So, I looked around and all the aquarium threads are old as balls.

I just set up my 55 gallon aquarium a couple of days ago. Dont have much in it yet as I have only had small aquariums in the past.

I have 2 cray fish, one comet gold fish, one black molly, one green catfish, 4 zebra danios, and one sunburst mickey.

Just put in 5 small plants yesterday, i am trying to hide them from the cray fish so they dont get torn apart, but it probably wont work for very long.

7/21/2010 1:54:38 PM

nice!

7/21/2010 2:10:18 PM

Whats the total cost and monthly operating expenditure on a set up like that?

Thinking about putting something together

[Edited on July 21, 2010 at 2:11 PM. Reason : x]

7/21/2010 2:10:58 PM

I gave up on aquariums.

7/21/2010 2:19:28 PM

you set it up a couple days ago and already put fish in it?

7/21/2010 2:20:49 PM

I got the aquarium off of craigslist for 85 bucks. Freshwater fish are generally not expensive... I spent maybe 15 bucks on fish.

As far as chemicals, the conditioner and ph-balance stuff and water clarifier are all about 6 bucks a bottle and can last months. This is my second aquarium, i stepped it up from a 10 gallon i've had for the last few months.

7/21/2010 2:24:48 PM

you can get a 55gal startup kit for like $150. comes w/ the tank, hood, lights, & filter. i also bought a stand meant for a 55gal tank, which was like $100 at petsmart. prices may have gone up. i got mine 3-4 years ago.

add whatever your water costs, couple bags of rocks, fish, plants/decor.

monthly costs? hm. i guess whatever electricity it requires to keep the lights & filter & pump going. i change my filter stuff out about 2x a year (not the media, just carbon & zeolite). i have an aquaclear ($~60) filter, kinda like a mini canister filter. it's oversized for my tank b/c i have goldfish. my water is stable, ammonia levels are fine, so i don't really do much maintenance. none on a monthly basis. i do a water change/vacuuming about once every 3-4 months. i have to add some water occasionally. other than that i just feed them. food is cheap even if you buy the nicer stuff (hikari).

[Edited on July 21, 2010 at 2:26 PM. Reason : ]

7/21/2010 2:25:11 PM

my 60 gallon in mt airy

i miss it terribly

7/21/2010 2:27:19 PM

wow that's a lot of stuff.

we also have a 30gal w/ 2 clownfish. you have to be a lot more careful about water quality w/ marine fish. maintenance is still pretty low on that tank though. i just added a couple of snails to clean up some algae. no coral or invertebrates.

7/21/2010 2:29:42 PM

the more places you have for fish to hide the safer they feel, so they dont hide as much.

7/21/2010 2:32:58 PM

i haven't had that problem with goldfish. they're like puppies at dinner time & about to jump out of the tank at me when i walk by or go to feed them. they're retards. but i understand that about little fish. the clownfish like to hide too.

[Edited on July 21, 2010 at 2:35 PM. Reason : i can't type today ]

7/21/2010 2:35:03 PM

i also take a lot of pride in my aquascaping

7/21/2010 2:36:16 PM

Live plants are awesome. I need morreeee.

7/21/2010 2:47:01 PM

more pics PackPrincess

7/21/2010 3:01:21 PM

that's all i have the fish tank is in mt airy.

7/21/2010 3:08:35 PM

I've got an Allglass 55 gallon I'm trying to decide whether to re-set up or to sell. My fancy goldfish all died and I'm not sure i want to deal with it any more.

7/21/2010 3:20:46 PM

one of the best days ever was when some TWWer came and took away all of the aquarium stuff that my wife bought.

7/21/2010 3:23:47 PM

^EXACTLY

7/21/2010 3:26:23 PM

I am going to set up my saltwater tank again this winter.

7/21/2010 7:06:51 PM

Everybody's always setting up a tank AGAIN.

7/21/2010 8:40:07 PM

Elise, I LOVED your tank in raleigh. That 55gallon, it was AWESOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOME. I want a tank full of a shit ton of tropical fish. I tried it once but I think I added too many fish at once and they all died off Now we have a huge red bellied piranha in it.

It's a 75gal so eventually we will turn it into one.

I still have my 29 gallon and it holds one big parrot fish and three babies (one pinky, one michael jackson (he's getting redder and losing his blackness as he grows) and one baby black one called......blacky haha )

7/21/2010 9:07:57 PM

This makes me wish I had a fish tank again

7/21/2010 9:28:58 PM

Every time I go by the big saltwater fish tank at work I have to stop and look at it. I usually try to find the hermit crabs, the snail, and the sea urchin before moving on.

7/21/2010 11:44:15 PM

^where do you work?

I'll see if I have some older pics of a few of my tanks unfortunately
the old saying that aquarium maintenance peoples home tanks are the dirtiest is currently true with my main
display tank. Just too tired when I get home to bother

7/21/2010 11:55:39 PM

Kiwi - Thanks! I loved that tank, too! I have pictures of it somewhere I'll post later.

7/22/2010 7:31:14 AM

Quote :

"Everybody's always setting up a tank AGAIN."

Yeah, I had it up for about 6 years, then I had to take it down because there was no room at the house I now live in. I have since made room for it.

7/22/2010 12:52:39 PM

I just purchased an 18-inch model titanic kit. I will be constructing a wreck of the titanic for the bottom of my aquarium.

The goal is to make it look similar to this one:

7/22/2010 3:05:01 PM

that would be the nerdiest... awesomest.. thing ever

7/22/2010 4:34:54 PM

^^ That's pretty sweet!

7/22/2010 4:42:17 PM

Tanks been setup for a few months, just finished about 90% of the aqua scape a few weeks ago. I still gotta finish off the tops of the rods so they aren't as visible. Started adding some critters, most notable is the little bamboo cat shark. He hatched out at work in January and has been at the shop since, so I decided to take him home.

7/22/2010 7:31:08 PM

beautiful!

7/22/2010 7:34:28 PM

phase one of my titanic wreck is complete. gotta melt some of the edges with a lighter to make it look like the stability is failing, and gotta let the paint dry for a week or so in the sun before I can sink it in the tank.

7/22/2010 10:16:06 PM

how long can a saltwater tank go without any attention? can you leave it for a weekend?

7/22/2010 10:23:23 PM

As long as the tank is setup properly most saltwater tanks can run for 1-2, maybe 3 weeks without any maintenance. Of course that does not include feeding the fish, but fish are fine a few days without food.

Most of my service accounts are once per week visits, some every 2 weeks, a few even every 3 weeks. The tanks that I feed myself are fed mon, wed, fri.

The biggest misconception is that saltwater tanks are hard to take care of, or take more care than freshwater. As long as the tank is setup properly and is dialed in there really isnt alot of maintenance that is associated with it. Most of my weekly visits are between 15 - 45 minutes long with water change visits ever 6-8 weeks taking about an hour to hour and a half. A poorly setup system or one where the owner messes with it daily or overfeeds are the ones that are headaches.

7/23/2010 8:26:10 AM

agreed. i'd say my goldfish are higher maintenance than my clownfish. goldfish are just so messy/dirty/poopy. neither are difficult or high maintenance though.

7/23/2010 8:31:20 AM

^^ how much do you charge per visit?

7/23/2010 2:46:48 PM

Cost depends on different factors including: size of the tank, number of visits per month, difficulty of the tank (access issues, larger tanks etc.), and what costs are included or not included (food, livestock, filter materials etc).

If you need a quote on a specific tank pm the details and I can try to give you a ballpark figure.

Also there's alot of pics of some of the tanks we maintain in my gallery (like the 10,000 gallon).

7/23/2010 3:55:33 PM

wow, that thing is huge

7/23/2010 4:30:53 PM

30 feet tall. 8 feet diameter. I take the ankle weights off sometimes and clean it while being upside down.

7/23/2010 5:05:54 PM

wished I had my 55 gal tank in Raleigh but my parents enjoy it as furniture so I'm happy to leave them to take care of it, I'll have to snag some pictures when I get home

i've got several pretty cool catfish and some silver dollars/red tail barbs. My pride & joy is my huge albino chocolate pleco who is probably near 8 years old now...has always done a shitty job keeping the sides clean but whatever, he looks cool

7/23/2010 5:34:37 PM

Nothing special, but here it is

7/23/2010 9:19:23 PM

I had a tank for several years with some Figure Eight Puffers . . . I miss those fish so much
I adore puffer fish, they are my favorite and I miss having a fish tank. Just not enough room where I moved to and don't plan to stay here forever.

I will look for pictures of that tank, they are on this comp somewhere!

Fig. Eight Puffer


Taikimoto I loved looking through your pictures!

7/24/2010 9:34:23 AM

sunk my titanic last night

7/24/2010 10:52:52 AM

can anyone recommend a good website for buying aquarium supplies? for my hermit crabs, not fish

7/24/2010 11:00:13 AM

Are you looking for something you havent been able to find at petsmart/petco etc?

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/ carries alot of stuff for all pets.

7/24/2010 12:30:16 PM

yeah ive seen some stuff that would work at the regular pet stores but not a lot of variety. thanks for the recommendation!

7/25/2010 2:47:40 PM

Man, I love algae eaters. I had an algae bloom yesterday where, within a few hours, i had a nice green myst over the whole tank. I went and bought 3 algae eaters, threw them in there over night. Came home today and everything looked pristine.

7/26/2010 8:05:04 PM

marinedepot.com has some stuff, but I like DrsFosterandSmith better

7/26/2010 9:26:22 PM

so my daughter dumped an entire canister of fish feed into my tank and killed everything.

I need suggestions for my 44 gallon hex tank.
I had a community/semi aggressive set up - angelfish, gourami, clown loaches, tetra's, giant danios, pando cory cats and a huge pleco. Planted tank

Nothing too high maintenance.
Thinking about African cichlids again.
I love discus fish but heard they can be difficult.

how thoroughly should I clean it? I've emptied it. I know I'll have to cycle it again but should I clean the gravel really well?

7/28/2010 11:48:35 AM

^ I would consider dumping the gravel out and cleaning it thoroughly since you have the opportunity to. Also a good time to change the filter stuff.

7/28/2010 1:41:51 PM