Tropical tank mates and tank sizes

First topic message reminder :

tropical, aquarium, tank, mates, fish, 10 gallon, tiger barbs, pictus catfish, plecostomus

I have a bubble bar set up already. all I had to do was remove the tube poke lots of holes and cover the end up and it worked also mine is not too loud actually its not loud at all. Thanks for the tip on the stand. I will get it set up in my room as soon as possible lol right now i only have $12 but itll do for now. if you could tell how much the cynderblocks were for you it would help a ton. I already know the plywood wont cost alot. lol I like the look of yours alot actually. Im deffinatly gonna make one like yours but maybe one more shelf. and I wouldnt really need to spend a whole lot. If i do end up buying the stand in the end im deffinatly not getting a metal framed one. those are not supportive of the mid section of the tank. so I would need at least 9 synderblocks to support the tank. doesnt seem to be too hard for me to earn the $30 because I earn 20 every time I mow. Im also going to go around the neighborhood and see if anyone needs their lawn mowed so tht I can get a head start. Did the plywood come with the little planks on the bottom? lol if it didnt im still fine with getting them too.

Also I do 30% water changes do you think that that is too little of a change for my fish considering tht it is over stocked?

Be cautious when building these stands. Make sure your surfaces are level and the wood you use has little to no crown or bows. Also make sure your glass is tempered. You can put cardboard under the cinder block so it does ruin your floor.

Pictus catfish guy wrote:

Also I do 30% water changes do you think that that is too little of a change for my fish considering tht it is over stocked?

25-30% is a good amount. if you're worried about water quality, try changing it more often instead of increasing the percentage of water during each change. normally there's nothing wrong with a 50% water change, but i'd hate to see all your fish packed into 5 gallons for a minute or 2 lol

what is a crown or bow? also i use a siphon so i dont remove fish. i just simply have to empty water out into a bucket and refill to the rim with conditioned water i also add API aquarium salt but just a tiny bit because pictus are sensitive to it. tell me if theres anything im doing wrong here. i dont want to end up killing my fish. lol i saw the new transformers today. it was so good. anyway when i build the stand i will be sure to put cardboard under and make it level.

Crown or bow= bent/warped or untrue . You get the straightest piece of would you can get.

oh ok lol thanks is there a max of 3 pages in a forum?

No

o tht was fast lol kool i was worried i would haz to make another to continue the convo.

I am now currently makeing some driftwood for my tank. i already boiled it for 2 hours and now im soaking it for 3 weeks so that it sinks in my tank.

read these over
https://usafishbox.forumotion.com/t8580-fishkeeping-myths-that-just-refuse-to-die

very well written!!!!!!!!! can anybody think of some fishkeeping myths themselves? i wonder if driiftwood keeping Ph levels low is one of them. idk. im making it so that it keeps my Ph down. if someone could find out if it is a myth then that would be very fantastic.

**Driftwood

its not a myth. driftwood will make your water acidic as it decays over time

oh ok Thanks

I love this string.
When I was 14 I had 2 24x12x12 tanks (Cast iron frames, and all the resultant rusting of the frame, on a metal stand) They stood parallel to my bed, a small bedside table had my "Stereo" record player on it and a lamp, between my tanks and the bed.
Lighting was a single 60W house bulb in each tank. Each tank had a small plastic cube bubble filter, with gravel, and "filter medium" layers, run by an air pump.
Water changes were infrequent... as in rare... and I used tap water, but.... the tap water I had was so soft and clean it wasn't even chlorinated!
OK I'm over 50, and the water in the UK was sweet tasting.. and we had plastic water pipes, not lead (I later lived in a house that had lead pipes from the mains, and had the water comapny change them bloody fast!)

Pictusguy..... imagine a time when you could to go into town with your parents once a week, from the life in the country, to get to a library. A time when a computer was something seen on TV, and used by James Bond only, when your telephone line was a shared line with a neighbour, next door neighbour, so you would pick up the phone to make a local call (for which you would be charged), and hear someone talking, so you put the phone down and waited until they had finished their call!
I saw my first ever colour TV when I was 10! Yeah! One of the rich kids in the village, his parents had bought a colour TV!!!
OH! We had 2 channels of TV, a little later came the 3rd, I was 21 when we got Channel 4 in the UK.

I won't entertain you about when I was 5 years old, and my parents were house hunting, and we looked at ahouse that had the toilet in a shed, the shed rested out over the stream at the bottom of the garden.... they didn't buy that house...phew.

you musta lived out in the countryside of the Andy Griffith show.

@ yeti dont feel bad bout ur age lol my dad is like 51 a few days ago literally. anyway i would like to have plastic pipes and dechlorinater water XD but that would only take the fun out of changing my water. id actualy like plastic tubes but non-dechlorinated water. anyway lol im at a college right now XD im just spending a few nights though. im not smart enough to attend a college at the age of 14 lol not many ppl are. i got my dad to feed my fish every day while Im gone so they wont be hungry lol.

**dechlorinated

I did a pretty big water change yesterday. lol does anyone else make theirown driftwood? i want some tips so my tank will look nice

i soaked my driftwood outside in the sun for 2weeks, weighed it down too. changed the water every few days.

i do that, then run it through the dishwasher twice (no soap) to cook off any little organisms that may be living on it

oh ok thanks lol i guess ill move the bin outside now lol. those sound like very good ideas but theres only 1 problem. I already boiled it in a pot an i dont want it to get bacteria infested lol. i just have some rocks on top of it weighing it down lol. its been about 4 days since i put it out in the bin lol. do u really need to clean the water out? i mean ill do it anyway but im just wondering.

some pieces of driftwood leach tannins into the water, which turns the water into tea. if the water gets dark, change it, and more tannins will come out. the fish will probably like the darker water, but most people don't like how it looks in the tank

and especially if you have it outside again, you'll want to boil it again. it may not be necessary, but it's a precaution

you can either boil the driftwood or cook it... I'd boil it... a 55g me just plant biest.
and on a budget build....

center blocks and plywood for the stand.
aquaclear 110 for the filter.
driftwood from a lake.
150-200 heater.
shop light double t8with 6,500k bulbs. with low light plants.
substrate pool filter sand.