Tiger Barb Species Tank Journal

[tate8]

A couple of weeks ago I found a 27 gallon square tank that I wanted to buy and set up a Tiger Barb species tank.

After further research, I have learned that the tank was too small. I looked around and found a tank that would be suitable for the fish and that would look good in my living room.

I decided to buy another 36 gallon bow front identical to my community tank. My daughter and I went to Petsmart and made the purchase.

We decided on black substrate and a jagged rock wall background. We then picked out dual Aquaclear 50 filters. Then we added a 200 watt heater.

The goods


My daughter getting ready to wash and add the gravel


Getting everything clean


Adding the gravel

[tate8]

Before the water


Almost there

[steeler1]

Good start. Are you going to keep one color of tiger barb or all different ones?

Iron Bowl was a dud.

[tate8]

Good start. Are you going to keep one color of tiger barb or all different ones?

Iron Bowl was a dud.

Yes it was.

I'm going to go with all normal Tiger Barbs. I love the look of them and not so much with the green and albino.

I still need to find out exactly how many I can keep in this tank.

[Cermet]

Yes it was.

I'm going to go with all normal Tiger Barbs. I love the look of them and not so much with the green and albino.

I still need to find out exactly how many I can keep in this tank.

Use the program in my signature (aquadvisor) to determine max number of fish (by species) for a given tank and filter(s). The program will suggest water changes volume and number per week.

By the way, like the rock background.

[tate8]

I use aqadvisor as a base but I wanted to ask the experts here what they thought. Aqadvisor says that I can have 16-20 in the tank but I want to make sure I'm not stuffing too many in there. I have enough filtration but I want to make sure they have enough swimming room as well.

Thanks on the background. My daughter picked it out.

I found a center piece that matches it perfectly. I'll get some pics up after my bacterial bloom clears up.

I added a bag of biomax from my cycled 36 and it didn't take long for the cloudy bacterial bloom.

[steeler1]

Good on you for going with the original form. The dark green and black one are not bad.

[tate8]

UPDATE:

I added the centerpiece and some fake plants. I found a centerpiece that matches well with the background. The bubbler and airline on the left side are temporary, after the tank cycles it will be removed.

[Lolita]

Do you have a tank already up and running? If so, you shouldn't need to cycle your tank. :) You can just move over some filter media and add fish immediately.

[tate8]

I added 1 bag of biomax from my established 36 gallon. I have double biomax in each of the AC50s. The amount of bb from the 1 bag of biomax wont be enough for an initial stock of 16-20 Barbs so I am using it to "kickstart" the bb growth and doing a fishless cycle.