im looking to purchase an aquarium soon and have looked online at a bunch of different types. Ive looked at regular rectangle tanks to hexagonal 6 ft tall ones. I really like the latter but not sure how difficult it would be to clean those. Looking around 20-30 gallon tank. Are there any locations here in houston that i would be able to take a better look at besides petsmart and petco? http://www.aquariumstoreonline.com/27-gallon-clock-aquarium.htm http://www.aquariumstoreonline.com/15-gallon-aquarium-stand.htm any advice?
Good look with your aquarium. I currently have 2 aquariums setup, a 30 gallon and a 10 gallon. Both are all natural. Sorry but I don't live in Houston so I don't know any stores around there but if you have any other questions I will try my best to help.
the cleanign isnt the hardest thing about having a 6 foot tall hex. in order to get the correct amount of light to the bottom and keep the weird red/black algea from forming all over everything, you would need a VERY powerful light setup. I dont know why the manufacturer doesnt think of this when they design those styles, but if my 4 foot tall hex is trouble afa lighting goes, I Can imagfine that a 6 footer would be even worse. my opinion stick with conventional height/length dimensions and things will go much easier
too bad u don't live in NYC, otherwise, i'd just give u one 30 g tank with the complete setup for free.
My first advice to anyone would be not to get an aquarium like that tall hex tank. First, it limits the type of fish you can put in it and it's just whacky for the fish to basically only be able to swim up and down or in circles all day. lol. If you want to mix somewhat aggressive fish with more docile fish, you're putting the docile fish at a big disadvantage in that type of tank. First, decide what kind of fish you're looking to buy, then decide on the tank, or decide on the tank, then buy fish based on the tank. Don't do both independently. My honest suggestion to you is stay away from the hex tanks and oddball shapes and go with a rectangular or possibly a bow-front tank.
Besides what the Good Doctor said, the number of fish you can have in a tank is largely governed by the surface area in relation to the volume of water. Your tank that is wider than it is tall support more fish, unless you take heroic measures. I would add that corners can be one of the hardest things to clean in a tank. The more corners you have, the more work involved. Beautiful... A pain to clean and limits number of fish... Groovy bowfront tank... add fish! Your armpit will be in the water when you try to clean the bottom!
This is one of my many hobbies. After decades in the hobby, I've learned it's best to have a set it and forget it setup. Set it up right and you don't have to do much with it, maybe top off water every once in a while. I feed the big tank once every two days. The rest are self-sufficient. 1. High dollar filtering equipment 2. Proper bioload, meaning not too many fish/whatever 3. Low maintenance wildlife 4. Low maintenance plants Over the past decade, I've learned to just appreciate a well planted tank. It's very peaceful. 72 Gallon Freshwater Bowfront: 20 Gallon Freshwater Rimless Shrimp Tank: 16 Gallon Fluval Edge Glass Top Freshwater: 8 Gallon Biorb Classic Brackish (almost full salt) Opae Ula Hawaiian Shrimp (btw, those 'plants' are macroalgae):
The bow front acrylics are great, lightweight, and easy to navigate. Here is mine. Canister filters work great. I have cichlids. Great fun.
Go for it. I had a 180 gallon oceanic with sump and 150 gallon oceanic with sump. Had metal halides with them as well. One was for planted aquarium with wild discuss and cardinal tetras. I can't add pictures on here? The other aquarium was for some Tropheus cichlids then a flowerhorn after that. I haven't kept fish for a few years but will start again.
The gold/yellow fish looks like a labidochromis caeruleus, but what's that 2nd/lighter fish with the spots underneath it? I haven't had an aquarium in over 20 years, but always loved cichlids.
it looks like a cichlid. Cichlids are territorial dicks is what I remember. Aquariums are kind of pains in the asses. I have a tank sitting in the garage not being used cause the maintenance does suck. I remember in college I had one of those black algae eaters die while I was away. Came back and that thing was rotting in the tank. It was nasty. Those poor other fish has to swim around that yuck. And, that smell. Yikes! That was a fun cleanup.
That’s a nice, clean setup. Cichlids are fun to watch. I found Discus to be way too time consuming. Then mine all died during a move…which was sort of a relief. Maintenance sucks when you have too high a bio load and undersized filtration. Canister filter, correct light cycle, plants, cleanup crew (snails/shrimp) and fewer fish. Also, plecos make way more of a mess than they clean up.
The lighter fish "Purvis" was born in tank. So I don't what he would be called. But he's probably a combo of an Electric Yellow Cichlid, Maleri Yellow Peacock, or Zebra Black. He just is.
Yeah the discus are very sensitive to water changes. I had one of those specially order charcoal tank filter that connected to my water line before I do water changes. The wild ones are more hardy than the ones bred in a pet store. The cardinal tetras were especially sensitive. I then bought some wild angelfish. The cardinal tetras dissappear one by one after I brought home the angelfish. They ate the cherry shrimps too. I think they look better than the discus though. I think they were called Altum angel fish. The tropheus are very sensitive fish as well. They kept dying. Eventually I bought two flower horns and put each one in separate tanks. Live for about 5 years and were huge. Then they died too so I haven't kept any fishes since then. Planning to do a planted aquarium and salt water tank. I already have the sump and filters and metal halide. Just need the chillers.
Clean peen. The only shrimp I eat is fresh gulf-caught shrimp (duh, I live in Houston). If I ate any farmed shrimp, it would be my own.....but it wouldn't make sense financially. Most shrimp you get frozen or at chain restaurants are from nasty farms overseas.
The only reason I never really liked discus and angelfish was because they were kinda boring to me. They were just "there" and kinda floated around. Other cichlids, on the other hand, were awesome to watch do their thing. They would constantly be rearranging and yanking stuff out of the bed. Of course I'd piss them off by putting them back. The only problem would be when some of them were too aggressive. Like labs with a few corys that I had. Good Lord, that was a horror flick I don't ever want to repeat. Some of it was my fault since my aquarium was only 29g. If I decide to set up another aquarium one day, it would still be cichlids, but nothing smaller than a 45-55 gallon tank. In terms of sheer beauty, though, saltwater is incredible. I just didn't want to put up with the prices on the fish. If I saw one of the fish getting sick, I'd be in there giving it mouth-to-mouth trying to revive it and keep my $50+ investment alive. lol.
