What to do with a small tank?

Hey there guys.

I'm new to the boards, so hi!

I currently have a Rekord 60, which is doing ok, would like to scrap it and start all over again, but don't want to disturb the fish I already have.

I also have a smaller ClearSeal tank, not sure how big it is, I picked it up in an old petshop, ex display tank, about 30l. It came with a heater and pump. I have scrubbed the tank clean, and gotten rid of the stones that were with it, don't want any cross contamination.

I just haven't gotten around to doing anything with it.

Now, I had an idea to set it up as a mini biotope, South American to be precise, as I think these look amazing!

I am thinking a combination of regular sand, and possibly some of the black sand. Also, some wood, set up as roots etc.

Fish wise, I just thinking some tetras of some sort, possibly neons or head & tail light tetras.

Now I have some questions.

Where could I get the wood from, LFS or outside, maybe?

Could the heater & pump I got with it do the necessary work, or do I have to get new ones?

Light wise, would a standard 18w cfl do, as I won't be having any plants, and its low light?

Any other suggestions & comments would be great. But please, I don't have a mega budget, cheap & cheerful is the order of the day.

Hi Sofiztikated,

Welcome to the forum !

Do you want to transfer the fish you currently have in the 60L to the 30L tank? or do you want to set up the 30L from scratch?
Some more experienced people might be able to discuss it, but I think that 30L might be on the small side to create a south-american biotope. What do you currently have in your 60L tank ?

The wood : you can get bog wood from an LFS. You'll need to boil it and maybe leave it standing in water for a few weeks if you don't want the water to turn yellow.
I think you can use drift wood but you need to boil it. In case it were toxic to the fish, I wouldn't try it personally.

I hope this helps. I am sure you'll get more advice from other posters. If you have any further queries, don't hesitate to ask.

Valerie

welcome to the forum, for wood in your tank mopani wood is safe as is bogwood if sold from a lfs, otherwise dont use it (sap, toxins etc may be on it and guess what would happen...dead fish) for a tank that size you dont need more than a 25w heater as for the pump any small internal should do... fish wise neons and head & tail lights are good, but you could also house a pair or trio of some of the apistogrammas which have stunning colours and are great to watch.. on a tank this size remember regular water changes will be neccessary to keep the fish healthy as small water volumes tend to be more unstable than larger volumes, and ammonia and nitrates will be more likely in small volumes of water, as for your sand playsand is good just rinse it well before use but your thinking is spot on re a darker substrate as it tends to show off fishes colours an awful lot better than lighter substrates imo. best of luck with this project and keep us informed
Seamus

oh yes in regards the light that wattage should be fine just make sure it dosent get wet or damp inside the lid we dont want you or the fish getting electricuted do we
Seamus

Thanks guys.

Not sure about transferring from the 60l into the 30l, as the fish I have there really need a bigger tank, not a smaller one!

I have:

3 clown loaches
2 bleeding heart tetras
1 rainbow
1 bumblebee catfish

I also really dislike the juwel pump, as it keeps clogging up and slowing up.

However, I may try to swap out the filters, eventually, maybe a fluvel.

If I do regular water changes on the small one, and keep the fish count down to about 8 or so tetras, would it be ok?

Or any other ideas?

How about a Siamese Fighter and some Corys also ? It would be ideal for a 30 litre.

I am not one to give advice, not long fish keeping myself so feel free to take no notice of me.
The smallest tank I am using right now is a 35 litre tank. It is home to a Siamese Fighter and it is great for it, but I really would not put anything else in there as well.
I just think it would be too much, considering the Siamese likes to go about things in there own way most of the time.
Could imagine a few Tetras would be fine on there own in one, as long as you do the waterchanges of course

I would use a sand substrate, add a nice piece of bogwood with plants on it for cover, a shoal of pygmy rasbora & some pygmy corys.

There aren't really many options with 30 litres but if you stock it with tiny fish it will look good.

If your water is suitable you could also look at killifish - some of these are stunning colours & stay very small.

your right about needing a bigger tank for the fish you already have. Is bumble bee the asian or S. American?, just asking because they very different in size. Clown Loaches also grow very big.(see www.loaches.com).

anyway, your question about what to do with a 30litre tank. bogwood with a plant attached is a good idea. (petstop in Blanch had nice ones, don't know what they cost though.) If you plan on expanding your fish, I would keep it as isolation tank or hospital tank. if not I'd go with a small shaol of very small fish, something like neon tetra, pygmy rasbora, pygmy cordoras, corydoras gracilis, chequered barb, dwarf barb, marginatus pencilfish. watch out with killifish, some can grow over 5cm, ideally I think you should go for fish that grow to a maxium size under 5cm. O.k killifish would be aplochielichthys normani, nothobranchius guentheri gold, Nothobranchius korthause, or Nor...rubripinnis.The ones that grow over 5cm tend to be a bit more colourful. but look them up can see what you think. hatching kits for killi's are advailable on ebay, I think, don't know how good they are though. but might be a project you'd like.(killifish only live 1-2 years). If you going to go with small fish, you might want to get a sponge filter or bio ball,instead of powered filters, again I'm not familiar with these so somebody else might tell you about them.

Think dreamer girl is right about keeping one siamese fighter wouldn't go with cory's, unless you found pygmy's(but even still cory's do better in groups). If you wanted to keep it with something else mayb a female SF or two. but I really don't know much about SF's.

Mountain minnows would also be good, have these myself in cold water tank. look great when matured, very nice colours. mine are hardy and have never been sick.

as for the jewel filters, I have one in a rekord 60 that's from before they started making the ones in the box. It's great, still going over a decade later. Have the big box thing in my vision, no problems with it either, white filter pad does need changing/rinsing regurally though, but that's to be expected. If you need to be changing the white pad more than weekly maybe you're over feeding. If you got plants sheading leaves it can get clogged quickly aswell, but this is same with all filters, I expect.

Let us know what you decide.

Thanks for all the replies.

Think I'll stay away from the Sf's, they just don't my fascination as much as others.

The Killifish are beautiful, had one before, when I got some fish, and when I got home I found a tiny little fish in the bag, which grew into a beautiful fish. Man could he jump, had to make sure and keep the cover flap down, because he could easily clear it. Would also jump and take food from my girlfriends fingers!

Think I have decided on the tetras, now its just setting it up. Oh, and if anyone has any further ideas about filtration. My GF recently suggested a terrapin, but I veto'ed that, I think the fish are a better idea.

My current tank, I know the loaches can grow huge! They were an impulse buy, without finding much about them. But they are still pretty small at the moment.

The Bumblebee Cat, I have narrowed down to being a Leiocassis Siamensis, according to some books I have. He's (i just assume he's male) ok with the fish I have, but when I've tried to add neons to the current tank, but they disappear in days.

I may need to clarify about the Juwel filter. I actually mean the pump itself clogs up, the impellor seems to keep slipping, when I clean it and fix it, days, sometimes even hours later its back to a dribble.

New question!

Mangrove root, would this be a good choice of wood? Specifically this:

www.zooplus.ie/shop/fish/decoration/natu...ral_roots/14300#more

Its either the real thing, or was in the LFS having a chat, and he can get me the Aqua One plastic type one.

I'd prefer the real thing but... ya know yourself, whichever is easier!

I would say its pretty much the same as mopani wood or bog wood, it'd be grand though it will stain your water for a while unless you boil it etc.

It can take a long time for plants to take to the wood though so you might be better off buying a piece with plants growing already.
A nice piece would cost about 25 quid.

Another option you could consider as a stocking choice would be dwarf puffers. Need to keep a ready supply of snails as food though.

Or if you wanted to go brackish some bumblebee gobies would be perfect.

Thanks 2poc, but I'm not going with any plants in this tank.

So that kind of puts a damper on the puffers, as they require a heavily planted tank, don't they?

Oh, just so people know my reasoning for leaving the plant out. I kill them. Simple. Aquarium plants come anywhere into my vacinity, they whither up! Its down to my lighting and substrate choices in the past. I want to do some more investiagtion, and I may rescape my 60, especially if I can find some good planted substrate!

I wouldn't be particularly green fingered myself but the stuff that is already growing on bogwood is hardy low light plants like Anubius & Javafern etc.

These are the Steven Segal's of the aquatic plant world - they're hard to kill

Bad joke on a friday, I need a drink....

Steven Segal, eh? Well, I must be the Charles Manson of the plant world, as I managed to all but demolish the Java I had on some bogwood in my bigger tank!

Although I went on a bit of a road trip today, well herself had to go exchange a phone, and I went on a hunt to find a petshop in Navan.

Found EquiPets.

Saw some dwarf puffers, and fell in love, they're so cute! Pudgy little things that just float around, with flippers going 90!

Should I happen to rescape the 60, or wink wink, get a bigger tank, I'll defo be getting these!

Yeah puffers are great characters in general.
I have a red tailed red eye puffer in a 120 litre.

The trick to getting a bigger tank is to introduce slightly bigger ones over time.

I had a 12 inch cube upstairs. Need home for some fry so *had* to replace it with a 2 foot tank.

The 2 foot tank was open top & noisy so *needed* to replace it with a Lido 120

We have a new LFS here in Cavan, and popped in today for a mooch.

Fell in love with a 6ft tank! But I'm not allowed to get it. I mean, its only 2g's!

Went to a forest park today, and picked up some nice drift wood pieces, so forget the mangrove root, this is cheaper! Just trying to figure out a way to boil it, I'm thinking in the bath, with lots & lots of hot water! It looks pretty clean, but we'll see!

And have found out I might be getting another tank A donation, yay!

A clean barrel metal of course in the garden and a small fire under neath will do the trick if you are out in the sticks of course.

Mickey