Tropical Fish Keeping banner

If I had a 220 Gallon Aquarium, I would stock....

On my way to getting my dream aquarium...

122K views 1K replies 53 participants last post by  djembekah 
#1 ·
We have a 20, 35, and 2 x 55 gallon tanks. Today we took the plunge and put a 6 foot, 125 gallon tank with stand on layaway. It will be our last tank.



It'll take a couple of months for me to pay off the tank, stand, heaters, filter, etc which gives me plenty of time to figure out what kind of substrate I want, whether or not I am finally going to try live plants, and what kind of fish to keep. Actually, i'm not even sure what kind of filter to get yet.

Our current tanks are very colorful and artificial looking (think Vegas, tacky but entertaining) as you can see in these pictures:





I'm thinking I would like the new tank to look more natural. We're going to use it as a room divider in our basement so it will be visible from both sides of the tank, we won't be using a background. So far I'm leaning toward some Balas, Barbs, and Loaches, if the tank is big enough.

Can't wait to get the sucker home and set up! Going to be a long couple of months. My 3 year wedding anniversary is July 18 and I'm hoping to have it then, as this is my anniversary gift.
 
See less See more
4
#116 ·
What an Awesome tank!! Love hearing how people "score" good deals!! Can't wait to watch the build. Did you ever say what was going to go into this tank...? I'm sure it's buried a few pages back in this thread... or maybe things have changed? This opens the door for just about anything you want.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Canadian Fish
#117 ·
I'm committed to balas. I bought them on sale last week when they were on for $2.88 each at Big Al's. They are hanging with my silver dollars until the new tank is cycled. They're tiny, larger than the serpaes but smaller than the mollies.

So everything else has to be compatible with them. I'm thinking various barbs, and maybe clown or yoyo loaches, and possibly a sailfin pleco.
 
#120 ·
Just had to share this I went to Peterborough tonight to look at some fish stores ended up at PJs pets and two fish that I'm looking for for my tank where they're really cheap. I bought nine bosemi rainbows and six clown Loches. The rainbows were three for $16 and they are usually 1299 each at big Al's the loaches where the medium-size ones which are on sale at my beguiles for 78 this weekend but I paid three for 18
Posted via Mobile Device
 
#121 ·
Just had to share this I went to Peterborough tonight to look at some fish stores ended up at PJs pets and two fish that I'm looking for for my tank where they're really cheap. I bought nine bosemi rainbows and six clown Loches. The rainbows were three for $16 and they are usually 1299 each at big Al's the loaches where the medium-size ones which are on sale at my beguiles for 78 this weekend but I paid three for 18
Posted via Mobile Device
Wow! Great deals! And both really cool types of fish. Is your 120 ready for them, or are they in your other tank awhile?

Pics please!!

6 clown loaches, from everything I have heard, will be very entertaining to watch! Such neat fish. Every time my son sees them on the monitor he says "I wanna put in my fish tank downstairs". Which is a lot of words for him to string together. He crawled and walked early, but was very late starting to talk.

Were those sale prices? Or is PJs always that cheap?
 
#125 ·
Is that company in Orillia? What a Rip. Thank goodness the shipping you said was free considering the route it is taking! Orillia to Toronto to Ottawa to your house. Sheesh.
Sometimes I feel like I've been taken hostage when we are at the mercy of the shipping companies.
Things travel the countryside more than we humans do!
Don't you hate these exercises in patience? Sigh...
 
#126 ·
There's still a chance it will be here sometime tomorrow, as long as it gets on the road tonight.

Then I have to go out and get substrate.

My landlord lives in the duplex next to me, I e-mailed him to see if he had shims, which he does. He's a handy guy. He's out of town until tomorrow so I should have the tank leveled tomorrow or Saturday.

It's actually dead on level across the front, left to right. It's just slightly off front to back. The front needs to come up a little on both corners.
 
#129 ·
Well, it made it to the Ottawa Depot an hour ago. So I would assume it will definitely be here sometime today! Woo hoo.

On an unrelated note, before I went to bed last night, I threw a 10 pound roast, potatoes and carrots in the slow cooker and I just woke up to a great smelling house.

Gotta love the slow cooker, working while you sleep. ;)
 
#131 ·
there defo a good air freshener for the house lol

some things you may want to conciser

clown loach really are a fascinating fish to keep
but if you plan on keeping them you need to choose your substrate around them they like to hide in fine pea gravel or sand
also because they have a life span of around 50 years they grow very slow
and need lots of hiding places if the substrate isn't of the kind they can hide in so lots of ornaments caves etc.....

as far as plants go they make the maintenance of tanks so much easier i would go with normal plants to start as i am guessing that the ballas you will be getting will be under 2 or 3 inches this would give you at least 2-3 years of happily planted tank
also i have not seen my ballas going for other fish yet they are around 2 years old and about's 4--5 inches in size although they are supposed to become a little more aggressive as they grow past 6-7 inches


take a look at a small school of glass cat fish (4 - 6 of them would be nice) they should fit straight into this type of tank nicely i love my two

also you mentioned loach
i love my golden weather loach (A.K.A(dojo loach) although they are sold as cold water they live very happily and healthy in tropical tanks they have very active moments and then laze around for some time they are 100% the most attractive fish in my main tank and hence the name go mental before a storms hits

another bonus to keeping them is that there snake like motions across the bottom of the tank stir up all the waste and let your filter pick the majority of it up good addition to any clean up crew
and hence the name go mental before storms hit
hhuuummmmm i think around 4-7 would be nice in a tank that size

maybe a black ghost knife fish too they really are a beautiful fish but you can only have one!!!

you would most probably be ok with a pair of kribensis cichlids too they grow to around 6 inches and are fascinating to breed take a look at the care sheet for them one that includes how to breed and i know you will be interested

just some advise and suggestions there for you see what you think and let us know
 
#134 · (Edited)
I'm actually quite enthralled with the Weather Loach. We had a ryukin tank and I wanted to add some weather loaches, but unfortunately the tank was too small. Basically it came down to weathers, yoyos, or clowns. I'm leaning toward clowns, especially since my youngster likes them, but the weathers are cool and especially neat when they are active. It's a tough call.

have both i do they even interact with each other at times

Interesting, I had not heard this before. I also plan on having barbs. Possibly tigers and odessas. Maybe some scissortail rasboras? How are they for eating plants? Funny no one (including at my LFS) told me the balas wouldn't devour the plants for the first couple of years.

i have two silver ballas look at the booming plant life in my display tank
PS. i work for my LFS and will tell you now do not listen to a thing they say most is wrong or vary's to actual life too much.

i do not know about the others you have mentioned but if you plan at any point to move your silver dollers in dont even think about plants lol

maybe a black ghost knife fish too they really are a beautiful fish but you can only have one!!!

I have a friend who keeps one of these and they truly are a cool fish, but his hides practically all the time, he rarely sees it.

this will depend on the size of the tank how well spread the hiding spots are and please bear in mind that the BGK is a semi nocturnal fish nick named by some as the nocturnal assassin
 
#138 · (Edited)
more important find out if they do before nearing adult hood

i also have a cool pic in for photo of the month comp take a look its my balla's with a clown loach barely showing behind my big balla looks brill i think take a look at the comp photos

http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/contests.php

i couldnt tell you what plants they are my mollys love them but they grow far to fast to be eaten by them lol i have to trim them to half size at least every week and a half
[
lots of new photos i have only just added too !!!!
 
#139 ·
Beautiful Pic!

So the delivery arrived!








The large cichlid stone was broken en route:


But here's some great customer service, I called them, and they said they'd send another one out today!

Pets & Ponds

If you're in Canada, these guys have low prices and great service!

After it arrived we went to Big Al's and picked up substrate. I completely forgot to get airline hose and a thermometer. D'oh. I didn't buy the airline from Pets & Ponds because they didn't have black.
 
#145 ·
Nope, that's my wife's job. She has named all of our 70+ fish. But in groups, like if we have 7 of one kind, they could be the 7 dwarves. We're not fanatics, we don't know which is which if they're all, say, serpaes or platies.

The peacock eel is Allie McEel
The Hillsteam Loach is Darth Vader, 'cause he's my boy's favorite.
 
#147 ·
PARTY time at your house then when you have filled it

Can we have a collective view on your plans for the tank like what substrate fertilizer tank mates for your balla's etc.......

and the things i didn't read in the many pages like internal or external filter etc or have you been mega brave like me and gone for a sump system ? mainly to save others having to reads page upon page but also because i am lazy and only read first few and last few before i got involved

but good luck
have fun i know i would im so jealous lol

will you be breeding breeder fish like mollies or platies for you bigger fish
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top