# 65 gallon tank stock and set up



## Titania (Sep 7, 2011)

I am new to the site and new-ish to having large fish. I have always had small tanks with tetras or guppies but 6 years ago when my goldfish became a behemoth at 10 inches, I purchased a bigger tank. Since she passed I adopted (yes, from a humane society) a green severum and over the past two years have tried to perfect a set up for her to thrive in. So far, so good. The set up is as follows.

Live planted. Floating plants only since the Severum likes to uproot everything. Water hyacinths and water lettuce.

The floor is a single layer of quarter sized tumbled smooth river rock. (Made for outdoor ponds)
There are several hides and rocks in the tank all specified for fish. As well as a pot, again fish safe, filled with freshwater aquarium sand. The pot is the home of my clam.

I have an Emperor Bio-Wheel 400 for filtration. Standard hood set up though I have a broad spectrum florescent bulb to help with plant vitality.

Temp: 74-81 F (No heater. Due to having reptiles my house is warmer than usual
pH: 7 (Checked once a week minimum)
Ammonia: 0
Nitrates/Nitrites: 0
Phosphates: 1 ppm(Talked to my veterinarian and she said that it is normal for a planted tank to have a little more phosphate)
Aquarium salt: .5 teaspoons per gallon
Use API Tap Water Conditioner when changing water.
I change 1/3 of the water once a week

In the tank are:
1 Green Severum. She is about 4 years old now and 6-7 inches long (I call her she but not sure)
A school of Gouramis consisting of 1 male blue, 1 male golden, 1 female blue, 1 female golden, 1 female opalescent and two female snakeskins. They are all about 2.5 inches long.
1 young spiny peacock eel about 5 inches
1 rainbow shark about 3 inches long
1 freshwater clam 2 inches long
2 Gigantic adult and many baby pond trapdoor snails. (the fish all seem to eat the babies and keep them under control)

I am open to suggestions people might have for my set up. The fish seem to be thriving and my Blue Gouramis appear to be getting ready to spawn and my snails are breeding which I take as a good sign.

I wanted to add photos but you can't in your first post. I'll try to post them in a reply.


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## Titania (Sep 7, 2011)

Photos of the set up.
Here are a few pictures:
The whole set
Another full shot
Severum
Severum and Gouramis
Peacock Eel
Opalescent Gourami
Golden Gourami


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## ivanmike (Jun 15, 2003)

WOW how the heck are you keeping water hyacinth alive indoors?? You should get a medal for that. Those are some of the best plants ever for keeping the water clean. Very hard to keep alive indoors due to light requirements.

I'd change more of the water each week personally, and I'd lay off doing so much water testing. Ph isn't so important - It's a myth that fish need a ph of 7. Stable ph is much more important, and unless you're lax on water changes and let the ph plummet, I think you're fine.

with that mix, you really don't want most cichlids as they will be too aggressive. Severums can go either way, so i think you got a nice one. You could try another sev and see how it goes, but keep in mind if they spawn they could harass everyone mercilessly. The rainbow shark and the eel would probably harass most peaceful small cichlids like Bolivian rams - perhaps if you can find some festivums the sev might leave them alone and they would probably go well in that tank (they are quite peaceful, but will probably prefer to swim in the roots of the plants rather than on the bottom with the eel and shark.)

oh yeah - how big is this tank? a 55? In that case you're probably topped out in terms of fish load. I'd also be very careful to siphon up all the debris that accumulates between those rocks - they are perfect hiding places for detritus and may be a better explanation for your snail population.


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## Titania (Sep 7, 2011)

I have an extra light mounted on the wall above the tank to help with the lighting. The hyacinths have only been in there a few weeks so here is hoping that they make it. 

pH is very important if you have shelled animals. Acidic, especially, and basic, to a lesser degree, conditions can dissolve shell on clams and large snails. This will lead to holes, brittleness and death. The fish are much more forgiving than the invertebrates.

I am wary about another cichlid. While the severum is tolerant of the fish in there now, she is very territorial and "owns" the back corner of the tank behind the temple. Honestly the eel is very calm and has not harassed the fish at all. It has been in there a little over a month. The shark, I am not sure about. It is the newest addition and only a week in the tank. I'm not really looking to add more fish currently. If anything I might add another eel in the future as I keep reading they enjoy small groups while hiding.

It is a 65 gallon (breeder so wider) tank. I siphon about every 2 weeks. I don't want to over siphon as that is food for the snails and when the fish stir the rocks, which they do all the time, the matter in the water column feeds the clam. The snails, in good water conditions should breed on a regular schedule, every two weeks or so. I had counted on this behavior to maintain the tank. Knowing that the phosphates could be higher due to planting and algae could grow faster, I wanted a steady and active snail population.

Thank you for your advice. I will try changing more of the water next time. How much do you suggest?


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## ivanmike (Jun 15, 2003)

probably 50% or more.

Are you adjusting the PH somehow, or are you keeping the same as your tap water? How hard is your water in terms of total hardness and carbonate hardness? This may be even more important than PH in terms of material for the shells of the inverts. If you have hard water this will buffer the PH to a large degree, so attempts to bring it down will not be successful.

I understand that you want food for the snails and clam, but any detritus will decompose and add to the bioload of your tank.

Keep a close eye on the hyacinth and lettuce - these plants are great for removing waste, but IME they require a LOT of light.


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## Titania (Sep 7, 2011)

How do you suggest removing more than 50% of the water with a cichlid who would be as tall or taller than the volume left in the tank? Would it have the same effect doing 2 water removals of lesser volume a week instead of one?

I use Seachem Neutral Regulator which buffers the water to 7 pH, helps neutralize ammonia/nitrates and reduces chloramines. Our local water is 68 ppm and 4.1 gpg from the tap. This is moderately hard water from everything I have read. I have seen nothing to suggest that this is too soft for snails. I have no problems with the minerals in the water effecting the pH of the tank. It is relatively stable and rarely needs added regulator to maintain.

I currently have no issues with the bioload in the tank. The amount of detritus in the tank is at a minimum. Food is never left nor is plant material for that matter. The fish seem to be very aggressive and thorough eaters. For the most part every water change leads to some vacuuming and then once every two weeks I do a intense vacuuming. The rocks really don't get much stuck in them. They are flat and the fish seem to make a game of moving them about. Aside from small pieces of plants that I remove when I see them there isn't much sitting at the bottom of my tank among the rocks.

As to the plants, so far so good. The mix of a plant light and indirect sunlight seems to be keeping them green and they show signs of growth. I know to keep an eye on them though since it isn't natural sunlight I am dealing with. I will keep an extra close tabs on them though now that I hear so many saying they are hard to grow indoors.


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## bernie comeau (Feb 19, 2007)

Titania said:


> How do you suggest removing more than 50% of the water with a cichlid who would be as tall or taller than the volume left in the tank?


I doubt most full grown severums ever exceed much more then 4" tall. So that, plus your gravel, would be around your minimum you would ever want to bring your water level down. Myself, I actually do exceed the depth of some my fish....my female black belt goes to her cave as soon as she sees the garden hose. She turns to her side, long before the water level gets low---she is well trained. I don't believe a few minutes of inconvenience, once a week, is of any harm to a fish.

But if your nitrate is really at zero----very little reason to do anything differently! Oviously 1/3 per week is more then adaquate for this tank.


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## Titania (Sep 7, 2011)

I wasn't sure they would ever learn that. She usually gets psychotic when the water gets too low. Then again, she was a rescued fish, and like dogs who knows what she remembers before I got her. A lot of animals maintain memories of trauma. My snake is still afraid of live animals because of her past conditions before she was removed from her old owners.

I will keep that in mind. It probably wouldn't hurt to take a little more water than I do. As I said, sort of new to the whole, large fish in a large tank set up. I am more worried about things than I probably need to be in some cases.

I used to have a lot of nitrate problems when I first set up the tank but it settled out and I don't seem to have any problems. (Thankfully.) If I do though I will be certain to remember the advice that it doesn't hurt to remove more than the height of the fish.

Thank you for all of your advice. If I manage to keep these hyacinths alive over winter inside I will be sure to post what I've done.


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## ivanmike (Jun 15, 2003)

FWIW, I do massive water changes as cichlids can be very messy fish. A few minutes slightly listing to one side (or more often with their backs exposed) won't kill them - most get used to it. I would recccomend against sharp decor when doing this as when frightened cichlids will zip about and can get minor scrapes and bruises.

I'm having a hard time believing that NitrAtes are 0 - NitrItes should be. Are you testing them separately? ( I suppose the hyacinth could be removing all the nitrates - they were all i used for "filtration" in my cichlid ponds during the summer.

The only hyacinth I've seen kept alive during he fall/winter/early spring in new england has been in greenhouses or under skylights with lots of sun exposure.


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## bernie comeau (Feb 19, 2007)

Titania said:


> She usually gets psychotic when the water gets too low. If I do though I will be certain to remember the advice that it doesn't hurt to remove more than the height of the fish.


If the fish really freaks out, then it might not be a very good idea. I've been doing large changes for quite some time, now. My fish have probably grown accustmed to it. I have had fairly young fish, freak out duringa water change, but as they have gotten older, seem quite calm during the process.

A water hyacinth is a very high demand plant...if it continues to flourish, probably very little reason to do larger water changes. Might even be counter-productive to the growth of the plant(?).


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## BelieveInBlue (Jul 17, 2011)

bernie comeau said:


> Titania said:
> 
> 
> > She usually gets psychotic when the water gets too low. If I do though I will be certain to remember the advice that it doesn't hurt to remove more than the height of the fish.
> ...


Agreed. And if you really want to change a lot of water, ynot break it up into smaller parts? Instead of say 70% do 40% every 3-4 days. But if your nitrates are really at zero, then why fix what isn't broken?


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## ivanmike (Jun 15, 2003)

I'm hip to the smaller more frequent water changes. If nitrates are really at 0, then the hyacinth is doing its job in spades. I forget if they are one of the plants that can use ammonia and nitrite directly as well. If the hyacinth starts to get particulates all over its roots I would not disturb these - they "vac" detritus right onto the roots and absorb stuff right from it - when i would cull some out of my cichlid pond the roots were covered in goop. Anyhow, even if the hyacinth is pulling out all of the nitrates there are other organic compounds that water changes remove that don't get broken down in the nitrogen cycle, so water changes are still a good thing. Keep us posted on the survival of these things!

FWIW, a cichlid pond is a thing of beauty, and using water hyacinth helps you to run it with NO filter. (did it that way for years - put in 3-5 hyacinth in may, pull out 120 hyacinth in sept).


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