[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Aquarium Thread! (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 4/15/2011 6:43:00 PM EDT
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Post pictures of your setups!
Here is my 155 planted community setup. ITs an awful picture but I think taking pics of a bright aquarium in a dark room is beyond what my old Canon olympus is capable of. 
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Post pictures of your setups! Here is my 155 planted community setup. ITs an awful picture but I think taking pics of a bright aquarium in a dark room is beyond what my old Canon olympus is capable of. http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/3681/tank1z.jpg One of the best freshwater aquariums I have seen. I haven't had a tank in 3 years, next one will be a marine fish only. |
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http://www.ar15.com/media/viewFile.html?i=7676 http://www.ar15.com/media/viewFile.html?i=7673 http://www.ar15.com/media/viewFile.html?i=7672 http://www.ar15.com/media/viewFile.html?i=7671 http://www.ar15.com/media/viewFile.html?i=7674 HOLY FILTER!! 
And one of you have GOT A BIG FUCKIN' AQUARIUM IN YOUR HOUSE. 
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Was in it for about 3 months with a 55 gallon saltwater.
The adage is true, it takes a long time for anything good to happen and very little time for anything bad to happen. Phosphates kept going crazy, crashing the thing, and killing it all. Don't get me wrong, I respect you guys with the patience and pocketbook to keep it going. Is the epitome of beauty in nature. Just not for me. 
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I have had freshwater for about 25 years, since I was about 6. These pics really make me want saltwater. Right now I have a 55 gallon with 6 clown loaches and some danios, a 30 stocked full of swordtails and a 10g guppy tank. The swordtails are my plan for food if SHTF. I swear they double daily. |
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i so wish i could start up a good aquarium. kinda hard in an apartment with a limited budget. any good pointers? Its hard to go wrong with a plain 10g glass aquarium, buy a good filter and a decent hood. Should get you going for less than $50. Get some pool filter sand for a base, about $10 a bag. Should work for almost anything freshwater. If you haven't had fish before start with swordtails/mollys/guppies until you figure things out. Feed them half of what you think is too little. I have yet to see fish starve to death, but many fed to death. |
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No pics yet, but a tag for later. The only thing in my 90 gallon so far is my turtle and some algae. But it will be built up and stocked with fish over the next half year or so.
And for the apartment guy, I just moved into one and it allows up to 100 gallons. Start off the the biggest one you can afford that is under the weight limit. |
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http://www.ar15.com/media/viewFile.html?i=7676 http://www.ar15.com/media/viewFile.html?i=7673 http://www.ar15.com/media/viewFile.html?i=7672 http://www.ar15.com/media/viewFile.html?i=7671 http://www.ar15.com/media/viewFile.html?i=7674 Okay. World's largest aquarium filter/chiller unit. You win. 
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Post pictures of your setups! Here is my 155 planted community setup. ITs an awful picture but I think taking pics of a bright aquarium in a dark room is beyond what my old Canon olympus is capable of. http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/3681/tank1z.jpg One of the best freshwater aquariums I have seen. I haven't had a tank in 3 years, next one will be a marine fish only. Could you believe that I only got into the hobby ayear ago. In all honesty it photographs well but I know what the flaws are. I don't have c02 set up so its difficult to balance the light cycle. Too long and I get green spot algea, too short and I get diatoms. Im also lazy on pruning and have ntirely too many different plants/fish in there. MY goal is to move it over towards being a Niger River biotope, but I need to figure out what to do with the existing stock first. |
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i so wish i could start up a good aquarium. kinda hard in an apartment with a limited budget. any good pointers? Look for a used Nano-Cube, Red Sea is a good brand. Most people start out with one and after learning how they realize it's not much more work to keep a large tank and sell them after a year or less including all the upgrades. |
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Here are some older pics (12-10-10) of my 120 gallon reef tank.
Full tank shot 
Female Percula Clownfish 
H.magnifica anemone 
Purple Tang 
Regal Angel & Powder Blue Tang 
Regal Angel 
Tomini Tang 
The clownfish are a mated pair and lay eggs every two weeks like clockwork. I've had the anemone for 5 years, and the Regal Angel for 3.5 years now. Poder Blue Tang was just removed because he got nasty and started beating on the Regal, and I'm not having that. For those interested in setting up a marine aquarium, I would strongly reccomend visiting www.reefcentral.com and www.reeffrontiers.com . Just like in gunstores, the amount of mis information from stores is ridiculous. Obviously, not everything you read on the net is correct, but I feel you've got a better shot at being successful with this hobby if you research from at least those two forums first. One word of caution though, both of those sites will not tolerate the typical GD discussion behaviours or topics....they're not interested in politics at all, and cussing or name calling will get you banned right quick. Just an FYI. Nick |
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http://www.ar15.com/media/viewFile.html?i=7676 http://www.ar15.com/media/viewFile.html?i=7673 http://www.ar15.com/media/viewFile.html?i=7672 http://www.ar15.com/media/viewFile.html?i=7671 http://www.ar15.com/media/viewFile.html?i=7674 We need specs on this monster. You don't by chance post on MFK do you? |
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Man, I've been thinking about getting myself a beta.... Do you have to do any cleaning of the tank or do the filters do all the work? Once they tank is established it will take care of itself. Most of the aquarium forums are going to tell you 10% water change every week. bla bla bla. Well its been 5 years since ive changed the water in my saltwater tank and my ammonia and nitrites read zero and nitrates stay below 10. I just top off and probably clean the filter once a year. Once your tanks cycles I would do bi month water changes of 20% for the first year until the bacteria is well established after that it will pretty much take care of itself. You may one to do a water change every couple of months to get the nitrates down. Unless you have live plants which will keep it down for you without any water changes. |
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Man, I've been thinking about getting myself a beta.... Do you have to do any cleaning of the tank or do the filters do all the work? I have a few fish tanks going, my smallest is a betta tank, Aqueon 2.5 gallon cheapy setup I got at petsmart for $25 on sale, came with a crappy incandescent light hood and a filter thats not so hot, on the upside the incandescent bulb keeps the water temp up doesn't need a heater. Its been up for a few months I have a few plants in it that only require low light, with the plants my water has been staying well with in parameters. I change out a 1/2 gallon every couple weeks only other cleaning i do is wiping the inside walls with a sponge prior to my water changes. My Betta's tankemates are a mystery snail and a half dozen red cherry shrimp they do a pretty good job of keeping everything else clean. |
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Quoted: http://www.ar15.com/media/viewFile.html?i=7676 http://www.ar15.com/media/viewFile.html?i=7673 http://www.ar15.com/media/viewFile.html?i=7672 http://www.ar15.com/media/viewFile.html?i=7671 http://www.ar15.com/media/viewFile.html?i=7674 That's one bad ass skimmer. I bet it must stink for miles. How do you clean that thing, in a wetsuit? In all honestly, i'm sure it's plumbed into the drain somewhere. |
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Quoted: Man, I've been thinking about getting myself a beta.... Do you have to do any cleaning of the tank or do the filters do all the work? a beat will survive in a bowl of muddy water. just change the water once a month and your beta will be just fine. if you want a better fish for fighting track down a traditional plakat beta. I always like them better than the smaller longer finned ones you get in the pet stores. They just look meaner to me. I used to breed them before I got married and got too busy.  Not a pic of my fish but the type of fish you should get. better than teh long tailed pussy fish. |
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I don't have any pics of my new tanks. right now I am only running a 20 gallon with a pair of Altolamprologus calvus and a 29 gallon with a trio of Neolamprologus leleupi. and a synodontis petricola in each tank. here are some shots of my old tanks, back when I was playing with discus.            and my old 75 gallon reef tank.       and back before the discus, I had a crapload of tropheus and petrochromis.        |
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Man, I've been thinking about getting myself a beta.... Do you have to do any cleaning of the tank or do the filters do all the work? Once they tank is established it will take care of itself. Most of the aquarium forums are going to tell you 10% water change every week. bla bla bla. Well its been 5 years since ive changed the water in my saltwater tank and my ammonia and nitrites read zero and nitrates stay below 10. I just top off and probably clean the filter once a year. Once your tanks cycles I would do bi month water changes of 20% for the first year until the bacteria is well established after that it will pretty much take care of itself. You may one to do a water change every couple of months to get the nitrates down. Unless you have live plants which will keep it down for you without any water changes. Just as an addendum to this, the reason you do a water change is to remove dangerous waste products from teh water before thier concentration harms the fish. Now this is necessary for many tanks because they arent completing the nitrogen cycle. Fish excrete ammonia, which is extremely toxic. Fortunately there are bacteria (Nitrosomma) that eat the ammonia and excrete Nitrite, Nitrite is still poisonous to fish but orders of magnitude less so then Ammonia. Fortunately there are also bacteria (Nitrobacter) that eat the Nitrite and excrete Nitrate which again is orders of magnitude less dangerous to fish then Nitrite. Those two types of bacteria are fairly abundant and they are present on nearly every surface in the tank. They are Aerobic Bacteria and require oxygen to live. Where it gets complex is in removing the nitrate, because eventually it will build up to levels damaging to fish. This is problomatic because the bacteria that eat nitrate are anearobic, meaning that they cant function where there is too much oxygen. You can only complete the cycle if you have areas with little to no oxygen in the tank. In most cases this means sand 2-3 inches deep or more. If you have a deep sand bed like that then the anearobic bacteria can colonize the deepest reaches of it and complete the cycle, turning the Nitrate to harmless nitrogen which will gas out of the tank. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A DEEP BED OF MATERIAL IMPEDING OXYGENATED WATER FROM CIRCULATING AND CREATING AN OXYGEN POOR AREA YOU NEED TO DO WATER CHANGES TO PREVENT NITRATE POISONING! Some folk say 10% weekly but it really depnds on what your nitrate level is (which depends on how under or overstocked your tank is), 25% biweekly is a decent compromise, and I know guys who do like 40% once a month and thier fish are fine. I prefer less maintenence, so I have a deep sand bed and only do water changes sparingly. My maintenence is giving the inner glass a wipedown with towel once a week (takes less then a minute), I clean out the filter quarterly and do water changes infrequently. I wouldnt recomend going completely without water changes as there are still dissolved solids from fish waste that can build up. However the need for water changes is overstated in the hobby. Also the bacteria colonies take time to get established so NEVER just dump all the fish in at once, set up the tank, get the decor the way you want it and then slowly add fish. Also for reference, here is the KeithJ-esque breakdown of the chemical processes in a deep sand bed. 
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Would it be financially reasonable to build a large aquarium vs buying one? My biggest is a 55g, but I would love a 180 or larger  If you trust yourself to seal and reinforce it properly its doable, but if you fuck up thats an awful lot of water to find on the floor. Also thick glass isn't cheap. If you have a connection though it is economical. Its cheaper anyhow to just go to craigslist, people are always moving or getting out of the hobby and a big tank is a low demand item. I got my entire 155 gallon setup with lights, filters and handmade hardwood stand for 800$. I've seen CL posts for 150 gallon tanks going for like 200 bucks if your willing to wait for a good deal to come around. Just check to make sure theres no chips, and that the silicone is still soft and not cracking and you should be golden. |
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Hats off to the planted FW tank guys....they're gorgeous and I've wanted one for awhile, but just dont have the room right now. Nick honestly, you gotta plant them. not only does it look nice, but you can't believe how much more stable the system is after the plants are established. |
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Hats off to the planted FW tank guys....they're gorgeous and I've wanted one for awhile, but just dont have the room right now. Nick honestly, you gotta plant them. not only does it look nice, but you can't believe how much more stable the system is after the plants are established. I'd like to, but the stupid turtle will eat them all. |
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Hats off to the planted FW tank guys....they're gorgeous and I've wanted one for awhile, but just dont have the room right now. Nick honestly, you gotta plant them. not only does it look nice, but you can't believe how much more stable the system is after the plants are established. I'd like to, but the stupid turtle will eat them all. There are plants which flat out taste bad, or are too tough and unpleasant to eat that Turtles generally leave them alone. |
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Hats off to the planted FW tank guys....they're gorgeous and I've wanted one for awhile, but just dont have the room right now. Nick honestly, you gotta plant them. not only does it look nice, but you can't believe how much more stable the system is after the plants are established. I'd like to, but the stupid turtle will eat them all. There are plants which flat out taste bad, or are too tough and unpleasant to eat that Turtles generally leave them alone. Or kill the turtle. 
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OK, these are some old pics through the years. Keeping fish rival my passion for firearms.
My discus when they were juvies, planted tank. 
Red Dragons I was growing out. Just sold the last of them, now I have a nice Fader. 
Electric Blue Jack Dempsey. Just sold him last week - at 5.5". Most cannot grow past ~3". 
My fader - Mango. 
I was lucky enough to catch him yawning. Not bad for an iPhone photo (actually...all of these are) 
After a complete tank re-landscaping I snapped this. The most recent rendition. |