A New Tank!

[Troke]

Hello Everyone,

Well, we've had a 5 gallon tank now for over two months and it has been going nicely with no real problems. All are fish are fine and appear to be healthy. We've 6 Silver Tipped Tetras, 1 Blue Cory and 2 African Dwarf Frogs. They're all fine... although the algae eater we bought a couple weeks ago died the other day... I found him on the bottom being nipped at by the frogs. But I think it was unavoidable, he was so efficient that he starved to death. I mean the tank was spotless in regards to algae!

I know of the rule that says 1 inch of fish per gallon and we've gone slightly over that. Maybe that could have been the problem with the algae eater too, but I don't know.

Anyway, the point is, recently a friend of ours randomly informed us that they have a 50 gallon tank that they no longer use and was willing to sell it to us for cheap. So we bought it! Now I'm trying to go through the process of gathering information on how to run a tank that's 10 times bigger than what we were introduced into the world of fish with.

Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions for fish that we should start off with. As well any special instructions or advice for cleaning or maintaining a tank of this size? We're still rather new to it although we quite enjoy our experiences with the 5 gallon tank over the past 2 months or so.

Thanks.

 

[charlie4486]

it's actually easier to keep a larger tank. with more water means less fluctuation in temperature and parameter (like ammonia, nitrites, and so forth). So you will be pleasantly surprised at how much easier it is to keep. i would just make sure that the tank is fully cycled. since you already have a mature filter (even though it is a significantly smaller tank) the mature media should aid in speeding up the cycle. i would recommend a fishless cycle but if you must have fish i would personally go with black skirt tetras or something like that. those are the fish i started with (being poorly informed about the cycle process by my LFS) and they did great. Hope this helps

Good luck and enjoy your new tank.

 

[ibbledibble]

although the algae eater we bought a couple weeks ago died the other day... I found him on the bottom being nipped at by the frogs. But I think it was unavoidable, he was so efficient that he starved to death. I mean the tank was spotless in regards to algae!

as an off topic point regarding your algae eater, it can be a good idea to buy algae pellets/wafers for most algae eaters as a supplement to their diet as the tank algae can often not be profuse enough for them. most plecs etc will also enjoy chunks of raw veg as a change.

 

[Troke]

although the algae eater we bought a couple weeks ago died the other day... I found him on the bottom being nipped at by the frogs. But I think it was unavoidable, he was so efficient that he starved to death. I mean the tank was spotless in regards to algae!

as an off topic point regarding your algae eater, it can be a good idea to buy algae pellets/wafers for most algae eaters as a supplement to their diet as the tank algae can often not be profuse enough for them. most plecs etc will also enjoy chunks of raw veg as a change.

Yeah, I've been getting some information on that. Would have been a good idea for me to try something like that, but at least now I know.