Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Interested in an Aquarium?

Thanks! I will PM you my address with the agreement you PM me back your's with cost of the media and shipping so I can shoot you a check to cover. I know that stuff is not cheap!

Aquarium purchase from Petsmart. I am not to sure I am petsmart when it comes to raising fish in a glass container but never the less, I am on my way. After comparison shopping with Petco, I made a 29 gal purchase. I made an aquarium purchase from Petco about a month ago with 2-10 gal aquariums. A month ago I used a cast net to acquire some Tilapia from my pond and transferred 5 fish to the 2 aquariums. And yesterday I caught another 5 from the pond. I lost 3 of the first five due to my not changing out the water often enough in the 2 aquariums, so I am starting over so to speak. And with the colder weather upon us, I may not have the opportunity to catch any more Tp as the water will be cooling down soon in the pond. I can't believe the Tp are still thriving in the pond in late Dec, early January. I need to keep these aquarium Tp alive. My goal is to learn what it takes to raise Tp indoors for the winter. How to get reproduction through spawning the fish and anything else I might learn that would be useful in pond mgt. Any recommendations here from you guys would be helpful. My losing 3 out of 5 fish shows how I am not to petsmart.

Thanks
Tracy

Hey Tracy,

What are you using for filtration in the tanks?

Growing fish in a AQ can be touchy. The bigger they tank you will find will be more stable once you get it stable. What most folks don't realize if you should not just fill a tank up and throw expensive fish in it right away. It don't work that way. Get a few minnows or shiners first makes sure your PH, and Nitrates and water temp is stable and let the AQ filter for a while. Lets say 2 weeks with the shiners. Once things seem stable then put a fish in there or 2 and see who they do. If TP are your main goal then find out everything you need to know about the type of water TP like best and the temp! Take your time!

Every 2 to 3 weeks clean about 25 percent of your water. You can buy a cheep plastic suction hose to help clean the gravel and yet it will leave the gravel behind and not suck it up. Put AQ in a spot where people don't pass by it constantly and scare fish. Remember we look HUGH to them !! Check your water at first ever few days to make sure it's stabilizing. Then maybe once a week or right after you clean it to make sure PH and temps are correct.

Having an AQ is not so simple right away, there is a learning curve just like managing a pond. Have fun with it and remember it's all one big experiment!!

RC

Yep always just added some neon tetras and a pleko and let her go for a few months.

I'm going to experiment with a fluidized bed filter using the media JKB is sending me. I figure on using either rosey reds or goldfish as the guinea pigs. If the gold fish get to large I figure I can always bucket stock them into Bob O's pond while he's in Florida!

Cecil, if you want to save some Tilapia fry, just put a 1/8" mess net in whatever you are raising your adults in. The fry will stay within the safety of the net.

I just picked up some different boxes today, so I'll send it out tomorrow when I go to the butcher shop for lunch tomorrow. They have some amazing brisket and awesome smoked red skin tater salad. The green beans swimming in butter with copious amounts of bacon ain't bad either. Hey, the doc said my cholesterol is darn near perfect, so live it up!

I'll print you out a PDF I have with some application info that might help. One thing they don't mention in the PDF is the specific gravity is 0.96.

It will be interesting to see what you come up with.

I started about 2.5 cubic feet in the basement last week. I used ammonia that Cecil mentioned (thanks!!), added salt and let it cook to get the temp up a bit, then inoculated with bugs (bacteria) yesterday. They should take to the media to speed things up a bit. If it works, I'll post the methodology I used.

Oh yeah, 1st full day back in my office today, after 27 months. Looking at 2 huge bookshelf's, mostly outdated material. Asked the boss why the heck we still have this stuff? That's reference material for you. Said most of it is junk like a 1991 fluid power directory, and most of those companies have been bought and sold, maybe even a couple times over. I said, I could put a nice aquarium or two there. He said sort thru it and get a couple guy's to fill the dumpster. Yey! Office makeover time!

Seriously, when I had my shop and all this stuff became available in PDF format, I filled the dumpster years ago.

Awesome and again thanks!

....Feel free to throw in a brisket sandwich and some of that tater salad in the shipment!

That brisket will have to wait till you are on site

You got a deal and I'm buying!

I do appreciate your hearty investment in chinchilla lined cod pieces!

I'm gonna attempt the charter thing again this year. It sucked bad last year with conditions, but being on the lake as many times as I have been, and have only been out there piloting a charter boat, my personal opinion is we could have easily gone out in the size of boats I selected, at least 2 of the 4 dates we were up. That ticked me off, but it's their boat.

July 7th was rough when everyone was up here, but a few boats did go out and scored pretty good. When esshup and Matt left the shop, I stopped at a bait and tackle shop around the corner. The Captain of Thunderduck walked in. They scored, and had fun. He said most people won't go out in a mess like that, but we have fun.

See what happens this coming year.

Is that what I invested in? I thought it had something to do with Enchiladas with corn pieces. Sheesh, I should read these investments closer.

Your account was manipulated, and then some. However, it's all for your own fiscal good.

Bill, I purchased these 3 Aquariums as kits, they came with water pumps and carbon filters with media inside the filters along with the larger tank that has a bio wheel and heaters were also in the kits. Ha I am lost for the most part, never had an aquarium before. I started with 5 small Tp from the pond, added them to the 2-10 gal tanks. Had to separate one from a larger male, they were biting the tail of the other fish, causing bleeding. So I kept them for about 3 wks or so and lost 3 of them due to no change out in the water. I am learning the hard way. Added aeration yesterday to all 3 tanks. Will due water additions as tanks dictate. I now have 7 fish in the two smaller tanks and I am conditioning the water in the 29 gal tank. Plans are to pair up some in the 3 tanks.

Tracy

TGW1- are you sure its media? The stuff that is in the filter bags where the water goes thru it(generally can't see it) is just carbon(?) and does nothing more than make the water clear. Doesn't help with ammonia like real media. At least that's the way I understand it.

My personal experience is don't be to much of a clean freak when it comes to the tilapia. The glass sides will hold some of the good "bugs". At most, I will wipe clean the glass in half the tank at a time.

CECIL- I know most say a 55 Gal or bigger for tilapia breeding, but I don't have that kind of room. I have been experimenting with a 29 gal tank and have had good luck for the past two years. I filled Bob-O in on it a little bit, maybe he spoke of it to you.

FNC, I asked the fish person @ Petsmart about the media and he explained that media was in the bio wheel also said it was in the filter, but I don't think these reps are expert but he said his aquarium was set up this way. I don't know ??

Tracy

TRACY
When I had my fish store years ago I would use a large power filter and would use 3" foam for the media... When it got real dirty I would clean it out under running water- no soap- cause that would kill the good bacteria in the sponge. The water would be clear and had no problems. I raised African cichlids in a 200 gal. The foam worked better than the pads that cost a fortune

PM me if YA got any questions

So far, so good with my big fat gold fish (pictures posted above, of 5-7 inch goldfish). I don't have a real filter in either tank.

With hardy fish (like carp, green sunfish, river chubs, etc.,) I've had very good success without actual filters and pumps. I've been doing this for years.

Since early October I have had two 10 gallon tanks running, each with two big goldfish -- that's a whole 'nother story! (Grandkids and aquaponics.)

In using this method a number of times over the years with "trash fish". I've never bothered to take any measurements, so I have no idea of ammonia levels, pH, D.O., etc. These are fish that just have sentimental value to grandparents, grandkids, etc., or they are my baitfish. If they perish, they perish!

So, please don't take this as the way to grow and keep fish alive. But, it is a simple and inexpensive method of keeping rough fish.

I buy pea gravel, and other road gravel, rip-rap, etc., in 10-20 ton quantities at a time. So I always have gravel available. All I do is go out to the pile of river pea gravel near the barn, and grab a bucketful that goes into the bottom of an aquarium about 1 inch deep.

For the 10 gallon tanks I have some inexpensive Wally-World air-stones that stretch nearly edge-to-edge lengthwise in the aquariums. They are placed at the very bottom of the tanks where they are nearly covered with gravel. For these tanks I have a dual output $10-$15 dollar air pump rated for a 50 gallon tank.

I feed the fish twice a day. I use a "siphon vacuum cleaner" made for aquariums to clean the gravel about once a week. These cost about $5-10 in any aquarium type fish supply department. If I see algae on the insides of the aquariums I wipe it off with a paper towel before refilling the tanks. The cleaning takes about about 1/3 of the aquarium water. The water taken from the pea gravel can actually be pretty nasty. Because I don't have any heaters in the tanks, I'm able to just refill the tanks with well water. The water that comes out of my taps is usually within a few degrees of the aquarium water that is here in the basement.

Enough. I still plan to go get some larger tanks next week.

My mom use to say something like that whenever Lima Beans or Brussels Sprouts were served for dinner.

I can tolerate the Sprouts now, but bacon can't fix those Lima Beans.

As long as it's for my good, I guess I'm OK with it. Carry on...

Those bio-wheels work pretty good. Once those kick in, you would be shocked at how many fish they will support feeding moderately.

I have (2) Marineland 350's and one 400. I just started the two 350's with the other media last week, killing two birds with one stone.

I wonder if the nearly covering the air stones in the pea gravel has set up a bio filter of sorts with bacteria collecting on the gravel....

Under gravel filters work that way although they usually have small activated charcoal pods on the out flow tubes.

Bill, I sent out the media today USPS Priority Mail in a large Flat Rate box. About 3.4 gallons is what it came to. You should see it this Saturday. About payment, just push it forward to someone else in the future.