Diddles

Okay so my mum has her eyes set on purchasing a large tank which is abit over 6ft long and 48 cm wide (not quite sure how many gallons). So I did a little research and looked at a few sites and now I have a few questions!

I was thinking of having a tank with a few bits of nice driftwood,rocks and some plants but I dont want an underwater "forest" if you know what I mean

I plan on doing the fishless cycle and was wondering where you can buy pure ammonia and if there's any alternate products which are also good to use.

Ive also got a few fish in mind and aware that not all fish can be housed together but these are just some fish im interested in and would like some opinions from people and im also open to any suggestions.

4 x Clown Loaches (love these fish alot ><)
2 x Angel Fish
School of cardinal tetra ( not sure how many)
1 x red tail shark

I know that RTS can be aggressive and Clown loaches are generally passive but im hoping with lots of hiding spots and some plants they will be okay.

Thanksguys!!! Reading through some of these posts have been extremely helpful.

eiginh

You can try your local supermarket but make sure it's not made for cleaning. If you shake the bottle and see if a lot of bubbles form then it's not right for your tank. I read this from a different thread. I just read from this site that old school aqua hobbyist used to pee in their tanks to add pure ammonia...Nasty!

Diddles

Hahaha, peeing in my fish tank is out of the question. Don't think i could bring myself to doing that. I think some people around here use Tetra Starter Kit or something?
Has anyone used this before and is it pricey?

Thanks!

aquarist48

Good morning Diddles and Welcome to Fish Lore. From what I've read about adding ammonia to your tank, make sure it is "pure" with no additives and do the bubble test as Eiginh has mentioned.

Your stocking list sounds fine to me. I would suggest that you add the Red Tail Shark last and maybe it will help for a while with aggression/territory issues along with lots of hiding places. However, my Rainbow Shark (similar to the Red Tail) doesn't hide any longer.

Try to get a pair, male/female Angels.

I love Clown Loaches although I don't have any. Make sure to acclimate them into your tank slowly. Here is a link on acclimation you may find helpful:
Acclimating Tropical Fish to Your Fish Tank
A link on Clown Loaches you may enjoy reading:

Clown Loach Coloration & Marking Variations — Loaches Online

Eiginh I heard about that too concerning the urine. I don't think I would go there LOL

Diddles best of luck with the new tank. I hope you can share some photos along the way.
Ken

eiginh

Did you mean Tetra SafeStart? I'm not sure if's pricey never bought one, I have used Superbac which is similar and worked magnificent! within 7-10 days it will cycle your tank along with the proper stock.

aquarist48

Hello Diddles. Many of our members have had great success with Tetra Safe Start (TSS). Some have not had luck with it at all. It's not too expensive. I'm not familiar with SuperBac.
If you'll go to the top right hand side of this screen and do a "search" for Tetra Safe Start or TSS I'm sure you'll find more information there.
Ken

Diddles

Yes sorry, I meant Tetra Safe Start. Yes getting a pair of male/female angels would be good but from what Ive read its hard to tell the difference between the sexes until they are actually "pairing". My original plan was to add the RTS last but I was wondering if i should get some sort of pleco for algae (+ the eye candy).

Couple of questions I forgot to ask, what are some good middle dwellers or higher dwelling fish. I dont want a tank just full of bottom dwellers.

Thanks all for the quick replies ><

eiginh

Tetras are a great addition though another member has an angel with some small fish and found out the angel was eating them! Perhaps Silver Dollars?

aquarist48

Silver Dollars would be great as eiginh mentioned. There are 3 varieties that I know of if you can find them. The Red Tipped, Red Hook and the Black Bar. All beautiful!
Ken

Diddles

Yes I've heard that too. I was originally thinking of getting neon tetra but apparently Angel like to snack on them, but someone stated that Cardinals are okay with Angels. I plan on introducing the tetra to the tank first and try and get them as big as possible vise versa for the Angels, ill try get juvenile ones.

But thanks for the heads up and I will take that into consideration since I still have a little while yet before purchasing any fish as I have to paint the fishtank stand and cycle the water.

Thanks!!!

peacemaker92

Congrats on getting a new tank! And WELCOME TO FISHLORE!

Great advice and info above can't wait for the photos. Keep us updated with threads

Butterfly

Diddles welcome to FishLore! We love to help people with their tanks
Could you give us the dimensions of your tank again please. I'm confused when inches and cm are mixed LOL
Clown Loaches are wonderful center piece fish (I have clowns ) and when they have plenty of room to play and grow are absolutely magnificent. So I encourage you to get them.
I have had angels and neons successfully with Clowns before. If you put the neons in before(several days) you put any other fish in the tanks the angels nor the clowns will bother them. The clowns like to get up close and "whisker' everybody(I have platys with mine) but they aren't hurting anybody or even scaring them. Their just curious. I never had problems with the angels bothering the neons adding them this way. It was like the angels thought they belonged there.
As for the other fish you mentioned I've never had any experience with them so I can't say, but it there's any aggression the clowns will hide and stay hidden.
Excellent links Ken gave you.
Carol

Meenu

TSS around here for up to 70 gallons is about $24. Up to 30 gallons is $14. Make sure you use it right, or you'll end up using 3 bottles of it like I did. The first time, I didn't really understand that you had to add in all of your fish at the same time, so I had 2 danios in a 30 gallon tank. Not enough ammonia produced, so the beneficial bacteria in the TSS died off.

Then the next time, in the middle of the TSS cycle, I decided to change my filter out. Although I kept the old media, it was enough to interrupt what the TSS was doing.

So then I tried with Prime and daily water changes, but I ammonia levels weren't going down, and my fish started looking a little red around the gills (a sign of ammonia poisoning), and so I got a 3rd bottle of TSS. I haven't lost any fish, and things seem to be going well. Today is day 9 nf the TSS, so I'll check the water parameters today.

So I would advise you to make sure you have the equipment you want before putting in the TSS, and put your fish in at the same time as the TSS. Use the big bottle for the 70 gallon, since your tank is bigger than 30g. Use the whole bottle. And then other than feeding, leave your tank alone for 7-10 days. No water changes, no testing the water.

Nutter

Hunt down the Tetra Safe Start. It can be hard to find here in Australia but you won't find pure ammonia here in a big hurry. It is a controlled substance here as it makes things go boom. There are a few aquariums that have it under the counter but you wil probably have to get to know them pretty well before they admit to having it & only one or two will have it at all.
Plecs are fantastic fish but not so great as algae eaters though they do eat certain types of algae with great gusto. I like rainbowfish & congo tetras as mid/ surface dwellers but if you have angels they may not like all the activity. Angels like peace & quite whereas the congos & rainbows are very active fish that may disturb them.

Dark_Rider2k3

haha yeah I just wanted to quote this to note that I have not had success with smaller tetras. I know some people have Angels that are nice and "gentle" to the smaller fish.. but mine has been a big bully to them.

So if you do end up getting Tetras, I'd make sure that you get 2 very young angel fish to go with them and hope that as the Angels grow, they don't start harassing them..

Diddles

Thanks for the comments. Been a bit busy so havent been able to get back in a hurry. Yes I think ill try get some TSS and if i cant find it i'll try ebay some. Im abit hesitant of adding fish at the same time because im a bit paranoid of ammonia poisoning. Should I just put hardy fish in first?

jdhef

The SafeStart should prevent ammonia poisoning. It is actually designed to have all fish added along with the SafeStart. If there aren't enough fish in the tank, the excess bacteria will just starve off.

ApolloX54

So what about the plants you have a ton of info about the fish but are you gonna do about the plants? Are you going live or fake?

Diddles

Yes I plan on going live plants. Java ferns and Anubias look good and ill probably find a couple more varieties too. Havent really researched much into plants yet as im trying to get my hands on some driftwood and some rocks (fish store prices are a bit high). Also whats a good gravel substrate to use? I plan on growing a few plants but I dont plan on making it a planted or forest like aquarium.

thanks

Also just out of curiousity do large tropical tanks make much of a dent on your electricity bill? Lighting,Heating,Filtering etc..

Nutter

If you arn't going to go nuts with the plants then I would just stick to a plain gravel substrate with a grain size between 3-6mm or use sand if you don't mind doing the extra little bit of maintainance that sand requires. You could get Eco-complete or some such nutrient substrate but if your not going to have lots of plants it probably isn't worth the extra expense.

Cost of running a large tank is dependant on what it is used for . My rift lake 6x2x2 costs less to run than one of my 4x1.5x1.5ft planted by the time I have paid for co2 & running the extra lights. My old 6x2x2 planted was quite expensive to run. Just the lights over that alone used to cost me $70 a month to run. Then there was nutrient, co2 & the usual water bills & conditioners etc to pay as well.

Diddles

Hey sorry for late reply guys, been having a bit of trouble with my net. anyhow im going for live plants probably some java ferns, anubias and a few other plants. I had a brief look in one of the LFS and Im thinking of going with my original list + a school a Zebra Danios and a couple silver sharks. I also saw this interesting fish called a Black Ghost fish but they seem like they need to be pampered well to survive ><. what are your thoughts?

Also is slate aquarium safe? because i have lots of slabs of slate around the back of the house which have built up dust over time but it occurred to me they might look good in an aquarium . I was thinking of boiling them and cleaning them thoroughly.

Thanks!

Just a quick edit also, Considering using pool filter sand if it is a cheap alternative to gravel, is it hard to keep clean and does it screw up the filters?

Nick G

Hi Diddles, Black Ghost Knife fish are awesome! I've got one called Phantom, but I wouldn't reccommend one in a new tank. I'd get the tank up and running, and once it's been established for for a few months maybe get one then. They get pretty big, like 12-18 inchs, but with a 6ft tank you'd be fine.

Beth1965

Diddles! Welcome to FL! Have a good time here.
It would be helpful if you were able to post the "for sure" dimensions of the tank, this way we could certain what stocking list would be perfect for you.
There is a little chart at the bottom of this page which converts size to gallons and vice a versa.

jdhef

Slate should be fine in your tank. My first aquarium actually had a slate bottom. (That's how they used to build them in the olden days!)

Fishnugget43

Hey, Diddles

I had a hard time finding pure ammonia too. Eventually I found it at walmart- it was with the mops and buckes and brooms and stuff along with the cleaning supplies... the reason it took so long to find it there is because that stuff is rigt in the middle of the food section at my local walmart.... although after hearing about TSS i went and bought that... im not sure what I'll use my ammonia for...

Diddles

Thanks for answering the slate question. Also I dont believe you can get pure ammonia in Australia ( we all dont have walmart ). The closest ive seen so far is cloudy ammonia and thats like 10% ammonia so i think its no good. I think ill either try the shrimp method or use TTS with the Zebra danios first as im told they are hardy fish. Btw, my friend has a fish tank with gravel. If I place a handfull of gravel in some stockings and hang it in the water will this speed up the cycle? thankyou.

I''ll find out the proper dimensions soon><

Elvishswimmer

Any local grocery or hardware store should have it (I found some "Safeway brand" ammonia here in Canada. Safeway is a grocery store). Look in the cleaning section and make sure to check that it has only ammonia and water as the ingredients. And shake the bottle. If lots of bubbles form it is no good. But if some bubbles form like if you shake a water bottle that's ok.

any percent ammonia is ok, the problem is that cloudy ammonia has soap in it I think, which is no good.

Fishnugget: You can use the ammonia to clean your house! I use ammonia to clean my tile floors and bathroom. It was actually perfect timing my fish tank came along, because I just ran out of my cleaning ammonia ( lemon-soapy kind) and so having to buy new ammonia wasn't a huge waste.