New 65g tall setup

I had recently joined and introduced myself along with way too many fish I had stuffed in a 125g... lol...

Well I recently had the chance to start seperating them into more appropriate groupings.

Here is the result of a 65g tall that I put most of the smaller community fish in.

Found this tank for only $30, was used as a reptile tank so I resealed it to be safe. Let it dry, tested it, and finally started to set it up.

Filled 1/2" bottom with boiled dirt, thanks Jill! Then about 3" of sand over it.

Then filled halfway with water from the established 125g. Then worked on landscaping.

Bought a pot of Mondo Grass from Walmart for $2, which comes with about 20-30 individual plants, instead of buying one plant from chain LFS for about $3-$4. Also had some large Brazilian Swords in the 125g, and also acquired some different clippings from Fern at our recent Florida Chapter BBQ Meet. Thanks again!

Had a bunch of driftwood laying around soaking in tubs in preparation for this. Also had a few in the 125g with Anubias growing from it. Put a bunch of pieces in and arranged them for different levels, areas, and several hiding places. Added a few pieces of slate for additional caves and crevices.

Topped it off with another 30gallons or so of clean, conditioned water that had been sitting for two days.

Added heater, airtube, filter... Filter is currently the Aqueon 55 I had restored after having the compnay send me out a replacement motor. I had the filter pads sitting inside the 125g for a good week to build up bacteria, also had the bacteria catcher insert and the tube sitting in the tank. Also used filter squeezings from another tank with the same type of water.

Then proceeded to empty the 125g of all obstructions and catch all the smaller community fish.

There are about 9 albino buenos aires tetras, 7 tiger barbs (3 normal, 3 green, 1 albino), 5 colombian tetras, 4 rams, 2 spotted puffers, 2 clown loaches, 1 flounder, 1 striated botia, one spotted loach, 1 albino pleco, and one quarter sized silver dollar that will be a very slow grower and will not be a nipper because he's only got half a face... no mouth!

There is plenty of room for everyone and the plan is when the buenos aires tetras get bigger they may go back in the 125g.

The Pacus in the 125g have been rehomed. I left the bala sharks and the filamentis barb in the 125g because even though they are small now they have the potential to be 6"-12".

The puffers will soon get their own tank. The rams are the normal tiny variety, not the larger german blues. They have shown no aggression at all towards anyone.



What's left in the 125g now is:
3 albino tinfoils 6"ea, 3 golden tinfoils 4"ea, 2 bala sharks 4"ea, 2 golden or pink tailed sharks 3"ea, 1 filamentis barb 4"+, 2 abramite headstanders 4"ea, 3 leoporinus fasciatus 4" and growing fast, 1 dinosaur bichir, 2 synodontis eupterus 6"ea, 4 silver dollars 3"ea, 2 kissing gouramies 4"ea, and a 6" pleco.

They will also be seperated soon.


Well, a few poor pics for now...


Thanks for letting me share

Well done. very nice. I like the sand. Where did you get it?

Very nice setup!

When you say Mondo Grass...do you mean that plant I have outside that gets little purple flowers stalks on it?

Thanks KMX! I should've taken more pics from different angles to show all the caves, holes in the driftwood, and how different pieces of them create different habitats and such.

Jill turned me on to this sand - it's called Pool Sand, apparently used for pool filters that utilize sand for filtration.

I think I got it at Home Depot - about $5-$6 for a 50lb bag, as opposed to the other types of sand they have for $2-$3 a bag, like play sand, paving sand and leveling sand.
Two of those are too fine and powdery. Get caught in the filter too much and cause cloudiness. The other is inconsistant in texture... fine powder with grit.

The pool sand is uniform in texture, bigger sized granules, does not cloud, does not really move much at all when disturbed! it's almost like a real ultra fine gravel. Pretty cool actually.

Be warned that some of these places, like Lowe's, carries what they call Pool Filter Sand in a box for $25-$30 for the same amount! That's definitely not the one I used.


@ Wildbeanerz - the mondo grass is a basic thin blade grass, dark green, comes normal (about 8"-14" tall) and dwarf (about 2"-4" tall) and utilizes lots of water.

I look at walmart for plants that require lots of water and try them in aquariums. Lots of times they are those that are sold in LFS for alot more.

I have never seen it flower but have just read this...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophiopogon_japonicus

Apparently they do flower, white to lilac in color, and then produce blueberry type fruits!

Looks great!!Great job!I use PFS also in most of my tanks.I like the way the sand looks after you setup a tank!

Looks very nice! I'll see it in person tomorrow!! What time is good for you?
Oh I may have a clown loach headed your way... Not sure what I'm doing whit the tank he is in yet though.

Thanks. Tomorrow I will be available 11am-4pm, 5:30pm-6:30pm, 8:30pm-9:30pm, and 10:30pm-midnight.

Please don't forget the sponge filter!

and I love clown loaches! thanks!

Good thing you said something about the sponge filter!! Its in my purse so I don't forget it
I'll prolly show up between 11-4

nice setup

ok, and thanks!

Couple more pics showing off my flounder...

I usually see these things as dime sized, but this time I found them somewhere and they were already larger than a quarter.

are you having an algae bloom or is that just the photo?

looks like it is the beginning of an algae bloom.

i have one in the 125g where half this water came from, so guess it's happening now here too.

do u have a diatom filter joe? nice loaches, i used to have several clown loaches but the keepet on getting stuck in the wierdest places and dieying on me. I love em tho..lol nice set up

what kind of sand are you ussing there joe?

crystal sands pool filter sand

very nice

just an overhand.. aqueon 55. they have extra gadgets for extra biological filtration. plus room to add other filter media.

I never had much luck with clown loaches either, in the past, not sure what it was..

these seem to be doing real well.. were in my 125g for several months..