New tank plan -> feedback and advice appreciated!!

[mcordelia]

@Wills, so so true! I am not known for my patience, unfortunately!!

I am excited to report though, there are a few new developments on the tank front! I am going to go see a 125 tomorrow, and a 150 gallon on Sunday. Both are "unknown age", but I think the 125 is less than 10 years old, no idea about the 150. The 150 is a drilled tank and the current owner took out the overflows and blocked the holes (drilled at top, not through the bottom). The 150 comes with two HOB's, the 125 comes with a "cascade canister filter" of unknown specs (guessing either a 1000 or 1500 based on the picture). The stand for the 150 has 3 doors, the stand for the 125 has two doors and an open shelf in the middle. Curiously enough the stand for the 125 is not open in the back, perhaps for structural reasons (it looks to be one of those plywood/particle board stands), so I'm wondering how the canister would fit inside without making modifications... No details on the stand of the 150, but based on the picture it looks to be plywood construction as well. The 150 comes with fish (I would probably need to arrange to drop off at my local LFS since no way I can get the tank moved and set up on the same day), and is a 1.5h drive away. The 125 is only 35min away!

so to put the above in a tabular format:

	125 gallon ($700, agreed to $500)	150 gallon ($275)
filters:	1x cascade canister	2x HOB
heating:	~1 yr old, unknown specs	included, unknown specs
status:	empty since August	cycled, fish and everything included
stand:	plywood, 2 doors + middle shelf	plywood, 3 doors
age of tank:	guessing 5-10 yrs	possibly older, maybe 10-15 years
drive:	35min	90min

What are everyone's thoughts? Which would you go for?

Interested in hearing you guys' feedback!!

 

[utahfish]

Hi Everyone,
I just joined and am looking forward to being a part of this community! I used to keep fish in high school about a hundred years ago, and then when I left for college my parents quickly and unceremoniously got rid of my tanks... I suspect the fish went the way of the porcelain bowl, but I have never dared to (or wanted to) ask!

So here we are, about a hundred years later, and working from home due to covid finally got my husband to agree to get a tank (I suspect he is bored staring at the walls all day too). [Also, for those of you who are essential and not able to work from home, THANK YOU]. He has gotten surprisingly into researching aquariums, so I consider that a win! It turns out, that while many things (like the nitrogen cycle) have not changed in the time I've been out of the hobby, many things have (LED lights?!?!?! what is this, sorcery?!?!?!?)

We were originally planning on getting a 20 long, but as the realities of fishkeeping have dawned on hubby, we've concluded that with our lifestyle and competing obligations, a bigger tank will be easier to maintain while still being a visual asset for the house (hopefully). I have my eyes on a 90 gallon with a beautiful stand that has been sitting on craigslist due to being woefully overpriced, so maybe that is my tank, or maybe some other tank on CL over the next few months will be, but that's the overall idea.

So here's what I'm thinking, and what I'd like your feedback on:

Maintenance: the reality of life is that I will probably be able to manage every-other-week water changes sometimes, but plan to stick predominantly to monthly water changes. My philosophy is to understock and have plants in a large tank, with the idea that everything will be copacetic despite the monthly water changes.

Tank: ~75-90 gallon (whatever I find on craigslist)
Filtration: 8-10x (hoping to get a used canister with whatever tank I buy)
Heating: probably 2x150w give or take depending on size, plan is to keep it at 75f but we keep our house at 64f during the winters so need the extra wattage
lights: whatever is included (assume low tech)

Substrate: first question! I would like a dark sand, but I've gone down the rabbit hole on substrate research Initially, I was thinking play sand/pool filter sand, but then concluded that it would not be as dark as I wanted. I see a lot of people recommending black diamond blasting sand, but where it's not meant for aquariums, it makes me a bit leery? I read about the tahitian moon sand issue where a bunch of fish died in 2016-2018, so I'm not sure what to think about that. I emailed CaribSea and asked if they had any suggestions for dark sand, and they told me that while they themselves don't have any dark sand, Estes makes a variety of dark natural and painted fish-safe substrates (how amazing is that for customer service?!?!). She sent me this link: https://estesco.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Estes-Aquarium-Sand-Gravel-Brochure-East.pdf my LFS stocks Estes brand products, so I can probably order any of these through them (no idea on the cost though). I am drawn to the "black" sand, or possibly the red flint (I wonder what would happen if I mix the two...?), does anyone have any experience with either? Does this sound reasonable? Hopefully it's not exorbitantly priced...

Aquascape: according to the city water report (haven't tested myself) our water is pretty hard and very alkaline (apparently pH 8-9!), so I am thinking of adding driftwood to try and help bring the pH down. I'd also like to try my hand at some easy plants that won't need fancy lights to grow. From what I understand, java fern, java moss, anubias, cryptocoryne and vallisneria are the plants I should stick with. Is that right? Are there different sub-varieties among those that don't follow the rules of "low light, easy to grow"? I'd appreciate your thoughts on the aquascape with regard to what we are thinking of stocking (below).

Stocking:
I'm trying to focus on hardy fishes which will still be interesting to look at. Specifically, we want a kid-friendly tank because our 2-year old is SUPER into animals, and will hopefully enjoy looking at the cool fishies (or maybe he won't, who can predict toddlers...).
My "draft" plan for fish is below, the only non-negotiable is the blood parrot cichlid. We're very open to suggestions, as long as the fish aren't very difficult to keep alive, and aren't the type that are always in hiding.
3 blood parrots
6 tiger barbs
6 bleeding heart tetras
6 corydoras
By the "1 inch per gallon" rule, this comes out to ~66in of fish, which based on my goal of monthly water changes may be too much for a 75g(?) but probably ok for a 90g? Do I need an algae eater? I used to have a common plecostomus, but I didn't really like it... I'm also concerned about plecos eating other fish's slime coat? I also am concerned about SAE's not being great, and I only ever managed to kill every otocinclus I tried to keep....
What is your feedback on my stocking plan?

ok, so I've managed to write an entire wall of text, hopefully someone bothers to read this whole thing! I am looking forward to your thoughts and advice!

Thanks and nice to meet you all!

Interesting that you are wary of using black diamond blasting sand because it's " not meant for aquariums" play sand is meant for sand boxes, pool filter sand is meant for swimming pools. Aquarium gravel " meant for" aquariums is probably the least suitable substrate for aquariums as the paint on it can be harmful and tahitian moon sand marketed for aquarium use can have silica in it. I've used play sand, tahitian moon, Sand ,flourite, aqua soul, aquarium gravel, dirted a tank,pool filter sand and currently use black diamond blasting sand and can say the black diamond sand as a dark substrate us great, it's inert, the composition of it allows much like pool filter sand for oxygen exchange to roots,it doesn't compact, it's clean, and it's inexpensive, about the same as play sand.about 10$ for 50 lbs. The most often dig against it is that it's not suitable for bottom dwelling fish as it's too rough or sharp. It's no harder or rougher than play sand or pool filter sand. I have a Bolivian Ram which are earth eaters that sifts through it with no issues. I've read plenty of people that keep corydora on them without any issue.
If one isn't comfortable with that there is a darker play sand and under water it kind of looks lightish grey.

Having said that get your GH measurement. GH is general hardness which will be more important than PH and KH. Once you find what your GH is put in fish that are compatible with each other And that GH.
Good luck, setting up a tank can almost be as fun as having one

 

[mcordelia]

Thanks @utahfish! I posted my GH measurements later in the thread (I think it's on page 2). They're the ones from the city, not measured at my tap yet. Going to go look at a 125 gallon tomorrow, super excited!

 

[mcordelia]

I did it! I'm pretty freaking excited, I managed to negotiate the 125 down to $200!!!
In all honesty though, the tank itself is not something I want to set up in my living room, so that is going straight into the garage and I'll try to resell it for something, hopefully someone is willing to come pick it up haha. According to the seller it holds water, but the silicone is pretty beat up, and the front is scratched to all heck. Hubby was joking that we should turn it into a greenhouse outside, if it just wasn't so darn heavy

Our LFS sells new 125's (tank only) for $399, so I think where I got a reasonably good deal on the stand, lights, tops, and canister filter, and I got that driftwood the other day from the seller of the leaking tank, and this tank comes with dragon stones, I think I'll eat the cost of a new tank and sleep more soundly at night.

The stand is in pretty good shape, a couple places need some touch up paint, and this set comes with a pretty nice set of LED lights (don't remember what brand). The filter is a penn plax cascade 1500 which is rated at 350gph. That's probably not enough filtration, right? Should I get a second canister or a HOB as a second filter? or a sponge filter even?

I'm picking up the stand and tank on Friday, and then I'll probably take a bit of time to make sure the location of the stand is exactly where I want it and touch it up, and then I'll go pick up a new 125 from the LFS.

The new tank is going to kill my budget overall though, so substrate is going to be play sand or pool filter sand, I'm trying to see if I can find the Red Flint sand locally since it's supposed to be a little darker and pretty, hopefully. I have high hopes since I think it's mined in Wisconsin and Canada, which isn't that far from here....

Next steps:
1) pick up stand and tank on Friday
2) try to resell tank for some $$, set up stand and touch it up in a few spots
3) get new 125 from LFS, set up filter and start cycling
4) decide on and acquire substrate
5) add hardscape
6) add plants
7) add fish (realistically, this is looking like a 2021 thing at this rate hahah)....

As promised a few days ago, here is the picture of the driftwood:

I realize I included nothing for scale, but there are three pieces, the middle one is some bark that I don't think is going to be suitable for an aquarium, but the top and bottom pieces are both probably 4-5 ft long. I set them to soak tonight (the top 1/3 of both the pieces are still poking out of a 60gal barrel...), so we will see how they behave. The bottom one in the picture used to be in the other person's tank before, so that has at least been shown to not kill fish in the short term , the top piece is a mystery.

My shortlist of fish that I'm trying to downselect from at this point is Blood parrots, cory cats, silver dollars, a firemouth, rainbows, tiger barbs, and bleeding heart tetras.

I also realize that this thread is starting to be not very logically located in the "new to the hobby" forum, so I don't know if I should just let it be, make a new one, or ask a mod for it to be moved...

anyway, long winded blabber notwithstanding, I'm EXTREMELY excited about these recent developments