butters

Good to know, I almost have it completely filled now and it's not making anymore noise. One thing I did notice is that the tank stand has a flat bottom, looks like maybe 1/4 inch plywood. Now because I have the tank on carpet the outer edges of the tank stand are taking all of the weight and the plywood is starting bubble up in the center of the bottom of the stand, quite significantly actually. Considering I'm sure a lot of people put these tanks on carpet, I'm assuming this is fine?

Ok so another slight concern continuing on from my last thread about my new 150 gallon tank in my apartment. After it sitting for a week I finally started setting it up, initially I put it in one corner and filled it about 1/2 full, but I noticed there was an uncomfortable amount of movement in the water when walking by the tank and doing a bit of a "bounce test" near the tank. So after some thought I decided to just move my old tank which seems completely stable and put my new tank in it's spot. I now have it in place and about 2/3 full and the floor seems rock solid. Now, I've been checking with a level once and a while in multiple spots while filling it, and the more full it has got, the more perfect the levels have been. I am pretty much dead center horizontally and vertically except one spot! The plastic top rear right side seems to be off about 1/8 of an inch or so but only the right half, the left half of the rear of the tank is completely fine, as is the glass vertically just below it. I think this probably isn't much to worry about.. however! I have noticed a couple creaking sounds coming from the tank while I've been filling it. Everytime I've heard the sounds I've stopped filling and let it sit for a while before putting a little more in. I can't exactly pin-point where the creaks are coming from but it sounds like from the upper part of the tank. It also has done it a few times when walking by the tank. But now that I think about it, I remember hearing the same noises from my smaller 55 gallon tank and never really thought twice about it. Anyway, should this be something to be overly concerned about? Maybe the tank and stand are "settling in"? I think I may be being a little paranoid because I just want to make sure everything is setup and sitting properly. Thanks!

Definitely a good idea, I will do that. On a side note, I found out the floors in my apartment building are concrete! even better!!

I think it is particle board. Would you suggest getting a whole new stand or is there anyway I can reinforce this one to have some peace of mind?

I had that exact demension tank and the glass was 3/4". Pretty heavy. One thing you will want to consider is if it is used, Check the seams. 150 gallons of water in your below neighbors apartment might cost you more than you think. Does it happen to have a custom cherry wood color stand. It is brand new from Petsmart. It is quite a heavy tank. It is this one here... The stand kind of creeps me out actually, it's very light and not that bulky at all.. but they sold it as a set so it must hold haha.

So I got a sweet deal on a 4 foot 150 gallon tank and I bought it faster than I thought it over. I searched and read every thread I could find on here about tank weight. I live on the 2nd floor of an apartment building, and I'm a little iffy about this, but from all the research I've read I should be ok as long as I put the tank perpendicular to the floor joists (resting on 3 of them) and against a load bearing wall (the outside wall in my case). So my question isn't wether I can do it, but is how many of you out there have large tanks like this in an apartment building or condo, and have you had any issues or tips, etc? Thanks!

Awesome! Thanks for the great feedback! So I should probably wait a little bit before adding a few more fish to the bigger tank?

So I have a 55 gallon tank that has been running smoothly for almost 3 years now. It has an Eheim 2213 canister filter in it. I just bought a 150 gallon tank and plan on switching everything over and buying a new canister filter. Will I have to cycle this new tank before switching the fish over or can I run the new canister filter a long side the 2213 filter for a few weeks and then take the 2213 out? Thanks!

Thanks guys, I just threw some peas in the tank and he ate a few and he cleared right up. I'm glad it wasn't anything worse.

Here is my original post http://albertaaquatica.com/index.php?showtopic=37353 but I figured I would post here now because I'm actually quite concerned. He has gotten bigger in the last 2 hours. I just fed them so I'm assuming he is bloated or whatever. What can I do about this?

OMG I think it has even gotten bigger since my last post 2 hours ago??????

Ok so one of my Piranhas has been growing a giant belly lately! Here are some pics compared to another one I have. What is wrong with it? It definitely doesn't look normal. It looks like there is a small nip out of him too. The picture doesn't give the full buldging effect.

Awesome, good to know. I do have test kits and I check regularly, I've had a couple odd ammonia spikes within the past few months, but it's always came back to 0 within a few hours, I narrowed it down to most likely rotting food. My pH has been abnormally low for quite a while now, even after trying more frequent water changes. I gave up trying to fix it a while back because the fish are completely fine with it it seems. Otherwise, nitrates, nitrates, etc are all in check. Also the Piranha is not looking good, his mouth moves a little bit but otherwise he lays completely still. I don't expect him to make it through the night. The rest of them in my main tank look fine but aren't eating this time around.

I thought changing over 50 percent risks cycling the tank?

I change about 25 percent of the water on a weekly basis or so. I just got home from work and I thought he was dead in the hospital tank, he's laying completely on his side on the bottom, still with his mouth open. But he is moving slightly.

Oh, and he's a year and a half only.

Nothing irregular when feeding him. I normally give them shrimp but sometimes goldfish as a treat. I thought about something being stuck in his throat. I can see pretty far down when he's near the surface and I don't see anything. He is floating all sorts of ways, on his side, sometimes almost upside down. I've moved him to a seperate tank for now.

So now one of my Piranhas is acting funny. He has his mouth open constantly and just kinda floats around, he's not swimming. He's floating slowly up to the surface, but not gasping at the surface. I nudged him a bit and he doesn't care. I think he's dying?

Unfortunately the guy I called "The Janitor" died. I tried putting him in another bucket and dropping a bunch of food in there but he just wouldn't eat. I tried. I appreciate the help though everyone.

Yeah I've been thinking about taking him out and putting him in a bucket with some food for a couple days possibly. I actually just noticed he has a little bit of a white spot on his nose.. looks like maybe the skin has rubbed off a bit even, I'm not sure. My setup is a 55 gallon with 5 red belly Piranhas and the common pleco, Eheim 2213, Aquaclear 70, heater (i forget how many watts, but it does the trick), Double T5 light fixture, black sand, and that's pretty much it. I have no bubbler, but I do keep the water level a little bit lower most of the time so the Aquaclear agitates the water. I have had this setup running for well over a year now with no problem, the fish are getting very large and I will need to upgrade soon but the water parameters are fine right now. And as you said, something is definitely off, I've had him for a long time and he has never acted this way before. He's usually very active and actually chases the Piranhas around when I put food in the tank.

It's black sand. There is quite a bit of algae on the back side of the tank, but he doesn't go there anymore for some reason. As for the poop, I honestly haven't seen anything come out of him for quite some time. Normally I would agree with the up and down the glass thing, but this is just out of the ordinary for him. When he swims to the top he is sticking almost his entire head out of the water and sloshing around.

So I'm starting to think there is something wrong with my pleco. He has changed color a bit in the last few days, he was almost all dark colored whereas now you can clearly see a lot of tan stripes going on. He has also not gone to the bottom of the tank in about 4 days now, he just sticks to the side of the tank, slowly slides down the side of the glass and swims back up, over and over. His mouth is not moving whatsoever. My Piranhas are just constantly looking his way now too, which is odd. Water parameters are fine, he isn't gasping at the top of the tank, although when he swims up the glass sometimes he sloshes his mouth around in the air for a second, but he isn't taking in any air like I've seen when the water is off. He has no interest in eating... he would always suck on the leftover shrimp at the bottom of the tank before. I also put in algae discs in quite often and he doesn't touch them. I'm not sure if he has eaten in many days.. I'm not sure what to do, any ideas?