Good Big Tank Size For A Beginner ?

[Acipenser]

Hello all I have just started out keeping fish, we got a couple of gold fish for my 4 1/2 years old and the unknowledgable staff at the pet store set us up with a ryukin and oranda in a 4 gallon tank, I quickly discovered this to be inadequate and have since purchased a 25 gallon tank. I added some live plants and 6 lepoard danios ( which I was told were white clouds). Will not go back to that pet super mart. Any way I am enjoying this quite alot and would like a larger tank so I can get some different tropical fish and move the danios out of the gold fish tank. I looked at a few tanks at a fish specific store and saw a few 60 to 150 gallon tanks I liked but am nervous about diving right into this hobby, I think I am maxed out with my two goldies and 6 danios in the 25 gallon ?

 

[AdAndrews]

If i were you, considering the ammount of money go for about a 15-25 gallon tank, but if you have the space you might as well just get the biggest tank you can fit

i have got goldfish in my baby biorb for about 2 months and am going to but a Aquael Brillux 72 litre tank

 

[Corleone]

Just about maxed out. Leopard danios are a variety of zebra danio. They can tolerate cooler water than most tropical fish, but not as cool as goldfish can. Eventually, the goldfish is likely to be big enough to eat them.

Without the danios, once the tank is well matured for several months, you could possibly add a second fancy goldfish. The usual rule is 20g for the first and 10 for each additional - you'd be slightly overstocked with 2, but reasonable overstocking is manageable with normal maintenance.

Anway, for tropicals, don't go too small, but don't go too big as a first tank. Bigger tanks are more stable and develop problems more slowly, but smaller tanks are easier to maintain when things are going right. IMO, 20-40 gallons is a good mid-range compromise. A 29 gallon (one of the very common standard sizes) is a great tank - it has room for a nice collection of fish, has the height to allow for nice shoal of top, mid, and bottom swimmers, as well as a centerpiece and a couple "character" fish.

Be wary of "bigger tank syndrome." I had a nasty case of this as my community progressed upwards through four tanks that I was sure I'd be satisfied with before they ended up in a 55 gallon tank.

 

[SharonCC]

I started with a Betta and then progressed right to the 55gal. If I had it to do over, I'd have gone for an even bigger one! Have bought two 29's since, and have been given several small tanks, that people got tired of. Before you spend the kind of money you will spend for a huge tank, you need to be sure you're really enjoying the hobby! If you're sure, bigger is better!

 

[kuruptedseed]

Go as big as you can afford and are willing to maintain... My first tank was 29 gal and given as a gift.. I knew after a couple months I had to go bigger I only went to a 55gal... I really wished I had gone 90-125 range! I regretted that bad decision for years.. Point being if you enjoy the hobby enough to want to advance then go as big as you can you'll be happy you did for years to come.....

 

[AngelOfDeath]

i had comet goldies with a few tropicsl fish in a 16 gall, they made way too much mess though, so i released them in a local pond =), i would say you can fit more fish in a 25 gall, just don't go crazy.

 

[OldMan47]

So I must intercede here. Do not ever release any of your fish or plants or snails into anything but another aquarium. So called releases of live aquarium strains of fish and plants are what leads to the very restrictive laws that some of us suffer from today. In the US it is now illegal to move most snails across state lines because of people doing the kind of thing that Angel of Death is advocating. That attitude will cause the death of this hobby if we don't police ourselves first. In many places some fish are already not available to the hobby because somebody thought it was smart to release them into an ecology where they had no natural enemies and they decimated those ecologies. In the southern states of the US there are whole waterways that have been destroyed by being choked with weeds that came from people thinking it was OK to put some of their aquarium plants into a local stream or pond.
You are fully stocked and then some in your present 25 gallon tank. As others have said, a 40 to 55 gallon tank is a good size for many uses. It is big enough to be stable but small enough not to be difficult to maintain. Unless you decide that you want to keep large cichlids, it will hold most fish you are likely to put into a typical community setting and will hold enough variety to not have the tank become boring. You might want to look in local classified ads, craigslist, bulletin boards, forum for sale ads, and similar places for good deals on used equipment because there is always a lot of it available and the prices are often less than half the price of new equipment. I fid the best deals of all are at freecycle and at local fish club auctions. Everyone at the auction usually knows how little a tank really costs if we are careful, so the prices seldom get run up very much before everyone bidding decides it's not such a good deal. At that point the price is often only a third what it would be at retail and it is usually equipment that has been well cared for.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

I generally say get the biggest tank you have space for and can afford

A large tank is much more stable and much more flexible in terms of the fish you can keep. sometimes people are scared of starting out big, but my other halfs first tank was a 60 gallon and that worked out really great. well actually that was his second tank, he initially bought a second hand 3'x3'x2' tank and then realised that it was probably a very bad idea to put it upstairs in his parents house and scaled his ideas back a bit!!!

Larger tanks can be a bit more work to maintain but really with a few simple things (like using pond dechlorinator as it goes further and a hose pipe to do water changes instead of a normal gravel vac) they really don't take all that much longer. For me I'd much rather spend an extra half hour once a week doing tank maintenance than have that same half hour more to sit infront of the telly doing nothing!!

I would suggest a 30 gal as a minimum, if you've the space and the money then go for something around the 50/60 gallon mark which would be a great size for a first tank.

I'd say a 100 gal should be the highest you should go for a first tank, I think after that point you need to get into some technical stuff with getting suitable effective filtration and stuff like that so that might be a good cut off point.

Obviously this is all flexible a few gals here and there, but just a general idea of the upper and lower limits I'd suggest for a first tank.

 

[waterdrop]

Gosh MW, I was looking at that and thinking WOW, she really goes for BIG tanks to recommend to beginners!! And, thinking about it (as this topic comes up again and again!) I sort of went off on a tangent thinking about how, in the end, the individual and/or the individual situation of the individual is just so, so, very unpredictable that it sort of defies anything close to a final size recommendation beyond a few maxims, right?

Clearly, one of the most important guidelines we can impart to beginners is that as the water volume gets larger, the water chemistry sides of the system will get more stable and easier for them as beginners. Very small tanks are very tricky even for experienced aquarists, and sometimes a nightmare for beginners. But here I think we're talking less than 10 US Gallons, or perhaps some would but it at less than 15 US Gallons. Anyway, somewhere between 10-20 US gallons (that's between 38L and 76L for you Brits!) must be where the turning point is between a tank that's too small and tricky, or one big enough to be much easier to learn on.

Not so clearly, the top end seems much harder to me to make recommendations about. MW's comment, putting the top end for beginners up at 100G is described with some care, which is good. It indeed must be true that some things like filtration and floor reinforcement begin to get more exotic when you get up above 100 US gallons.

Gosh, its just really a hard call. The tanks between about 55G and 100G would be really stable (chemistry/biology wise) and so, great for beginners, and its true that if it turns out you love the hobby, you would be so glad you went all out and now had such a beautiful big tank... but on the other hand they are so BIG! If you found you didn't have the patience for the maintanence after a few months, it could be a lot to handle and a lot of expense. I don't know, I probably should learn to be a bigger risk taker, but I just still feel that the sweet spot for beginners is more in the 15 to 40 gallon range, with 28 to 40 or so being the sweetest of all.

But I'd still say the upper end varies wildly with individual situations, whereas the lower end, the minimum is clearer to state (don't really want to be going below 15G or so if you can possibly help it.)

Gee, that probably cleared up nothing, right?
~~waterdrop~~

 

[Mr Bliss]

I'd go with something between 20 - 60g. Tanks are easy to maintain in this range. Just remember that with anything under 55g you can't believe anything your LFS says about suitable fish; they'll almost always try to sell you fish that get too big.

Although if you want to keep those goldfish for the long term (these fish live a long time!) and maybe get them some company, I suggest going for as big a tank as you have room for and can afford. Goldfish look amazing when they are healthy and happy in big tanks. Unfortunately you almost never see that, the way people generally keep this poor species.

 

[murphyk32]

my experience was a betta tank - a 20gallon for a short time, then -- 55 gallon that i currently have. if you do research, and do it right, get what u can afford. it opens ur options up and in the end most go for a bigger tank if they dont feel their first one was big enough anyways so midaswell start off big. personally i cant afford it but id LOVE a much bigger tank soooooo much

 

[Bigpig]

Big tank if you got the space and money. You end up looking a bigger tank and bigger fishes after a few weeks

 

[flash22]

good starting point would be 180-200 litre by the time you buy all the bits your looking at £4-500 quid as it soon adds up

2 years on nearly i have a pair of rio 180's and a rio 125 i would love a bigger tank but Dont have the room And the floor would need suporting (victorian house, woodon floors)

 

[Davo86]

I'd go for around a 55-60USG tank, this would be suitable for 90% of the common species that ur likely to come across in any LFS,

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Gosh MW, I was looking at that and thinking WOW, she really goes for BIG tanks to recommend to beginners!! And, thinking about it (as this topic comes up again and again!) I sort of went off on a tangent thinking about how, in the end, the individual and/or the individual situation of the individual is just so, so, very unpredictable that it sort of defies anything close to a final size recommendation beyond a few maxims, right?

ha ha, well the OP did say they'd been looking at tanks between 50 and 150 gals and considering within that sort of range what would be a nice size to start out with. I certainly wouldn't suggest everyone jumps in at that end of the spectrum but I do think there are some very big advantages if the OP is prepared to take that leap of faith and go for a bigger tank.

Sure there is the issue of what to do with the tank if you don't get really into the hobby, be warned that brand new tanks depreciate a hell of a lot, if you buy a nice new Juwel (or similar) tank for £5/600 and decide after a year that you no longer want it, even in immaculate condition it's unlikely to fetch edven half of that. So it is a financial risk, you'll always be able to sell it so you can get rid, but you won't get your money back.

However that can work to your advantage, if you're prepared to go second hand, have a look around on ebay and you can always pick up some bargains.

We always get it with beginners when they've boguh a 20 gal tank or something like that and they've carefully fishless cycled it, they go to the fish shop and write down all the fish they like, come back here and you can feel how gutted they are when you say actually half the species you like get too big for the tank, the other half want to be in groups so it means you can actually only have 3/4 of your preferred species or something along those lines. It's a pretty tough blow sometimes. A bigger tank just gives so much more flexibility stocking wise, at around 50 gals you can pick from maybe 75/80% of all the fish in your lfs and even with large groups you've still got room for a good few different species. Added to which if you want species which are a little territorial or agressive then in a small tank they can terrorise the tank, in a big tank the same fish can be much more peaceful because they have sapce to roam and can claim territory and also other fish have a lot more space to get away from them if they need to!

As mentioned above with the chemistry, the key to toxicity is dulition. If something goes wrong in your tank, you make a beginners mistake as we all have done, and you then end up with a small amount of some contaminent in the water, in a 5 gal tank that could wipe out the whole system, in a 50 gal tank you'll barely see a blip. It's all just a lot easier to control and a lot more forgiving if you do make a mistake.