5 Ft Tank Options

[sushiman]

Hi all bros,
I would like to set up a 5 ft by 2 ft by 16 inch tank(EOS) to house
4 ranchus(all 5 inches) and 4 oranda with various sizes.The tank is something like
AC's main display tank but wf bottom flow.

My qns is :

1) Is it ok to house 8 GFs?
2) With (EOS),how much of water i need to change b4 n after my tank is mature?Weekly?
Hope u guys can help to advise.Anythings i miss out?Thanks in advance.

[HappyBuddha]

Hi sushi

That's a nice size tank!

The most important thing when you are given the chance to design and setup a custom tank is to make it easy to change the water. Period.

It's widely preached here in RG that with good water quality, your fishes will take care of themselves and develope nicely. You can overstock a tank, if you must, if you can afford (time and cost wise) to change the water frequently. Bio-filtration is the other route to take if you want to overstock but it merely extend the water change interval and has its drawbacks - ammonia may be under-control but the accumulation of nitrate is still a point to consider. But if you can design your setup such that a quick flick on a control valve flushes the old water away and replaced it with fresh, duly dechlorinated, water, you'll enjoy your pets a lot more when they develop well and don't fall sick easily. Otherwise, if you have to constantly labour with the water change routine, you'll end up with a white elephant.

So please add plumbing into your setup's design scheme. Run a water pipe to bring in fresh water and another to discharge the old water away without wetting the living room floor or you breaking out a sweat.

Sump system is not easy to maintain, plus it creates water current that is not good for goldfish. I would simply use a few sponge filters to take care of bio-filtration which provide aeration too.


Cheers.

PS. You can see some fantastic setups in GA 026; just raise yours higher for sideview fishes.