Yikes...What DID we buy? (New and Uninformed)

[WA98296]

Hello, what a great board you have.

Total Newbies here. Well, perhaps even that is overstating our experience! To be exact, we know nothing about this hobby other than that the aquariums look awesome. Anyway, we just took the plunge and bought “equipment” during the last minutes of a store sale yesterday....Is that roaring laughter I hear out there? Okay, so we’re a little crazy, and of course now we’re not sure that we selected anything well. Generally we do a lot of research prior to buying, somehow that didn’t happen with this. If you are not laughing at us too hard already...we hope to set up our tank so that we can bring in about two dozen “baby” (1-2 inch) koi that somehow “happened” in our pond along with some of our anacharis. To tell you the truth we are not even sure we can capture them in our 7,000 G pond, but we’re going to try. If not, we’ll be back for some stock suggestions.

If anyone is willing to let us know where we may have gone astray here, with the “equipment” we’d sure appreciate it. Here’s what we bought in a frenzy:

Oceanic 90 Bowfront with overflow (stand and cap)
Oceanic Sump 1
A compact fluorescent, w/ four 65 watt bulbs
2500 RIO pump (ooops)

So today I find your board and see that perhaps we’ll try to return the pump, however we have no idea what would be more dependable.

Thanks for any information you are willing to offer.

[mhudzinski]

Maybe it's me, but I don't understand exactly what you are talking about.

You are on a reef aquarium board asking about whether or not the equipment you bought at a LFS is sufficient for raising pond koi?

[motorslave]

muhd... yes this is a "reef" board but this is the freshwater forum. They are in the right place!

[Junkzoo]

First of all , Welcome to TRT!
second,, i scratched my head on this one also,,,,read it again , and my take on it is,,,new tank, gonna be home for koi,,,
am i on the same page here?

Again, welcome to TRT, enjoy your time here!

[Stang69]

Howdy

Sorry it to so long for me to respond

As I am understanding it is is a temp holding for the 1-2 inch Koi.

I would not by any means put that many koi in that small of a tank. The equiment you have is ok but the tank is not big enuff to handle 2 doz 1-2 inch Koi. If it is the weather you are worried about I wouldnt. Koi are a pretty hardy fish when it comes to colder water. The basically go to the bottom of the pod and hibernate for winter.


Jeff

[rottielover]

Why would you want to bring the koi inside? My dad has a pond that's only about 2,000 gal in Missouri where the temp can hit the low teens and down below 0 F, and he had koi and goldfish that did just fine thru the winter.

If your worried about freeze-over, just break the ice once a day.

As for your tank, you have the startings of what could be a wonderful Reef, or FOWLR, or FO SW setup, OR a really nice FW setup for tropicals. In your shoe's I'd leave the koi in the pond and start looking into what interestes you more, Reef, Saltwater, or Freshwater.

[tabwyo]

Your lights lead me to say, "reef, reef, reef". You can keep 2 dozen koi easy in a 90g. I know from alot of experience breeding FW fish. You need a honkin big filter though to deal with all the poop koi can make. Though this 90g home can only be TEMPORARY. plus you will need to change 50% or so of the water weekly. Rottie is right, though, cipronids (koi, goldfish, carp) can handle freezing temps for a long time. Sporting good store should carry crayfish traps. These will work dandy for small koi. You can bait the traps with a can of wet catfood with hole punched in it.

[reefworried124]

I live in morro bay and my parents live next to morro bay in Los osos. My dad has a koi pond and it really gets cold here, like around mid 30's in the winter. The koi survived fine. I don't think you need to worry about keeping the fry's alive, they are really hardy fish.

[alaskaknucklehead]

Nice TANK!! 90 gal bow- thats a compulsive buy I can live with.


Great feedback here when people now what forum there in...ha ha


Good advice above about the koi, how bout puttin some sea-salt in that bowfront, mabye a cichlid tank, or my favorite discus!!

[alaskaknucklehead]

[trussmandave]

If you've never kept an aquarium, research a LOT before going with a reef. It does take some commitment. If you are into it though, it is awesome.

However, a nice freshwater Cichlid setup is much simpler, can be very rewarding, and is valuable experience to boot. A lot cheaper, too. I have 1 reef, but still keep 2 freshwater and a breeding tank.