Buying A Tank.... Help

[jenny6165]

hey guys.
ive been interested for a while in getting myself a tropical fish tank,
I did loads of research, most of which i have now forgotten. We wanted to wait until we had moved house before we got started, and now its like 12 months down the line. oops.

My local fish store dosnt have a very good range of tanks (pets at home), they are either too big, too small or out of stock.
so i decided to have a look online, cos i knew what i wanted already.

this is what i found

http/www.rocketrading.co.uk/product_info...products_id=288

can anyone tell me if this looks ok? or if anyones heard of the site. or if its best not to buy online.

as a beginner, im looking for a complete tank setup. so is this everything i need, or do i need to buy other things? i mean, our local pet store sells plants and of course fish. so would this setup be enough to get the tank started and into a cycle ready for fish sometime.

any advice would be much appreciated

 

[dwarfgourami]

Hi and welcome to the hobby. Don't know anything about the seller, but the tank itself is one of the popular Juwel range, which is the same sold in Pets&Home. (in fact, they could probably order that tank for you). I myself have their Rekord 60, Rekord 70 and Rio 240 and they are working well. You will get with this tank: lights (not very good for the smaller tanks, you may want to buy a stronger light bulb- easily done), filter (strong enough for small community tank, may need upgrading if you go for messy fish) and everything you need to set it up. You will need to buy minor accessories:
buckets for water changes
gravel vac
2 nets for catching fish
gravel
thermometer
plants+ornaments
fish food
dechlorinator
FISH

I have never bought from this seller, but I have bought accessories from aquaticsonline and fish from TriMar- both of these stores stock these tanks, and I at least have had very good service from them.

Incidentally, I would be wary of buying fish at Pets& if they are anything like the stores I have seen.

 

[00mitomk]

reckord 96 is great for me and im a semi beginner the are around 120ish and come with some good stuff !

miles

 

[Kevstir]

Pets at home do that tank for £199 with stand at the moment

 

[jenny6165]

i think i may need to go to another local pets at home then, i have 3 in my radius, the local local one never seems to have anything.
thanks for everyones replies, very helpful

i know i dont even have the tank yet, but where is the best place to buy fish? pets at home sell fish, is it a bad place to buy then?

there is only one other place i know of to buy fish, which is a local garden centre...

 

[Boxa]

Whats your local one? my local one Black heath always seems to have loads and they normally carry a decent stock of everything else you first need to get started, I had a look at that site not so long ago when I was looking online for a fish tank, decided against it though and ordered one from http/www.seapets.co.uk , they don't seem too clever with delivery dates though and if you do order a tank from them when you get the confirmation email do phone them up about the delivery and don't just do what I did and expect them to be able to read delivery instructions via email, and you need to speak slowly to them because again they seem to have some difficulty understanding you over the phone, they did give me a free stand for the delivery mess up though and have to say the tank and stuff I got from them has been top quality.

 

[basia]

I believe that seller is on Ebay - you could look at his feedback on there.
My main tank is a Juwel, I have been very pleased with it.
I have bought fish from Pets at Home although the tanks in my local one are not the best maintained and usually have a lot of 'deads'. I figure if they are strong enough to survive that they should be ok! I bought my original glowlights from there 2 years ago and they are still going strong. Also 6 harlequins which have also been fine. Most of my fish have come from specialist fish shops though.
If you want to mail order fish, Trimar are very good.
Hope you enjoy your new hobby.

 

[jenny6165]

well i went to another pets at home store and bought a tank

i got a jewel rio 125. I asked just for the tank, not the stand cos we had no where to put the stand, and when we got home we realised they had sold us the stand too
so we have to take it back later. doh.

anyway, took me agesssss to fill it up with water, dont have a hose pipe so was filling up cooking pots with water to fill it up!

anyway, its all standing proud now, have to wait another week before i can add a couple of hardy fish and then according to the instructions, another 8 weeks before i can get more. bit confusing...

 

[xostrawberryox]

Ive used that rocket trading, they were very good. Did u use RO water or are u gonna treat with tap safe?

 

[jenny6165]

hmmmm... bit worried i did it wrong.
the instructions said to just use room temp water from tap.
it has about 5 different filter sponges in it....

shud i get something to put in the water do u think

 

[xostrawberryox]

Filter sponges wont get rid of the chlorine and other impurities in our water. You can buy RO water from most LFS's or tapsafe kits which will help to purify the water. What area do you live in??

 

[jenny6165]

Filter sponges wont get rid of the chlorine and other impurities in our water. You can buy RO water from most LFS's or tapsafe kits which will help to purify the water. What area do you live in??

hi im in surrey.

so i need to get a de chlorinator to put in the water? does it matter than ive already filled the tank with tap water

 

[Silverlady]

No just add the Declorinator to the water.It's great having a new tank ,isn't' it.

 

[jenny6165]

oh its all so complicated. right, will get some dechlorinator when i go to the LFS next.
are the instructions right to say i can add a couple of hardy fish in a weeks time, and then wait 8 weeks before adding more. so glad i found this site, or my fish would all die really quickly! lol.

 

[catxx]

hehe, yeah you'll need dechlorinator.
also, look into fishless cycling, it can be easier than having fish die on you in the first week of getting them.

check this thread:
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=113861