New to the Hobby and Looking for Advice on First Aquarium

[CleanRiversDirtRoads]

Good afternoon, Everyone.

I am looking to get back into the hobby and I was hoping to get some advice on what the best setup would be for a 20ish gallon aquarium. Growing up, I had freshwater aquariums but got my fish from PetSmart and had someone who would take care of the maintenance. Now, I want to get back into the hobby with a small budget friendly option that I can learn all of the intricacies with. My dream would be to get into large saltwater reef tanks, but for now, I am trying to stay as inexpensive as possible yet still visually appealing as a focal piece for our living room.

The aquarium would not be in direct sunlight, but the temperature of our condo does vary with the seasons. Some articles that I have read say that aquariums are very sensitive to temperature fluctuation of the room they are in, but I don't really know how to control that other than shut the blinds in the summer and use the heater in the winter.

If anyone has recommendations for setups and fish species that are attractive and hardy for a beginner, I would love to hear them!

Thank you!!

 

[JuiceBox52]

Hi, welcome to the forum
For the heating just use an aquarium heater

Before we can help with any stocking suggestions we need to know your GH (general hardness) you should be able to find this info on your local water providers website or call them directly.

Are you aware of the nitrogen cycle?

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

As far as tank size... I recommend getting a 29g tank. It is just the right size to grab people attention, but not so big it’s in everyone’s way.

Are you looking to setup a planted tank?

Are you aware of the Nitrogen Cycle and how it works? If norm here is a helpful thread:https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/

As far as the temperature goes, I would go ahead and get a heater. Get an adjustable heater if you can. Also, get a very accurate thermometer so you can know the temperature of your water at all times.

If you have any more questions, please ask.

 

[CleanRiversDirtRoads]

Hi, welcome to the forum
For the heating just use an aquarium heater

Before we can help with any stocking suggestions we need to know your GH (general hardness) you should be able to find this info on your local water providers website or call them directly.

Are you aware of the nitrogen cycle?

Thank you for your response! After doing some digging on the water provider's website, all I could find for hardness was a rating of 16.35 grains/gallon. I don't know if that helps with your question, but my in-laws have a reverse osmosis filter, and we get water from them frequently for drinking. I could definitely get some for the aquarium as well. Im also not opposed to buying water if I need to.

 

[CleanRiversDirtRoads]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

As far as tank size... I recommend getting a 29g tank. It is just the right size to grab people attention, but not so big it’s in everyone’s way.

Are you looking to setup a planted tank?

Are you aware of the Nitrogen Cycle and how it works? If norm here is a helpful thread:https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/

As far as the temperature goes, I would go ahead and get a heater. Get an adjustable heater if you can. Also, get a very accurate thermometer so you can know the temperature of your water at all times.

If you have any more questions, please ask.

Thank you, and I appreciate your input!

After some preliminary research, I did know that I need to cycle the tank before I put fish in it, but if you're asking if I know what the nitrogen cycle is for my tap water, I don't have a clue...

To be honest, I'm open to anything! If it is better to have a planted tank for some reason, I like the looks of them! Im also not opposed to going the saltwater route if there is an affordable way of doing it.

 

[Byron]

Thank you for your response! After doing some digging on the water provider's website, all I could find for hardness was a rating of 16.35 grains/gallon. I don't know if that helps with your question, but my in-laws have a reverse osmosis filter, and we get water from them frequently for drinking. I could definitely get some for the aquarium as well. Im also not opposed to buying water if I need to.

GH (general hardness) is expressed in the hobby by one of two units, either ppm (parts per million) or dH (degrees GH or H). One grain per gallon is 17.1 ppm, so 16.35 gpg equates to 279 ppm, which in turn equates to 15 dGH. Some people/sites prefer ppm, some dGH, so I tend to post both.

This is water that is fairly hard, to use a rather subjective term. GH is important for fish because each species has evolved to function in fairly specific parameters and GH is the most important. Hard water fish species will have no trouble in your water; these include all livebearers, rift lake cichlids, and a few other species. When it comes to soft water species, which are the majority, there are some that absolutely must have very soft water and then there are a number that have a tolerance for moderately hard water.

You mentioned RO water, and if that is feasible, it would open up options. You could mix RO and tap water, and the result would be to lower the GH proportionally. For example, half tap water and half RO would reduce the GH by half, to say 8 dGH. That alone would offer you a lot of options. The only thing here is that water has to be "prepared" outside the aquarium to avoid shocking the fish at water changes. You would want to perform partial water changes once a week minimum, changing somewhere between 50 and 70% of the tank volume.

Another option would be touse RO water exclusively. This is fine for fish from very soft water, and with a smaller tank you have very many options in fish. Most of the smaller (nano) fish species are very soft water fish.

EDIT to correct a missing "no" in para 2.

 

[JuiceBox52]

Byron pretty much nailed it

 

[CleanRiversDirtRoads]

GH (general hardness) is expressed in the hobby by one of two units, either ppm (parts per million) or dH (degrees GH or H). One grain per gallon is 17.1 ppm, so 16.35 gpg equates to 279 ppm, which in turn equates to 15 dGH. Some people/sites prefer ppm, some dGH, so I tend to post both.

This is water that is fairly hard, to use a rather subjective term. GH is important for fish because each species has evolved to function in fairly specific parameters and GH is the most important. Hard water fish species will have trouble in your water; these include all livebearers, rift lake cichlids, and a few other species. When it comes to soft water species, which are the majority, there are some that absolutely must have very soft water and then there are a number that have a tolerance for moderately hard water.

You mentioned RO water, and if that is feasible, it would open up options. You could mix RO and tap water, and the result would be to lower the GH proportionally. For example, half tap water and half RO would reduce the GH by half, to say 8 dGH. That alone would offer you a lot of options. The only thing here is that water has to be "prepared" outside the aquarium to avoid shocking the fish at water changes. You would want to perform partial water changes once a week minimum, changing somewhere between 50 and 70% of the tank volume.

Another option would be touse RO water exclusively. This is fine for fish from very soft water, and with a smaller tank you have very many options in fish. Most of the smaller (nano) fish species are very soft water fish.

Wow! Thank you for your response!! Fish keeping is much more of a chemistry than I thought! haha.

That being said... With my water conditions/aquarium size, are there any fish/plant species that you feel would be best suited for this setup?

 

[JuiceBox52]

Wow! Thank you for your response!! Fish keeping is much more of a chemistry than I thought! haha.

That being said... With my water conditions/aquarium size, are there any fish/plant species that you feel would be best suited for this setup?

Currently you could only have guppies, mollie's, platies, swordtails and rainbowfish (these are the hard water fish that I am aware of, there may be more)
If you mix with RO you will have many more options

How about you look up some fish, tell us what you are interested in and we can tell you if they are compatible with each other, the tank size, and your water how it is , your water mixed with RO, or your water totally RO

 

[Byron]

Wow! Thank you for your response!! Fish keeping is much more of a chemistry than I thought! haha.

That being said... With my water conditions/aquarium size, are there any fish/plant species that you feel would be best suited for this setup?

I usually re-read my previous post before answering a follow-up, and it is a good thing I do; I spotted a missing "no" in para 2. So that leads into your question here.

Livebearers are well suited to your fairly hard water, if you use straight tap water. It makes life simpler at water changes. But livebearers do limit your options, as they include guppies, Endlers, platies, swordtails and mollies. However, the latter two need more space than a 20g so I would not consider them. But guppies, Endlers and platies are good, and you can combine them. Unless you want to have dozens if not hundreds of fry every month, it is wise to have only males. They are more colourufl when it comes to guppies and Endlers so stores sometimes separate them. If you do want fry and have male/female, you need a higher number of females to males; males can get very rough on females, and having say 3 females to one male helps spread it around.

Rift lake cichlids need considerably more space than a 20g, unless perhaps the shell dwellers. Some of the rainbowfish species are moderately hard water fish, but they tend to get largish and need a group so probably not the best option here if the 20g is it.

If you do mix RO/tap, your options expand to some of the tetras, catfish like cories, and danios and barbs. But the latter two are more active and again space is limited here.

You won't have plant problems. Vallisneria is ideal in harder water. Floating plants are wise, they provide shade for fish and they are remarkable at using nutrients like ammonia.

 

[JuiceBox52]

Thanks byron I forgot about rift lake cichlids!

 

[Retired Viking]

Welcome to the forum

 

[CleanRiversDirtRoads]

Thank you all for your warm welcome and for answering all of my questions! I am more than happy to do more research and come up with my favorites, I just thought that since there are so many fish species out there, some of you may have opinions on what the best starter budget aquarium setup would be that would be eye catching and colorful.

As I had mentioned, salt water is the dream because of the colors and corals etc, but I like bright cichlid setups as well. From my research, it seems like for a lot of color and eye catching fish, the best and most affordable way to go is neons and things, but I was hoping to default to the experts with experience on here instead of my research on google. haha .

Thank you again for your input everyone! I hope that helps give direction to what I am looking for with my aquarium!

 

[CleanRiversDirtRoads]

Good evening, everyone!

After doing some research, this is what I've found and liked:
Nano Saltwater Tank:
1. Clownfish
2. Cardinal Fish
3. Kamohara Blenny
4. Cleaner Goby
5. Dotty Back

Freshwater Tanks:
Option 1
Planted aquarium with a bunch of neon tetras, a couple cherry shrimp, maybe a corydora, and coolie loaches.
Option 2
Planted aquarium with Pseudomugil, Neon Red, fork tail rainbow, a couple of neon tetras, corydora, rasbora, cherry shrimp, coolie loach, praecox rainbow.

Has anyone had any experience with setups like these?

Thanks for your input everyone!

 

[JuiceBox52]

I like freshwater option one, things to point out, corydoras need a shoal of 6+, loaches also. Both of these need sand as the substrate.
So I would do (with RO water)
In a 29g
12 neon tetras
8-10 corydoras
Or 6-7 loaches
5+ cherry shrimp