Little People

[Davidtq]

Aquator in Hele sold me the RTBS and 3 corys as my first fish and Pets at home sold me the Gibbi and algae eaters at same time.

Not sure exact dimensions of 5ft tank as dont have a tape to hand but its about 5ft long and id say 10 inches wide/deep and hmmmm 16 inches tall perhaps, its pretty big. Just dont have any money for the filter right now, did have one,an eheim powerball but it broke after one day of cycling in my hexagon tank, really want to use the big tank though, got big plans for it lol

where are you then if your local too me?

Aquator are normally pretty good, some of the best kept tanks in the area, Im surprised they didnt ask about tanks for the RTB although anyone can have an off day, they are normally pretty well clued up in there.

You dont need a big filter for a tank that size, probably 60"x15"x12"a little internal power one would do the job. Styles do some cheapy kit although you get what you pay for. I reckon you could probably get a adequate filter for £20, Might be worth checkin ebay as well. Or just save your money for a couple of weeks, I think styles do a tetratec one that would run that size tank nicely for £25.

Pets at home I doubt the staff had any idea at all that gibbiceps get big or that they cared.

Im in Torquay as well hence the "TQ" in the user name.

 

[stucolls]

gotta adn=mit I try stearing clear of pets at home after they sold me 3 diseased balloon molly last year wen I ran a tank (they all had a white fungus and I didnt have a clue about fish then) but I had just had some pins in my broken thumb so wanted to walk over the road to PAH and treat myself lol.

Aquator normally spot on, I love going in there, wide range, clean, and yes know there stuff, it was a fairly new guy who sold it me.

Something fishy in Newton Abbott is brilliant though I think, check it out.

Thanks for advice re styles, not been there yet so may check it out soon when I have some money

 

[Davidtq]

gotta adn=mit I try stearing clear of pets at home after they sold me 3 diseased balloon molly last year wen I ran a tank (they all had a white fungus and I didnt have a clue about fish then) but I had just had some pins in my broken thumb so wanted to walk over the road to PAH and treat myself lol.

Aquator normally spot on, I love going in there, wide range, clean, and yes know there stuff, it was a fairly new guy who sold it me.

Something fishy in Newton Abbott is brilliant though I think, check it out.

Thanks for advice re styles, not been there yet so may check it out soon when I have some money

Yeah Ive been using something fishy since they were teign tropics, 20+ years ago , their fish quality can vary although they did have some nicely coloured malawi cichlids in recently and can come up with some really amazing batches of fish at times seen some really nice guppies of all things there at times, and the odd shipment of rare fish as well. Probably good enough on advice for bread and butter fish for starters, although I would not take everything they say as gospel, Ive seen them get things wrong whilst coming across very convincing at times.

Styles I rarely buy fish from, although they seem good on africans at the moment but the dry goods are normally pretty good.

Often do a full tour of fish shops over a weekend with the family, normally do jacks patch, fermoys, something fishy, newton to torquay backroads shop, aquator, styles and kaleidescope koi in paignton. Oh yeah and theres fins and things near bovey tracey, although they come mainly from a marine background.

Its a shame the place at paignton garden centre closed down that was a great shop, really good for rare fish well kept and really knew their fish as well. That place was great to shop at.

 

[stucolls]

ok, well im gonna try sticking to Aquator and Something Fishy.

Also what size filter would you say I need, gonna look out on ebay and try selling some household stuff to pay for it lol

Gonna try getting that 5ft up asap then I can have some lovely fish in it, nice to find a local on here lol

 

[stucolls]

Just checkwed with a tape, tank is 60x15.5x12 so 40.24363636363636 Gallons/152.32216363636363 Litres

go on then, suggestions for that one>?

 

[Davidtq]

Something that flows around 500-600lph will do just fine the tetratec 600plus is a decent filter for that size with the bonus of being able to clean half the filter at a time, although anything with that sort of flow rate is fine.

You get roughly what you pay for a cheap filter is unlikely to filter much worse but likelly to fail faster etc etc, although price alone is a not necesarily a guide to quality.

 

[stucolls]

forgot to mention I have no condensatiopn tray or hood for the tank, have the light unit and the 500w heater is in my little tank at the moment so just need the filter hood and tray

 

[Davidtq]

I dont think ANY of my tanks have hoods, I tend to make up my own surrounds for fish tanks, and dont bother with full hoods.

 

[orange shark]

Id just stick a big piece of glass over the tank to prevent fish jumping out

 

[Davidtq]

Heres a couple of the sort of stands \ surrounds that I build for tanks


This was a biosystem experiment tank, setup a couple of years ago was going well for about 9 months till the pumps failed whilst I was on holiday Kept 3 guppies in marine conditions un fed in a unskimmed tank with live rock. The tanks still much the same today except that its now powered by a big external filter to clear technical equipment from the tank and increase flow over the live rock.

This ones up at styles now as one of their display tanks it originaly came from a public aquarium Water colour is because it was a black water setup keeping wild heckles discus.

By the way once you get the 5'tank up and running having you considered keeping native marine fish at all? could make a good use of your hex tank a little rock pool tank.

 

[stucolls]

That big one looks awesome!!!! my on could swim in it lol

As for native fish....hmm never thought of that, did consider going marine for some exciting tangs etc but think it will cost me way too much too tun so might use it either for species tank or africans?

oh and as for a hood, how do you set up a light up if oyu have no hood?

but good suggestion, I can easily get a condensation tray for the top

 

[Davidtq]

I screw the light holders to the front or back of the surround or if Im using glass condensation trays (my preference) you can just sit the tubes on top of the glass.

Native marine tanks are dead cheap to run, all you need is a filter, fill up with natural sea water, get some sands and rocks and stuff from the beach and catch stuff from rock pools. tank that size you probably only want one fish and an anenome or two. but the local blenny is a fascinating fish full of character, they like to sit on rocks out of the water!

 

[stucolls]

LOL so i have to go scampering around rock pools!!!!!

what do you feed them? wont it start to stink?

 

[Davidtq]

LOL so i have to go scampering around rock pools!!!!!

what do you feed them? wont it start to stink?

Standard filter will stop it stinking, just like in a normal tank, and the local blennies and anenomies will take flake within a day of capture, heck blennies are so greedy you can often use flake as bait . Scampering around in rock pools is half the fun