Hi folks,
Ok here the deal. Im hoping to set up a 160 litre second tank in the coming month or so. So its time for all you inventive people out there to get the thinking caps on annd give me a few ideas as to what I could and may stock it with.

If people want to advise type of fish and amount of fish etc, Id be really appreciative of the help. I presently have a 90litre community tank so Im open to options now on this one folks.

Looking forward to your suggestions etc.

Gavin

im in the same boat myself but its a 200 litre tank cycling at the moment hoping to set up my first tropical community tank i have a coldwater tank at the moment so im also open to all suggestions
thanks
niall

Niall I set up a community tank a few months back and its flying it now. I can give you some advise on that if you want.
Im looking for something maybe different this time on the new tank,but will take all opinions / ideas from other members here as to how I could go about setting this tank up etc.

Here's my reply to you both really, my advice would be to do the same as oooog did - she researched both online and through literature and settled for a list of the fish she would like...then she asked on the Forum about their compatability etc and we were able to make suggestions accordingly.

I think that you will really only get answers otherwise from us giving a list of each of us' personal favourites - for example I could suggest a (probably very biased) list of fish I would like where someone else's list might be completely at odds with that.

So again I would suggest you get Googling or looking at Fish books/magazines and make up a bit of a list of your preferences then return to see if the other members think they would be suitable tank-mates.

Perhaps other members disagree with this and would still like to offer suggestions but at the end of the day it's yourselves who will be looking at and maintaining the fish so I think it's the both of you who should decide really.

Cheers,

John

I have done that John, Im still undecided you see! Im also wondering what kind of fish are easy to care for, what type of personality they have in terms of being shy fish,active fish etc...
Personally my fav's are bronze catfish but I know what you mean when you say people have preferences according to their own taste.

Hi there guys,

Researching is very important, but ye seem to know this. I started off going for a community set up.. but then realised it was a bit.....so anyway, got a anglefish who brough a lovely does of mouth and body and tail fungus/bacteria and most fish died, despite meds. anyways, have got my tank up and going again and did lots of research this time.(also bought a large stock of meds for everything and anything just in case) I made questionable decisions as to my fish choices and plant set up etc. but we'll see how it goes...at least it won't be too much of a shock if I get up one morning and my plants are all floating or all eaten.

anyway, back to ye. for the person with the 120 litre, if i'd a spare tank that size I'd go for cold water with white cloud mountain minnows, hill stream loaches and some do-jo loaches. I have the minnows in a smaller tank at mo, have them about 2 years mayb longer. they don't look too exciting when you first get them but when they become mature and showing their colours to each other they look fantastic. they should really be reguraded bit higher than they are. fantastic fish and really easy to keep. all info on the loaches is on loaches.com.

If you fancy warmer waters, I like gouramis and rainbows. boesmani rainbow colours up brilliantly as they get older, so I read. pearl gourami looks great. kissing gouramiis alos interesting. dwarf is not as pleasant as you'd think, but all the same nice to have and easy to keep.

or you could go for a south america apistograma selection, but not sure how many you could have in a 120 litre tank, as they get territorial at breeding time, and apparently breed easily, well some of them anyways. but the apisto's are very colourful.

not found of live bearers, but if I had to pick one, it'd be endlers. (but they quiet small, so don't mix with big mouths)

catfish....so many to choose from...most of them can mix with anything, once they are suitable to water. Corys are great for smaller aquariums. and now loads to choose from. otto's are nice wee catfish too, and useful if you got plants as they eat the algae off them...but don't expect every scrap to disappear....

200litre tank...well, don't know if it's big enough for african cichlids...but if it is I'd consider it, especially if you've hard water and high ph.make things easier when you don't have to mess with pH lowering things that don't work, etc.

may be if ye came up with some groups of fish ye generally like the idea of we could put our heads together and think...could list fish all night but unfortunatly I've to go to the pub.

stocking levels usually work out at soemthing like 1cm of fish per litre and subtract a bit for good measure...so 120litre tank minusvolume of ornaments etc. prob works out tobe about 105litres, then prob about 90cm of fish at full grown length fromhead to start of tail. have formula for more exact measurement but it based on surface area and ye don't include that. but if I find it will post it....

anyway pub is calling!!

tell us bit more about water quality etc. and we'll work on a plan!!

Hi Guys good to see you've caught the bug, anyway to get things started i'd ask ye both to do one job first, find out your waters ph, once we know what that is and if its hard or soft water ( the kh and gh ) we will be better able to advise you in the right direction.. any local fish shop should be able to tell you this if you bring in a water sample to them.. once we know we'll all chip in and try to help ye out
Seamus

Hi Seamus,
Getting my 160 litre tank today. The water parameters on my existing 90 litre tank are

General Hardness 40/60
Carbonate Hardness 40
Ph 7.2 (But can be 7.0 often).
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 40

How do these sound to you?

Gavin

Would think you need to try and keep nitrate a bit lower. haven't used a aquarium tester for my hardness, but know it's 242 mg/l from the tap, so maybe someone could tell me what that means?...as far as I've figured it means very hard. Don't know how yours compares as I'm not familiar with the kits.

pH is good for most fish (except african cichlids). endless possibilities. so you might need to figure out what your interested in yourself first and then come back. the following sites might be of some interest. www.loaches.com, www.thetropicaltank.co.uk, planetcatfish, there is also another site dedicated to corydoras, but forget name.

If you're very into researching you might like to create a biotope tank.

Okay 1 decision made i think,
im thinking of getting 6 tiger barbs whwn my tank is cycled i think they look lovely any ideas about tank mates!!!
Thanks in advance