Should I buy the heavily discounted display Aqua One Regency - I'm new to fish keeping

[Yarkii]

Hello everyone!

I'm new to fish-keeping. All I've set-up so far is a second-hand 20L tank with a goldfish in it (happily swimming amongst a few plants & a couple of ornaments - he seems to be doing okay).

I'm very keen to set up a much bigger tank with tropical fish. I've been looking at local aquariums and pet stores, and found one pet store that are selling some display model tanks "as is", saying they're the end of the line.

I'm considering an Aqua One Regency 220L tank with stand/cabinet & sump. It's very heavily reduced in price. I'm not sure how the fact that it's a display model will affect the warranty. I also know nothing about sumps.

Would you recommend this kind of tank to a beginner? Does a sump filter equate to differences in care of the fish and the tank? Would you invest in an aquarium without a warranty? Even though it's heavily reduced, it's still A LOT of money.

I'm hoping to have lots of beautiful plants in the tank, and to eventually have a couple of angelfish (maybe), some mollies & platys & cardinals & cory cats (maybe pandas), and maybe a dwarf gourami. I'll ask about plant and fish recommendations in alternate posts once I've purchased a tank. For now I just want to find the right tank, that I can afford.

Thanks in advance.


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[DrRob]

Buy the biggest tank that you can afford and house, end of. If you have the space and resources to get a tank bigger than the 220l then don't get it, you'll kick yourself in the long run. If 220l is only possible because of the deal, then take it.

The rest can all be worked around. Do remember though that bigger tanks make for heftier kit, so that features in the price.

Nothing wrong with tropical sumps, just not standard practice.

 

[fluttermoth]

Nearly all my tanks have been second hand, and ex display models should be reliable; not sure about warranties though!

Can I just point out that your goldie needs a bigger tank, ASAP. Goldfish can grow quite large and shouldn't be in any tank smaller than 100l; it actually might need to go to a pond, depending on what variety it is.

 

[Yarkii]

Thanks DrRob. I've pushed my budget up and up, and can't see myself being able to get this size tank any way other than with the huge discount. It's 50% off.

I'm not sure what sorts of things can go wrong in which you'd need to use the warranty on a new tank. I guess if it's little things going wrong that only cost little amounts to fix, it's okay. I'm not going to lose all my money over any one problem, am I?

Thanks re the sump not being an issue. The girl in the store was pretty keen on this tank because of the sump filter drawing the water out of the tank from an overflow kind-of thing (as opposed to the other tank I was looking at, that had a filter built in to the hood, that drew water from down lower in the tank and dripped it back out). She said that this sort keeps the surface of the water cleaner.



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[Ch4rlie]

Sounds as if that is a pretty good deal.

Sumps are not normal for tropical tanks but you dont HAVE to use the sump if you dont want to. You could sell the sump to recoup a little money.

Personally I've never had a sump on any of my tropicla tanks, there is no real need for it if you have a good filter set up. But certainly no reason why you could not set up a sump for the tropical tank, after all this increases water volume as well as extra filtration.

I agree with Fluttermoth regarding the goldfish, a 20l tank is VERY small for goldfish. Many species of goldfish can grow rather large! Just kinds of depends on what specie your goldie is.

Goldfish For Beginners

 

[fluttermoth]

Many species of goldfish can grow rather large! Just kinds of depends on what specie your goldie is.

Goldfish For Beginners

#Pedant alert!

'Breed' or 'variety' would be more correct; all goldfish are the same species, Carassius auratus

 

[Ch4rlie]

Ah, of course it is!

How come I never thought of that before, I am the same when it comes to dogs and breeds etc

So obviously applies to all other animals and fish of course.

Thanks for the correction

 

[Yarkii]

Nearly all my tanks have been second hand, and ex display models should be reliable; not sure about warranties though!

Can I just point out that your goldie needs a bigger tank, ASAP. Goldfish can grow quite large and shouldn't be in any tank smaller than 100l; it actually might need to go to a pond, depending on what variety it is.

Thanks Fluttermoth.

I'm not sure what variety of goldfish it is. I'm starting to lose faith in my local aquarium, as they suggested that we could have two goldfish, or one goldfish and some other smaller fish like zebras, in the 20L aquarium.

Are any goldfish varieties small enough as adults for this tank, or is it absolutely going to be a problem? If I returned the goldfish, would it be an option to put in a heater & get a lone platy or guppy or swordfish or mollie in there? It appears to be a cycled tank. It was a second-hand tank, and this goldfish has been going okay for a couple of months. The local aquarium only briefly talked me through cycling. I got the impression from then that you had to use a small number of small fish to cycle a tank (another reason why I'm not too keen on that store now).

That little 20L tank is officially (but not really) my 7yo son's, and he chose a goldfish, but he'd probably be just as happy with something the same colour as a goldfish.

 

[Yarkii]

Buy the biggest tank that you can afford and house, end of. If you have the space and resources to get a tank bigger than the 220l then don't get it, you'll kick yourself in the long run. If 220l is only possible because of the deal, then take it.

The rest can all be worked around. Do remember though that bigger tanks make for heftier kit, so that features in the price.

Nothing wrong with tropical sumps, just not standard practice.

Thanks so much, DrRob. I took your advice & bought this 220L. I'd never be able to get this size tank at full price. Now to slowly, slowly set it up!

 

[Yarkii]

Sounds as if that is a pretty good deal.

Sumps are not normal for tropical tanks but you dont HAVE to use the sump if you dont want to. You could sell the sump to recoup a little money.

Personally I've never had a sump on any of my tropicla tanks, there is no real need for it if you have a good filter set up. But certainly no reason why you could not set up a sump for the tropical tank, after all this increases water volume as well as extra filtration.

I agree with Fluttermoth regarding the goldfish, a 20l tank is VERY small for goldfish. Many species of goldfish can grow rather large! Just kinds of depends on what specie your goldie is.

Goldfish For Beginners

Thanks Charlie, for the comment asks the link. I'll check it out. Unfortunately I don't know what variety this goldfish is.

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[Yarkii]

*and the link

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[fluttermoth]

I'm afraid there are no really small goldfish varieties; even the 'smaller' ones, like orandas or fantails get to around six or eight inches in length and need a 100l tank.

You could certainly add a heater and keep a few male Endlers or guppies, or a male betta, which are absolutely the best fish for kids; they don't need much room and have great characters

I don't know why shops are so bad at giving advice on fishless cycles, or proper stocking, I guess they just need to make sales and don't want to put people off by telling them they can't have things

 

[Ch4rlie]

I'm afraid there are no really small goldfish varieties; even the 'smaller' ones, like orandas or fantails get to around six or eight inches in length and need a 100l tank.

You could certainly add a heater and keep a few male Endlers or guppies, or a male betta, which are absolutely the best fish for kids; they don't need much room and have great characters

I don't know why shops are so bad at giving advice on fishless cycles, or proper stocking, I guess they just need to make sales and don't want to put people off by telling them they can't have things

100% agreed with this

The point about shops giving such bad advice is certainly ringing true, a real shame they feel they need to do this whether intentionally or not. Very bad for business imho, if they gave out good advice and decent sales, then they will have repeat customers making more profit in the long run rather than just one or two sales of a few items and a dose of bad advice then the customer will unlikely to return to the store after learning of the truth from forums such as this.

 

[Yarkii]

I'm afraid there are no really small goldfish varieties; even the 'smaller' ones, like orandas or fantails get to around six or eight inches in length and need a 100l tank.

You could certainly add a heater and keep a few male Endlers or guppies, or a male betta, which are absolutely the best fish for kids; they don't need much room and have great characters

I don't know why shops are so bad at giving advice on fishless cycles, or proper stocking, I guess they just need to make sales and don't want to put people off by telling them they can't have things

Thanks Fluttermoth. I've really always wanted a beta myself. Maybe I can return Goldie and pick out a spunky beta to take his place.

 

[Yarkii]

100% agreed with this

The point about shops giving such bad advice is certainly ringing true, a real shame they feel they need to do this whether intentionally or not. Very bad for business imho, if they gave out good advice and decent sales, then they will have repeat customers making more profit in the long run rather than just one or two sales of a few items and a dose of bad advice then the customer will unlikely to return to the store after learning of the truth from forums such as this.

So true! I thought this was a really good aquarium and was so glad it was close to home, but they've given me [what I now believe to be] bad advice on a couple of occasions, so I've been driving around & checking out other aquariums to see what they're like instead.