New Tank

[kevmiller]

Ok guys just going to let you know of my plans. I have decided to give up marines and come back to freshwater. I kept freshwater 3 years ago and kept discus. I plan on a vision 180, with standard vision hood and lights. I am going to go for a external filter the eheim 2028, can anyone please advice on the media to use in here i have 3 baskets all empty and plus put it in simple terms as i am simple . I plan on having tank in the bottom of the tank however i am not 100% sure yet, does sand stop you from having plants. My stock is going to be

Cardianl Tetras
Rummy Nose Tetras
Glowlight Tetras
Clown loach
Plec
Maybe Black ghost knifefish

(12 months on will look to keeping discus again)

Ido plan to keep a planted tank however the standard juwel lights i dont think are bright enough, would i be right with this
Thanks

 

[bae1994]

i believe the last three fish will grow to big for your tank and before fish you need to do a fish less cycle

 

[kevmiller]

i believe the last three fish will grow to big for your tank and before fish you need to do a fish less cycle

cheers for the reply mate and yeah no all about the fishless cycle which i will be doing, as for the tank being to small, i fully agree with you however for th time being the tank size will be fine i think, i do have a triogn350 which i will be setting up in due course (6-12 months) once my living room is ready.

 

[bae1994]

okay but the clowns need to be in groupes aswell

 

[kevmiller]

okay but the clowns need to be in groupes aswell

yeah i have kept them in the past when i kept freshwater was thinking of 5 what do you think. For some reason i have always been told these need to be kept in odd numbers is this correct.

 

[bae1994]

not sure about the odd number thing but if i where you id leave out the clowns as when theyre fully grown thats at least 5 foot of fish

so 5 clowns =5 foot
1 plec = 1.5 foot
1 knife fish = 1-2 foot i believe
3 kinds of tetra need atleast 6 = 4-6 inch and theylle get eaten by the above


thats 9 foot of fish i think thats to much

 

[kevmiller]

not sure about the odd number thing but if i where you id leave out the clowns as when theyre fully grown thats at least 5 foot of fish

so 5 clowns =5 foot
1 plec = 1.5 foot
1 knife fish = 1-2 foot i believe
3 kinds of tetra need atleast 6 = 4-6 inch and theylle get eaten by the above


thats 9 foot of fish i think thats to much

no worries mate cheers for the info i will have a re-think. Are you sure the black ghost knife fish grows to 2 ft i have had one in the past and i had it over 2 years and grew no where near 2 ft, i would say it got to about 10 inches i also kept in with cardianl tetras for 2 years and not 1 tetra went mising. I suppose though all fish are differant and i could have jsst been lucky

 

[bae1994]

they might not thats why i said 1-2 ft

 

[bae1994]

they might not thats why i said 1-2 ft

they might not thats why i said 1-2 ft

 

[waterdrop]

The eheim 2028 should work quite nicely if you start with ceramic rings in the bottom topped by one of the coarse blue sponges they provide that fit the tray. One of the upper trays could have ceramic gravel and final thing at the top can be one of the white pads that's fitted. Perhaps you could add loose polyfloss just below this pad to catch some more fine debris but you'd probably have to clean it more often. I don't have a very strong opinion about which media to double up on since you have two upper trays (ie. whether to normally have 2 ceramic gravel ones or two ceramic ring ones) but the real beauty of the third tray is it being a place ready for "optional" media (eg. carbon, if you're removing meds, clearing tannins or trying to get rid of an organic smell... or perhaps a mesh bag of crushed coral if you happened to have extremely soft water and needed to raise KH, that sort of thing.) Be sure to re-lube your O-Rings each time you clean the filter.

For the fishless cycle be sure to read through our working article on the add&wait method by RDD. You'll want an aquarium logbook, a syringe for water, a syringe for ammonia, the pure household ammonia, the liquid-reagent freshwater test kit (fresh and salt kits are different so don't use your old one) and you'll want to start by posting up your tap and then tank stats here in your (freshwater) beginner thread so members can spot problems.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[kevmiller]

The eheim 2028 should work quite nicely if you start with ceramic rings in the bottom topped by one of the coarse blue sponges they provide that fit the tray. One of the upper trays could have ceramic gravel and final thing at the top can be one of the white pads that's fitted. Perhaps you could add loose polyfloss just below this pad to catch some more fine debris but you'd probably have to clean it more often. I don't have a very strong opinion about which media to double up on since you have two upper trays (ie. whether to normally have 2 ceramic gravel ones or two ceramic ring ones) but the real beauty of the third tray is it being a place ready for "optional" media (eg. carbon, if you're removing meds, clearing tannins or trying to get rid of an organic smell... or perhaps a mesh bag of crushed coral if you happened to have extremely soft water and needed to raise KH, that sort of thing.) Be sure to re-lube your O-Rings each time you clean the filter.

For the fishless cycle be sure to read through our working article on the add&wait method by RDD. You'll want an aquarium logbook, a syringe for water, a syringe for ammonia, the pure household ammonia, the liquid-reagent freshwater test kit (fresh and salt kits are different so don't use your old one) and you'll want to start by posting up your tap and then tank stats here in your (freshwater) beginner thread so members can spot problems.

~~waterdrop~~

Thanks waterdrop some good usefull information there just want thing i want to clear up what does this mean "re-lube your O-Rings" as my current filter media has been out of the tank for about 2 months now so do i need to re-lube
cheers

 

[waterdrop]

Yeah, you want to establish the habit of re-lubing the o-rings every time you are in to a cannister filter (partly so it won't matter if you don't have time every now and then.. whatever.) Anyway, the silicone seals will disintegrate eventually if they're not protected from the air/water contact they're getting. You can use plain vasoline from the drugstore once you run out of the packet of more clear stuff that eheim gives you.

~~waterdrop~~