more Q's, clown loaches, filtration & MTS!!! now with pics

[matildanz]

Apologies in advance for all the questions...........

I have sitting in the garage a new (well to me anyway) tank. It's 1.5m wide/long, 45cm deep and 80cm high which appears to work out about 520ish litres. It's made from fibreglass with big glass panels in the front and sides, it's going to be a bit of a project as I want to paint the fibreglass from swimming pool blue to black. It also has some strange set up of pumps (which I'm guessing is for water movement rather than filtration but I'll leave that to the husband who seems to like figuring out how things work! It's an odd looking tank but I've never been one to conform to the norm and it does have a charm all of it's own!

clowns - What I'd love to get is clown loaches. I've read that many articles on the net that my head is spinning, so I know they get fairly big ( although how big in a home aquarium is quite a contentious topic ) and I'm also aware they like to be in schools and that they grow relatively slow once they get to about 10 - 15cm in length or thereabouts.

tank - Now I dare say a 6ft x 2ft x 2ft would be a more acceptable size due to surface area and length but would my tank be suitable for a group of small clowns - I'm sure by the time they get to the 10 - 15cm length I'd have convinced the other half that we need to fork out for a bigger tank and they are one of his favourite fish too! The tank stocking tool says it would be stocked to 125% with 5 clowns although any loaches I've seen in the shops are tiddlers so would I be safe in assuming the fish are at their full grown size on that website :-?

filtration - Regardless of what ends up in my tank, I want to get the filtration right. I've dug into the depths of the forum on the different brands available and the opinion of other forum members and I'm still mystified!! I'm not sure whether the depth of my tank is going to be a problem and if it is going to effect my choices of filters. Hubby just about choked when he saw the cost of the bigger canister filters but once I pointed out the thread comparing Daewoos to BMW's he's come around! He has to really since we've got two in the driveway!! :lol: I asked in the 'technical' section about multiple filters and I like the idea of it having two although I doubt even my extremely understanding husband would be overly happy if I came home with 2 FX5's ! I would prefer a quality filter that I can get replacement impellers, media baskets etc for it and if the more expensive ones is the recommended way to go, I'd rather not have to buy them both at the same time!! Perhaps one of the more 'top end' filters for a start and add a second not so expensive model at a later stage.......?

cycling - what would be the best way to cycle a tank of this size? My wee 60l Hailea was a breeze to cycle with a small school of neons but I expect it'd take a month of Sundays cycle the new tank with a dozen neons. Although I'm probably getting ahead of myself - it can wait until I get the filtration sorted

Ok, thanks for taking the time to read my novel and please if you have any advice, I'm all ears

[Adrienne]

Your tank sounds interesting. I am wondering if it is set up to run a sump. Would you post a picture of it? If it is plumbed for a sump then you could use that option instead of purchasing cannister filters. I have a tank just slightly smaller that I run a fx5 on. I wouldn't run two on my own tank but have to admit I am looking at a second smaller cannister filter as well. I used to have a sump (came with the tank) and had I understood them better I would now choose one over a cannister.

[David R]

Great to see someone keen enough on clowns to dedicate a tank to keeping them properly, rather than just adding them as snail eaters or clean up fish in other set ups!!

Tank: a 6x2x2' would be a great CL tank, far better than 90% of CL's end up in I'd guess. I've got 30 ranging from 3" to 8" in my 180x75x60 tank, and although its a bit wider than yours I doubt they'd be any less happy in a 6x2x2'. Long term I will probably need to thin the group out, or get a bit bigger tank, but the day I'm over-stocked with large clowns will be a very happy one!! If you're starting with LFS-sized small-medium clowns you could go with anywhere from 10-50+ in a tank that size, depending on how willing you are to thin them out as they grow. I'd say somewhere around 20-30 would be a good number for a 6' if they are to be the main feature. Should be able to negotiate a better price from the shop if buying that many too!

Filtration: IMO a big sump/trickle filter is ideal for a set up like this as it provides plenty of aeration, turn over and biological filtration. A couple of big canisters could work equally well though, comes down to personal preference I guess, and the good thing with canisters is you could probably start off with one then add another as the bioload increases as the fish grow.

Cycling: You will never cycle a large tank/filter with "a dozen neons" as they simply don't create enough waste. IMO the best option is to run the filter on an established tank for a month or so, then add fish into the tank slowly. What do you plan on keeping with the clowns? You'll want the tank to be well established before adding them, so probably best to stock it with the other fish first then add the clowns a few months later.

A couple of other points;

-You could look out for larger clowns being sold here or on trademe, just beware that they do stunt easily so you may think you're getting a head start by buying them larger, but in the end the smaller ones will catch up and even surpass them in size.

-With a large group of loaches in a large tank it is essential to quarantine any new additions. Treating whitespot in a 500L+ of water is a real hassle, and watching 6"+ loaches on deaths door battling with it isn't fun (personal experience!). I'd even suggest if/when you do buy your first group of small loaches from the LFS, keep them in a smaller tank, bare bottom, for a couple of weeks first to make sure they're healthy before putting them in the big tank. There's a good chance they'll have whitespot, even coming from the best shops, so you'll be better off trying to treat it in a smaller tank.

If you haven't already, check out http://www.loaches.com/ and the forum there.

[ryanjury]

I would be interested to see photos of this fibreglass/glass tank How thick is the glass? I would be worried about how strong it is being 80cm tall.

[matildanz]

Okey dokey, pics......... Now theres to be NO laughing!! I'm rather fond of my quirky tank :lol:

the tank - thickness of the glass was a little hard to measure but it's more than 10mm (more like 12 or 13?) and measures 65/66 cm tall in the front - didn't think to measure the opening but I almost had to climb into the thing to get the tape low enough!! If it was a tad wider I could just about lie down in it!! :lol:

Not sure what the pipe is in the corner but it appears there was originally one in each corner. The ply/fibreglass goes all the way to the top with no cut out areas which I think it would have if it was designed to use a sump (please correct me if I'm wrong)

bits - 4 powerheads with attached pipes, an air thingamy and a miniscule filter (what it was doing in the tank is beyond me!!)

And lastly powerhead with pipe attached to show cut outs at bottom.

I've had no experience whatsoever with powerheads so I'm really not sure what to do with them :-? I'd have thought 4 of them all going together would give any fish quite a ride :lol:

David R - thank you so much for your post. I don't think I could fit a sump to this and I'm not 100% sure what a trickle filter is but I'll do a bit of Googling. As for tank mates.... I have a GBA (think I got that right!) that I'd like to find a girlfriend for, my little gang of 7 neons and 5 kuhlis in my current tank. I don't want to go and overload the tank but I wouldn't mind adding something that swims mid/upper tank so suggestions would be most appreciated.

Edited to say that my dear husband now tells me that it wouldn't be impossible to drill a hole to hook up a sump and seal it up with fibreglass resin...... learn something new every day.... had no idea he'd ever worked with fibreglass, better start Googling sumps too!

[matildanz]

Ok, I'm back on the canister bandwagon again!!

The ongoing debate on Fluval FX5 v Ehiem seems to be quite common and it appears that the FX5 is better value for money than the Eheim Pro 3 2075 due to the vast difference in prices but whilst trawling through TradeMe I've found these two auctions. Both brand new and from the same retailer....

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Home-living/Pets-animals/Fish/Pumps-filters/auction-310115569.htm

and

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Home-living/Pets-animals/Fish/Pumps-filters/auction-309632844.htm

Now commonsense would dictate that for the extra $20 then the Eheim is the way to go BUT I've read somewhere that I need to consider what fish will be in the tank. At this point, it's going to be clowns :bounce: so would I be safe in assuming that the more powerful flow from the Fluval would suit the clowns better?

[phoenix44]

I'd say FX5.

The fluval tubes are better than the eheim tubes and i *think the pro III 2080 is more comparable to the FX5.