GrandePunto
06-18-2006, 05:30 PM
Work starts even before your tank arrive !
I am not going to cover the selection process that goes into determining what size tank you may need. I'll leave that to another article. But assuming that you have made your order, there's a few preparation work that you should do.
First and foremost, find a good location for your tank. This may sound trivial but it's very important and your location can be the different between enjoying your hobby or getting tortured by it.
It should be a nice flat space that is close to both water drainage and piping. Changing water is a important aspect of the hobby and you want to make sure that this can be easily done.
In addition, you may also want to observe if the area is affected by sunlight sunlight, no matter how short a period. Many hobbyist is surprised at the effect of 2-3 hours of sunlight on your tank (algae growth and green water is a pain).
There are many theory and approach to this. You can either by extremely careful about it, or follow the 'just dump water in' suggestion as given by some.
This is what I usually do when a new tank arrives.
Checking for water leakage
The interesting fact is that large tanks are less likely to leak than a small one. This is because the joint of a large tank is relatively much thicker (10mm, 12mm) and it's unlikely that an air gap can exist that wide.
In any case, it's a good idea to be careful. I usually fill the tank up to 30%, wait for an hour, fill it to 60%, wait another hour and then fill it to the final height of 80%.
Cleaning your tank
Dump 2-3 kg of salt into the tank. Run at least 2 air stone and let this go for about a day.
After that, drain the tank completely. Yup, the water is wasted but I believe this will help remove any oil, silicone smell and other chemical that may be present in your tank.
Fitting in the filter
Refill the tank to 80% and then set up your filter, plug in power and let your filter run.
I usually use anti-chlorine at this stage as a precaution. There are many chemicals besides chlorine that can be bad for your fish (Chloramine, Heavy Metal etc) so the traditional way of just running the water for several days before putting the fish in just doesn't do it for me.
Raise your salt level to about 0.1% (using salt calculator to see how much you need for your tank size) and add blackwater.
Leave the filter running for 3 days and you are now ready to transfer your fish to his new home.
If you want to be extra careful, buy some fishes (I do not recommend feeders as they are not usually healthy)
Points to note when transferring your fish
Here's the caution way of transferring an arowana. Take note of your tank's pH. And then take note of pH of the tank where your arowana is. The pH should not differ by more than 1. Remember that pH is a log unit, which means that pH 4 is 10 times more acidic than pH 5. And pH 4 is 100 times more acidic than pH 6. Yup, there's story about how arowana have suffer such a treatment (commonly known as pH shock) but that's not how we want to treat our fish right ?
If the pH is different, it's time to do some adjusting. Well, normally, I do not recommend using pH UP or pH DOWN agent. This is an exception. So depending on the pH, adjust the pH of your new tank to the desired value.
Catching the fish in a large plastic bag. If you fish is exceeding 14 inches, you may want to resolve to using a professional arowana bag.
Releasing the arowana
If your arowana is a large one, you may need the help of a friend in lifting and placing he bag into the tank. Leave the bag in the tank for at least 15 minutes to ensure that the temperature has equalised. Carefully open the bag and allow some tank water to flow into the bag. This can be rather dangerous as there's a chance that your arowana will attempt to jump out so do this carefully. repeat this process several times (3-4 times) at interval of 1-2 minutes. This is to prevent a sudden swing of pH causing the fish stress. After this, open the bag and allow the fish to swim out to the tank by itself. Remember to open the bag in a direction such that the arowana do not have opportunity to jump out of the tank.
Cycling process for arowana
It's a simple matter for cycling when you are keeping an arowana. You probably read all about cycling and how complex it can be. The characteristic of both the fish (arowana) and the tank to fish ratio plays an important role in how we determine our cycling approach.
Usually, the caution approach is to cycle the tank for at least 2 to 3 weeks before even introducing your tank.
This is probably not necessary for an arowana. Usually, you are talking about 1 fish (maybe with 1-2 tankmates) in a large size fishtank. The tank to fish ratio is high and turns toxin do not build up at a dangerous rate.
Thus, I would suggest a simple approach to cycling.
Once you transfer your arowana over, there will be no feeding for at least the first 3 days. After that, perform minimum feeding to the fish (etc 1-2 pieces of prawn per day). At this rate, your ammonia buildup can be very slow given the large volume of water. To ease this, perform 20% water change twice a week for the first 1 month and then switch to 20% water change weekly. You can also switch your feeding more regularly at this point of time as well.
As an additional step, you may want to speed up the cycling process by adding in beneficial bacteria growth additive.
Sometimes, your arowana may appear nervous during the first few weeks. Ensure that you do not do much sudden movement infront of the tank that may send you fish dashing around. The light can be switched on for the first 48 hours.
I have done this approach countless times and it works for me beautifully.
Happy fish keeping !!!
I am not going to cover the selection process that goes into determining what size tank you may need. I'll leave that to another article. But assuming that you have made your order, there's a few preparation work that you should do.
First and foremost, find a good location for your tank. This may sound trivial but it's very important and your location can be the different between enjoying your hobby or getting tortured by it.
It should be a nice flat space that is close to both water drainage and piping. Changing water is a important aspect of the hobby and you want to make sure that this can be easily done.
In addition, you may also want to observe if the area is affected by sunlight sunlight, no matter how short a period. Many hobbyist is surprised at the effect of 2-3 hours of sunlight on your tank (algae growth and green water is a pain).
There are many theory and approach to this. You can either by extremely careful about it, or follow the 'just dump water in' suggestion as given by some.
This is what I usually do when a new tank arrives.
Checking for water leakage
The interesting fact is that large tanks are less likely to leak than a small one. This is because the joint of a large tank is relatively much thicker (10mm, 12mm) and it's unlikely that an air gap can exist that wide.
In any case, it's a good idea to be careful. I usually fill the tank up to 30%, wait for an hour, fill it to 60%, wait another hour and then fill it to the final height of 80%.
Cleaning your tank
Dump 2-3 kg of salt into the tank. Run at least 2 air stone and let this go for about a day.
After that, drain the tank completely. Yup, the water is wasted but I believe this will help remove any oil, silicone smell and other chemical that may be present in your tank.
Fitting in the filter
Refill the tank to 80% and then set up your filter, plug in power and let your filter run.
I usually use anti-chlorine at this stage as a precaution. There are many chemicals besides chlorine that can be bad for your fish (Chloramine, Heavy Metal etc) so the traditional way of just running the water for several days before putting the fish in just doesn't do it for me.
Raise your salt level to about 0.1% (using salt calculator to see how much you need for your tank size) and add blackwater.
Leave the filter running for 3 days and you are now ready to transfer your fish to his new home.
If you want to be extra careful, buy some fishes (I do not recommend feeders as they are not usually healthy)
Points to note when transferring your fish
Here's the caution way of transferring an arowana. Take note of your tank's pH. And then take note of pH of the tank where your arowana is. The pH should not differ by more than 1. Remember that pH is a log unit, which means that pH 4 is 10 times more acidic than pH 5. And pH 4 is 100 times more acidic than pH 6. Yup, there's story about how arowana have suffer such a treatment (commonly known as pH shock) but that's not how we want to treat our fish right ?
If the pH is different, it's time to do some adjusting. Well, normally, I do not recommend using pH UP or pH DOWN agent. This is an exception. So depending on the pH, adjust the pH of your new tank to the desired value.
Catching the fish in a large plastic bag. If you fish is exceeding 14 inches, you may want to resolve to using a professional arowana bag.
Releasing the arowana
If your arowana is a large one, you may need the help of a friend in lifting and placing he bag into the tank. Leave the bag in the tank for at least 15 minutes to ensure that the temperature has equalised. Carefully open the bag and allow some tank water to flow into the bag. This can be rather dangerous as there's a chance that your arowana will attempt to jump out so do this carefully. repeat this process several times (3-4 times) at interval of 1-2 minutes. This is to prevent a sudden swing of pH causing the fish stress. After this, open the bag and allow the fish to swim out to the tank by itself. Remember to open the bag in a direction such that the arowana do not have opportunity to jump out of the tank.
Cycling process for arowana
It's a simple matter for cycling when you are keeping an arowana. You probably read all about cycling and how complex it can be. The characteristic of both the fish (arowana) and the tank to fish ratio plays an important role in how we determine our cycling approach.
Usually, the caution approach is to cycle the tank for at least 2 to 3 weeks before even introducing your tank.
This is probably not necessary for an arowana. Usually, you are talking about 1 fish (maybe with 1-2 tankmates) in a large size fishtank. The tank to fish ratio is high and turns toxin do not build up at a dangerous rate.
Thus, I would suggest a simple approach to cycling.
Once you transfer your arowana over, there will be no feeding for at least the first 3 days. After that, perform minimum feeding to the fish (etc 1-2 pieces of prawn per day). At this rate, your ammonia buildup can be very slow given the large volume of water. To ease this, perform 20% water change twice a week for the first 1 month and then switch to 20% water change weekly. You can also switch your feeding more regularly at this point of time as well.
As an additional step, you may want to speed up the cycling process by adding in beneficial bacteria growth additive.
Sometimes, your arowana may appear nervous during the first few weeks. Ensure that you do not do much sudden movement infront of the tank that may send you fish dashing around. The light can be switched on for the first 48 hours.
I have done this approach countless times and it works for me beautifully.
Happy fish keeping !!!