Check out my rig

mra123

Hey new to the site so thought I’d share my current tank specs with you all. Read some interesting posts so far!

Tank – Fluval Roma 200 Litre tank
Filter – Two Tetratec Ex 1200 Filters (2400 LPH)
Air Pump – Eheim air pump (400 LPH)
Power Head – Maxijet 600 LPH
Lighting – Two T8 bulbs (80watts approx)
Heating – Tetratec 200W Heater

Current stocking –

1 x Black Moor
1 x Red Cap Oranda
1 x Panda Oranda
1 x Blue Oranda
1 x Tiger Ryukin
10 x X-Ray Tetras
6 x Pearl Scale Danios
5 x Long finned Zebra Danios
1 x Hill Stream Loach
1 x Common Plec
3 x Balas Sharks

Water Levels –

Ammonia – 0
Nitrite – 0
Nitrate – 20 – 40 (tap water depending)

All tank mates are very happy swimming around together. Love to watch the shoaling x-ray tetras and all my Goldfish have a real personality. Hoping to upgrade to a 660Litre tank when I get a big enough house and possibly another chiclid tank.

I have a few video’s up on youtube for viewing (too lazy to upload pics right now). Please note I have recently redesigned my tank setup somewhat and taken quite a few of the plants out. Still loving the rock though.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mi-Uhpyz-qk

Flashygrrl

Two things I noticed:

You're mixing coldwater and tropical fish. Goldfish need the coldwater, everything else needs warm. Good excuse for that new tank yet?

You've got very very messy fish in something around 52 gallons. Usually we recommend around 30 gallons per Goldfish since they errr, poo a lot. Plus the bala sharks will get wayyy too big to be comfortable in that tank. Your pleco will get gigantic and also makes a mess. Even better excuse to get a couple new tanks, use the current one for cichlids and make everyone happy. Including yourself when it comes time to vaccum up all that you-know-what. They may be small now, but they sure won't wanna stay that way.

tophat665

Flashy's right.

Balas will need a 2 metre long tank before you know it. They are also a schooling fish, so if you can house them at all, you ought to get another 3.

Goldfish need no less than 80 litres each (and some would tell you 100), and prefer cooler temperatures (18 - 20 C).

So with 5 fancy Goldfish, you're looking at a 400 to 500 litre tank.

Actually, you could keep the Hillstream Loach with your Goldfish (though it would really benefit from more current than fancy Goldfish can handle), and maybe the danios (they can handle 20C)

The tetras not so much. They need a temp 24 to 27C.

And the Pleco.... That's a half meter of fish before it's done growing. It'll be 20cm in a year. That would do fine in a tank that would house the balas.

So, to recap - the tank you have would be fine for the tetras, and that might be a good place to start on a softwater tropical tank.

The Goldfish will need a 400 liter or more tank. If you go with one around 500 litres, you could put the danios and the loach in there too.

The Balas need a 2 meter tank and to be in a group of six, and the pleco should go in that tank as well.

Your mileage may vary, but not by a whole lot.

mra123

Sounds like crying to me to be honest. The tank is over a year old, in which time I have not had any illness or problems with incompatibility. 1 year seems a bit long just to be luck. I agree the sharks get bigger but they do take quite a while to grow by which time I will have upgraded them to a 150gal tank.

As far as the goldies go I think the 100L per fish rule is laughable. Your hardly going to spend 300-500 of the queen's pounds STERLING on a tank to grow 3 old fish at a couple of buckaroonies each. If you bothered to read the specs I am running 2 filters rated at 1200LPH each so thats 2400LPH i.e. 12 times per hour. More than enough to cope with the amount of waste produced by the plec and goldies (tetras etc add next to no waste anyway so are not particularly effecting the bio load). If the filters could not cope with any of the waste, again this would be showing in ammonia/nitrite spikes.

One question for you. If you live in a warmer climate (temp around 20+ degrees) and keep Goldfish, does this make them tropical if the water is simply WARM?? I think the definition of tropical/coldwater is a little over the top to say the least. My goldies are perfectly happy cruising around at 24 degrees C as are the rest of the tank mates. If they weren't don't you think they'd be complaining and rattling their cage?

Just think of me as trying to drive this fish industry forward. Its never cool to stay old skool!

iamntbatman

If you live in a warmer climate and are keeping Goldfish, you should be running a chiller (or at least cranking your A/C).

And actually, a lot of people spend a great deal of money on appropriate housing for their fish, even if the fish themselves weren't all that expensive. I can get a young Oscar for $1. I don't understand how that places some sort of limit on the amount of money I would have to spend to keep that fish in conditions in which it would thrive.

mra123

I wouldn't say it places a limit on it mate but I think a $1 fish in say a tank costing $400 is a bit of a waste. I'd rather have 5 $1 fish instead, bit more interesting.

Some people here seem a bit super sensitive over stocking levels. If you can afford the cash for extra filtration and all tank members are happy then there shouldn't be a problem.

iamntbatman

All pets are a fairly expensive investment. With fish, the investment is in the aquarium and supplies and less often in the fish themselves (though there are some really expensive fish out there).

If you have enough filtration to keep ammonia and nitrites at zero and are dedicated enough to water changes to keep your nitrate at an acceptable level, then yes, you have successfully dealt with one negative effect of overcrowding.

Unfortunately, you still have to deal with all of the other problems that come with stocking the aquarium with too many big fish: predation on the small fish by the big ones, stress caused by the overcrowding which weakens the immune systems of the fish, growth problems that come from a large fish being physically restricted by cramped quarters, etc.

Flashygrrl

*sigh* If you've read posts already you've surely already read what we would have recommended in the first place.

Must be nice to be young and think you can change the very foundation of life itself. Just because they're cheap doesn't mean they shouldn't be treated how science and practical knowledge has taught us that they thrive best. After all, isn't that the point of keeping any sort of animal?

steverothery

The dude sounds like an innovator man, who are we to question? 8)

mra123

"large fish being physically restricted by cramped quarters" - looks like plenty of room in there to me. Ever seen a LFS, why don't you go moan at them - there tanks look like a log jam! I'd have enough space to dawn a divers mask and swim in there with them myself for a good time to come yet. Then I'll be upgrading to a bigger tank anyway.

"Just because they're cheap doesn't mean they shouldn't be treated how science and practical knowledge has taught us that they thrive best"

Then you turn round and I've got a PHD in fishin' showing you the way. Sometimes you gotta speculate to accumulate. Everyone seems to be thriving right now in my tank - maybe I really am an innovator - I am the real deal!