Just bought a 55 gal aquarium and stand...now what? (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Rosz]

right andrew,
neons, cardinals, black neons (kinda greenish), the glowlights, and black skirt(sometimes will) tetras will rarely attack.
but most other types will...esp beware the Buenos Aires tetra.

 

[Shayne Lebrun]

lol jeff, that is so true. ive never seen an algae eater eat any algae. and omg plecos, are they not THE ugliest fish ever.

I had a tank that developed a serious algae problem; when I got it, I'd placed it in a low-direct-sunlight area, but a few months later, well, it was getting a lot more sunlight. It got pretty nasty.

So I said 'to hell with it' and got a little bitty chinese algae eater. Well, within ten minutes I noticed lots of clean, clear trails in the green fuzz; three days later, I had a perfectly clean tank, a three-times-the-size (very happy) algae eater, and a filter clogged up with the long green stringy poops of said algae eater.

He's still going strong, by the way.

 

[AaronJB]

Golden Guarmis are beautiful fish that last for ages. I actually had a pair breed in the 10-gallon tank on my desk. The two I currently have have lasted for almost two years.

 

[Jeff Rosz]

Shayne,
was this chinese algae eater long and thin, mottled brownish/tan in color, and when resting used its pectorals and tail like a tripod?
heh if so, been there done that, no eaten algae. all he wanted to do was pester a pleco who himself was lazy and wouldnt eat any algae. they could have been fighting about who was and wasnt gonna eat any algae. i guess ive been unlucky over the years and always got lazy tank cleaners.
otoh, i do like corys for tank cleaning duty, they roam around like lil automatic hoovers all day long. reminds me of the "broken glass" scene in "5th element".

 

[Clinton McClure]

My pleco does a good job of keeping my tank walls and ornaments clean. I found it funny, though, as one of my tiger barbs has recently stopped eating the fish flakes and will nibble on the algae tablet I drop in tank each day for the pleco. I have a vegie-barb! lol
As for the size of the plecos, they do get huge. There's a Chinese take-out place a few miles from me with a 100+ gallon aquarium on one end which has two Qoi (sp?) goldfish, two red cap fantails (Orangas or something like that, correct?) and a pleco which looks to be at least a foot and a half long!!!!

 

[Jeff Rosz]

lemme help ya clinton,
Qoi is Koi
Red cap fantails would be Veiltails. they are a lil different.
Oranga is Oranda. cauliflower heads. now these are cool fish. very fun to watch. they actually have no business trying to swim.

 

[Drew Bethel]

Well guys, things are not going ahead as planned. I have the following concerns and can use some feedback:
1) I traded in my multi-coloured gravel and bought some natural ones. The look great but I've been getting mixed messages from the Petco and Petsmart employees - and actually differeing of opinions within the same stoor! See, I decided to go with less granular gravel by Estes called "Natural Aggregates" - theyr'e different shades of brown are peanut size. Now, some people are telling me it will be hard to clean and other are saying the opposite. I'm now thinking of mixing it - 25 lbs or regular sized natural coloured gravel, and the balance will be the peanut sized stuff. Sounds like a plan?
2) The surface area of tank is not contacting the top of the stand - just at the front and back areas of the stand(left end, right end, and center). Therefore, when the tank is sitting on the stand if I kneel down I can see a gap running along the front of a few millimeters. The there vertical columns are to blame because they're a tad higher than the horizontal support.
This is kinda odd because the stand is from the same company(Aqua Culture), and is made specifically for the 55g tank. I'm now wondering if I should dismantle and take the stand back to Walmart and try another one. Or, get a piece of styrofoam or something similar to go between the tank and stand. This would help distribute the weight more evenly.
My wife is nervous about styrofoam since it's highly flammable and deadly if caught on fire.
HELP!!!!!!!

 

[Shayne Lebrun]

Algernon the Algae Eater looks like this feller right here:
http://www.aquatic-gardeners.org/pic/cae-photo.jpg
The great thing about fish are their personalities. I had one betta, back when I was breeding them for fun, I called him Eric the Red. He was a big mean bugger; his fins were like leather. Anywho, he was the laziest damn betta I've ever seen. He's stake out a chunk of rock, lay down on his side, then bend his body so his head was up in the air, and he's just sit there, watching the world go around.
I had some Zebra Danios, man, one was INSANE. He was the blood-thirstiest fish I've ever seen; he terrorized my tank until I took him out. Just a little bitty one inch long short-tailed zebra danio. Smacked around fish that were several multiples of his size.

 

[Jeff Rosz]

1) yes drew, sounds like a plan. dont sweat it.
2) styro is ok and will work well for the load distribution. go to home depot and get the kind they use to nail to sheathing of homes. cut it so the whole bottom of the tank rests on it. if there is a fire, and things are hot enough to flash the styrofoam to flame, i would think the glass would be about ready to shatter and youd have 55g of water to put the flames out. losing a tank would be the least of your worrys. go fer it.

shayne,
yep thats the offending osteichthys. i guess my algae eater had a different work ethic than algernon.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Yeah, that's it! Thanks Jeff! Didn't have a sourcebook handy, couldn't remember exactly what they were called and was just too lazy to look it up.

 

[AaronMg]

A UV filter does a good job in getting rid of algae.

 

[Drew Bethel]

How do you setup a UV filter...any more info? Thanks.

 

[Jay H]

http://fins.actwin.com/mirror/filters.html
Skim down towards the UV filter area to see. It is not that cheap because for the bulb to remain effective, you have to replace it every 6 months or so. Most of the ones I've seen are around $100 and up, and you need to have a pump and the necessary fittings, tubings, etc. There are either hanging ones or inline ones meant to be used in series with the filtration unit.
Most of the time, I've seen UV filters were in saltwater tanks. (fish are expensive so any insurance you can get to reduce live parasites and stuff the better).
Jay

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

Algae shouldn't be too much of a problem most of the time, assuming you don't leave the lights on all the time, the tank isn't near a window (shouldn't be anyway due to temperature fluctuations), or there is an excess of nitrates. Some fish will eat it, and if not, it can always be either scraped off the glass or sucked off of plants if it becomes excessive. While they survived, my Octos did a great job at mowing, but I couldn't keep them for more than a few months.

 

[Philip_G]

I've never heard of a UV sterilizer affecting algae growth, to kill the algae it would have to pass THROUGH the filter, not going to happen on the glass.

IMO live plants are your best bet, let them export the excess nutrients from the water, and not the algae, just don't let dead leaves etc. collect. This is how it's handled in a saltwater tank, the refugium is full of macro algae (seaweed.. mangrove plants in my case) they use up al the food, the snails mostly take care of any other algae, I scrape the glass every day or three with a magnetic scraper.

frequent water changes will export nutrients also, I assume phosphates are bad in the freshwater world also? might consider using reverse osmosis water, for good measure.

 

[Drew Bethel]

Made a start last night. Added the gravel, water. de-chlorinator, and some bacteria treatment.

Should I leave the takn light on 24/7? Or just during the day. Thanks.

 

[Andrew Pratt]

Drew I bought a cheap timer that I plug my light into so its set to turn off the light from 11 till 6:30 in the morning...fish need their rest and too much light will only help algae grow.

 

[Drew Bethel]

Andrew, great idea about the timer. I have one at home somewhere, just need to dig it up!
Jeff, oops...I had to put the tank kinda close to a window to avoid rearranging the entire room - which would have been a pain. I do have some 3M plastic over it though
I got a 78* reading this morning. Will check it again this afternoon.

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

Just FYI, with no fish in the tank, the bacteria will die off. They are there to eat the fish waste, so with no food they will starve.

 

[GaryP]

Guys,
I had a few questions of my own. I've got a cichlid that appears to have a touch of black spot. Would you recommend using just Formalin to treat this, or a general all purpose parasite medication? Second question: what are your thoughts on using freshwater trace elements? I recently found a catalog that offers these and have never really looked into what their benefits are. Thanks.

Gary