FishProfiles.com Message Forums

awsome to hear the established tank is going well!

For the bigger one. Few concerns.
1. oscars, um, not recommended if the pastor doesn't want water changes! They're messy eaters, and at times can be rather aggressive. I wouldn't suggest them, unless you're up for having the kiddos come to class to see half a fish laying around somewhere.

2. minimal water changes and no plants. Get low light ones, and floating plants. While it wont eliminate the need for water changes if you can get the tank into natural balance it should minimize the amount of disruption. Look for Diana Walstads book Ecology of the Planted Aquarium. There are also plenty of blogs and wikis and sites that will break it down for you, if you just put her name and planted tank into the googles.
While I can understand the no plants to minimize cost issue I think it'd be best to go for some plants. Rock driftwood and just java fern or anubias can look pretty darn cool depending on the aquascape.

3. Water changes. Using a hose can work if you're doing small amounts at a time, or are preheating the water. Also chlorine is an issue, is the church on well water?

4.Stocklist, like I said, I'd steer away from the oscar. Cichlids, stay with the less aggressive. I'd even suggest going with kribs as part of the plan. Mine have given me a few sets of babies, and I have a feeling the kids would get a kick out of watching them grow up. If you've got any aquaria societies in the area I'm sure someones got cichlid offspring they'd like to sell, probably for really cheap.

5. Heater, almost forgot! If the tanks going to be against the wall using styrofoam behind it and of course underneath can help retain some heat.

^_^

1. Thanks for the tip on the oscars, haven't had them before personally, good to know.

2. I have a copy of Walstad's book, so I know what you're getting at. I think the light fixture we have with the tank will be insufficient even for java fern and anubias, sadly. I haven't taken a close look, but the tank was previously used for red eared slider turtles. I'm pretty sure we're talking fractions of a watt per gallon. And considering the size of the tank and stand, I'm not even going to think about putting it in front of a window. The kids need light too

3. I am thinking about doing about 30-gallon water changes (about 1/4 of the tank). Tough fish shouldn't have a problem with this. It doesn't get horribly cold here. Most of the year I don't even warm up the water for the 40% WCs in the 10 gallon tank. We'll see how long 30 gallons takes with a hose. I might be able to do that every week, draining while I'm doing the maintenance on the small tank.

4. I am still liking the idea of malawi cichlids. If I didn't think everyone else would be bored to death by it, I'd have a HUGE colony of Tanganyikan Neolamprologus brichardis. That would be a sight to behold. I had a small colony in a 20-gallon tank for a while. Awesome and extremely tough little fish. But definitely fish for a single species tank. So we'd go more colorful with the blue and yellow and stripey Malawian cichlids.

5. Thanks for the tip on the styrofoam! What kind/thickness would you recommend? I can't do much underneath because of the way the stand is set up, but I could put foam along the back and perhaps paint it for a nice black background too. Insulation and background - two birds with one stone!

><>

Birds and stones, don't think the birds will work in the tank, stones probably (yes, I'm sorry!)
We have, oh, quarter, half inch styro under our tanks, it doesn't have to be all that thick. We use it mainly to even out any pressure points.

Never had oscars before, we have one now (Adams insistance) he's pretty cool but I don't like the dead tankmates we occasionally find. The worst was he got the eel tailed catfish, then the crays got the remains and dragged them in under the rockwork to somewhere we couldn't get it out. Had to look at the thing till the cray finished it

Just so long as you're not ruling out some plants. IMO it helps the hardscape of a tank by breaking it up. All plants or all rock boring, mix of the two always works. If you're going with cichlids that want lots of hiding spots you should be able to build up the height of the scape enough that a long flatish piece of driftwood across the top will be closer to the light, and therefore getting enough. Or little pieces of wood to tie the ferns too then set them between cracks along the top of the scape. With different levels in a scape of this nature you'd have tons of options. I've had java do ok (not growing an inch a day but not dying!) in an unlit tank, so if you have some babies in your own tank it's worth a thought!


^_^

A church tank needs to be a couple angelfish and a red devil.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Well, apparently the junior high pastor decided to go a different route and set it up with turtles himself (which is what he's previously housed in there). Which, although the prospect of setting up a new tank was exciting...

1. I have no job so I wasn't looking forward to paying the piper, so to speak.

2. a) I wasn't looking forward to doing massive water changes every week.

b) It's one less thing to worry about getting someone to take over when I'm strongly considering moving in the summer.

><>

Hi Sup,
Sorry to hear how the tank project was subverted.
I hope that he realizes the diseases that turtles can
carry that cross the boundries to humans. If he has small
children handling them some very real problems could occur
as they rarely wash their hands between handling something
and then sticking their fingers in their mouths.

I just got caught up on my reading, and yes, skipping the
Oscars is a good idea considering the parameters that were
being added. The stool of one just one of those Oscars,
when full grown is the size of a breakfast sausage or
or larger. Add to that, they shred their food with scraps
spraying out through their gills to settle on the bottom.
You really need to keep a regimented cleaning schedule with
large fish.

Frank

-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

I'm sure he knows turtles pretty well, it sounds like he's had them for quite a while before. With such a large tank, in a large stand, I don't think even junior high kids (who are far from "small children" could access the turtles to pet them unsupervised.

><>

it been a while, any new up date news for the tank in the church

The 10-gallon tank is still running, currently with four cardinal tetras and one long-finned leopard danio. The java ferns are thriving on the driftwood, along with some java moss.

I'm planning on moving in about a month so I'm hoping before then someone will volunteer to take over the maintenance of the tank (it's only about 15 minutes a week!). My mom can do it, but I don't want too much of my responsibilities to fall to her. She already has to take care of the rest of my pets!

The big tank is sitting in the junior high room empty still (they did paint the stand) The pastor still says he's going to get turtles to go in it.

><>

You've provided them with ideas and equipment and a good source of knowledge, about all you can do is let them take it from here. Just like the old saying, 'you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink'.

Hopefully since your mom is still around and will be able to check on it weekly (if not more!) she'll at least be able to keep an eye on it so that the fish stay healthy.

^_^