Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => Fish Tanks and Equipment => Topic started by: fruitbat on July 23, 2015, 06:06:35 PM
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hi, is it easier to keep fish in a larger tank as i seem to have trouble keeping them in 60l or less.. any suggestions of bigger tanks would be appreciated , thanks ps at moment i have a 64l tank
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Hi,
I have the Interpet Fish Pod 120L. I wrote a little review here (http://www.thinkfish.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,1933.msg18302.html).
I uploaded a short movie featuring the tank, but being honest you can't see much of the tank, only the inhabitants.
#Invalid YouTube Link include https#
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I have 9 tanks which are all betwen 60 and 120 litre but I can't say the the larger ones are any easier to manage than the smaller. Getting the set up right in the first place, keeping the correct fish for the tank and following a working maintenance regime are the ingredients for succes whatever the tank size.
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I think when people talking about bigger tanks being easier, they mean easier than 25 to 30 litre tanks which are often overstocked with unsuitable fish.
The main advantage to larger tanks is that they can take bigger fish than small ones. I started out with a 60 litre tank, then got a 125 litre as well (much to my husband's dismay as he assumed it was a replacement). The 60 litre started to leak and was replaced by a 50 litre, then I replaced the 125 with a 180.
I currently have emperor tetras in the 180 which I could never have kept in the 125. The 50, which has the same footprint as the 60, has the small fish.
The downside to bigger tanks is that for the same % water change, you have to remove and refill more litres.
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hi, i was thinking about moving up to 190l as i struggle with low ph and someone said getting a bigger tank would help . i suffer from ph spikes at the moment and struggle to get it up above 6! would a bigger tank have same issues as i guess the water is the same .. i do regular maintenance on my tank , thanks
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Your water is very soft as well, if I remember correctly?
Unless you do something to increase your KH, it won't matter the tank size you'll still have problems with low pH. But a filter for a 190 litre tank will have plenty room inside for crushed coral which would make it easier to keep the pH stable.
Of course you could always keep really acid loving fish in your water. For example, most of the less common apistogrammas would suit it perfectly.
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Sounds like your water is similar to mine ie PH and probably low KH and GH. My PH fluctuated from 6.0-6.4 until I put some Tufa rock in; since then, it's been at a very stable 6.4, while the KH and GH have increased and remained stable too. Crushed coral in the filter sounds a better plan but perhaps my experience is reassuring that it is possible to increase and stabilise the PH (and the KH and GH).
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hi, your right sue i have many probs with low ph, i have no probs for months then a sudden crash and then my probs start, I'm going to get some crushed coral { i did get some crushed shells from pets at home ). if this stabilises my tank then i will prob go for a bigger tank too as i find fish keeping very rewarding when they all happy. i even had some fry a couple of weeks ago but they all died when i had my water probs again .. :vcross:
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hi fcmf, what is tufa rock,is it used for calcium or something
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hi fcmf, what is tufa rock,is it used for calcium or something
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hi , would caribsea florida crushed coral do and if so how much do you think i would need for my 60l tank, thanks
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Tufa (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tufa)
Do you mean this (http://www.charterhouse-aquatics.co.uk/caribsea-geomarine-florida-crushed-coral-10lb-p-1734.html) crushed coral? If you do, that's fine as it also contains aragonite which is good because that adds the magnesium that coral alone lacks. Naturally hard water contains both calcium and magnesium.
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yes that seems like the stuff, will i have enough with the one bag and i guess i will have to put it in the filter, it states that it will keep approx ph of 8 which is high for my fish so will this be too much
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I would start small. You don't want to change things too quickly. Monitor the water for pH and both GH and KH and when they reach the level you want, don't add any more until it starts to disappear (very slowly). If you want soft water fish, aim to keep the GH at or below 8 german degrees.
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ok, thanks again
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as a rough guide i have a about 2 to 3 desert spoons in both my external filter so about 6 spoons in total for a 260 liter tank , althow i have just noitced recently that my tank ph was droping slightly but put this down to some coral haveing washed away in filter cleans etc but it had been in there about 6 months or more .
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hi, i put some crushed oyster shell in my filter and my ph is around 7.2 now,been like this for a few weeks now .. if i put less in will the ph go down a little
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Calcium carbonate (oyster shells, coral, limestone etc) is officially insoluble in water. All this really means is that it doesn't dissolve like a spoonful of sugar in a cup of tea. It dissolves very slowly in water.
The oyster shells in your filter will be dissolving very slowly, and the water passing though the filter carries the dissolved calcium and carbonate throughout the tank. It dissolves at the same rate all the time, but you do water changes which will remove some of the dissolved mineral and then it will build up again before the next water change. This is one reason that in this scenario, two smaller water changes a week are better than one big one - less fluctuations.
Over time, the amount of oyster shell will decrease as it dissolves. This means less calcium and less carbonate going into the tank. The oyster shells need topping up every so often to keep the water levels constant.
pH is tied up with calcium and carbonate. As they go up, so does pH.
If you reduce the amount of oyster shell in the filter, the calcium (GH) and carbonate (KH) being put into the tank water will decrease. There will be less calcium and carbonate dissolving so the level will stop going up as quickly - but the water changes remove some so that the levels will start to drop from what they are now. They won't go back to the tapwater level unless you remove it all.
And because pH is tied up with GH and KH, that will start to drop as well.
This is where trial and error comes in. You have to try different amounts of shell to find how much gives the pH, GH and KH you want.
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hi, trial and error seems to have worked, took out half of original amount and ph seems stable at 7.4 ish , :-)