Questions! so many questions!

[Christopher Chan]

Hi guys, im a total newb at this so please bear with me.

I've been messing around with a two foot tank for awhile now, and i've recently gotten a three foot tank. My two foot tank was rather disastrous so i'd thought i would come here and read up rather than listen to advice from the shady uncle at my lfs. I have a hanging filter and a uv sterilization filter(basically a uv bulb in the filter?). what im concerned with is are these two filters gonna be enough for a three foot tank? cus it looks really cramped in my two foot but a three foot just looks too big to be properly filter with just those two.

Additional notes: some people have green thumbs. I am NOT one of those people. I have had 0 success with plants. so im gonna just stay clear of them. Im wondering is there any kind of tank that looks good non planted? i was thinking about like sand substrate with some driftwood. Some ideas, advice would be much appreciated and much much loved.

Once again please bear with me as i am really newb at this and all my information is from lfs/youtube/google.

Thanks!

[Urban Aquaria]

The filtration requirements for a tank really depend on the bio-load.... if you put just one small guppy in a 3ft tank, no filter and no water change also can. There is so much water volume vs bio-load that it'll take a long time for any of the parameters to build up and become toxic.

If you want to stock that tank with a good number of nice fishes, then the larger filter the better, canister filters can hold much more filtration media than hang-on filters so they would be a better choice (even better would be sump filtration, but that requires additional equipment and space under the tank).

If you have cost or space constraints, you can still use hang-on filters for the tank, just that you'd have to moderate the bio-load to match the filtration capacity. Start with low bio-load, then only steadily increase it when you can upgrade the filtration.

Its possible to have a nice aquarium without plants, just hardscape only, but you'll need to put in extra effort to remove the nitrates that build up in the tank, since there are no plants to consume it for you. So you will need to control the bio-load and feeding, and do more frequent and larger water changes to manually remove these excess nutrients.

Here are some examples of nice hardscape only tanks without plants (your main focus will be to find rocks and wood with "character"):









Photos from Google Images.

[Christopher Chan]

Wow those look really awesome.
Ive always wondered how they got the water so clear.

Anyways, been digging around stuff my brother left me
and i found this canister filter? not sure if it is. but its really old n covered in dust.
also found some driftwood

another question: will shrimps survive in a plantless enviroment? i dont mean like wood shrimps but like cherry or crystal shrimps

[Shadow]

That is very good filter, use that instead of you hanging filter but you might want to test it and replace some of the gasket. It might leak after not sure for so long, the rubber start cracking.

[Christopher Chan]

That is very good filter, use that instead of you hanging filter but you might want to test it and replace some of the gasket. It might leak after not sure for so long, the rubber start cracking.

Alrights gonna hook it up n see if it works. fingers crossed.

But im notsure if uve noticed but there were two trays for bio load i assume? so im thinking i still need to add filter floss right? where should that go?

[Christopher Chan]

okay yea it doesnt work. went out to petmart and got a canister filter. i know eheim is better but it was just too expensive. ended up getting Jebo 828. hope it doesnt bite me in the ***

[leezard78]

Awesome looking pictures.

[Shadow]

If you know what wrong with the filter, you can easily get Eheim spare part.

You can re-use the filter media, your is Biohome (white) and Biohome plus (red), one of the best filter media out there. You still need filter wool to filter debris that got suck.

[Christopher Chan]

If you know what wrong with the filter, you can easily get Eheim spare part.

You can re-use the filter media, your is Biohome (white) and Biohome plus (red), one of the best filter media out there. You still need filter wool to filter debris that got suck.

alrights ill definitely use them then. So just to make sure im not messing anything up, illrinse them throughly using the tank water and thenput them in right? should i add a layer of filter above them or is that not needed?

and here is the picture of the stuff they gave me in the jebo 828 cannister filter

so i can switch out some trays righgt?

[Shadow]

my filter arrangement is: water in -> white filter wool -> ceramic ring/other filter media -> water out.

other people might do the other way around, either way does not really matter.

[Urban Aquaria]

Wow those look really awesome.
Ive always wondered how they got the water so clear.

The photos of those tanks are usually taken straight after tank setup, or they have had their tank glass cleaned throughly and water changed beforehand... hence the crystal clear water.

Though with sand substrates, there's no cloudy dusty effect during initial tank setup like in a soil based tank anyways, so the water is usually already clear from the start.

another question: will shrimps survive in a plantless enviroment? i dont mean like wood shrimps but like cherry or crystal shrimps

Shrimps can live in a plant-less environment... in fact, the majority of shrimps actually live in habitats that are just sand and rocks and lots of rotting dead leaves dropped from above, not much actual submersed plants (sometimes even no plants, just lots of algae). Many shrimp breeders also keep and breed shrimps in tanks without any plants, at most some pieces of driftwood and maybe a lonely bunch of anubias or moss.

The main thing you have to take into account when there are no plants in a tank, is that there is nothing else to remove the excess nutrients in the tank, so you need to be diligent in tank maintenance, as shrimps are alot more sensitive to toxic spikes compared to fishes.

For a start, you may want to look at the hardier shrimp species like RCS (aka red cherry shrimp) as they tend to be better at adapting to variable water conditions, compared to CRS (crystal red shrimp) which have less tolerance and require a narrower range of parameters.

[Christopher Chan]

alright guys thanks so much with the lovely advice!

Sadly im still gonna ask more questions:P please bear with me!
if u see the pic i posted of my driftwood its really old n kinda flaky. is that bad?
and how do i prepare driftwood to be put in? i read online some peopl say boil it? but my parents aint gonna be excited bout me boiling a log in their pots. any advice?

[Christopher Chan]

As for livestock wise. Im intending on a betta, some rummy nose, couple of SAE to keep the tank clear, two or three wood shrimp, couple of clown loaches, and maybe a school of tiger barbs. is that overkill? oh yea and rcs

[Shadow]

betta and shrimps does not go well together

[mUAr_cHEe]

tiger barbs will not go well with the other fishes.

They will nip/chase the rummy noses and shrimps.

[Urban Aquaria]

alright guys thanks so much with the lovely advice!

Sadly im still gonna ask more questions:P please bear with me!
if u see the pic i posted of my driftwood its really old n kinda flaky. is that bad?
and how do i prepare driftwood to be put in? i read online some peopl say boil it? but my parents aint gonna be excited bout me boiling a log in their pots. any advice?

Those flakey drift wood are usually the soft type that are still rotting... they can still be used, just that you'll tend to see bits of wood accumulating on the substrate so it can get abit messy over time, just have to manually remove the wood bits during tank maintenance.

Boiling the drift wood will definitely help, especially to kill any critters or pest eggs that may be hiding in them and to also leach out the excess tannins that may still be in the wood. If you can't boil them, then the next best option is to soak them in a bucket or tub of water for a few weeks (change the water every 2-3 days).

Btw, if you don't want those flakey bits of wood littering the tank, consider looking for hard type wood at those LFS that specialize in aquascaping, you can tell the difference straight away just by looking at the wood texture, they are usually the branchy types with strong flexible branches.

[Christopher Chan]

darn so no tiger barbs or rcs... any other reccommendations?

Do you know of any such lfs? havent seen too many of those specialised in aquascaping ones

[Clamence]

darn so no tiger barbs or rcs... any other reccommendations?

Do you know of any such lfs? havent seen too many of those specialised in aquascaping ones

Just to name a few, theres fishy business, green chapter and a new shop near red hill mrt which i forgot the name that specialises in aquascaping Do go down to have a look, all have knowledgeable staffs which would help in setting up your aquarium

[mUAr_cHEe]

Christoper, it will really depend on your personal preference. Do you want a good mix of community fishes? Do you want to get a good school of fishes? If your interests is in shrimps, that it would be recommended that you get some tetras as they have more colour. A 3 feet tank is still reasonable for you to get a good-sized school of them.

If you are interested in barbs, like my dad, you can get a few kind of barbs together and put them in a tank. Preferably in a bigger sized group of more than 8 so that they will not 'fight' as much.

You can refer the lastest updated in-house list of LFS here. (See guys, I told you it is useful. )

[Christopher Chan]

Thanks for the lovely advice!
Now ive kinda hit another problem

The tank ive gotten was originally a tank used for arrowana rearing. so it has the decal kinda thing all around it to block out light. Been peeling it off but it kinda snaps and breaks and leaves behind a nasty residue. Ive looked online n supposedly wd40 shoiuld work but ive tried n the residue doesnt come off nor does the decal. was hoping some of you guys might have experience with this