New 125g tank setup

[Suii]

Hello all,

I have been reading various forums for days trying to get a solid base on what I wanted to build. Background is I grew up with large fish tanks most of my childhood with African cyclids. I have the wife on board with putting a big tank in our main living area of the house and so now it's time to get to work lol. I did extensive reading on saltwater setups and have decided that's more then I want to tackle so better to stay in the wheelhouse of what I grew up with. I would like to know from anyone with more knowledge then me what would be the best for what I'm trying to do.

The current plan is no live plants, just fish.
Tank is a glass tank with the following dimensions 72.5 x 18.5 x 23.5

I would like to get a nice a nice variety of fish and would prefer them to be as colorful as possible something that the wife and kids will be excited about. For lack of a better word a show tank per say.

Once I kind of have a game plan I can then start focusing on building the setup to support the fish properly. I just felt like it would be easier after doing so much reading if I just asked for help to get me pointed in the right direction.

 

[Wills]

Hi welcome to the forum

The best place to start when you are setting up a tank is to be led by your water hardness. Do you know this? A gh or ppm reading is the key bit rather than a ph.

Wills

 

[Suii]

Am I reading this right that's its 2.8ppm? It's the only thing I could find thus far.

 

[Byron]

Am I reading this right that's its 2.8ppm? It's the only thing I could find thus far.

What substance is the 2.8, I cannot see it. But I do not see the GH (general or total hardness) anywhere, and that is what you/we need. If you can post a link to your water authority website I will have a look for it, sometimes it is "buried" somewhere. But not always unfortunately.

 

[Suii]

What substance is the 2.8, I cannot see it. But I do not see the GH (general or total hardness) anywhere, and that is what you/we need. If you can post a link to your water authority website I will have a look for it, sometimes it is "buried" somewhere. But not always unfortunately.

2.8 is chloramine residuals. It's the only number I found that had a ppm rating that was higher then a decimal in the report.

Here is what I have when I Google for my water authority

Water & Wastewater Operations | Friendswood, TX

The Water and Sewer Section is responsible for the daily operation of the City's water production and treatment, water distribution, wastewater collection, and managing and improving the infrastructure throughout the City limits.

www.ci.friendswood.tx.us

Thanks again.

 

[Suii]

Another website I found is here

Texas - HydroFLOW USA: Award Winning Water Treatment Devices

www.hydroflow-usa.com

My city isn't on here but the 2 closest cities are 8.4 and 11.7gpg

 

[Suii]

Apparently more digging Texas is known for having very hard water and 11.7 is accurate for my area

 

[Byron]

Another website I found is here

Texas - HydroFLOW USA: Award Winning Water Treatment Devices

www.hydroflow-usa.com

My city isn't on here but the 2 closest cities are 8.4 and 11.7gpg

This is better. GPG is grains per gallon which I can't remember how to convert, but the ppm is one of the two units we use so this will tell us. The 8.4 has 143 ppm and the 11.7 has 200 ppm. Ppm is parts per million, which is the same as mg/l (milligrams per liter). The other unit we use is degrees German, and for these two values they are 8 dH (143 ppm) and 11 dH (200 ppm). This is what I would term moderately soft/hard. This is pretty good. You should be able to find a nice community of colourful fish.

To answer your latest post (#7), this is why we always ask for the numbers...yours are not anywhere as hard as some of them, so that would carry you off in the wrong direction. Many of the shoaling tetras, rasboras, danios and barbs will work here. I wold forget livebearers, though some should be OK. African rift lake cichlids are out here, it is too soft.

Thinking then of such fish, if this is what you want, you should have a soft sand substrate. This works for all these fish, and is therefore the most practical. You can use Quikrete Play Sand, a 50 lb bag is about 5 or 6 dollars at Home Depot or Lowe's, I would get three bags. I changed all my tanks to this about 12 years ago, never regretted it. There used to be a normal tan colour, and a dark grey; either are fine and safe, I had the dark grey.

For decor, branches and/or chunks of wood are the best hardscape because these are natural to the habitats of such fish as I've listed. Round river rock in various sizes can be incorporated for some contrast. You don't want plants, fine, but I would strongly advise some good floating plants. Most of these fish do not like overhead light, and a cover of floating plants solves this problem and the fish will shine.

For fish species info nothing beats Seriously Fish. The parameters are given, but post any questions here on TFF. With the fish we are considering, you have several aspects to harmonize: parameters, water current, lighting, hardscape needs, where the species swims in the tank--no point in all the fish being at the bottom. And behavioural compatibility. And most of these fish are shoaling/schooling, which means they must have a decent sized group of their own to avoid serious stress. You have the space, so depending upon the species you decide on, groups of 12 for larger, or groups of 20-25 for the smaller.

Seriously Fish — Feeling fishy?

www.seriouslyfish.com

 

[Acorno]

With that type of water you could look into Severums and angels with a bunch of any 3 inch tetra species that is not a fin nipper.

 

[Wills]

Ah this is great! Like Byron said always worth checking as some regions have pockets that are different to their typical waters there are good options on both sides of soft and hard water but keeping fish suited to your water naturally makes things easier for you in the long run

I had a tank of similar dimensions to you a few years ago and I always counted it as 135 gallons rather than 125 so just double check that - it can come down to the glass thickness though.

In my tank as an idea for yours the best combination I had was

1 Mouth Brooding Severum
1 Threadfin Acara
4 Geophagus Winemilleri
8 Annostomus Ternetzi
15 Lemon Tetras
8 Flagtail Catfish
2 Sturisoma Whiptails

This combo worked really well for about 2 years but I lost the Geos in a disease outbreak - the rest all lived pretty long lives though the Severum was 12, Threadfin about 7/8 and the Annostomus were at least 5 when I started to lose them. I eventually sold the tank and the Flagtails were still there so I rehomed them before I sold it. A lot of those fish had a subtle beauty but some big splashes of colour like the red spots on the severum, loads of iridescent colour on the threadfin and geos and lots of yellow on the headstanders and lemon tetras.

Wills

 

[Suii]

Appreciate the replies and feedback it's helped me a lot to understand what would work. Based off the posts above here is what I was considering for the tank and would love to get feedback on.

A couple different severum all males not trying to breed in this tank.
Maybe a couple plecos
Maybe an electric blue acara or two
Geophagus that like a sand bottom like byron suggested
Maybe an angel fish or two
And some plecos to keep the bottom clean

My questions are do geophagus and plecos wanting to stay on the bottom create issues?

Also I think I would want a schooling fish to kind of keep the tank moving and active? Any suggestions? Would rainbow fish work here my daughter wants rainbow fish lol

Last with these types of numbers am I overcrowding a 125g tank?

 

[Wills]

Appreciate the replies and feedback it's helped me a lot to understand what would work. Based off the posts above here is what I was considering for the tank and would love to get feedback on.

A couple different severum all males not trying to breed in this tank.
Maybe a couple plecos
Maybe an electric blue acara or two
Geophagus that like a sand bottom like byron suggested
Maybe an angel fish or two
And some plecos to keep the bottom clean

My questions are do geophagus and plecos wanting to stay on the bottom create issues?

Also I think I would want a schooling fish to kind of keep the tank moving and active? Any suggestions? Would rainbow fish work here my daughter wants rainbow fish lol

Last with these types of numbers am I overcrowding a 125g tank?

I had a single Severum to avoid breeding in the same way then I think I had the success with the other fish because the Threadfin and Geophagus had their own hierarchy because of the Geophagus gregarious nature - its not true schooling but they definitely benefit from being in groups. I wouldnt go for more than 5/6 cichlids in here and I'd probably do a max of 3 species so maybe 2 male Severums and 4 Geophagus or 1 Severum 1 Electric Blue Acara and 4 Geos or 6 Geos would look great. Don't forget Angels are a cichlid so if you get too many cichlids in here they are all vying for the same territories, the fewer cichlids the better really. This was my tank above but I did have some problems along the way (as you do in any tank over the years) but as I start a new 75g I'm only going to do one maybe two species of cichlids.

You definitely want some schooling fish in here - Rainbow Fish come from harder water habitats but their lower end range is probably within your numbers but they are also quite big fish so you'd be limited in overall numbers. I do like to try and stay with the same continents if you possibly can - loads of other South American fish you could choose big tetras like Colombians or Bleeding Hearts would look great, some headstanders like Annostomus Ternetzi, Marbled or Spotted would be good too and you could get some Silver Hatchets for the surface levels.

With Plecos which species are you interested in? I'd avoid the really common ones like Common Plecos or Gibbiceps as they get huge and are just big black blobs (sorry any fans!) but you get some much nicer smaller species that stand out and don't grow as massive like Green or Blue Phantom Plecos, Flash Plecos, Clown Plecos or if you wanted to go bigger something like a Sunny Pleco or a Royal Panaque. I personally prefer Whiptail Catfish as they again fill the same niche but more slender, less waste producing fish and some of them have great shapes and patterns as well as some with great colours like Red Lizards.

Wills

 

[Acorno]

Appreciate the replies and feedback it's helped me a lot to understand what would work. Based off the posts above here is what I was considering for the tank and would love to get feedback on.

A couple different severum all males not trying to breed in this tank.
Maybe a couple plecos
Maybe an electric blue acara or two
Geophagus that like a sand bottom like byron suggested
Maybe an angel fish or two
And some plecos to keep the bottom clean

My questions are do geophagus and plecos wanting to stay on the bottom create issues?

Also I think I would want a schooling fish to kind of keep the tank moving and active? Any suggestions? Would rainbow fish work here my daughter wants rainbow fish lol

Last with these types of numbers am I overcrowding a 125g tank?

I think you should look into the small to medium rainbows. I would suggest forktails.

 

[Byron]

The list of species in post #11 obviously will not work with all of them, but until you pin down one or more, offering advice on others is difficult. You might do well to check the info on SF for the species, paying particular attention to size, numbers needed of each species, where they swim, their behaviour/compatibility, etc.