What is maintenance like in Larger Tanks?

The opportunity has come up to get a 170l/37g tank on sale and I just wanted to check before I took the plunge...

What is the weekly maintenance for a tank this size? i.e. 15%/25%/50% water changes?

I take it this size tank would be sufficient for my RTS?

Could we consider a centerpiece fish, thinking Angelfish or Female Betta?

Thanks in advance!

 

I usually change the same percentage on my tanks, regardless of size (except for my goldfish tank .. it gets a much larger weekly water change). I change 30 percent on all my other tanks weekly.

I have no experience with RTS, but considering the size they reach, I wouldn't be surprised if you will need a larger tank down the road. That size might also be good only if the RTS was alone, something to consider if you are wanting to get other fish.

 

37gallon is a perfect size tank for that mid ground of a small and large tank. I always changed 5 gallons of water every week or two. Makes it pretty easy if you just go to Home Depot and buy a $5 bucket. The red tails don’t get “huge” and typically stay at the bottom so you could really go fore any centerpiece fish you like. I tend not to like angels but to each his own, plus they tend to not like much water movement and do like lots of plants. You could get a paradise gourami or something of that nature. I’ll be honest tho, you are probably going to want more than 2 fish in this tank tho, so you could even go for a group of swordtails, guppies, or other sholing fish

 

We had a 37g for a while with 2 angelfish, but they were very small and we knew we’d be upgrading to a 75 gallon in just a few months.
I definitely wouldn’t add a Betta. I wanted to for a long time but did a lot of research on it, and I knew in my heart they’d be stressed in my community tank. They’d prefer to live alone. Maybe if you keep your smaller tank you could have a Betta in there?
For a 37g with a RTS I would agree that he might outgrow that tank eventually, and if you definitely wanted to keep him, maybe a small schooling fish of rasboras, small tetras or guppies for the upper level.
We did 25% water changes every week and tested once a week. Had a quietflow filter which did the job just fine. GL!

 

I'd recommend not. It is recommended a 55 gallon. Due to the taller height, the shark could be really aggressive

 

37gallon is a perfect size tank for that mid ground of a small and large tank. I always changed 5 gallons of water every week or two. Makes it pretty easy if you just go to Home Depot and buy a $5 bucket. The red tails don’t get “huge” and typically stay at the bottom so you could really go fore any centerpiece fish you like. I tend not to like angels but to each his own, plus they tend to not like much water movement and do like lots of plants. You could get a paradise gourami or something of that nature. I’ll be honest tho, you are probably going to want more than 2 fish in this tank tho, so you could even go for a group of swordtails, guppies, or other sholing fish

Thank you for the info We do have other fish currently in our tank and now know we are extremely overstocked Original plan was to upgrade at Christmas but based on advice already received we've bitten the bullet and gone for it!

We had a 37g for a while with 2 angelfish, but they were very small and we knew we’d be upgrading to a 75 gallon in just a few months.
I definitely wouldn’t add a Betta. I wanted to for a long time but did a lot of research on it, and I knew in my heart they’d be stressed in my community tank. They’d prefer to live alone. Maybe if you keep your smaller tank you could have a Betta in there?
For a 37g with a RTS I would agree that he might outgrow that tank eventually, and if you definitely wanted to keep him, maybe a small schooling fish of rasboras, small tetras or guppies for the upper level.
We did 25% water changes every week and tested once a week. Had a quietflow filter which did the job just fine. GL!

This tank has a huge external filter... cue another post asking for help setting everything up!

General consensus seems to be averaging 25% partial changes weekly so I'll go with that... Previous advice for my 60l/16g was 50% weekly which sounded like a nightmare for a tank this size!

 

25% in a 37g is 9g change. 50% in a 16g is 8g change. Either way, you're changing about the same amount of water weekly.

 

How much you change also depends on how messy the fish you are keeping are. You may find that you need to increase the amount you change each week.

 

25% in a 37g is 9g change. 50% in a 16g is 8g change. Either way, you're changing about the same amount of water weekly.

Exactly... my concern was a 18g change weekly! As I buy my RO water from the lfs, that would have taken quite a few trips with my 5l/1g bottles

How much you change also depends on how messy the fish you are keeping are. You may find that you need to increase the amount you change each week.

It'll be...

1 RTS
3 Dalmation Mollies
4 Sunset Platies
1 Centerpiece Fish (To be decided)
Some Rummy Nose Tetras (If we can have them with overstocking)

 

How bad is your tap water? Are you remineralizing the RO water? Why don't you have 5 gallon buckets?

 

Tap water is extremely hard, limescaley and has been treat with softeners so wasn't willing to risk it... LFS use RO in all their tanks and said I wouldn't need to add anything, however I now mix in a 5l of bottled water per 15l RO and use EasyBalance every water change...
I have 5 5l/1g bottles I take to be filled weekly... not particularly easy to transport water in a bucket from the store... ??