35Ltr Tropical Tank, And Am New To It All

[BennoMc85]

Morning all, so yesterday I bought a Marina Style 35ltr Tropical Fish Tank from Dobbies for my lads 4th birthday. The tank came with a filter (complete with 2 cartridge, 1 to remove pollutants and the other to absorb toxic ammonia) thermometer and sun-glo light. Basically my questions are

Do I need to put anything else in the tank?
Looking at putting fish in it on Friday, is this to early?
What temperature do I need to set it too?

Have more questions but will start with these for now, many thanks in advance

Ben

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Have a look at the Beginners Resource Centre in my signature, please do a fishless cycle.
What fish are you looking at buying? There aren't many that can go in a 35 litre.
The Temperature depends on the fish.
Live plants go a long way to making fish feel safer, so I recommend you put some in, along with some substrate.

 

[Wills]

Hi Ben welcome to the forum
 
The filter that you have there is not the best one - is it the Marina Stingray one? The pads they come with only really work in the short term - the ammonia remover does not really work in the first place and overtime it becomes less effective and its really hard to judge when it is going to fail.
 
This is a link to the beginners resource section here
 
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/277264-beginners-resource-center/
 
Have a read of this article
 
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/113861-fishless-cycling/
 
This is what I would recommend to do before adding any fish - I would also look at getting a different filter - something like a Fluval U1 or U2 which are between £20-£30
 
The fishless cycle means it will take longer to add fish but it will mean the tank will be more successful long term and you wont have to deal with fish deaths in the first few weeks of putting the fish in the tank.
 
The fishless cycle is not something any shop will tell you about as it means you dont buy their tank cycling products (or at least as much of them) and you wont be making multiple trips to the shop in the first 6 weeks while the fish are dieing... It uses household ammonia which you get from boots or homebase. The article above covers it all
 
 
One tip on a tank this size though - make sure you look at tiny fish - thats the way to get the most of small tanks. Things like Galaxy Rasboras, Ember Tetras, Endlers and Badis
 
Wills

 

[GuineaPigster]

Hi! I woud recommend waiting for at least a week or two, just to get everything up and running. The reason for that is so you can avoid an ammonia/nitrogen spike. A 35 gallon is a nice tank; you can do a lot with it.
If you don't want to need to deal with algae, I'd suggest getting live plants. For fish, you could do guppies, platies, tetras, danios. Those are fairly easy fish. (For the most part.)
The temp you set it to depends on the fish, but most of the fish that I listed above can do a teperature of 75-82. 
Don't listen to the petstore employees that tell you ''They're both females'', because I can almost guarantee you they are not going to be. Instead, look up how to sex the different types of fish you might be getting.
If you can, try adopting fish. Here's a fish rescue I found: https/sites.google.com/site/gandkfinsfishrescue/adop
Best of Luck!

 

[Wills]

Hi! I woud recommend waiting for at least a week or two, just to get everything up and running. The reason for that is so you can avoid an ammonia/nitrogen spike. A 35 gallon is a nice tank; you can do a lot with it.
If you don't want to need to deal with algae, I'd suggest getting live plants. For fish, you could do guppies, platies, tetras, danios. Those are fairly easy fish. (For the most part.)
The temp you set it to depends on the fish, but most of the fish that I listed above can do a teperature of 75-82. 
Don't listen to the petstore employees that tell you ''They're both females'', because I can almost guarantee you they are not going to be. Instead, look up how to sex the different types of fish you might be getting.
If you can, try adopting fish. Here's a fish rescue I found: https/sites.google.com/site/gandkfinsfishrescue/adop
Best of Luck!

 
Sorry but I sort of disagree with most of what you said. Why just leave a tank sitting for a week or two? Its not letting anything settle - its all time that needs to be spent promoting growth of the bacteria in the filter via the fishless cycle or if people must the fish in cycle. Leaving it to stand does nothing. Also the tank is a 35 litre not gallons
 
And lastly that site for the "rescue" seems pretty expensive to me? $3.50 for a guppy? And lets face it why do guppies need saving? Most shops will take small fish in - and potentially sell them for less than that... Also while fish rescues are admirable I would not suggest them to newbies as finding your first fish is hard enough and its important to find one good fish retailer in your area before you start looking at re homing fish from other people.
 
Wills

 

[ech0o]

 

Hi! I woud recommend waiting for at least a week or two, just to get everything up and running. The reason for that is so you can avoid an ammonia/nitrogen spike. A 35 gallon is a nice tank; you can do a lot with it.
If you don't want to need to deal with algae, I'd suggest getting live plants. For fish, you could do guppies, platies, tetras, danios. Those are fairly easy fish. (For the most part.)
The temp you set it to depends on the fish, but most of the fish that I listed above can do a teperature of 75-82. 
Don't listen to the petstore employees that tell you ''They're both females'', because I can almost guarantee you they are not going to be. Instead, look up how to sex the different types of fish you might be getting.
If you can, try adopting fish. Here's a fish rescue I found: https/sites.google.com/site/gandkfinsfishrescue/adop
Best of Luck!

 
Sorry but I sort of disagree with most of what you said. Why just leave a tank sitting for a week or two? Its not letting anything settle - its all time that needs to be spent promoting growth of the bacteria in the filter via the fishless cycle or if people must the fish in cycle. Leaving it to stand does nothing. Also the tank is a 35 litre not gallons

 
And lastly that site for the "rescue" seems pretty expensive to me? $3.50 for a guppy? And lets face it why do guppies need saving? Most shops will take small fish in - and potentially sell them for less than that... Also while fish rescues are admirable I would not suggest them to newbies as finding your first fish is hard enough and its important to find one good fish retailer in your area before you start looking at re homing fish from other people.
 
Wills
 

 
+1, letting an empty tank with no ammonia sit is useless, a dechlorinator would prep the water instantly for use with fish, although there would be no biological system to break down the ammonia coming from the fish..  This take a few weeks to establish, which is why Wills suggests doing a fishless preparation where you add raw ammonia to trigger the bacteria to grow.

 

[Shelster]

I think Guineapigster was thinking 35 gallon not 35 litre hence the confusion.

Once you have your tank cycled I would suggest a betta - your son can pick from a range of colours and get a very interactive fish when he settles in (only one though)

 

[the_lock_man]

I'm another to disagree with GuineaPigster. Wills has it spot on.

 

[BennoMc85]

Hey all many thanks for everyone's help so far, so here is where am up to as of now. Yesterday I bought 3 live plants (can't remember the name, but the lady in the shop said to replace these particular ones every 6 months) I think the next time I will buy the one that came with 'live wood'. Anyway placed all 3 plants in and 3 'sponge Bob ornaments' the bubbles have all disappeared, however this morning the tank looked slightly cloudy, any ideas? Also there is now slight condensation (am guessing at that) above the waterline below the lid, I have however managed to get the temp down to 25/26 celcius. Any advice where to go next? I also added 17.5ml of tetra aqua safe (makes tap water safe for tanks apparently).

Again all advice is appreciated

P.s. is it worth getting a shrimp?

 

[Wills]

next step is to read this
 
http/www.fishforum...shless-cycling/
 
then go get your ammonia and the test kit - then start the fishless cycle
 
Wills