Setting up a new Freshwater Aquarium: Getting it Right

carolkoh

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Getting your kids involved might also make it a great learning experience for them. When my daughter wanted her own tank, and my wife objected, her respons was, "But Mom, it will teach me discipline and commitment. Their lives will be in my hands."

You daughter really knows how to work your wife. Now... her response should be "You feed Tiny (the Chinchilla) well without me having to remind you and we'll see about it."
 

garylkoh

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With natural water tanks, is a low maintenance tank (high in plants and low in fish) the same concept as a reef tank for salt water fish

I have no experience with salt water tanks, but from what I understand, a reef tank might be even more difficult to maintain than just fish alone.
 

garylkoh

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Gary

I love this thread because starting an a tank once again to me is tantamount to getting back into vinyl. I lust after it :) and it has been you who has given me the inspiration for both

As Don Corleone said in Godfather lll " just when I think I'm out they pull me back in"

Steve,

I'm really glad to help - in BOTH aspects :D
 

garylkoh

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As some of you may have noticed, I am out of the country. Four days after setting the tank up.

The timing and trip was intentional as I thought that it would help with one very important element of new tank set-up - patience. It is very easy to do things too fast and doing too much at this point of the set up. Understandably, you are excited with the new tank, but if you start to stress out when the beautiful, expensive plants start to die back, or don't seem to be growing, you can actually hurt the cycling process by doing too much.

As I explained above, you want beneficial bacteria to grow. This can be kick-started by adding a solution like Seachem Stability (there are lots of alternatives on the market), reinforced by bio-active substrate, but it really needs the eco-system to be started before the bacteria can start to grow and colonize in the bio-media inside the canister filter and on the substrate.

In order for the bacterial eco-system to grow, the bacteria needs to be fed - and hence, a few fish (very few depending on the size of the tank) need to be introduced. The waste of these 'sacrificial' fish feed the bacteria.

Plants are also put in at this stage. If the plants are healthy enough, they will have sufficient stored reserves to start root growth. If they do not have sufficient stored reserves, the leaves will start to die-back to supply the energy for the plants to grow roots. Do not remove yellowing and dying leaves on the plants. Let the leaves die, which also release nitrites which again will feed the bacteria.

During the cycling stage, do not change water. Feed the fish only a TINY amount as you do NOT want rotting excess fish food which will really contaminate the tank. I also do not fertilize the plants as the plants may not be established enough to take in nutrients yet. What's important is quality of light. Some additional carbon dioxide (more than can be provided by one or two or three fish) is needed. Hence, at this point, I will put in a little organic bio-available carbon dioxide daily - Seachem Excel (there are again lots of alternatives).

In addition to the marketing speak of being "bio-available carbon dioxide", Seachem Excel is also a very weak algaecide. Hence, at this point, it performs two functions - helping the plants establish, and keeping green algae at bay.

While I am away, Carol was left with strict instructions to feed the fish only a tiny bit, and to put in 2 tsp of Excel a day. We'll see what the tank looks like when I get back to the office on Monday.
 
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carolkoh

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While I am away, Carol was left with strict instructions to feed the fish only a tiny bit, and to put in 2 ml of Excel a day. We'll see what the tank looks like when I get back to the office on Monday.

Strict?? Shouldn't have said that! *Feels the rebellion grow*

j/k :D

The tank is looking great. :) Fish are begging (the betta too) but I'm being good.
 

Mike Lavigne

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is it 2 circular tanks in one? inner and outer? the inner tank appears to have a higher level.

looking at the surface there are two separate reflective parts.

you seem to have cropped the picture so we don't see the circular limits of the inner tank.

I don't know fish at all, but likely with two tanks the picture shows incompatible fish appearing to be together?
 
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carolkoh

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Yah, that's the patience part. Sometimes when the fish beg, I break down and feed them more. Good that you're resisting doing that.

Haha. You want to see begging?? I foster kittens. You should see them when I pull out the chicken / turkey from the fridge.
 

treitz3

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It looks to me like there are two tanks in one. The inner tank is saltwater and the outer tank is freshwater with some beautiful Cichlids. Pretty cool!

Tom
 

garylkoh

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is it 2 circular tanks in one? inner and outer? the inner tank appears to have a higher level.

looking at the surface there are two separate reflective parts.

you seem to have cropped the picture so we don't see the circular limits of the inner tank.

I don't know fish at all, but likely with two tanks the picture shows incompatible fish appearing to be together?

Bingo!

When I first looked at the tank, the colorful freshwater Lake Tanganyika cichlids (some of which look like salt water fish) first popped out. Then I saw what absolutely had to be salt water fish as well. I don't think most of the people who looked at the tank appreciated or understood the humour.
 

Dimfer

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If setting up a bigger tank, I will highly recommend sump type filtration. I started with Marineland, has gone a few Fluvals and eventually to the Mercedes Benz of aquarium filter Ehiems, but my longest lasting filters are the sump types. I hated taking out the filter, taking it to the sink, washing the filter media (with aquarium water), putting it back together, hooking up the hoses and getting the water flowing again.

I would recommend getting the biggest sump tank that will fit at the bottom of the stand (wide and long but not high) and design it in such a way that there is a settling area for the solid waste, a pre-filter, lot's of bio filtration media and lastly a chamber for the heater and the pump.

I used to keep a stingray and it is the most demanding fish on the filtration that you can ever keep. They pee and poo, and almost impossible to keep the tank with low nitrate. My arowàna love it because it's urine keeps the aquarium acidic. The ideal size for the sump is 30% of the main tank, and the pump should cycle the water 5 times per hour, some goes as high as 10 times. In my experience, the best locatiin for the heater is in the sump, it functions most efficiently that way because more water passes throught it.

With the sump type, I use a small vacuum cleaner that can collect the solid waste without even turning off the pump.

Here's a sample picture of commercia?ly designed sump type filter.

0.jpg

Did I mention wash your filter media with aquarium water? Yup, cleaning the media with tap water is the most common rookie mistake, chlorine kills the benefecial bacteria in your media.
 

elescher

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Of the most critical things to get "right", tank lighting, ample water flow and not overfeeding your animals are on the top of the list.
 

Dimfer

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Of the most critical things to get "right", tank lighting, ample water flow and not overfeeding your animals are on the top of the list.

very true, especially with mature fish. some people feed their fish twice a day, I feed mine 3 - 4 times a week
 

garylkoh

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Detour.....

Thanks, Dimfer. Yes - the absolute best filter is a wet-dry sump. However, that takes up a lot of space, and ideally is to be set-up at the same level as the tank. With a tank that comes in just under 150 gal, I thought that a Eheim canister filter sized for 160 gal would be enough. Later, I will be adding a smaller back-up filter so that when one filter is cleaned, we still have some bacterial filtration going.
 

elescher

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Hey Gary,

Food for thought......buying a filter solely based on the size of a tank is like buying a 100 watt amp for a 5 foot tall speaker.

First off, you really shouldn't just 'get by' with your new aquarium. Think overkill. Any additional money you spend upfront for better/more suitable equipment will save you tons down the road depending on how long your journey lasts. Even if you spend an additional $500.00 or more than you planned to, it will pale in comparison to the money you will spend fixing the problems by having not done so in the first place.

Maintaining a tank is not rocket science, but if you eventually plan on doing Discus, or any other exotic animals or plants it"s not the same as having a goldfish. One more thing.... wet/dry filters go underneath the tank. Gravity pulls the water from the tank down to filter where your water is processed and then pumped back to the tank. This makes it easier to add supplements or to alter your water chemistry when you need to. Another benefit is that it permits you to get those unsightly water heaters out of the tank.
 
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garylkoh

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An aquarium is essentially an entire world. If it is large enough, and made ecologically stable, you might be able to get away with almost zero maintenance. Having some herbivorous inhabitants to eat plants, some carnivorous fish to eat the herbivorous if and when they breed, the waste from the inhabitants to feed the plants, and then just add light (the sun). Unfortunately, in my experience, that is not possible.

Inevitably, we over-stock the tank resulting in pollution that need to be removed. We feed the fish - introducing pollution.

So, it is essential that we have systems put in place to support the life we put into the tank. Critical to aquatic life is water - good, clean water. I briefly mentioned a canister filter in my earlier post about biological filtration and cycling the water. The canister filter which provides biological filtration (which removes the pollution caused by life) and mechanical filtration (the "dust and dirt") is an essential part of a life support system that we put in place to make this world we have put together inhabitable.

Here's a picture I took at the aquarium I visited in Toronto - while that Life Support System is many times the size of the one for my tank, essentially the same elements are there.

LSS.jpg

The canister filter removes pollutants and dirt but more is needed. As a rule of thumb, the canister filter should cycle the water at least 3 times per hour. More is better, there is no such thing as over-filtration, under-filter and pollutants build up. In a well set-up planted tank, the plants, rocks, driftwood and substrate will also colonize bacteria and act as biological filters to remove pollutants, but they should not be relied on as the sole method of filtration. Different fish also pose a different pollutant load - that will be considered later.

Pollutant build-up cannot be removed with just filtration alone, and it is essential to change part of the water every week or so. Do not just top up the tank replenishing water lost due to evaporation as this concentrates pollutants. I recommend changing 20% of the water every week. Change too much at a time and you tend to de-stabilize the eco-system. Change too little and pollutants build up over time.

There are also a couple of schools of thought about the water. There is one school who would set up a RO (reverse osmosis) system so that water changes would be with the purest water possible and add the necessary chemicals to sustain life. However, I do feel that the micro-nutrients (impurities) in spring/natural water is essential to life. This is another subjective/objective debate that I won't go into. It is the chlorine/chloramine/fluoride that has been added to tap water that is supposed to be bad for fish and plant life. However, I've been successful so far just changing the water using tap water and adding Seachem Prime to remove chlorine/chloramine/fluoride. As I mentioned earlier, Seattle has great quality water. However, every now and then, I would also try to add natural, alive water to the tank. Find a spring, bring a few clean containers and harvest some water for your tank.

Unless you have some special needs like extremely soft water for discus or alkaline hard water for Rift Valley cichlids, tap water plus a little conditioner might be sufficient.

Besides clean water, it needs to be at the correct temperature for the fish you intend to keep. Discus, for example, require very warm water. Plants thrive in generally cooler temperatures. And fish do not like rapid temperature changes much. If we are keeping tropical fish, a heater is usually necessary unless you are living in the tropics. Sometimes, when you are living in the tropics, you need a chiller as room temperature may be too warm. I like to use an in-line water heater that is part of the life support system instead of an in-tank heater. Fish are cold-blooded animals, and I have seen fish snuggle up to an in-tank heater killed when the heater kicks on and boil the fish nearby.

205204.jpg

This will attach to the outflow of the canister filter and will heat the water flowing into the tank. Unfortunately, the thermostats on most of these heaters are "estimates" only. So, invest in an accurate digital thermometer and adjust the temperature-setting dial ignoring the temperature printed on it. If you already have fish or plants in the tank, make changes SLOWLY. Take your time to get it to the right temperature.
 

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