Looking to buy a fish tank - New to the fish biz!

[styla12]

Hi All,

Firstly, thank you for having me here .

Soooo .... finally bought a house large enough to store a nice fish tank, am looking to get a 200l+ fish tank to start with.... am new to all this, have never had pet animals/fishes before so a little bit scared...

1. The tank I am planning to get is a: Fluval Roma 240 - any advice on whether that's the right way to go?

Fluval Roma 240 Litre Bluetooth LED Aquarium & Cabinet Set

Delivery of this aquarium to your chosen UK mainland address can take up to 2 weeks, during this time you will receive a phone call to arrange a suitable delivery window. Weekend delivery is not available. The courier will drop the pallet on the curb closest to your home, it is advised to have...

www.fishkeeper.co.uk

2. The tank "apparently" has everything required in order to start a tropical fish tank, not entirely sure you guys would agree, so thought i'll check whether there's any hardware/bits and bobs i would need to purchase on top of what it comes with which is:

Equipped with an integrated LED lighting system with 14.5W LED light
Includes Fluval 306 External filter, Fluval Heater and LCD Thermometer
Come with 'Through Tank Base' filter connection

3. Since I am new to it all, any advice on what fish I should be looking to start out with?
Also in terms of plants, would you advise a mix of live and artificial, and if live, which ones ? Ideally want something nice and colorful/lively to start out with .

Thanks in advance for all your help all!

P.S So far have read a lot of articles and watched a lot of YouTube videos... in preperation...

 

[seangee]

Yes that is everything you need - but no doubt you will spend a lot more in the weeks and months to come. My personal recommendation is sand as a substrate. Argos play sand is a popular inexpensive choice (and a good one). For something a bit more striking you could look at river sand which costs a bit more. That's black limpopo sand in the pic in my signature. Oh don't bother with any of the sands supposedly meant for planted tanks. Make sure you read up on cycling your tank and don't believe the fish store when they say all you need is to run it for a couple of days. For me its always live plants - no benefit whatsoever in artificial ones.

Finally your water is likely to be very hard (but please check to confirm). Some fish need hard water and some need soft, your life is a whole lot easier if you choose fish that will thrive in the water that comes out of your tap. A good site for researching species is seriouslyfish.com. As well has hardness look at temperature requirements, tank size, how big they grow and how many you should keep in a group. Also consider aggression and activity levels. If you mix hyperactive fish with calm sedentary fish this can cause stress in the tank. Once you can confirm your water hardness please post it on here. GH is the number that matters, we need a number and the unit - this may be found on your water suppliers web site. No need to worry about pH if you choose suitable fish for your water hardness.

Then (while your tank is cycling) have fun looking at fish species in shops and on-line. Make a list of what takes your fancy and ask on here. No specific plant recommendations but look for those that are regarded as easy or moderate care and don't require high light or CO2. And try to include some floating plants - that is amazon frogbit in my picture.

Good luck.

 

[styla12]

Thanks a lot for such a detailed response... little bit confused on finding the GH, here is what i can find:

404

www.thameswater.co.uk

http://twmediadevcdn.azureedge.net/waterquality/WQ%20Report_Z0092_Keston%20&%20Forestdale.pdf

I think the preference would be fewer but larger fish... do you think a 240l tank is a good starting point?

Does any of this help ?

 

[Retired Viking]

Hello and welcome to the forum, @seangee gives good advice, 200 liter is a nice size tank I have a 55 gallon tank. Not too big to take over a room but big enough to do a lot of things with. Good luck with your tank.

 

[seangee]

Thanks a lot for such a detailed response... little bit confused on finding the GH, here is what i can find:

404

www.thameswater.co.uk

http://twmediadevcdn.azureedge.net/waterquality/WQ%20Report_Z0092_Keston%20&%20Forestdale.pdf

I think the preference would be fewer but larger fish... do you think a 240l tank is a good starting point?

Does any of this help ?

Love the fact that they comment on suitability for brewing beer.
As I suspected the water is hard - the figures quoted are mg/L which is the same as PPM (parts per million). Some profiles will list hardness in degrees just divide the number by 17.9 to get degrees.
Hardness (Total) as CaCO3mg/l-252 292 322
Your alkalinity is also fairly high - so any attempts to change your pH will fail
Alkalinity as CaCO3mg/l-175 214 249

Slightly concerning is the nitrate level. This is pretty inconsistent
Nitrate as NO3mg/l <1.8 27.1 36.4
Most people recommend an absolute max of 20ppm with a preference for less than 10. Those samples show a mean of 27.1 and a max of 36.4. I have similar problems with my tap water (50ppm). I tried various filtration methods but ended up by using RO water - which also allowed me to keep soft water fish. The downside of this is cost / effort. I change 75% of my water every week and recommend a minimum of 50% weekly. Before you rush out and buy an RO unit test your tap water. Those figures may have been taken from different sites in your region, so you may get lucky.

 

[JuiceBox52]

Definitely a great sized tank. Bigger is always better for the fishes health and for a well balanced eco system

 

[styla12]

Okay.... don't think I'll be any luckier, to be honest, the report you've seen is exactly from my site/region aha!

So would it be fair to say that regardless of how I go about it, I would need a RO unit as well as change a large percentage of the water on a weekly basis?

 

[styla12]

Any thoughts on the above guys?

 

[TheTenthDoctor]

First off welcome!
Second you will want to go with a fish that is easy to take care of and resilient to some of the mistakes beginners can make. May I suggest guppies? Or perhaps Platies? These are wonderful fish for beginners because they are easy and fun, plus come in any color of the rainbow.
Third I would recommend looking into either all fake or all live plants. Live plant wise you will want plants that are easy yet beautiful. My personal favorite is guppy grass. It grows exponentially and puts up with mistakes. Amazon sword is also nice, but beware they can get pretty big. I have also had luck with aquarium lilies and water wisteria. You might want to think about floating plants too. They help prevent algae and provide a comforting atmostphere for fish. I recommend water lettuce, salvinia minima, or duckweed as they are hardy and beautiful.
Lastly check your water parameters and consider fish based on what they are.

 

[styla12]

First off welcome!
Second you will want to go with a fish that is easy to take care of and resilient to some of the mistakes beginners can make. May I suggest guppies? Or perhaps Platies? These are wonderful fish for beginners because they are easy and fun, plus come in any color of the rainbow.
Third I would recommend looking into either all fake or all live plants. Live plant wise you will want plants that are easy yet beautiful. My personal favorite is guppy grass. It grows exponentially and puts up with mistakes. Amazon sword is also nice, but beware they can get pretty big. I have also had luck with aquarium lilies and water wisteria. You might want to think about floating plants too. They help prevent algae and provide a comforting atmostphere for fish. I recommend water lettuce, salvinia minima, or duckweed as they are hardy and beautiful.
Lastly check your water parameters and consider fish based on what they are.

Thanks buddy, just a little bit worried from the above message by Seangee, should I focus on getting hard water fish in that case? Even then, will the nitrate levels be an issue therefore will I need to get the RO unit and replace 50% weekly as a bare minimum or is there any other solution?

 

[seangee]

Test the water first for nitrates. Someone 2 streets up from me has similar water with <10 ppm nitrates. When we investigated we discovered it is the same water supplier, same quality report but 2 different resevoirs. Your minimum reported reading is <1.8 and that would be perfect for guppies or platies if that is what you choose to keep. Test strips are accurate enough to give you an idea - or you could take it to a fish shop to test.

If you happen to prefer soft water fish (as I do), going to RO may be your best bet. But as someone who does this I know first hand that it is not nearly as easy (or cheap) as getting water straight out of the tap.

FWIW you may want to wait a few weeks to re-test because everything is going to be variable now with all the rain we have had. The good news is that if you choose to do a fishless cycle you can start immediately using tap water and only need to make a final decision when you are ready to add fish.

 

[styla12]

Thanks buddy - any advice on which test kit to use please? Or are they all reasonable?

Really appreciate all the advice and I agree changing 50% of water weekly will be a tough task aha!

 

[JPW003]

Hi there buddy

I'm very similar to you, new to the hobby since the start of the year, so 6 weeks on you.

Go for the API Master Test Kit which at around £25, tests everything you need to. Usual places on-line or in-store to buy.

Good luck with it, if you're anything like me you'll quickly get into it and love it!

This site is great for advice, ask any daft question and no-one criticises you as they've all been there.

J

 

[styla12]

Thanks buddy, going to get this kit to start with and take it from there in that case, appreciate the help,

 

[styla12]

Update... Got a fish tank running a fishless cycle atm, has a mix of live and artifical plants currently, woke up after day 1 with cloudy water, any thought on why that might be?

Also bought the API test kit and get the following results:

PH 7.2
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20
Ammonia 0.25