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.

[white horse T1]

a. that's abt 376 litres.
going by 100 litre per fish. at most 4 fishes.
if u lower it to 50 litre per fish. at most 7 fishes. this may mean increase in the water change freq.

b. how much to change depend on the bioloads (no of fishes) , build up of beneficial bacteria to breakdown this load and the water quality - ammonia, nitrite and nitrate & PH as well.

[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.

[HappyBuddha]

2) With (EOS),how much of water i need to change b4 n after my tank is mature?Weekly?

No one can give you the answer correctly. It all depends on your setup/stock load.

Here's how to decide when to change if you use bio-filtration.

Firstly, your filter must be matured and working. Get a Nitrate (NO3) test kit (Tetra makes good and inexpensive kits.) Perform the test starting from the day after 100% water change. Note down the reading. Continue to test daily until the nitrate level reads higher than XX ppm. Assuming it hits that XX ppm level 6 days later, change your water once every 6 days. It's really as simple as that but you can't find out the schedule if you don't invest in a nitrate test kit.

XX ppm ??? It is claimed that Nitrate is relatively harmless at level below 30 ppm. It' still okay at 50 ppm so long as your fish is not constantly exposed to that level of nitrate. So as a guideline, change water immediately when it hits 50 ppm. I change mine at just 20 ppm but I'm a nut case. You decide your own XX.

Here's how to decide when to change if you use clear water and don't use filtration.

Get yourself a Ammonia (NH4) test kit instead. Perform the test outlined above using the ammonia test kit and change water when the ammonia level is greater than ... YY ppm.

Grin. Would someone please tells sushi what is the acceptable level of ammonia?

[HappyBuddha]

Finally I want to add a note about the water discharge pipe -- get large diameter ones if you can. It takes a long while to discharge 375 litres of water (about 20-25 minutes for my 200 litres tank using a typical household gardening hose!)

A larger diameter piping will cut down the waiting time noticably especially if it has to travel a long distance.

[mountain]

Yes, get a LARGE discharge pipe!!

It helps to save precious time. secondly, it can clear debris easily. i hate to use my hose to chase those mini debris during water change.

there was a discussion during the RG Live. One of us injured the fish during siphoning , the fish swim towards the hose and got stucked by the siphoning effect, due to the pressure, its almost certain the fish will get physically damaged if you didn't notice until its too late.

we discussed the work-around, one of which is to slice the outlet into a irregular shape, which would prevent the fish from getting sucked into it, the other is to drill a small hole away from the outlet, which will lessen the presssure and allow the fish to swim away.

[HappyBuddha]

there was a discussion during the RG Live. One of us injured the fish during siphoning , the fish swim towards the hose and got stucked by the siphoning effect, due to the pressure, its almost certain the fish will get physically damaged if you didn't notice until its too late.

we discussed the work-around, one of which is to slice the outlet into a irregular shape, which would prevent the fish from getting sucked into it, the other is to drill a small hole away from the outlet, which will lessen the presssure and allow the fish to swim away.

Hey, who leaked my secret trick @ RafflesGold Live!?

Below are illustration for those who dun comprehendo what bro mountain is telling you.



When your goldfish swims close to the siphong hose, it gets sucked in and hurt itself.



If you cut your hose's opening like as shown, the fish (hey... that looks more like a tosai potato! ) will not get hurt because water can still go into the hose freely.



Above is how to make the cuts.

Happy National Day!

PS. It can still hurt long tails.... so you still need to be careful but the risk of injuring the fish cuts down a lot -- no more missing scales.

[mountain]

keke u are the good man ..

p/s: tats your lunch huh? nurse say you need more potato issst

happy holidays .. but i am in office .. doh!

[sushiman]

Thanks all bros for the advices n suggestions.Will seriously consider b4 to decide what kind of filtration to use.Thanks alot again to u guys.