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Advice needed for new planted sunfish tank.

Started by Guest_Leftturn31_* , Jun 20 2012 07:09 PM

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10 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_Leftturn31_*

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Posted 20 June 2012 - 07:09 PM

I'm setting up a used 72gal bowfront tank i bought for my kids as a planted sunfish tank. The tank came with 2 magnum 350 canister filters and a emperor 400 hang on filter. I'm hoping you can help me sort out some details to make this work from the start as i'm not that exp. with this. I'd like to put 2 green sunfish, 2 blue gill, and 2 pumpkinseeds in this tank with some live plants to make it look like a native central MN lake some what. My questions are mostly about what kinds of plants and soil/substraight to put in it. The 4' tank light has 1 Verilux full spectrum bulb 40w and 1 Aquarays fresh & saltwater 40w bulb in it and the tank will get some AM sun from an east window. The plants I was thinking of are Anubia Frezeri, Cryptocoryne Wendtii Red and Green, and poss Java Fern attached to the plastic tank ornament i custom painted. For substraight i was hoping to just use some black dirt/clay from my yard. Capping it with some sand and gravel mix that i have. I could put MN lake plants in the tank but i'm not very sure what ones would work in a tank and not over run it. Any help you fish lovers could give me to make this a tank my kids and i will enjoy for years to come will be greatly appreciated. Cory

Here's a pic of the tank after i refinished the stand and resealed the tank.

Edited by Leftturn31, 20 June 2012 - 07:11 PM.

#2 Guest_Leftturn31_*

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Posted 20 June 2012 - 07:27 PM

Here are some pics of sunfish my daughter caught at my inlaws place. Let me know if my identification is right! Some were pretty beat up so we will try to be selective of the healthy ones when we fill the tank. I will be hoping to start with them at 3"-4" in size. We kept one Green Sunfish and have it in an 18gal tote w/ the Emperor 400 hanging on it. I got it to take Ciclid pellets and bigger Koi pellets in about 4 days!

Bluegill

Pumpkinseed

Green Sunfish

Green Sunfish or Hybrid?

#3 Guest_BenCantrell_*

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Posted 20 June 2012 - 07:37 PM

The third pic is a hybrid, maybe a green X pumpkinseed. The yellow tips on the fins always means it has green sunfish in it. The last pic is either pure green or possibly a hybrid as well.

#4 Guest_EricaWieser_*

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Posted 20 June 2012 - 07:52 PM

I could put MN lake plants in the tank but i'm not very sure what ones would work in a tank and not over run it.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'overrun' because when my plants grow I just sell them. So I have never seen aquarium plant growth as a bad thing, especially after reading "Ecology of the Planted Aquarium" by Diana Walstad and learning just how much plants clean the water.

One plant to keep an eye out for is Potamogeton richardsonii. Pictures: http://www.uwgb.edu/...ric_plant01.jpg http://www.uwgb.edu/...base01gf500.jpg
It is a beautiful plant and unavailable in the aquarium trade. If you could get that to grow you would have no competition selling it on aquabid's rooted plant section and I bet a lot of people would be interested in it. I certainly am; if you find any I'd pay you to ship me some.

Here is a link to some basic info on aquatic plants from your regional department of natural resources: http://www.dnr.state...atic/index.html
Here's a useful guide to local plant hotspots: http://ars.els-cdn.c...00581-gr1.jpg

Edited by EricaWieser, 20 June 2012 - 07:56 PM.

#5 Michael Wolfe

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North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage

Posted 20 June 2012 - 10:17 PM

The third pic is a hybrid, maybe a green X pumpkinseed. The yellow tips on the fins always means it has green sunfish in it. The last pic is either pure green or possibly a hybrid as well.

Neither of those last too look very green to me... the mouths are too small... I would go with bluegill... since I almost never say the H word.

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin

#6 Guest_BenCantrell_*

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Posted 20 June 2012 - 10:55 PM

Neither of those last too look very green to me... the mouths are too small... I would go with bluegill... since I almost never say the H word.

Here is a hybrid green x pumpkinseed from the wiscfish fishid page. Notice the hint of red on the ear flap (which came from the pumpkinseed parent) and the yellow on the fins (which came from the green sunfish parent).

Posted Image

#7 Guest_Yeahson421_*

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Posted 21 June 2012 - 09:59 AM

I'm also going to have to say that the 2nd picture is a hybrid, too. Also, Bluegill are an awful aquarium fish. I have one and I really wish I didn't. They're incredibly mean and grow very fast. I'd say do one Green and then 4 Pumpkinseeds or something. Also, catch them when they're little. It's very rewarding to watch them grow up.

#8 Guest_Jdan_*

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Posted 21 June 2012 - 07:02 PM

I gave up on larger wild bluegills (4-6 in) in my tank. They are just too mean. Remove the dominant one and another will take over. Crappie are very mellow but I still can't get them to eat pellets. Shiners also work well in a tank. I do have 8 - 1.5in bluegills that are growning up together to see if they can get along when they move to a bigger tank. You might want to keep that tote going and just mix in vaious fish in the big tank until you find a peaceful solution. I tried pumpkinseeds and longears and they were even meaner. The first ones in the tank tend to stake out their own turf and become dominat when others are added. Size doesn't always matter for dominace. Then they each have different personalities so you never know what agression level will be.

#9 Guest_Leftturn31_*

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Posted 23 June 2012 - 09:07 AM

Thanks for the interest. Seems like the sunfish's inbreed quite easy then. Are the hybrids any less aggressive or will a dom. always appear in a tank setting? Also on the plants i think i found that i like the look of native Vallisneria americana and i can find that easily at my inlaws lake. Erica i may have found a wholesale place to sell me the Potamogeton richardsonii. I emailed them on Thurs. and if i don't hear back by Tues. i'll call and beg them to send me some! If they wont i did do some DNR checks and found a few lakes not that far away that had very small pop. of the clasping pondweed that i could make a fishing trip into a plant hunt as well. If i go with those 2 plants will a black dirt capped with sand/gravel substraight work? I't seems like that would be the same as the lake bottoms around here. If i can get the plants to grow in this tank what sould i use for filtration? Like both canister filters or do you think i could get by with one and then convince my wife that i sould really buy another tank to use the other filters? Thanks again Cory

#10 Guest_EricaWieser_*

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Posted 24 June 2012 - 06:35 PM

Erica i may have found a wholesale place to sell me the Potamogeton richardsonii. I emailed them on Thurs. and if i don't hear back by Tues. i'll call and beg them to send me some! If they wont i did do some DNR checks and found a few lakes not that far away that had very small pop. of the clasping pondweed that i could make a fishing trip into a plant hunt as well.

Oh cool

If i go with those 2 plants will a black dirt capped with sand/gravel substraight work?

Yes, that would work. Any nutritious substrate would work. You can use soil capped with sand, soil capped with gravel, SeaChem's Fluorite, EcoComplete, Special Kitty brand cat litter (pure baked ground clay), sand with root tabs fertilizer added regularly, etc. There are many different substrates that all work for growing plants and soil capped with gravel/sand is one of them. Make sure to pick a soil without a lot of added fertilizer and without mulch. Mulch floats so it doesn't work well in aquariums and added fertilizer can cause crazy algae blooms.

If i can get the plants to grow in this tank what sould i use for filtration?

Plants are filtration. If you have enough plants you don't need any beneficial bacteria. The two actually actively compete with one another for the same food (ammonia/ammonium).

Diana Walstad once wrote, "Aquatic plants, then, are much more than ornaments or aquascaping tools. They remove ammonia from the water. Furthermore, they remove it within hours (Fig 1, Table 2). When setting up a planted tank, there is no need to wait 8 weeks to prevent ‘new tank syndrome’. (Nitrifying bacteria require several weeks to establish themselves in new tanks and make biological filtration fully functional.) Thus, I have several times set up a new tank with plants and fish all on the same day." Source: http://theaquariumwi...ical_Filtration

Edited by EricaWieser, 24 June 2012 - 06:36 PM.

#11 Guest_Irate Mormon_*

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Posted 02 July 2012 - 08:05 PM

Discarding the hybrid question for the moment, my experience with sunnies is that they dig. They scoop out nests with their tails. This is not a very good scenario if you don't wish to have your nutritious substrate liberally introduced into the water column :-)