Fishy Galore - Building a Tropical Tank

Fishy Galore - Building a Tropical Tank  

 

Hi everyone, I’ve decided to blog about a new hobby I recently started to get into recently – Fishkeeping!
 

Into the Tropics – Freshwater Keeping

In the past I have kept a couple of goldfish. They were given to me by a friend and I was simply told to feed them and change the water every week. The two Goldies would swim happily and always spring to life when it was feeding time. At this time I’ll be honest, I wasn’t too enthusiastic with fish keeping. During my studies my father would maintain our tank and I was very much hands off.
 

After moving home and getting a lot of house renovations done, I decided to give the fish to a friend and that was the end of pets in the house for a while.  

I randomly stopped by an aquarium on my travels (will post about this later) and remembered how much I love the ocean and all things water. I decided to delve into the hobby, properly this time! I wanted to try out tropical fish. There were some concerns as I was literally getting into things quite blind, I decided to educate myself around freshwater keeping.
 

Tanked Up, Ready to Cycle

The first thing to consider was how I wanted this feature to look. How big did I want my system? Do I need a background? Lighting? So many questions!
 
After asking myself a plethora of questions, I decided to fit some of the pieces of the puzzle together:
 

Location  

We had an empty spot by a removed fireplace. Rather than boxing it up I decided to use this as an interim location for a small sized tank. So based on the location alone I already started to answer some of my other requirements.


Size  

With a base already set out, I needed a tank that would sit on this just right and have enough height to fill out the canvas. Too big and it would look out of place, the same if it was too small. I managed to find a tank that would fit in just right. I ended up with a 120l (~26gal) tank with inbuilt hood filtration and lighting.  

Was this the best choice? Maybe not, but I wanted to ease into this slowly with moderate investment on time and money.

Water Science – Cycling to Success



Source

Filtration is one of the most (if not THE most) important things to think about when starting up a new system. The filtration will manage the water quality that the fish will leave in, removing toxins, waste, debris and other nasty things that clog your water.  

When trying to start up a tank, it’s important to have a basic understanding of water chemistry. It may sound daunting but I find that depending on where you source your information, it can be an easy ordeal.  

So what is a fish tank cycle?  



Within an ecosystem, bacteria will thrive and as we all know there are many type. Good and harmful. The first stage of cycling a fish tank is to induce a Nitrogen cycle. I was given some hardy fish that would be able to deal with the volatile water conditions and kick off the cycle. At the time I knew no better, but after thinking about it and reading up… This is perhaps a cruel way to cycle a tank and fishless (chemical bacteria) solutions should be an option.  

You can see in the above photo some evaporation from the tank as the water level drops. I was a little alarmed by how much it was draining sometimes but it settled. Lighting, room conditions and much more contribute to the evaporation of tank water. I topped this up as needed.

After introduction of bacteria, toxic levels will rise due to the waste created. The biological filter will begin to establish itself as harmful Ammonia turns into highly toxic Nitrites (sounds bad – I know!). Our bio filter will eventually break Nitrites down into Nitrates which are much less harmful to our fishies!  

I tested my water regularly in this period and would do small water changes (taking out waste water and adding in a fresh dose) to keep levels in check. I would highly recommend getting a test kit or at least having someone local to test for you. I made sure not to stock during this period and wanted to minimise stress on my fish.




After cycling and testing my waters again for a few weeks, it was time to start adding new fish : )
 

I’ll probably post a bit more about this later but choosing your livestock is crucial. The way the tank is setup needs to be designed to accommodate what you want to keep. Hiding places, tank mates, immunity and stocking levels are all things to consider. Too many fish in one tank spells disaster. This can overwhelm the filter and cause ammonia spikes (leading into dangerous Nitrites).
 

I decided to keep a community tank and started with a few Dwarf Gourrami Fish and angels later : D I thought these guys were really cute with some brilliant colour and personality.  

Upsizing and Exploring


 

I was quite content with my setup but as my Angel Fish grew, I felt that it would only be right to either rehome or upsize. There’s some sentimental value with my pets so I thought why not. I opted for a 300l+ system to give them more swimming space. I have not added anything just yet to this tank but they are very happy and aggression has dissipated between the Angels.

I had to reduce the substrate heavily too, I might even go barebottom at some point to improve water quality.
 

I’ll slowly maintain this one and modify filtration to suit some more stock safely. While people may feel bigger tanks mean more work, the opposite can be true. Larger water volumes help to stabilise water parameters. This is especially true in reef aquariums.
 

Speaking of reef, I decided to branch out into Marine keeping! I think I got the bug when I went diving and saw some of the most beautiful fish I’ve ever seen… But this has revealed to be a whole new ball game and I’ll be filling in a log for my salt water aquarium soon.
 

Hope you enjoyed the read and it helps you out when decision making for your new tropical setup.
 

Momosan