Adventures with 85 Gallon

[Freshyfishy]

Hello,
I'm starting a thread about the 85g tank I got from my neighbor. Bascially it was not functional due to her nephew putting fried chicken in it. It has been cleaned, media replaced, and now is in an state of empty water cycling. Substrate (sand) may be going in today, or this weekend. I am thinking guppies and livebearers, as I have tested all the perameters of our water. I currently have 2 "glofish" tetras, and a platy in a 25g. The 25g may be shut down after it is used as an QT. The tank will go into storage, or i will keep it as a tank for fry.. I probably will just let the fry be born in the main tank, as i plan to have many plants.

My plan is to go to the LFS, buy a few pregnant females, let them spawn, if the babes are pretty, ill keep, if not i will give them back to the LFS. The already agreed to do so. I will also pick out 5-10 males and maybe 3-5 not so obviously pregnant females. My end goal is to have a super active tank. I will also be leaving room to get 8 more tetras "glofish" because they are schooling fish. I will get some shrimp probably (i'm thinking just your everyday feeder shrimp because i just want them to clean the place and don't mind replacing them (not too costly).

For my plant stock, im thinking
- Hornwort (already have some)
- java moss
- anubias
- some type of grass (need suggestions)
and some other random plants at the LFS i find and that fit my tank.

If you have some pretty planted tanks or guppies, please do not hesitate to post a photo on this thread, I WANT TO SEE!

 

[xxEMOxLIZZARDxx]

Hello,
I'm starting a thread about the 85g tank I got from my neighbor. Bascially it was not functional due to her nephew putting fried chicken in it.

Maybe the kid thought the fish were hungry?

 

[Freshyfishy]

Yep.. we live on a canal, he feeds the canal fish fried chicken, so he thought "why can't i feed these ones fried chicken". Someone didn't explain how a tank vs a huge body of water works to him.. trust me he got that lesson

 

[xxEMOxLIZZARDxx]

Yep.. we live on a canal, he feeds the canal fish fried chicken, so he thought "why can't i feed these ones fried chicken". Someone didn't explain how a tank vs a huge body of water works to him.. trust me he got that lesson

Fair enough. I mean, I once fed wild catfish roast beef. So I can see the correlation.

 

[Freshyfishy]

I have JUST added sand to the tank.. it's hopefully clearing up enough so that i can turn on the filter before I go to bed tonight! Ended up using Quikrete play sand.

 

[Freshyfishy]

Sand finally started clearing, Previous owner came over and figured out that i had the filters and pump backwards (hey, there were no directions!) . No wonder it wasn't filtering, I feel so stupid. .

 

[Freshyfishy]

Added some Plants!! El nino fern, hornwort, and an unidentified carpeting plant species i was given by Petsmart. (they were throwing it out).. Only reason I wasn't at my LFS, and was at petsmart was bc it was a sunday and it was closed, + they didn't have the wood I wanted for my aquarium.

Any idea on how long it will take before the wood gets waterlogged and will sink?

I'm thinking of running to my LFS this week and buying some shrimp to go in there... before my fish get in there, I want heavy plants and a good shrimp population (semi-balanced ecosystem).. Good or bad idea? Also, for shrimp, I don't care about the color of them so, I was thinking I would just get a few cherry shrimp and mostly the ghost "feeder" shrimp.. Just to do some work on the tank. Should I get snails or just wait and see if any of the plants I put in there come with free ones?

 

[Byron]

Any idea on how long it will take before the wood gets waterlogged and will sink?

Depends upon the wood, some can take weeks. I always have used the dark brown Malaysian Driftwood because it is very hard (for wood) so it decomposes very slowly, plus it is heavy and sinks immediately so it stays where you put it.

 

[Freshyfishy]

It is starting to sink now.
I put a cory and pregnant molly in there. My plan is to let her drop the fry, and put her in my other tank. If she cooks me up some more fry, then ill let her drop them in my 85g and put her back in the 25 and so on

 

[Byron]

Why "a cory?"

 

[threecharacters]

Added some Plants!! El nino fern, hornwort, and an unidentified carpeting plant species i was given by Petsmart. (they were throwing it out)..

El Nino Fern (Bolbitis heteroclita) is not a true aquatic plant. It will eventually just wither and die when kept underwater indefinitely. Its a great terrarium/vivarium plant though. I don't know why Petsmart insists on selling non-aquatic plants as a aquatic plants. I guess they just don't care what happens once someone buys it.

 

[sharkweek178]

It is starting to sink now.
I put a cory and pregnant molly in there. My plan is to let her drop the fry, and put her in my other tank. If she cooks me up some more fry, then ill let her drop them in my 85g and put her back in the 25 and so on

Corys are shoaling fish. They need to be around others of the same species.

 

[sharkweek178]

Shoaling is a defense mechanism against predators. At the very least, corys should be in a group of 6 and preferably 10-12. Anything less than that and the fish is living in fear of being eaten and under a lot of stress.

 

[Byron]

I asked why you said "a cory." There may have been some reason for adding (presumably) one cory to an aquarium. There are several issues around this.

 

[Freshyfishy]

Wow.. havent been on here in a while. sooo update time

The cory died, so no friends were bought. The tank had a terrible algae bloom, i kept everyone in there except for the ones who were about a week away from giving birth and put them in the 25 gallon. ( I wanted to see the babies and know how much to feed) I have like 50 babies now in the 25 gallon, and my lyre tail gave birth to a few fry, and my balloon molly should give birth within the next week. I don't know how to fix the algae bloom.... its a mix of brown and green hair algae, but i don't think it will hurt the fish, so im not too worried. Any advice pls