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You can only have one fish tank....


Robert
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If you can have only one fish tank what would it be? To make it realistic lets say your living in an apartment, town home or condo so you cant get get to crazy. For example I would love to have one day a 300 gallon tank but realistically my home will allow a 75 at max. So I'm curios if your only to have one fish tank what would you build. Feel free to get detailed as you want on listing stocking, plants, hardscape, and filtration etc.

For me I think I would run a 38 gallon tank. I think hardscape would be seiryu stone and large manzanita wood. Plants would be several types of cryptocoryne such as luetea, lucens, spiralis and wendtii red and green. Substrate a mix of crushed coral and small dark pebble. I am debating on adding sword but I think a crypt only tank would be interesting to see after a good year of growing out. The aim would be to look a little bit of a river look. I think lighting might be a 36" finnex stingray. Filtration a aquaclear 50 all tricked out with intake sponge and purigen with sponge and bio rings inside. Fish would be candy cane tetras (12-15), corydoras similis (6-8), pair of L183 blue seam plecos, a pair of pelvicachromis taeniatus "nigerian red". Maybe add a small school of eques pencilfish since I do love their looks.

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I faced this choice in real life and built a tank that was often my only aquarium sometimes for 5 years at time, so it fits the realist part...but the tank was a bit bigger than 38 gallons. I probably should just stay away from this thread. 🙂

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I do live in a small apartment. I have several small tanks, but if I could keep just one, I would keep the 29gallon that I have currently, but the guppies would replace the current stocking list. I couldn't give up the guppies, and the 29g is the biggest tank I have space for. I would keep the guppies, the red cherry shrimp, the otocinclus and kuhli loaches. 

IMG_20200812_141438.jpg.027184830893ab6057bfe869a8de754a.jpg

If I am talking pie in the sky, I would get a bigger tank and jam pack it with plants and still have the same fish but maybe add some angels and rams--which are in the plans for this tank...sort of. Maybe. Also this tank needs more plants, particularly anubias.

Gosh, I am glad I don't have to stick to just one.

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If I could only keep one of my current tanks it'd be my 220 - because it's actually a paludarium and houses my boa, not just fish. I think my beloved snake would be might unhappy if I took away his ability to have 'swimming pool' and had to go back to a smaller enclosure with just a water bowl in the corner. Its the best of both worlds for me, I get my fish tank and my snake enclosure, all in one space,  which, were I in an apartment, would probably take up less space ultimately than a fish tank and a separate snake enclosure.

Now, if I didn't  have my snake that may be a different answer but as boas live 49 some years and my guy is only 5.... he'll  be with me a long time yet.

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15 hours ago, Nataku said:

If I could only keep one of my current tanks it'd be my 220 - because it's actually a paludarium and houses my boa, not just fish. I think my beloved snake would be might unhappy if I took away his ability to have 'swimming pool' and had to go back to a smaller enclosure with just a water bowl in the corner. Its the best of both worlds for me, I get my fish tank and my snake enclosure, all in one space,  which, were I in an apartment, would probably take up less space ultimately than a fish tank and a separate snake enclosure.

Now, if I didn't  have my snake that may be a different answer but as boas live 49 some years and my guy is only 5.... he'll  be with me a long time yet.

@Nataku, As a person who has snakes as well....I want pics. My kid has 2 ball pythons, a wild type and a blue eyed leucistic. They have the most dull and uninspired tanks--shavings, water bowl, one hide, and wood. Kid refuses to add anything for fear of disease I think. "Kid" is 17, so I am not at liberty to completely override, but I am campaigning for enrichment. What fish in the aquatic portion?

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5 hours ago, Brandy said:

@Nataku, As a person who has snakes as well....I want pics.

 What fish in the aquatic portion?

I will post pics when I get home and have some light to get decent shots, so probably tomorrow. 

The water section of the tank houses 20 or so rainbowfish, a dozen c. Aeneus (bronze) corydoras, a single longfin albino bristlenose pleco, and currently only a single angelfish- the plan had been to have a nice big school of angels in there but my tank crash thread would be why that didn't happen. 

Here's  a little clip of feeding time for the fish, rainbows are wild. 

20200813_184932_1.thumb.gif.ef68748a0774c8d6145b9c40f29567fd.gif

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If I were living in an apartment I'd keep it as simple as possible.

This is how I would probably go, no air pump, no filter.  Something that was easy to do water changes on.

This is an early 1900's Corning Glass Works "Nonex" railroad signal battery jar.  Just wish I had the ceramic lid that would have went with it.

IMG_4861.jpeg.226c4920772058e8441d47a497110eac.jpeg

About 1.5 gallons.

Some Corning Glass Works History

 

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This has actually been my case for 95% of my aquarium keeping days. I've always kept the biggest I could which has only been between a 40 and 55. For the last 9+ years that ahs been a planted community with lots of tetras, especially my favorite, Cardinals with a changing mix of cichlids from Bolivian Rams, or Apistos and now Angel fish. Nothing fancy but it works. For the longest time it was only schooling fish so the kids didn't realize when they left for the big river in the sky.

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I'm tempted to say that my current main tank fits the bill.  We live in a small house, 1600 square feet, so not much bigger than an apartment and there are bookshelves and windows everywhere.  That makes aquarium placement problematic.  I could go as big as 55, but 40 gallons is what I have.  It's a South American themed tank with plants and driftwood.  While not quite blackwater, the water is a nice shade of weak tea brown.   There are tetras, a bristlenose, corydoras and a breeding pair of dwarf cichlids.    It makes me very happy.

Going up to a 55 would let me have larger schools of tetras and corys.  That would be the only way I could improve it I think.   But then....if I had gone with a sand substrate instead of gravel, I could sneak in some off-theme kuhli loaches.  Oh well!

I've added a few plants and the dwarf lily has grown a lot since this picture.  I should probably try to take some pictures again this weekend.

IMG_3046.JPG

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It would be the tank I have in my Living Room now.  A 75g, planted, community tank.  Right now I have 10 dwarf neon rainbowfish, 6 or 7 neon tetras, 6 glolight tetras, 6 corydoras, a bristlenose pleco, and a Yoyo loach along with some small snails that volunteered from either LRB or Steenfott when I ordered fish from them.

This tank is always a work in progress - which is what I love about community tanks.  Right now I have what pleases me as far as small schooling fish are concerned and I'm considering what I'd like to add.  It took me 2 years to decide on the dwarf neon rainbowfish and find the right source for the right price, so I'm in no hurry.  I'm leaning toward 3 , five to six inch fish, possibly Pearl Gourami - but I'm still researching.

I like the size:  large enough for lots of variety, but not so large that it demands all of the focus in the room.

 

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On 8/14/2020 at 11:08 AM, KBOzzie59 said:

If I were living in an apartment I'd keep it as simple as possible.

This is how I would probably go, no air pump, no filter.  Something that was easy to do water changes on.

This is an early 1900's Corning Glass Works "Nonex" railroad signal battery jar.  Just wish I had the ceramic lid that would have went with it.

IMG_4861.jpeg.226c4920772058e8441d47a497110eac.jpeg

About 1.5 gallons.

Some Corning Glass Works History

 

Little OT here, but have you gone through the museum? It's about an hour and a half drive south of us, but we like to drive down every Autumn, love the area! And the museum is pretty darn cool too.

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19 minutes ago, Rikostan said:

Little OT here, but have you gone through the museum? It's about an hour and a half drive south of us, but we like to drive down every Autumn, love the area! And the museum is pretty darn cool too.

Have not but I'm sure it's more than 1.5 hours drive for me.  If I'm ever in the area I'm going to visit it.

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