Any one have an aquarium

[V_Man]

I’ve been keeping tropical fish for over 30 years. Can’t remember not having a tank.

I’ve run saltwater, reef, freshwater tanks.
Though now I’m into the simplicity of freshwater. So much easier than salt water. Do a big weekly water change and that’s it.

I currently have what I think is a pair of tiger oscars is a 90 gallon tank. They are young but growing fast. They spend their days swimming side by side. Their tank mates are 4 clown loaches, black ghost knife, and couple of smaller albino plecos.

My tank is stocked very heavy. More than it should be but I do weekly large water changes and have overkill for filtration.

I love just sitting and watching the interactions between fish. The Oscars are almost taking food from my hand. They see me and beg for the food. Lol

 

[SandboxGeneral]

I've always wanted to get a tank of my own, but I always doubt my willingness to keep up with the maintenance of one.

 

[V_Man]

maintenance isn’t bad on freshwater tanks. Lightly stocked tanks probably have 20-30 minutes a month. Water change and cleaning glass if needed. Only other thing is adding top off water. I average about 3-5 gallons a week with my tank

I probably do 80% water changes every week. Sometimes every other. Probably takes me 45 minutes to do a water change but most of that is vacuuming and refilling the tank. You just gotta remember that your filling a tank. Overflows make a mess. ?.

I have 3 filters. 2 AC 110s and a big generic canister. The alternate cleaning the 110s. Do one every month. While the tank is draining and refilling. Canister gets cleaned every 6 months. Just runs as a biological filter.

If you decide to try fishkeeping don’t get a 10 gallon tank. 20 gallon min. 10 gallons of water isn’t easy to keep things working right. Things happen too fast in such a small amount of water.

I just did a watcher change and cleaned the front glass. Couple of better pics

 

[eyoungren]

Way back in 2000 my wife had a tank. Sat in the front seat of the UHaul truck from Banning to Phoenix during our move here. My wife had it decently stocked. You mentioned you had a ghost knife. She did too.

Then we made the mistake of going on a trip and leaving the A/C off during summer. We had no idea about Phoenix summers at that time. When we came back - dead fish.

For awhile my wife made good with an Oscar, but another trip and it disappeared. It was in a small fishbowl at the time and we did leave the A/C on. We interrogated the cats - but they refused to talk.

Kids showed up in 2003 and 2008 and so not until last year did my wife get back into this. She's got a small 10 gallon tank and a large (quite large) fishbowl. No idea what she has in the fishbowl but it's a few fish while an Oscar has the run of the 10 gallon.

She's got filters and filtration devices but she doesn't usually change water. Although, she does have some cleaning equipment she uses from time to time.

 

[retta283]

I never got fish, mostly because I was not home very often for many many years, so I wouldn't be able to feed them/change food for a while.

 

[V_Man]

Way back in 2000 my wife had a tank. Sat in the front seat of the UHaul truck from Banning to Phoenix during our move here. My wife had it decently stocked. You mentioned you had a ghost knife. She did too.

Then we made the mistake of going on a trip and leaving the A/C off during summer. We had no idea about Phoenix summers at that time. When we came back - dead fish.

For awhile my wife made good with an Oscar, but another trip and it disappeared. It was in a small fishbowl at the time and we did leave the A/C on. We interrogated the cats - but they refused to talk.

Kids showed up in 2003 and 2008 and so not until last year did my wife get back into this. She's got a small 10 gallon tank and a large (quite large) fishbowl. No idea what she has in the fishbowl but it's a few fish while an Oscar has the run of the 10 gallon.

She's got filters and filtration devices but she doesn't usually change water. Although, she does have some cleaning equipment she uses from time to time.

10 gallons is pretty small for an Oscar. Recommend nothing smaller than a 75 for a single Oscar. That little O grows fast. Mine were 2” 8 weeks ago. They are 4”-5” already

I’m hoping to upgrade to a 120 soon. 4’x2’x2’. Great size. Has depth to it. Allows for realistic aquascaping

 

[eyoungren]

10 gallons is pretty small for an Oscar. Recommend nothing smaller than a 75 for a single Oscar. That little O grows fast. Mine were 2” 8 weeks ago. They are 4”-5” already

I’m hoping to upgrade to a 120 soon. 4’x2’x2’. Great size. Has depth to it. Allows for realistic aquascaping

I'm quite sure that if we had the income levels to support this there'd be quite a few giant tanks inside the house with lots of expensive, exotic fish. This just seems to be her thing - which is interesting because I didn't know that until a few years after we got married.

I'll let her know though, thanks. Absolutely no idea where the hell a 75gal tank would go in the bedroom though.

 

[V_Man]

I'm quite sure that if we had the income levels to support this there'd be quite a few giant tanks inside the house with lots of expensive, exotic fish. This just seems to be her thing - which is interesting because I didn't know that until a few years after we got married.

I'll let her know though, thanks. Absolutely no idea where the hell a 75gal tank would go in the bedroom though.

I agree if my income and apt had room. I’d have a 300 gallon tank. Love big fish. They have personality.

Oscars absolutely recognize their owner. I had one for about 8 years that would rush to the front of tank when I walked over. Anyone else he completely ignored them. Until they fed him.

If you have any questions feel free to pm me. Not much I haven’t come across in the last 30 years.

 

[SandboxGeneral]

If I am going to get serious about doing this, I need to educate myself on it - all of it!

 

[Huntn]

Don't they now have filter systems that can handle fish waste in salt water tanks?

Back in the day (early 80s) when we were living on Guam for 3 years, I had what I remember to be a large about 4', maybe 5' long, but I can't remember a gallon size (maybe 60 gal?), fish tank and used to keep salt water fish in it that we would catch. There was a cool beach down by Big Navy (the US Navy Base) that when the tide was up, there would be about 2-3' of water, but when the tide went down. tidal pools would be isolated, with fish in them, and the wife and I would go out, myself armed with a slurp gun, suck up the fish which at times would be a challenge and bring them home. We also had banded shrimp. My tank maintenance consisted of every couple of weeks, emptying out half the tank, and then filling the back of the car with 30 empty gallon jugs, and driving over to the University of Guam and filling them up from a salt water tap that pulled water directly from the ocean.

Back in the States I considered doing a salt water tank, but when I researched it I read bad things, such as expensive fish sold without a warranty, with fish caught by using squirts of arsenic or worse being stunned with explosives and then not living all that long afterwards, maybe long enough for you to buy them. ?

 

[JagdTiger]

I’ve been keeping tropical fish for over 30 years. Can’t remember not having a tank.

I’ve run saltwater, reef, freshwater tanks.
Though now I’m into the simplicity of freshwater. So much easier than salt water. Do a big weekly water change and that’s it.

I currently have what I think is a pair of tiger oscars is a 90 gallon tank. They are young but growing fast. They spend their days swimming side by side. Their tank mates are 4 clown loaches, black ghost knife, and couple of smaller albino plecos.

My tank is stocked very heavy. More than it should be but I do weekly large water changes and have overkill for filtration.

I love just sitting and watching the interactions between fish. The Oscars are almost taking food from my hand. They see me and beg for the food. Lol

View attachment 880199

I used too, marine aquariums.
[automerge]1575335560[/automerge]

maintenance isn’t bad on freshwater tanks. Lightly stocked tanks probably have 20-30 minutes a month. Water change and cleaning glass if needed. Only other thing is adding top off water. I average about 3-5 gallons a week with my tank

I probably do 80% water changes every week. Sometimes every other. Probably takes me 45 minutes to do a water change but most of that is vacuuming and refilling the tank. You just gotta remember that your filling a tank. Overflows make a mess. ?.

I have 3 filters. 2 AC 110s and a big generic canister. The alternate cleaning the 110s. Do one every month. While the tank is draining and refilling. Canister gets cleaned every 6 months. Just runs as a biological filter.

If you decide to try fishkeeping don’t get a 10 gallon tank. 20 gallon min. 10 gallons of water isn’t easy to keep things working right. Things happen too fast in such a small amount of water.

I just did a watcher change and cleaned the front glass. Couple of better pics View attachment 880215 View attachment 880216

Aquaclears are good.

 

[someoldguy]

Had aquariums since I was a kid , at one time I was up to 65 (tanks , not gallons) Down to 25-30 now . All freshwater , can't be bothered with marine stuff . Water changes are an hour of so every other week via a long piece of hose and a small transfer pump.
Feeding , about 15 min/day ; maybe twice that if I've got a lot of fry to feed . Keeps me off the streets ....

 

[V_Man]

I wish I could run a fish room. No room for it. Lol

 

[LordVic]

I’ve been keeping tropical fish for over 30 years. Can’t remember not having a tank.

I’ve run saltwater, reef, freshwater tanks.
Though now I’m into the simplicity of freshwater. So much easier than salt water. Do a big weekly water change and that’s it.

I currently have what I think is a pair of tiger oscars is a 90 gallon tank. They are young but growing fast. They spend their days swimming side by side. Their tank mates are 4 clown loaches, black ghost knife, and couple of smaller albino plecos.

My tank is stocked very heavy. More than it should be but I do weekly large water changes and have overkill for filtration.

I love just sitting and watching the interactions between fish. The Oscars are almost taking food from my hand. They see me and beg for the food. Lol

View attachment 880199

Have a 60gal aquarium that houses my pet Turtle.

Nothing particularly special. Don't keep anything in the tank but her log. Tried once doing rocks and other things to make it look nicer, but Turtles are filthy, and Turtles try to eat anything they can.

my first expiriment with rocks, she tried eating them. Had to take them out.

Tried plants. She ate them.
Tried other fish. She ate them too.

But she's so cute.. and I've now had her for 23 years, so she aint going anywhere.

Also, Turtles are absolutely FILTHY. I don't keep anything in the tank because I have to do a full water change every couple weeks.

 

[D.T.]

We used to, I can probably find some pics. It was a 75g salt water setup, I had always wanted one, got it as a wedding present.

The few times we got the lighting, pH, salt, etc., etc., balance perfect and had a few really neat fish (even an invertebrate or two ...) it was spectacular.

However - and this is my FYI to people considering this hobbie - it takes a TON of time, it requires being really engaged in it. If you do, it's rewarding, amazing, if not, it's a costly PITA

Fresh water seems way easier, I personally don't believe it's quite the same spectacle, but pretty neat. Since this was a while ago, before cheap webcams and such, we had an old full sized video camera pointing at it, with the output relayed via one of those wireless video transmitters, had the receiver as an input on the downstairs set - we'd flip over the aquarium input, and occasionally see something really neat.

 

[V_Man]

We used to, I can probably find some pics. It was a 75g salt water setup, I had always wanted one, got it as a wedding present.

The few times we got the lighting, pH, salt, etc., etc., balance perfect and had a few really neat fish (even an invertebrate or two ...) it was spectacular.

However - and this is my FYI to people considering this hobbie - it takes a TON of time, it requires being really engaged in it. If you do, it's rewarding, amazing, if not, it's a costly PITA

Fresh water seems way easier, I personally don't believe it's quite the same spectacle, but pretty neat. Since this was a while ago, before cheap webcams and such, we had an old full sized video camera pointing at it, with the output relayed via one of those wireless video transmitters, had the receiver as an input on the downstairs set - we'd flip over the aquarium input, and occasionally see something really neat.

I totally agree saltwater is far more work. I used to have a reef tank. 45 gallon. Ran wonderful. Very few problems. Tank looked fantastic. Much cooler than fresh water.

problem was it required almost an hour a day for maintenance. Just got to be tiring. I have the tank to my brother. He is a high school science teacher. Tanks running in his classroom for 3 years now.

are you the DT who used to do custom dark ROMS over at XDA. Buttery and dark
[automerge]1575489767[/automerge]

Have a 60gal aquarium that houses my pet Turtle.

Nothing particularly special. Don't keep anything in the tank but her log. Tried once doing rocks and other things to make it look nicer, but Turtles are filthy, and Turtles try to eat anything they can.

my first expiriment with rocks, she tried eating them. Had to take them out.

Tried plants. She ate them.
Tried other fish. She ate them too.

But she's so cute.. and I've now had her for 23 years, so she aint going anywhere.

Also, Turtles are absolutely FILTHY. I don't keep anything in the tank because I have to do a full water change every couple weeks.

View attachment 880765

I always thought turtles would cool for a Custom terrarium. Problem is like you said. Dirty reptiles. Hard to keep a “real natural”
look when they crap everywhere

 

[JagdTiger]

We used to, I can probably find some pics. It was a 75g salt water setup, I had always wanted one, got it as a wedding present.

The few times we got the lighting, pH, salt, etc., etc., balance perfect and had a few really neat fish (even an invertebrate or two ...) it was spectacular.

However - and this is my FYI to people considering this hobbie - it takes a TON of time, it requires being really engaged in it. If you do, it's rewarding, amazing, if not, it's a costly PITA

Fresh water seems way easier, I personally don't believe it's quite the same spectacle, but pretty neat. Since this was a while ago, before cheap webcams and such, we had an old full sized video camera pointing at it, with the output relayed via one of those wireless video transmitters, had the receiver as an input on the downstairs set - we'd flip over the aquarium input, and occasionally see something really neat.

That’s true, more maintenance is necessary with ph, calcium, changing water using a pre-mix salt, food and lighting depending if corals are part of the tank, specific filtering, etc...but the specimens are beautiful.

 

[user_xyz]

I've always wanted to get a tank of my own, but I always doubt my willingness to keep up with the maintenance of one.

They are beautiful but a BIG money Pit!!

 

[LizKat]

If I am going to get serious about doing this, I need to educate myself on it - all of it!

And educate your cats...

 

[JagdTiger]

And educate your cats...

Yes because cats can and will go on top of the aquarium and fish and sometimes fall in if not covered even marine tanks.

 

[Glideslope]

I’ve been keeping tropical fish for over 30 years. Can’t remember not having a tank.

I’ve run saltwater, reef, freshwater tanks.
Though now I’m into the simplicity of freshwater. So much easier than salt water. Do a big weekly water change and that’s it.

I currently have what I think is a pair of tiger oscars is a 90 gallon tank. They are young but growing fast. They spend their days swimming side by side. Their tank mates are 4 clown loaches, black ghost knife, and couple of smaller albino plecos.

My tank is stocked very heavy. More than it should be but I do weekly large water changes and have overkill for filtration.

I love just sitting and watching the interactions between fish. The Oscars are almost taking food from my hand. They see me and beg for the food. Lol

View attachment 880199

Just noticed this thread. I'm in my early 60's. I was totally into Fresh Water Aquariums my 20's. When my wife and I were first together I had 4- 40gal Freshwater Tanks in a 1 bedroom apartment. I had under gravel filter systems on all my tanks with live plantings. Had a couple tanks with some cichlid's I remember having some Convict's, Texas, and Jewel's. Had one tank with a a school of 30 Tiger Barbs, and one mixed community tank with quite a few Blue Gourami.

I took a dive into Salt Water after a few years. I went Full Nelson and maintained a 5 gal tank with just a small Domino, and a small Anemone. Holly mother of pearl was it a a boat load of work. It lasted close to 6 months, but I simply did not have the time to maintain the tanks as my career was keeping me away for longer periods.

In my late 40's I got back into it with an 80 gal Hexagonal Fresh Water Tank with a Jack Dempsey set up for minimal maintenance , but I was wrong. Still could not keep the fish healthy and happy, so I gave it to someone who could.

I'm retired now and live in an area with no access to supplies, so it's not going to happen again. It certainly was a great period in my life. I found it to be immensely therapeutic, and a great deal of fun as a hobby. I wish I could have been able to stay with it.

Great post.

 

[V_Man]

Just noticed this thread. I'm in my early 60's. I was totally into Fresh Water Aquariums my 20's. When my wife and I were first together I had 4- 40gal Freshwater Tanks in a 1 bedroom apartment. I had under gravel filter systems on all my tanks with live plantings. Had a couple tanks with some cichlid's I remember having some Convict's, Texas, and Jewel's. Had one tank with a a school of 30 Tiger Barbs, and one mixed community tank with quite a few Blue Gourami.

I took a dive into Salt Water after a few years. I went Full Nelson and maintained a 5 gal tank with just a small Domino, and a small Anemone. Holly mother of pearl was it a a boat load of work. It lasted close to 6 months, but I simply did not have the time to maintain the tanks as my career was keeping me away for longer periods.

In my late 40's I got back into it with an 80 gas Hexagonal Fresh Water Tank with a Jack Dempsey set up for minimal maintenance , but I was wrong. Still could not keep the fish healthy and happy, so I gave it to someone who could.

I'm retired now and live in an area with no access to supplies, so it's not going to happen again. It certainly was a great period in my life. I found it to be immensely therapeutic, and a great deal of fun as a hobby. I wish I could have been able to stay with it.

Great post.

Getting ready to turn 50. Have had a tank or tanks for the last 30+ years. Can’t remember not have at least one running.

The tank light just started the morning cycle. Love the new tech of BT LED lighting with sunrise/set cycles. Color adjustment. App for your phone ?

 

[JagdTiger]

Getting ready to turn 50. Have had a tank or tanks for the last 30+ years. Can’t remember not have at least one running.

The tank light just started the morning cycle. Love the new tech of BT LED lighting with sunrise/set cycles. Color adjustment. App for your phone ?

Yes, it can be done with led bulbs now when before in the 1990s only fluorescent lighting could be used to simulate a 24 hour cycle, much better now including different ways of filtering including algae scrubbers which may be nature’s finest filters with also diatomaceous earth systems.

 

[V_Man]

Algae scrubbers and DE filter require too much maintenance. My tank requires next to no work. A once weekly water change and grave vacuum. Takes less than 45 min. I can go every 2 weeks without issues if I’m crazy busy. Never any longer.

I haven’t seen a DE filter in ages. Algae scrubbers tend to be homemade and for saltwater/reef specifically

 

[JagdTiger]

The only thing with algae scrubbers is it needs only a led bulb which uses very little juice and would need to be harvested every once in a while, the scrubbers are usually just small boxes on the inside of the aquarium or a hang on the tank outside one...algae can be a very effective cleaner for a healthy aquarium.