Lincoln

[dakski]

First, I think Lincoln likes frozen brine shrimp more than bloodworms, if that's possible.

Offered him a few today and he went nuts.

Good to give variety. So the pellets as a staple with occasional brine shrimp and bloodworms. I would also like to try daphnia as they help digestion and work as a laxative, but mixing in F/T foods like the brine and bloodworms help too, as opposed to all dry food.

I don't even want to think about the upkeep on a 240 gallon tank. I keep a 45 and I always think it's a good bit of work but 240 gallons sounds insane. That being said, I would love to put about 200 little South American tetras in there just to see large schooling behavior. I've always felt that parameters were easier to maintain the bigger tank that you have though. Did you find that to be true or was it about the same? Also glad to see folks talking fish on here, would love to get this section going!

Once established, bigger tanks are more stable, in general. I had 12 big fish in there and they were WC (there were no Mpimbwe in captivity in that time breeding - I was one of the first) and allowed to be imported because they are not endangered in the wild. Big fish means a lot of food and waste and WC meant they were more sensitive to nitrates.

The tank went from about 15ppm nitrates to about 30-40ppm in a week. I did 100-120G water changes weekly.

Additionally, they are high PH (7.8-8.2PH) and slightly brackish water fish who also needed harder water. So there was a lot of additives and chemistry involved.

So, had to do more work on it than many large tanks that aren't as full or with as sensitive fish. I guess I did a good job as they bred like crazy.

However, if you had a large tank with less load and that only needed dechlorination or light additives to remove metals, etc. and you didn't have to adjust PH and salt and hardness, it would be much more stable than a smaller tank with the same relative load.


I am also glad that some people are talking fish on here. It is fun. However, it is a reptile forum and there are better forums for fish information. If anyone is interested, I can name a few.

That is a huge aquarium. Curious. How do you do water changes on that size?

Python syphon into the sink to suction gravel and start water removal. Then a small pump to pump water into the sink.

The night before I filled two 60G pails with the fresh water for the tank and dosed with all the additives I needed (PH +, salt, dechlorinator, etc.) and dropped heaters in as well. Very important temps are stable going in and out especially when doing such a large water change - has to be right within 1F or less not to stress fish.

Once the water was taken out and the gravel syphoned, I would use a pump and a long hose to pump the fresh water into the tank.

All in all, it took about 3 hours including prep. So about 1 hour the night before and 2 hours the day of the water change.

Very expensive to get all the supplies (pumps, hoses, etc.) as well as additives and the tank was insanely expensive with stand and lid and light, filtration and heaters, etc.

It was an acrylic tank and was awesome. The company I bought it from now longer makes tanks, but it was great.