Buying a bigger tank

Hi all.
I'm very new to this hobby. Have been keeping a 13L aquarium for a few months.
Started with 2 platty and 2 swordtail. Killed the 2 platy early on, learned about airpump not working properly and too drastic temperature swings on water changes. Swordtails survived.

I love this hobby and would like to upgrade to a bigger tank. Considering a secondhand 4ft. Buying a stocked one makes financial sense.

I live in Limpopo, so any tank or fish have to come from Gauteng, 90 minutes away, incl traveling on dirtroad for 20km. This complicates transporting an established colony.

So, my questions:

1. Should I get a tank that is already stocked with fish, or cycle an empty new one for a while and transfer my swordtails, slowly building my population over time?
2. The new tank will be empty on arrival. If I buy an established colony, how do I handle the water situation when refilling the tank? My farm water is obviously different to Pretoria tapwater. pH here is 7.2 TDS 180
3. Should I consider a planted tank? Any ideas on the logistics of moving plants 90 minutes by car?

My sincerest thanks for any suggestions xx

 

Looks like you are new, so welcome

I would say the best thing to do would be to get a tank (the bigger the better, for you and the fish) and let it cycle to start. Give it a week or two, then transfer your swords over and let them settle.

Not sure on the water side, as people will keep their water parameters differently and all those things, so a bit tough to say without more info, but I am sure someone with more experience in the water your side of the world will chime in soon

Plants will be fine in that time, to be honest, as long as they have some water they will be good for a lot more than 90 min, haha.

There are benefits to going planted, but it really is up to you whether you want to go that route or not. I am a fan of planted, but I know tons of people who aren't so it is a personal choice. It will also help to work out what you want to stock in the tank - some fish are nightmares for planted tanks, and some fish need the plants to thrive.

Budget is a big thing though, I know that very well - my tip would be getting the tank and setting it up, decorating/scaping it as you want it, and then take your time to save toward your ultimate goal. My tank has been empty since the beginning of March, but it is almost at the point I want it, and I have th cash I need to get hold of the fish I want too

Hope that helps

 

Yes, what @Logz said.
I would also really recommend using Seachem Stability to help cycle your tank. Do you have a filter in mind?

I don't yet have any specific choices for filters. What do you suggest?

 

That will depend on a few things too
A) tank size
B)stocking
C) budget

I would generally recommend a HOB filter up to about 1m. After that a canister or sump will give you the best results. The big plus to any external filter is that it’s easier to hide equipment, and gives you maximum room inside the tank.


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Hi @Ness

Welcome to the forum

Great advice given above!!

 

Get a 60 litre tank...about R160 for the glass,a over flow hang on filter.500L/h for about R360 and then a SOBO light for the tank size about R380 and then a heater for about R150 you looking at about 1K for foundation

 

Thanks for all the suggestions

I am considering a 4ft tank.

I am eying the secondhand ones listed on olx/junkmail etc. A stocked one makes financial sense, although it presents some logistical transportation challenges.

Problem is, I am too inexperienced to know some of the required operational items for a tank that size. For instance, I see some people have some kind of black tubie-business that floats at the top and blows bubbles through bubbles along it's length. Some ads memtion wavemakers...

My current little tank has plastic plants, a dolphin hob filter, heater and led light. Anything more than that is new territory. But that's why I am trying to learn before making a choice.

Thanks again everyone!

 

There are tons of add-ons you can go for if you wanted to, but to be honest, most are not needed for the standard community tank.

As was said, you can get a basic setup for around R1k, which will give you what you need - however I would add a new heater to that, as I doubt the one you are using at the moment will be strong enough for the bigger tank.

Again, it does all depend on what you want to keep in the tank for what all you will need - a good suggestion I was given a few years bck is that you can start with as much as you want/can afford, and from there build up. We all love our tanks, and I know for me one of my favorite things to do is to rescape and do my tanks over, which I do whenever I get something new... makes things interesting There are also always people around who like to trade fish, or could offer yours a new home should you wish to change things up or you don't like what you have, so don't think of it as a once off and its forever

 

Here's how my 3ft tank started off:

• 1 internal filter, didn't know the model of mine, was an eheim, but it's easy enough to pick the right sized one at the pet shop because it'll say on the box how many litres it's built for. Dophin is a nice brand
• 1 100w heater, it's recommended to go for 1w per litre
• 1 led light, again I don't know the brand of my light, but it's long enough to fit the length of my tank and the light reaches front and back well enough.

Once you have your tank going and you start to learn more about all these things (just coming on TASA regularly has helped me tremendously with this) then you can start upgrading things like your lighting and filters, adding in those cool extras like WaveMaker if it's needed or co2 systems

 

hey Ness-this is so exciting. Your'e in great company for any advice to get you going with success. You got some excellent advice there and there's plenty tanks on FB Marketplace and online platforms to buy second hand. Ive bought all my tanks (except for one which was a gift) as second hand. I find tanks and especially the all-in-one tanks like SunSun and Boyu etc lose a LOT of value on resale so your'e likely to pick p a good deal. Ive never purchased a running full setup so can't offer advice there, but for me it was always more exciting to buy a clean and empty tank and purchase all equipment new. If you can find second hand heater-ENHEIM is literally the best heater on the market and the only one I trust. If your plant is to get a planted tank running-go and explore the big planted tank you tubers Like Dustin's Fishtanks, Tom Barr, Rachel O'Leary's channels which will give you ideas and background info on setup, DIY, water changes, equipment and plant and fish species. The rest is experience and mileage and you will love the journey. Good luck

 

Thanks everyone for the fabulous advice and suggestions.

So, where I currently stand:
I want:
A 4-5ft tank.
Planted.
Low tech.
Natural, low maintenance, ideally very few to no water changes.
Fish that will help clean, like otocinclus.
Ideally no CO²

From my research, I need:
an external sump filter
Heater
Light

Do you suggest I try to build the tank myself? My hubby is great at building things.

We have a dam on the property. Is it a good idea to salvage plants from there for the tank? The only ones I can easily identify are the water lilies.

Should I use mud from the dam as substrate?

I am more keen on sand than gravel. Should I aim for a thick substrate/sand level to act as biological filter?

I am adding a pic of the kind of scaping I like.

Thanks in advance everyone. This forum is a goldmine!

 

Nice scape idea! The plants are various mosses, monte carlo, dwarf hair grass, dwarf baby tears, possibly some pearl-weed as carpeting and moss/subwassertang as tree-tops. Your light will need to be good. These are all medium-to-high light demand plants. Some of them may not grow well in sand. Not sure about salvaging pond plants. Water lilies will outgrow your tank quickly and shoot everything towards the light and the leaves will block out 90% of your lighting. The scape in the example is doable with a planted substrate and good lighting.

 

Thanks Reedfish.
I watched a few videos on YouTube of a store in San Francisco tht have a number of completely natural tanks, who claim they have done no water changes for over 20 years. Although I'm sure they top up evaporation.

If I get a solid ecosystem going, that should reduce the amount of interference required from me? Otos and shrimp for leftovers and algae, fish and plants that are well matched... I've seen people like MD tanks do similar stuff.

I am quite happy to go very low tech on the plants and would greatly appreciate any suggestions on carpeting plants and mosses etc that I can utilize to create a similar kind of scape.