquarium that she didn’t want anymore, so this weekend I drove it up from St. Louis to Minneapolis. We emptied and rinsed it out first, and she had a pretty intense algae situation going on, so I will be starting over when it comes to gravel and plants. The only fish I successfully transported (sadly) is a 4-inch catfish who has gotten along well with all his tankmates over the years.

I currently have a 12-gallon aquarium with a 3-inch catfish (of a different variety)who has eventually killed all his tankmates, so he lives alone.

Onto my questions.

  1. What additional cleaning should I do, and what should I do it with? The intake pipe for the filter is very algae-crusted, and there are some remaining mineral deposits here and there.

  2. How long must the tank be filled and running before I can safely introduce fish? I plan on getting some male dwarf gouramis for sure, and the rest is undecided. Whatever will get along well with gouramis (and a mellow catfish) is up for consideration.

  3. In the meantime, what in the heck should I do with the new catfish? Could he safely reside with the smaller, more aggressive catfish in the 12-gallon tank for the time being? Right now he’s in a bowl with his rock to hide in, but that can’t be good for long. No temperature regulation, for one thing.

  4. I have plastic plants in my current tank, but I am interested in using live plants in the new one. Any tips on how and when I should introduce them?

Any advice would be great. I want to do right by this aquarium.

2

I wouldn’t worry too much about your new catfish in the fish bowl - I had a catfish live quite happily in 1 inch of mud for over a year (honestly, I had no idea he was there). They’re not too choosy.

Give the tank a good cleaning, and remove all the scale/algae - may as well start from scratch now - this long without water/aeration any good from the algae is gone.

I would put the gravel and the live plants in right away, and start with a couple of small, inexpensive fish to get the tank cycling. Do this right away - within 24 hours of setting up the tank.

Once you’re getting nice, clear readings, you can introduce your catfish.

As to putting him in with your nasty catfish - I suppose you could try it and see what happens. If the other fish killed all his old tankmates, it doesn’t really bode well for the new guy.

3

[QUOTE=Beadalin]

  1. I clean my filter intake pipe with a stiff round brush and hot water with a little dishwashing detergent. Make sure it is very well rinsed. If there is significant mineral buildup, you may want to consider just buying a new one - they’re not expensive.

  2. How long must the tank be filled and running before I can safely introduce fish? I plan on getting some male dwarf gouramis for sure, and the rest is undecided. Whatever will get along well with gouramis (and a mellow catfish) is up for consideration. Running the tank without any fish is not going to get it ready for new fish - you need fish in order to grow the helpful bacteria you need in the water. So you want to start with one or just a couple of hardy fish at first, and then slowly add more over time. Since you have that catfish which seems to be a pretty hardy specimen, you could start with him. I would wait a least a few days or more before adding more fish, a few at a time.

  3. See above - you can put the new catfish in the new tank, and then later add your other, more aggressive catfish. They will probably be okay together, for two reasons: one, you are putting the aggressive one in a new tank, so he will not be
    defending his own territory and two, the tank should be big enough for the two of them to stay out of each other’s way.

  4. For live plants, especially if your tank is deep, you will need a lot of light. Your local petstore will have flourescent lights that emit the right color spectrum for live plants. Also, as you buy new fish, pay close attention to their diets. A lot of fish will eat live plants.

Good luck!

4

[QUOTE=Beadalin]

  1. I clean my filter intake pipe with a stiff round brush and hot water with a little dishwashing detergent. Make sure it is very well rinsed. If there is significant mineral buildup, you may want to consider just buying a new one - they’re not expensive.

  2. How long must the tank be filled and running before I can safely introduce fish? I plan on getting some male dwarf gouramis for sure, and the rest is undecided. Whatever will get along well with gouramis (and a mellow catfish) is up for consideration. Running the tank without any fish is not going to get it ready for new fish - you need fish in order to grow the helpful bacteria you need in the water. So you want to start with one or just a couple of hardy fish at first, and then slowly add more over time. Since you have that catfish which seems to be a pretty hardy specimen, you could start with him. I would wait a least a few days or more before adding more fish, a few at a time.

  3. See above - you can put the new catfish in the new tank, and then later add your other, more aggressive catfish. They will probably be okay together, for two reasons: one, you are putting the aggressive one in a new tank, so he will not be
    defending his own territory and two, the tank should be big enough for the two of them to stay out of each other’s way.

  4. For live plants, especially if your tank is deep, you will need a lot of light. Your local petstore will have flourescent lights that emit the right color spectrum for live plants. Also, as you buy new fish, pay close attention to their diets. A lot of fish will eat live plants.

Good luck!

5

There is a world of difference between an aquarium with a couple of live plants and a planted aquarium. You can keep a couple of hardy low light plants alive in ordinary gravel and standard lighting (some crypts and anubias) but any plants will do better with a better substrate, brighter light, fertilization, and possible injection of CO2.

If you wish to go the low cost/low maintenance route, you can, but you still have to make specific choices when setting up the tank. For example, there are all kinds of filter options. Undergravel filters are usually considered no good for planted tanks. Hang on back (HOB) bio-wheels can be used, but the surface agitation they cause can result in CO2 loss. Many if not most planted folk use canister filters.

I’d be glad to address any questions you may have, but for thorough discussions of the various aspects of planted tanks I highly recommend the forums at www.plantedtank.net.

6

[QUOTE=Skammer]

IMO&E, the specific plant-gro bulbs are an overly expensive waste of $. Color spectrum is far less important than light intensity. Your standard flourescent will likely be 20w. Most folks would consider 1 watt per gallon (wpg) an absolute minimum, with anthing under 2 wpg considered lowlight.
I have 260w over my 55g, but that might well be considered overkill.

7

Just some basics:

I have 55 gal. standard tank with artificial plants and rock features.

Getting started: Make sure your tank has properly cycled, or at least get a proper ph level first. Some people will actually get dead fish from a pet store to start the process. You can also buy some really cheap fish and let them test the environment first. Kind of like canaries in a mine.

It took me nearly a month before my fish were happy and not stressed. I rushed the process at first, being a newbie.

The HOB or hang on back filtration system seems to be the system of choice versus the old style under gravel type. I have tried aqauclear and whisper filtration systems. No clear choice here, although whisper is a little more quiet, hence the name I guess.

My current set up is two Gouramies, three orange barbs, three tiger barbs, four rainbow tetras, three blueberry tetras, two cory (catfsh) and one algea eater.

These fish all seem to play nicely with each other, although the pet store owner gave me good advice about hiding places for fish… dont skimp on cover!

Drift wood and the new epoxy based rock formations are very pricey but I just added more as my budget allowed.

The rule of thumb is 1 pound of gravel per 1 gallon of water. That seems to work for me, although I would side on the more gravel side of the equation.
I have two heaters in my tank, but you may be ok with one. My fish seem more lively between 74 and 77 degrees. Your tank may vary of course.

Dont forget water and filter changes! Most fish sites insist that filter changes are a must every month or less, In my experience every 6 weeks is adaquate.
I like to do a 20 % water change once a month, it is a pain in the butt. My fish really seem to perk up after one.
Also, water treatment helps a lot. I like water-rite which is a powder. It is pricey but it really clears out any latent chloramine and chlorine, especially after a water change.

If you are lazy or just busy consider an algea eater. I forgot the name of him, sorry. Long black fish with a huge sucker mouth.
I had to scrub my tank once a month to clean all of the brown and green algea until I got this ugly dude. He wont win any prizes for good looks, but it does the job.

good luck on your new fish tank :slight_smile:

8

I never heard of that. Could you elaborate?

I usually have no filtration, many plants growing in soil and a very light fish load.

There are fancier substrates now that soil covered with sand or gravel. Check an aquarium magaziene. Some folks use potted plants.

Java Moss and Java Fern will grow under very low light. Good plants to keep water filtered and for fish to hide in.

9

Check out dedicated fishkeeping and aquarium hobby sites like Aquamaniacs.

Sailboat

10

Sorry, I don’t have live plants in my aquarium. I was just giving general advice. I would like to do the live plants thing eventually.
Live plants clean the water much more efficiently than mechanical filters. I simply don’t have the time to take care of them right now.
Cycling is very important, I’m curious that you never had the need to do this.

We are talking about a new tank and a new environment, right?

11

www.wetwebmedia.com -great source of info, I’d go there first

www.cichlid-forum.com -mostly cichlid specific, lots of DIY and other types of info too
www.reefcentral.com -great source for info on saltwater
http://www.3reef.com/ -another great salt forum
www.plantedtank.net -forum for planted tanks, gen info
www.thatfishplace.com -online etailer

I am in the midst of redoing my tank and I find good info on all these sites. I am doing freshwater.

12

What’s with the dead fish to get the nitrogen cycle started?

I have light fish loads. I start with a very very light load in a new tank.
The only “taking care” of plants would be pruning them and I’ve not felt it necessary to aqua scape the tank. :slight_smile: Removing dead leaves and stuff is quick and easy.

13

Perhaps I should not have responded to the OP. She clearly stated that she is considering a live eco fish tank.
I don’t have experience in this. I was just giving general guidlines based on my experience with our aquatic friends. :slight_smile:

I’m just going by past experience and reading various forums, it works for me. I like fishgeeks.com. Not a lot of users but the mods are always willing to help.

The cycling part is just to get the chloramines under contol and to a lesser extent the ph level. This may only apply to an artificial environment.

I’ve only been doing this for three years so I am still willing to learn. Hopefully you don’t think I’ve been talking out of my ass.

14

Whenever I’ve started a new tank, I’ve cycled it with the “fishless method” by manually adding drops of pure ammonia to mimic live fish without having to stress or kill any living critters (Here’s one method, and another). It has worked extremely well for me, and takes about 4 weeks. For me it was easier to use one of these ammonia detectors in the tank, and when it changed from dark puple (toxic) to light beige (safe), and stayed in the safe zone even with daily doses of ammonia for a week, I tested the water with a testing kit to make sure all the values (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and pH) were in the right range and then safely and successfully added fish.

I’ve also had great success with the Penguin Bio-wheel filtration systems.

Also, if you’re going to get live plants, beware of snails that often accompany the plants out of the store and can cause infestations in your tank. You might enjoy having a couple of clown loaches (they tend to get “depressed” and lay around when there’s only one in a tank, and love when they have a companion to play with), as not only are they very animated and fun, but they love snails and will eliminate the possibility of an infestation. They also often team up with catfish.

Best of luck!

15

Thank you very much for the feedback, everyone. The links to other resources are especially helpful, and now I am even more excited to get it up and running! I’m not comfortable using dead fish to cycle the tank, although I couldn’t tell you why. I’ve always used hardy live fish, and haven’t had any deaths yet (probably through luck more than anything else!).

Shayna, that’s the first I’ve heard about using ammonia. I’ll look into it and see if it’s something I think I could pull off. Oh, and I had a HUGE snail infestation many years ago, which made me switch to plastic plants. I really want to give live plants a try again, and with a fish as good-lookin’ as a clown loach, maybe I can avoid that whole mess! Thanks fo the suggestion.

Skammer, I thought I’d read somewhere that one shouldn’t use soap of any kind on aquarium equipment. Does anyone know the scoop on that? I was thinking of maybe using a bleach solution and then thoroughly rinsing and drying.

To follow up on a couple of things:

  • It’ll be a freshwater tank.

  • The system is an Eclipse, if you are familiar with that. The filter is built into the lid of the tank, so it functions similarly to an off-the-back filtration system, and uses carbon and a bio wheel.

  • The new catfish is hanging out in my smaller tank for the time being, and since he’s bigger than my first guy, there don’t seem to have been any conflicts. Catfish aren’t exactly the world’s most active fish, so I don’t know if they’ve even realized they’ve got company.

Thanks again! I’ll post pics once I have it set up.

16

Ditch the carbon if you are going with plants.

17

I believe I read in Innes Exotic Aquarium Fishes to clean only with salt.

18

Bleach is fine.
Just rinse well afterwards.
Many folks use a diluted bleach dip on new plants to eliminate parasites.

19

You will love having clown loaches! I too had a severe snail infestation that started with one nasty little snail that came with a live plant. I tried everything else under the sun apart from chemical treatments, as I’m loathe to add anything to the tank that could alter the delicate balance of the environment. Finally, I researched what fish were snail eaters and came upon the clown loach. Given that I got them specifically to dine on escargot, they got appropriate French names – the two I have now are Pierre and Claudette. :slight_smile:

They are very affectionate (I sometimes catch them doing what looks like kissing) and animated. They love doing “water ballet” and dancing around the tank, swirling around each other. They also make this funny clicking sound at the surface of the tank from time to time, which is an indication that they’re happy. And if you keep them healthy, possibly increasing the size of their environment as they grow, they can live 40 or 50 years!! :eek:

Eventually, I switched to silk plants, though, as keeping the live ones was just too much of a pain in the butt, and like you, I don’t care for plastic plants.