Back to the hobby!

[naturalscape]

Hello everyone,
I would consider myself a beginning fish keeper as I'm coming back to the hobby after a while and I had experience with goldfish, Bettas, and guppies as a kid. I'm thinking of setting up a 125 planted community and hopefully this wouldn't be too much of a step up. How would this stocklist look?
I'll likely keep the ph at 7 and use an eheim 2229 for filtration

Stocking will be
4 koi angels
3 ctenopoma
3 pearl gouramis
2 bolivian rams
10 bosemani rainbowfish
3 albino bristlenose Plecos

Any issues with this setup and how much would be as a step up compared to the betta bowl, 20 gallon guppy tank that I kept as a kid?

 

[Essjay]

That sounds like a nice big tank to come back into the hobby with


One thing that stands out from your list is that you have soft water fish (angels, Bolivian rams, gouramis) and hard water fish (rainbows). As it is a long time since you kept fish, you may not be aware that we now know we should keep fish which come from water with the same hardness as our tap water. If you are on mains water you should be able to find out your hardness from yuor water supplier's website.


Can I ask what you mean by

I'll likely keep the ph at 7

Do you mean adding chemicals to change the pH? This is not recommended, I'm afraid; we should keep the chemicals we add to a minimum. As hardness - GH - is more important than pH, we should keep fish suited to our tap water and let the pH be what it wants to be.



One final thing - how do you plan on getting the tank ready for fish? There are 2 ways.

Plant the tank heavily with live plants, wait until they show signs of active growth then get fish a few at a time. I know that you intend a planted tank, but just to make sure that you intend a lot of fast growing plants rather than a couple of slow growing plants

Or do a fishless cycle https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/

 

[mcordelia]

Hi! Welcome! Sounds like we are in a similar boat! (I have a thread in this same beginner forum going about how I'm in the process of setting up a 125, very very very slowly hahah , it is here)
What are your tap water parameters like? Interested to compare notes as we move along if they're similar!
Do you already have the aquarium, or are you still in the process of acquiring everything? I came to the realization the other day that with us probably not being here over the holidays (will likely go stay at mother in law's for a couple of weeks to try and cheer her up, working remote anyway during covid), it makes no sense to try and get fish before next year, so I am considering trying my luck at an unheated cycle to see how that goes, since I'm clearly in no kind of hurry.
I don't have experience of any of the fish on your list, but at least it seems on first glance to not be overstocked, which is always good

 

[Retired Viking]

Hello and welcome to the forum

 

[porl66]

I am considering trying my luck at an unheated cycle to see how that goes, since I'm clearly in no kind of hurry.

Is there such a thing??

 

[Ch4rlie]

Is there such a thing??

Yes, you CAN cycle a tank without a heater but it takes longer, depends on the climate you live in obviously.

Normally, ideal fishless cycling temperatures varies between 24C - 29C (or 75F - 85F), lower temperature will certainly slow the cycle down but warmer temp will not speed up the cycle.

Am unsure what is the lowest temperature that fishless cycle can cope with tbh.

 

[porl66]

Yes, you CAN cycle a tank without a heater but it takes longer, depends on the climate you live in obviously.

Normally, ideal fishless cycling temperatures varies between 24C - 29C (or 75F - 85F), lower temperature will certainly slow the cycle down but warmer temp will not speed up the cycle.

Am unsure what is the lowest temperature that fishless cycle can cope with tbh.

Hmmm interesting. That would be painfully slow. Its bad enough now with heaters and all on

 

[mcordelia]

@charlie I would assume lowest temp cycle would be +4C, simply because that is the baseline temperature of a frozen lake, and somehow those fish survive... Can't see a lot of photosynthesis going on under water that is covered with a thick blanket of ice and snow.

I also wonder whether there are different strains of bacteria that are selected for when doing a "warm" vs "cold" cycle. What would happen if you intended on setting up a goldfish tank but did a warm cycle and then dropped the temp, would you go through a mini cycle as the bacterial strains adjusted for the new temp? this is just philosophical pondering here, the likelihood of someone bothering to set up heaters for a goldfish tank just to do a fishless cycle is probably zero.

 

[Ch4rlie]

You could well be correct that 4c is probably a good guess as to being the lowest temperature possible for cycling.

Though to be honest this is more likely temperature for ponds, and somehow the pond and filter do become cycled at some point so this must work in lower temperatures, am more speaking of UK climates our summers is invariably cooler than most places.

This is not just for goldfish though, there are tanks that cater for temperate fish such as WCMM and I have had shrimp tanks without heaters and I cycled that tank without a heater but my house is fairly warm and the tank water stayed fairly consistent at around 19C, a little cooler during the nights of course.

I doubt one would have a mini cycle due to changes of temperature if taking heater away from the tank once cycle is successful, bb is pretty resilient tbh.

Never gave minimum temperatures for cycling much thought to be honest until now, interesting point!