Experienced Aquarists Advice Needed...

[iluvguppies]

Hi there,

We have a 65L fw tropical tank that due to advice fm lfs is now undergoing fish-in cycling. There are 6 neon tetras and 5 guppies(2males and 3 females). Eventually, when cycling is complete, I would like a shoal of albino corys (4-6) and probably a few more neon tetras. What other fish would you suggest (maybe some top swimmers) and how many, as we don't want to overstock it? It is planted with 1 real plant (smallish) and the rest are fake.

My other question is, at some point this year we are having an extension and we will be having a 7 1/2 ft tank (7 1/2 x 2 x 2 1/2 when these nos are l x h x w) built into the wall between 2 rooms and we will be putting the fish we have now into it (and buying more gradually-what would be a safe level at which to do this?). My main question is would we have to recycle the new big tank if we intend to reuse as much as we can (eg gravel, ornaments,etc)from our current tank and my other question is, with regards to fliter etc can I use several smaller ones that I have plus a larger one or is it better to just have one big one ( I was thinking that having several would be good in case one broke/failed) and the same question with regard to the heaters? Also should we reuse the water fm current tank or use completely new water for all of it?

Any ideas or advice or opinions as to a tank this size and what to do with it, etc would be greatly appreciated and I was also wondering the average/ approx running costs (ie filters,heater, lights) on a tank of this size considering our house is always at least 24C in summer (so far not needed heater in summer as tank is stable at 26C) and house is heated to between 20C and 22C in winter.

We are quite new to fish keeping so we will be sticking with community fish that don't require too much special care or knowledge as I think that's best for the fish. Maybe in years to come we will change our minds when we have the relevent experience but not now so any suggestions for suitable fish/ideas will be greatly appreciated and noted. I want to do this properly so if it takes a while to set up then so be it and I figure that the more knowledge I have beforehand the better prepared we will be when it comes to actually setting it up.


Many thanks in advance

Nikki

 

[Rooster]

A filter contains nearly ALL the useful bacteria we cycle to attain.... so the rest of the tanks equipment can be cleaned (if necessary) and moved over to the new tank.
The filter you have in the smaller tank will probably be nowhere near "man enough" for the larger tank, so you might look to buying a larger filter NOW, and cycle that alongside the existing filter in the smaller tank.
Filtration is ALL about VOLUME of "media" so the larger the filter the better.... this has evolved into "sumps" which are in fact, small tanks attached to the main one !
If you don't want to go this route, an external filter would be better than several internals... again down to media volume.

The old water can be chucked...

Running costs are a matter of debate, but the larger the tank, the more stable it will be chemically AND thermally, so once its up and running, I doubt its going to cost a lot more than a smaller one.... lighting aside, as obviously you will need more !

If you can afford it, maybe a large external filter with in built heater would leave the tank "neater" as you plan to view it from both sides... but the ultimate solution would be to drill the tank, and use a sump...

 

[waterdrop]

Nikki,

Your intuition that multiple filters would be better than one is correct. The large wall tank would probably be ideally suited by 2 external cannister filters which could serve as backup to each other in the event of one having a problem and could be cleaned on an offset schedule (for instance, every 2 weeks one or the other would be cleaned, meaning each filter would go a month between its cleans.. depending on the filter size and fish load, that between-clean time period could be adjusted up or down.) Researching your filter sizes should be done on the basis of your goals for plant and fish volume, heavily planted tanks benefitting from significantly higher flow rates.

In the current smaller tank you may be more or less fully stocked once you add the corys. Zebra danios or one of the various hatchet types in small grouping might put some fish at the top.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[iluvguppies]

Thnx for the prompt replies.

I was thinking that a bigger tank would be a more stable environment and would give the smaller fish we have a huge space to swim in, which I think would mean they would be less stressed and happier. I also think huge shoals of these small fish would look amazing!

I'm pretty sure that we will stick mainly to fake plants (maybe 5% real plants, if any)and if anything the tank will be slightly understocked at the most, so what sort of filter would be best in your experience (tank will be approx 1000L). I'm positive that a sump is not for me if there is an alternative that works just as well ( I want to keep it simple, lol) as it would have to be huge to cope with a tank this big and also sounds like a lot of work and quite complicated for somone new to the hobby, although I realise it means the main tank would have more room.
If I did this system of 2 external cannister filters, would each have to be capable of turning over tanks this size or the 2 combined? if you get what I mean...is it possible to over filtrate the system (sorry, probably a stupid question but new to this!).

How would I cycle a large filter in such a small tank as I have now? Do you mean by placing some of the foam etc into the water of my tank as it is now? Am I right in thinking that "media" is the foam/ceramic etc inside the filter?

Also what other sort of community fish that suit my current fish would be happy in a tank this size and ensure that all levels are filled somewhat?

 

[waterdrop]

If I did this system of 2 external cannister filters, would each have to be capable of turning over tanks this size or the 2 combined? if you get what I mean...is it possible to over filtrate the system (sorry, probably a stupid question but new to this!).

You'd want to roughly match the -combined- capacity of the two filters to your tank, but obviously if each one is somewhat over the halfway point then its ability when and if it ever needs to play its "backup" role will be enhanced.

Filtration is a broad topic but an important one to work hard to learn, as its quite central to the hobby. It divides into a number of areas. First of all, let me mention that you are correct, media are the substances inside the filter box that filter the water. Its not possible to over-filtrate in the sense of media volume.. if you think of natural water settings, the water volume and environmental circumstances are usually staggering in size compared to the fish. However, in practical terms, once a "sufficient" media volume is reached for a given stocking load, then additional filtration is unnecessary.

Flow rate and "turnover" are a separate topic from media volume. Here, as a practical matter, over-doing becomes more of a debatable topic. Turnover is a convenient figure we use to encapsulate the overall situation and is defined as the number of times per hour that your filtration can process the total volume of water in your tank. 4x and below is a pretty calm tank. 5x is often used as a good community tank beginner recommendation for success on our forum here. 10x is often recommended and the minimum point for holding back algae in high-tech heavily planted tanks. 6x and above is often mentioned as an aid to maintaining fish that are heavy waste producers or in overstocked tanks.

Determining the correct "flow rate" of filters you are researching can be a bit tricky. First of all you have to ignore the "sales info" often referred to as "recommended tank size" and the like and instead seek out the technical filter specifications, looking for a true numerical flow rate. Even this rate will be as optimistic as possible and the practical flow rate you will acheive should probably be thought of as about 10% less than the specification rate you find, for various reasons.

As you can see from this initial tidbit of info, there's a lot of stuff to digest and become familiar with when you are new to the hobby. As a newcomer who needs to absorb a lot of things you'd be wise to give yourself time to learn as much as possible about all these things. Pushing yourself to focus on the nitrogen cycle, the various details of cycling and of course the filtration things you're working on will pay off a lot in planning, outfitting and maintaining this new big tank you've mentioned. Good luck!

~~waterdrop~~