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.
Oscars don't do well in planted tanks neither do common plecos but bristle nose plecos are good. My clown loaches started eating some if my plant the soft leaf plants and my Val's I had holes in the middle of my Val's Nd they ate a hole plant so I started giving them veggie plattys and now they are leaving my plants alone I have my new bulbs in my tank now the 6700k and they have a pink spectrum as to the blue spectrum the 12000k ones plus brighter I will try to upload the picture of when I had one of each in my tank to show the difference the mobile version doesn't have a spot to add a picture Posted via Mobile Device
Wow, didn't know clowns each plants too. God at least with my Silver Dollar tank as long as the fish fit, and get along, I don't have plants to worry about. They really make stocking a tank trickier.
I'm wondering if mine are helping the cycle at all. I wish I had a test kit! Last I checked the ammonia was dropping.
New lights huh? I guess that is something else I have to look into. Yikes. First I'm going to see if the plants I have can live with liquid fertilizer and my existing lights. That would be nice.
You know we had our 90 gallon (in my previous life (husband)!) with 3 Full size Oscars / 2 Bala's all from babies bought at the same time. That tank lasted the longest, was the barest LOL only 2 pieces of big driftwood for the huge Pleco, and some ya.. plastic plants. They got so big that we basically kept taking more stuff out of the tank. But you have 220!! Holy freakin' 220!! 2 and a half times what we had. I think we had those 5 fish for about 10 years. Oscars are a Cichlid and yes are quite comical, big puppies with personalities. We did not have any aggression until we re-homed the Bala's, and one Oscar died. The 2 remaining Oscars played tug of war with their mouths daily splashing water up the walls. I think we donated them to a LFS at that point. By then we had 2 small kids, neither of us wanted to deal with a tank and we sold the whole set up. I miss those Oscars very much.
The Bala's got to at least 10 inches and had no where to swim in 48 inches of water. They need to be in the Shark tank at Big Al's to truly have fun!! lol. That would be fun to watch rather than the poor shark going round in circles!! JMO!
Oscars take awhile to grow but also get quite big, about 8", but you can house 1 in a 55Gal min so that isn't huge! That Pleco you are considering will definitely eat your nice new plants!!
Have you seen the 200 degree tank at the Dusseldorf Aquazoo?
(perfect for Bala's !!)
Aponogeton ulvaceus is a soft plant that the clowns were eating as well as the vals but that has stopped since I started giving them the veggie rounds I guess they need it in their diets they haven't bothered the other plants
I have attached a picture of the difference of lights the pink on the left is the 6700k and the blue on the right is the 12000k
Holy smokes, what a difference! It changes the whole look. Which are new, the pink or the blue? Do you have half and half just for a comparison picture, or is it staying that way?
I have no idea what spectrum mine are. Is it printed somewhere on the bulb?
We started fishkeeping because we thought it would be easy and cheap. Yeah right.
Are the pink ones the ones you had mentioned were $17 at Big Al's?
When I did a water change on my Rainbow tank the other day I noticed a ton of gross algae on the glass under the light bulbs. Is this normal? Not like that on any of my other tanks. And there's no algae problem in the tank, just on the glass under the lights. It is nasty looking. I assume I should clean it off. Hard to remove the hoods because they're taped to the back of the tank (all the tabs were removed when I bought it used so I cut plastic strips and taped them on)
Did the phone autofill "beguiles" too? Funny because Beguiles sounds a lot like Big Al's. I'm going to say Beguiles instead from now on, and see if anyone notices. Like saying Meow instead of Now.
I've had mine for a month or so. They're great fish, they don't eat plants and generally don't brother other unless it's breeding time. Mine have bred in my aquarium, but sadly I lost the fry because I was unprepared. Here's their profile Kribensis.
So my tank came with 4 Marineland bulbs, which are marked F30T8 Natural Daylight.
I can't find the specs for the color temp (Kelvin?) anywhere. The Marineland site doesn't list them. I tried various google searches. Natural Daylight bulbs seem to vary from 5,000K to 6,500K.
I can't find what these specific bulbs are rated anywhere. Google doesn't usually let me down like this. I am perplexed why this info isn't included on the Marineland site.
perhaps contact marineland themselves...
most sites now have pages where you can send questions.
usually good on answering questions..
Of course, it makes you wonder whose 'daylight' they are refering to.
Went to Petsmart and Petco again to get more plants and they had lots of Bala's in all sizes.Thought of you!Also remember that Rosi Barbs can be fin nippers.Just a heads up. Posted via Mobile Device
Went to Petsmart and Petco again to get more plants and they had lots of Bala's in all sizes.Thought of you!Also remember that Rosi Barbs can be fin nippers.Just a heads up. Posted via Mobile Device
I noticed on one of the Q & A on the site that the question was 8 months old, and the answer was 7 months old. That's a one month turn around time. I'm gonna ask my LFS tomorrow when I go get my water tested.
The largest were like 5 inches...the smallest were like 3 inches..So cute!
I got alot of plants.I redid my little 6 gallon long lastnight and added more today.You can see my tanks on my profile.I'm looking at getting a 75 gallon now and getting rid of my 36.I just want more fish..It's so addicting.People that aren't into it just don't understand it...lol...I never thought I would be into it until I went to work at the LFS. Posted via Mobile Device
The largest were like 5 inches...the smallest were like 3 inches..So cute!
I got alot of plants.I redid my little 6 gallon long lastnight and added more today.You can see my tanks on my profile.I'm looking at getting a 75 gallon now and getting rid of my 36.I just want more fish..It's so addicting.People that aren't into it just don't understand it...lol...I never thought I would be into it until I went to work at the LFS. Posted via Mobile Device
Both my marineland tanks came with bulbs that say daylight when I asked the guy in Big Als what they were because I didn't know he said they are just bulbs they are not good for live plants I have both tanks in my family room kitchen and the one without live plants that still has the oriiginal bulbs is alot different not pink like the 6700k alot darker
Well, tested my water in the 220 today and the Ammonia is at 0, Nitrites are at 1.25 ppm and Nitrates are 5.
For some reason the nitrates in my 55 Silver Dollar tank are through the roof again. Tested the water on Thursday, they were 80 ppm. They're usually around 5. I've never had them that high in any tank before. Never had them above 20, and the only time they went to 20 was when I went two and a half weeks between water changes once in the summer.
So I did a water change Friday, tested it today and it's still around 80. What the heck?? Zero ammonia and nitrites, thank goodness. So I guess I have to start doing larger water changes? I usually do a quarter. Maybe I'll try a third.
Finally, checked out the bulbs at my local Big Al's today. The only bulbs they had rates 6,700 K were T5s, which are no good to me. The had Aqueon Full Spectrum Daylight 25W bulbs, that did not rate the K on the package. I got one of the employees to double check in case I was missing it, but he didn't see it either.
So I checked Pet Smart's website and they list the Aqueon Full Spectrum Daylight 25W as 8,000K. On their site you can actually see it on the box, but it was absolutely not on the box at Big Al's. I think they're the same bulb though.
I have 6,700 on mine and a colormax bulb.The Colormax provides a full spectrum light for warm glow.And enhances the natural beauty of fish and plants.What kind of fixture do you have again? Posted via Mobile Device
My 75 gallon has a 2 bulb 48" fixture. while the numbers are identical, the colour of them is not. One is very white, the other looks purplish.
I have 2.... Coral Life, F28, T5 6700K. My tank is 18" deep tho. Your tank is deeper so I expect you need something brighter. Whatever that means... sorry.
I did have Actinic until Big Al's changed them out for me.
I stand corrected... they are different.
F28 T5 BP Colormax is the purplish one
F28 T5 BP 6700K is the white one.
(could be P28... hard to read it.)
We have yet to sort what all these numbers mean. Time for a Lighting 101 class. If there is a sticky on this I can't find it!!
Holy Cow it take a long time to do a water change on a 220. Thankfully I'm not using Dollar Store 2.5 gallon buckets like we were on the other four before we got the new tank and the "python".
Ammonia is still pretty much 0, nitrates are still around 1ppm, still a little bit of nitrates.
Not there yet, sigh.
I picked up some 10" scissors at Big Al's today for plant trimming, and got some fertilizer tabs to try in my substrate.
Time to carve some pumpkins! Hope everyone is safe and dry!
Holy Cow it take a long time to do a water change on a 220. Thankfully I'm not using Dollar Store 2.5 gallon buckets like we were on the other four before we got the new tank and the "python".
You should also look at Elephant Nose and Ghost Knife fish for your 220.I love those fish Posted via Mobile Device
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