Aquariums

[Bobyearl]

I have started getting into the whole aquarium thing. I am staying with freshwater until i learn the ins and outs... Anyone else here into them? Anyone know of anything really cool to put into a freshwater tank that will not eat all my other fish?

[Candide]

Don't know a whole lot about freshwater. I jumped right into marine tanks in May. Bought Hyla's tank when he went off to school. It really isn't hard to take care of if you get a big tank (55g+, 70 or higher is best). Actually, a lot of folks who keep both say that over 100g, SW is way easier than FW. I dunno though.

My one big advice, and I would imagine it applies to FW too? Is to use a quarentine tank (QT). In SW, some of the treatments for various diseases that work real well will kill off coral and other inverts. So when you purchase a new fish, you put it in the QT for 2-4 weeks, make sure it is healthy and happy before moving it in to the main tank. Most of your diseases come from new fish (the stress of the move being the big factor, plus you never know now long the fish store had them). And should a fish in the main tank get sick, you can move them to QT to treat, and keep it from spreading perhaps.

Oh, BE PATIENT. "Nothing good ever happened quickly in a tank". Add fish slowly. You have to give the bacteria in your tank that convert amonia to nitrite to nitrates time to adjust to the increased bioload for each fish. When you initialy cycle your tank, and all your readings look good, dont dump in every fish you want. Add 1 or 2 at a time with a week or two in between.

Mine is 120g, 6 foot long tank with a 25 gallon refugium.
I have:
1 Oscelaris clown (think Nemo).
1 neon (arabian) pseudochromis/dottyback
1 red lipped blenny
1 yellow head sleeper goby
1 6 lined wrasse
4 different damsels (evil fish, mean little buggers, wanna get rid of some)
1 fire shrimp (awesome looking)
2 skunk cleaner shrimp (nevr though shrimp had personalities. They will eat from my hand, actually hop onto my hand and take the food from my fingers)
1 peppermint shrimp
Bunch of different types of snails
3 Florida fighting conch (they don't fight, dunno where that came from, but they do jump)
a dozen blue legged hermit crabs
a hammer coral
a torch coral frag.
a colt coral
2 star polyp corals of different colors
8 hairy mushroom coral polyps on a single rock.

and in QT right now are 5 blue/green chromis, which are schooling/shoaling small fish.

I really enjoy it, hope yours works out well

[Bobyearl]

wow... very nice set up... The main reason I started with frsh is b/c of the musho dinero for salt.... one mess up could cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars. plus all the time. I will get there though. thanks for the words of wisdom.

[Rhuac]

I recently had the opportunity to pick up a fish tank for free and I didn't jump on it. Kinda regretting it... here's a question though, why is a salt water set up more expensive?

[Kirt]

unless you have the time and cash to invest in saltwater set up's do not bother


very very expensive to all of a sudden kill all your shit a week later

[Candide]

Why is SW more expensive? Well it isn't necisarily, I would rephrase it to say it is more expensive to do SW right than it is to do FW right.

The fish are more expensive, but not rediculously more. There are very pretty fish < 10$, even more better looking less than 20$. In my tank, I have exactly one fish over 30 (and she was 35).
Corals, on the other hand, can be quite expensive, as they grow VERY slowly.

To keep the corals (and many clams) you need very good lighting. Now, a fish only tank, you pick the lighting that makes your fish look best at the right price. Home depot florescent lights work fine. To keep corals, you are looking at power compact lighting to start out, and metal halides to keep any type. PC's cost 2-400$ for my tank, and MH's more. But again, that is only if you want corals/nonfilter feeding clams.

Filtration methods have chanaged over the years. The current "best" for SW tanks is a more natural method. You use some sort of sponge type mechanical filter that you wash out periodically, but your biological filtration comes from something called "live rock" and "live sand". Simply put, that is rock and sand full of living "stuff", including bacteria. My rocks have all kinds of "good" macro algea growing on them, probaly 20 clams/oyesters, dozens of feather dusters, tunicates, sponges. It not only is good for the system, it looks very nice. Months later, we still find new stuff growing on the rocks, or you look at 3am with the lights out using a red light and see these strange worms or urchins you didn't know you had moving about.

Live rock is going to run you anywhere from 3-10$ a pound. You want 1-1.5 pounds per gallon. You do the math. Thats a huge amount for a large tank. Now, mixing "live" and "dead" rock wll lead to having all live rock given many months, as the growth will spread. Live rock covered with good algea will be purple, red, light greens, etc. Live sand is easier and cheaer, in that you can use the regular substrate, and "seed" it with a lil bit of good live sand. You get lots of tiny critters that eat any debris.

Now, you will want agood protein skimmer too, and you would want to use RO/DI water instead of tap, etc that can add costs. But the above are teh basics.

Jason

[Elfdroper Gravelender]

LoL fish cmon If your gonna get an aquarium put something cool in it. I have a 50 Gal w/ 2 Bearded dragons and a 20 Gal w/ a juvenile Ball python. I've had fish in the past and found than to be very troublesome for the amount of work required and not very companionable:p Although they are cool to look at if you drink a bunch of absinthe lol. I have had both SW and FW and your right the SW is difficult to manage until you get used to it. If your a starter I should think FW is the way to go.

[Majesticone]

Elf, I was going to say the same thing! In our aquariums, we have 4 bearded dragons, 2 argus monitors and 1 yellow ridge-tailed monitor. We also have a free-roaming adult male iguana.

[Elfdroper Gravelender]

Woot deevolved birds ftw. Nice Maj i've been breading my beardies for a year or so now and the snake is a good friend, but i'll tell you she is so much less trouble than the beardies. Feed her a few mice a week and she's golden, as opposed to the $40 a month i pay for dragon food lol. I really like monitors, I heard they aren't very handleable though. LoL you let your iguana roam? Man I've been around some adult male greens and they got attitudes like a trucker w/ roids. Is he territorial, does he whip?

[Majesticone]

The iguana is great. In fact, my husband does outreach programs through our local herpetological society and takes him around to the schools all the time for the kids to pet. He's a good guy.

You're right, monitors are not real handleable, but we do okay with them. We always wear gloves when handling the biggest one. We also have one whose growth was stunted for some reason before we got her, and she's a sweetheart. The ridge-tailed monitor is a dwarf species and he's only about 10 inches long and is a blast to watch.

[Bobyearl]

go to a hoobuist store and price FW and SW.... You can get decent FW fish for a dollar or less. SW fish are start around 10dollars. The cooler the fish the more the cost... The bigger the fish the more the cost. So if you have a 55gal, and do not want tiny fish you are looking 10-20 a fish. and you have not even bough any of the cool fish. Personally, I would say the average SW fish would be about 20-25dollars... Average FW 2-3dollars... Just what I have seen so far. Used to help friend with his tank, but never had a place where I could set one up.


Salt is prettier though.

[Trump]

Candide in most games, Mercutio is usualy my alt, and Venderic is a new name I've used.

omg candide is mercutio?? omg all this time hey bro!!!

[MojoTFH]

Get an alligator gar

[Candide]

haha, yeah I never end up playing as candide cuz I change to something else