Fishkeeping

[MontyPlumbs]

Any aquariasts out there?

Need some advice regarding a tank set up.

At the moment, got a 25l (small - but wanted to start off cheaply) with a few small Gouramis and Rainbowfish in. Now I'm looking to upgrade. My question is, what do you think of this

Has anyone got experience with this brand? What's the quality like? I'm not too excited about the prospect of getting an expensive brand like Juwel, but I don't want something thats going to have cracked glass as soon as I put water in!

Also thinking of adding a Malabar Pufferfish to my (planted) community tank once set up, but I've read conflicting reports about suitability. Anyone kept a Malabar Puffer in a community tank?

Thanks in advance.

MP

 

[Tashy_Man]

Any aquariasts out there?

Need some advice regarding a tank set up.

At the moment, got a 25l (small - but wanted to start off cheaply) with a few small Gouramis and Rainbowfish in. Now I'm looking to upgrade. My question is, what do you think of this

Has anyone got experience with this brand? What's the quality like? I'm not too excited about the prospect of getting an expensive brand like Juwel, but I don't want something thats going to have cracked glass as soon as I put water in!

Also thinking of adding a Malabar Pufferfish to my (planted) community tank once set up, but I've read conflicting reports about suitability. Anyone kept a Malabar Puffer in a community tank?

Thanks in advance.

MP

MP, best person i know to get advice off is fogducker.......he has numerous tanks at home (just got a huge 8ft job !). I know he is on leave at the mo and away from home so don't know if he'll be checking the forum......send him a PM i'm sure he'll reply when he gets back.

Crack on...no, no, not the tank........DT_Xtremez_09:

 

[roverboy]

Not really advice, but I thought I'd let you know you're not the only fish fancier on here. I used to keep tropical fish many moons ago and tried many different species tanks including guppies & mollies (as a kid) before moving on to barbs, gouramis and finally cichlids. I always preferred barbs for some reason, although I wish they were a bit more gourami friendly.

Are you going to use normal gravel or coral sand like that used in Marine tanks? I only say this because I always used to use coral sand as it looks a lot more attractive in my opinion.

 

[gemarriott]

I new a plumber who kept a pirhana called butch in a tank in his room at Laarbruch. we used to feed it goldfish when we were p1ssed. It went for the Staish's pinky one inspection and he was made to keep a lid on the tank after that.

 

[Statty Queen]

I'm a newish tropical fish keeper. I've got a 65L tank, and various fish including Gouramis, barbs, neons, mollies, goby's and a beautiful golden nugget plec. They're all community fish, so get on quite well. I wouldn't recommend putting a puffer in with your other fish because they tend to be fin nippers and can be aggressive.

My tank has a filtration system similar to the one you're considering buying. It's very easy to look after. I would recommend getting a timer for the light, the fish also like blue light at night because it simulates moonlight and makes the little fishies glow in the dark!

 

[roverboy]

I'm a newish tropical fish keeper. I've got a 65L tank, and various fish including Gouramis, barbs, neons, mollies, goby's and a beautiful golden nugget plec. They're all community fish, so get on quite well. I wouldn't recommend putting a puffer in with your other fish because they tend to be fin nippers and can be aggressive.

My tank has a filtration system similar to the one you're considering buying. It's very easy to look after. I would recommend getting a timer for the light, the fish also like blue light at night because it simulates moonlight and makes the little fishies glow in the dark!

That's why I never used to keep Tiger barbs with Gouramis or Swordtails- don't you have a problem with them fin nipping?

 

[TrickyTree]

I've got a Juwel Rekord 60, I've had it for 2 years but only put fish in it about 2 months ago at the behest of Mrs TrickyTree.

We've got 6 Tiger barbs, 3 silver sharks, 4 Buenos Aires tetras, 10 neon tetras and a couple of chinese algae eaters. They all rub along quite happily, though early on I had a problem with the barbs and actually lost a couple (and a Buenos Aires tetra). The barbs sometimes get aggressive, but only with each other and it's really just "handbags at ten paces" sort of thing.

Ideally I'd like some more barbs but the tank just isn't big enough. This weekend though I'm off to get a small clown loach to hopefully gobble up the odd snail I've started seeing in the tank.

 

[pueblos]

I’ve had a similar filtration system for a couple of years.
It is good and works very well with only a little maintenance needed (general cleaning), replacements are cheap too, which is a bonus.
I moved away from under gravel because of detachments and leaving the little blighters in the hands of Mrs P…

I also find that the plant life thrives in the tank now; I use marine sand as a base rather than gravel.

 

[roverboy]

Ideally I'd like some more barbs but the tank just isn't big enough. This weekend though I'm off to get a small clown loach to hopefully gobble up the odd snail I've started seeing in the tank.

Isn't the odd snail ok for keeping down the algea though? I just used to remove them by hand if the population got too much.

 

[Seymour Tw@tt]

This thread reminds me of a mate who went to the local pet shop for a fish for his tank. The bloke says, "Do you want an aquarium?"

My mate replied "Nah, it doesn't matter what star sign it is"



DT_Xtremez_30:

 

[AllWoman]

This thread reminds me of a mate who went to the local pet shop for a fish for his tank. The bloke says, "Do you want an aquarium?"

My mate replied "Nah, it doesn't matter what star sign it is"



DT_Xtremez_30:

Bl00dy hell ST, I didn't realise you had a sense of humour!!!!DT_Xtremez_15:

 

[Kernow]

Any aquariasts out there?

Need some advice regarding a tank set up.

At the moment, got a 25l (small - but wanted to start off cheaply) with a few small Gouramis and Rainbowfish in. Now I'm looking to upgrade. My question is, what do you think of this

Has anyone got experience with this brand? What's the quality like? I'm not too excited about the prospect of getting an expensive brand like Juwel, but I don't want something thats going to have cracked glass as soon as I put water in!

Also thinking of adding a Malabar Pufferfish to my (planted) community tank once set up, but I've read conflicting reports about suitability. Anyone kept a Malabar Puffer in a community tank?

Thanks in advance.

MP

Haven't kept one meself but from what I have read they aren't overly agressive more playful than anything. What else are you planning to put in the new tank, or are you sticking with Guramis and Rainbowfish?

 

[Exlineswine]

I don't know that particular manufacturer, I moved onto Juwel tanks about 10 years ago and can't recommend them highly enough. I presently have a 350L corner tank (community) and a 450L main display tank set up for fancy plecs.

I live in Germany so Juwel tanks are a little bit cheaper here ( the same in € as they are in £ in UK), but you can get some real bargains on e-bay because a lot of people have an early disaster with a tank, lose all their fish, and just want to get rid of it.

As with anything, in general the more you pay the better you get and the bigger the tank you have the easier it is to keep ( keeping small tanks can be tricky because if for instance a fish dies and you don't notice, a small tank gets polluted to a fatal level more quickly than a bigger tank).

Whatever tank you choose remember to stock it slowly and read up on the nitrogen cycle so you understand whats going on in your tank as it matures. if you have kids they really love to get involved in all the feeding and stuff, my daughter looks after both my tanks when I'm travelling mainly because my wife would forget.

 

[MontyPlumbs]

Haven't kept one meself but from what I have read they aren't overly agressive more playful than anything. What else are you planning to put in the new tank, or are you sticking with Guramis and Rainbowfish?

So far, thinking of the following

The stocking calculator gives me a stocking volume of 239 cm for a 97l litre tank.

So far, have the following fish lined up

4 Yellowtail Rainbowfish (already owned)
2 Honey Gourami (already owned)
20 Neon Tetra
10 Vietnamese Cardinal Minnow
1 Otocinclus
10 Sparkling Gourami
3 Silver Hatchetfish
8-10 Threadfin Rainbowfish

Some shrimps, possibly Cherry or Green shrimp (I've kept these before)

I'm not sure keeping inverts is a good idea with a Malabar puffer, but I've heard mixed reports about their suitability in community tanks.

 

[MontyPlumbs]

Not really advice, but I thought I'd let you know you're not the only fish fancier on here. I used to keep tropical fish many moons ago and tried many different species tanks including guppies & mollies (as a kid) before moving on to barbs, gouramis and finally cichlids. I always preferred barbs for some reason, although I wish they were a bit more gourami friendly.

Are you going to use normal gravel or coral sand like that used in Marine tanks? I only say this because I always used to use coral sand as it looks a lot more attractive in my opinion.

This is an dilemma for me RB. I was going to go for sand, but I've heard it's a little harder to look after than gravel, also not sure about growing plants (I'm going for a heavily planted tank this time)

I'm thinking maybe a quartz based gravel could be better, I've also heard you need to keep the substrate to at least 3mm or smaller to allow the plants room to "breathe" so to speak.

Whatever I get, I'm ditching the horrible blue gravel that's in my current tank - going for something that looks natural.

Also looking at getting a piece of bogwood and a few small rocks/stones to add interest to the lower layers.

 

[Exlineswine]

My stocking calculator gives 116.4 cm for a 97l tank, 293cm sounds ambitious even if you added an oversize external filter the fish could still be in some distress .

 

[MontyPlumbs]

My stocking calculator gives 116.4 cm for a 97l tank, 293cm sounds ambitious even if you added an oversize external filter the fish could still be in some distress .

Check out the community creator here

It says 237cm (not 239 as I originally said) with an external filter.

Internal filter gives a level of 167cm.

Either way it's enough for what I want.

 

[Exlineswine]

Can't deny if you put the figures into that site you do get 230 or so but try the practical fishkeeping magazine site just for another opinion and see what figures they come up with.

 

[MontyPlumbs]

Very true, strange.

TBH, it's not a massive issue, I'm going to build the stock up very slowly (due to financial aspects!). I can always cut down on the amount of Neons, or Threadfins.

The main puzzler for me is shall I take the risk and buy a Malabar Puffer and take the chance he will be ok in a heavily planted community tank?

 

[Exlineswine]

what I can find on the malabar puffer says they are better kept in a species tank because they have the potential to be nippy and agressive, but I've never kept one so I'm only going on what I can find on the net