Second tank and in need of suggestions

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.

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

Macca I was thinking of doing something similar myself altho you might need more than 6 for these are shoaling fish and can be bullys if theyre arent enough of them together to \"pick\" on one another if you like...Id be interested in knowing what others peoples experience of the tiger barbs are. Also you are best advised Macca of keeping long finned fish away from tiger barbs, so guppys,angels and siamise fighters are out of the question I would imagine. Id be interested in hearing what people think of what type of fish to keep with them. I agree with you Macca that they are nice looking fish and full of beans!

fishowner
ive seen them in a tank with gouramis which are long finned in my lfs and he says he has no problems but ill call in a few more times and have a look before i make any decisions im limited to six i think cos my tank is 200L and i think i can only have a metre of fish !! I want a bit more colour and variety but would add more tiger barbs if i can ill have to see.

Found this site, it might be helpful for you. www.elmersaquarium.com . it will give you a list of suitable tank mates. go to freshwater fish, select HANDBOOK, then no.5 tigerbarb compatibility.

Thanks Umm, Ive had a look at some of these tanks etc..alot of the compatability seems dodge enough in some of them.They are almost putting every fish in with one another! I dont know a huge amount about Barbs, but from some of the stories Ive heard they are fairly aggresive fish and even if kept in numbers they can turn on other fish. Id be afraid that after buying 6 or so of the tiger barbs that all of the other fish then will be afraid of them.
Im still unsure of what to put into my 160 litre tank, at least Macca has some idea of what route he is going with!

That is a great sight esp for a beginner which I am to tropicals myself. Thanks

Fishowner wrote:

Thanks Umm, Ive had a look at some of these tanks etc..alot of the compatability seems dodge enough in some of them.They are almost putting every fish in with one another! I dont know a huge amount about Barbs, but from some of the stories Ive heard they are fairly aggresive fish and even if kept in numbers they can turn on other fish. Id be afraid that after buying 6 or so of the tiger barbs that all of the other fish then will be afraid of them.
Im still unsure of what to put into my 160 litre tank, at least Macca has some idea of what route he is going with!

Why not go for something unusual with the 160 litre tank?
160 litres is not a bad size.

I'd go brackish with some figure 8 puffers & bumblebee gobies.

If you want to go down the more traditional route I'd go with a nice shoal of rummy nose tetras, some corys, a nice L number plec & maybe one larger centrepiece fish (that won't eat the tetras).

hi all
found an aquarium simulator on www.sera.de you have to register first but it allows you to pick your size tank what fish,Plants etc it then creates your tank with fish and plants and all in it it also allows you to perform water tests put in your values and it gives you results and advises you what to do if your readings are high i found it very informative for me as a beginner. take a look i think its worth it.

Nice enough site there alright...well Ive thought for what seems like ages and I reckon Im gonna do the following. Bring down the 160 litre tank to the front room and actually swap the fish once the 160 litre has cycled.In other words Im going to keep the community tank in the front room as I already have but instead will have 160 litres instead of 90 litres. So at the moment Ive 3 mollies,3 bronze,4 cardinals,3 neons and 1 guppy.(getting another male guppy today so make that 2 male guppys).Ive also got 7 fry in the hatchery box which I hope to offload in the coming month or so to a petshop. Altho I will keep a guppy from it.
When the 160 litre has cycled Im thinking of adding another 2 or 3 bronze cats, maybe 3 panda cats also. Then Ill have more room still and will add an otto and if I can get a Killifish I will but they are hard to get down south here.

As for the 90 litre then that has served me so well, once the existing fish has jumped tank Ill then fill my 90 litre tank with about 10 tiger barbs. Anyone got suggestions on this ?

Gavin

where you thinking of keeping the barbs by themselves or do you want to put something with them? would there be enough room for anything else? i think with some nice plants and 10 barbs it would look lovely,mayby a couple of corys or small loaches too.

Ill probably get some Corys alright. I love the bronze corys but would like to add some panda corys also...I only introduced some of my molly fry today into the main tank. I released 4 of them into the main tank from the hatchery box. I have a tank divider which is plastic mesh and it serves it purpose perfectly.Bought it on ebay!! One of the fry managed to get through the holes in it (Id thought it would be bigger than the holes but not so!), however when I went after her with the net she managed to get back through the divider to the correct side so I think she knows what to do should the bigger fish come after her! Ive another 2 mollys in the hatchery box still as they are smaller than the others and I wouldnt like to chance it yet, and finally Ive a guppy fry who isnt that big at all so shes gonna have to stay in the hatchery for a few more weeks I think. I put some pea gravel from the main tank into the hatchery box also and the fish seem alot more happy since I did this.All in all Im one proud fish owner right now! Also paid a visit to my local pet shop and she said she will take the fry off of me when they get abit bigger! Happy days!

i love the corys myself, i think they have a great little personality. there are some really beautiful ones available nowadays. when i got my first tank many many many years ago all you could get were the albinos which i had but werent the most attractive imo. so im looking forward to getting some pandas etc

am coming to the decision that the tiger barbs are limiting wat kinda fish i can have greatly so im back at the drawing board again !!! Was looking at the barbs in my lfs today and i really like them they are very lively in the tank i suppose a could keep more barbs with them and they would be fine but limited on colour all the same.