I'm buying the 10 gallon!

[cutechic]

I'm going out to buy the 10 gallon that I've been eyeing for a while , so I have a couple of questions.

1. What kind of filter should I have? The only fish I'm going to put in there are platies and otos, and in a couple of months I'm going to have live plants (for now I'm just having plastic ones).

2. I'd like to have sand, but how do I clean it? Doesn't the fish waste look bad unless the gravel is cleaned right away? And won't a gravel cleaner just suck up the sand? And how much sand (in weight) will I need?

 

[petitericeball]

http/www.aquariumadvice.com/calcs2.php?t...?type=sanddepth

 

[G_Sharky]

Hey cutechic,
If your looking into buying a tank, try to buy it as a set cause it will save you a lot of money, One LFS in my area rip off my sister when she bought a 5 G she ended up spending more than $100 for everything while there was a 10 G set for $120 canadian. Any filter would be good as long as it can handle the load(it will usually say on the box how many gallons it can pump). Good luck

 

[freshmike]

I would just go for an aquaclear mini....they are very inexpensive and do the job well....as for substrate, if you are planning on having live plants at a later date, I would get some sort of fairly fine sand or very small gravel....good luck!


chris

 

[phoenix]

try to stay away from white sand or very light colored sand it shows the waste alot easier.

 

[cutechic]

petitericeball: Thanks for the website. It says I should have 12 pounds of sand, but I might get some extra just to be safe.

G_Sharky: I just bought the tank. It came with UG filter, heater, lights, etc. for $45 CAD.

(I don't want to UG filter because I've found they don't work very well and they also aren't ideal for live plants.)

freshmike: My lfs told me that sand was ok for plants, but if I was going with gravel then I should get large sized. Don't ask me why But they did recommend the AC mini like you did, so I think that's what I'll buy.

phoenix: So if I use a siphon to clean the sand, will the sand be sucked up with the water? And can I use sand with a UG filter, or will it be sucked into the intake tube?