The Start

[Ajwlive]

Hey, I recently got into fish and especially fish tanks, very fun to watch and relaxing too, I thought I knew what I wanted until I started reading around the forum lol.

The one thing I have wanted all along is a nice clear tank, (very clear water) with some small colourful fish and one or two other types of fish (such as blowerfish I think they were called)
I have read around and I think Im looking for a 30 gallon tank roughly

I like the look of nano reefs, they look very clean and relaxing such as http/uk.youtube.com/watch?v=F_oYgy42bUE

But I also like the look of normal tropical fish tanks such as http/uk.youtube.com/watch?v=yaQPu4Ljd7g

Which would be easier to maintain and I guess which is cheapest?
Which type of fish am I looking at?
I have a few more questions but I could post them at a later date, (as you can tell im really really new to this hehe)

Thanks for anyhelp

 

[gaz gun man]

Indeed.

 

[shelaghfishface]

hi, please excuse Gaz he obviously is being distracted in other areas this evening

i would reccomend you either start by going cold water or tropical, go for the largest tank you can accomodate and afford ( bearing in mind running costs), i would reccomend leaving the marine untill you are further experienced as the mistakes are more costly
take your time to browse the forum, and enjoy it.. ask questions ,and get to know people,its great here
and welcome to TFF
shelagh xxx

 

[K-Holed]

I'll concur with the above post. Marines are definately less forgiving than most freshwater setups. That's not to say that a begginer can't keep one sucessfully, just that the cost is higher, the attention to detail has to be greater and as you specifically mentioned "Nano Reef" things can get even harder and more expensive again.

 

[blodhi74]

Agree with the above posters.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

I'll concur with the above post. Marines are definately less forgiving than most freshwater setups. That's not to say that a begginer can't keep one sucessfully, just that the cost is higher, the attention to detail has to be greater and as you specifically mentioned "Nano Reef" things can get even harder and more expensive again.

couldn't have put it better myself, if you do really want a reef then go for it, but you should be aware this is going to cost significantly more (think 3/4 times the cost of a standard tropical tank), there's an awful lot more science to learn and they are a lot less forgiving of mistakes than trop tanks. However when they are running smoothly and past the first 6 months or so, assuming you've got all the set up right, they don't actually take that much maintenance. It's really a case of spending a lot of cash to start off with, doing a lot of research and making sure you set it up right in the first place.

if you do decide to go with a marine tank then theres a separate section of the forum for saltwater tanks, they'll give you all the help you need.

if you decide to go for a tropical tank however then a good place to start your research is with the links in my sig, first one to read should be 'step by step guide to setting up an aquarium', it's a long old read but covers a lot of the basics and has links to lots of other topics for further reading in various areas

 

[petertr]

the best it of advise I can give you, and the item that everyone is most likely to ignore - DO NOT just go to a pet shop, and start buying things.


Take a lot of time to decide what you want. Also, remember to cycle the tank before you buy fish - this gives you 4-8 weeks to do your research!

 

[Ajwlive]

Heya, Ok so I did some research over the last few weeks and brought a book about marine aquariums by M Paletta (the new marine aquarium), and decided marine is just too difficult to start and it involves alot of money and things to buy

So im now going to go for a freshwater tropical aquarium with planted plants
can anyone reccomend some good books or references for me to start more research into this type of tank?
any help is appreciated

thanks

 

[waterdrop]

Well, no source of information is necessarily bad, so books and all sorts of things are great.

The really unusual thing is that you've stumbled on this great forum, where many find the information even better than the books they had read. I recommend that you start by looking a few posts back up for a member named Miss Wiggle. She has a number of links in her posts that you can click on and be taken to various pinned articles and discussions, some of which are great introductions to beginning topics. Likewise, it wouldn't hurt to check for other pinned articles at the top of the "New to the Hobby" forum section to make sure you get more complete coverage of topics. Then ask questions here and you'll find you may want to re-read some of the more important articles and discuss them. The members here really enjoy discussing the topics with beginners, so don't hesitate to ask away.

You've made a wise decision in my opinion to begin your learning with freshwater tropicals rather than marine. Not saying anything bad about marine, as its wonderful, its just that you're right about it being harder and more expensive for beginners - so you can always look forward to it perhaps in the future.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Miss Wiggle]

well the first thing to say is well done, by starting out doing your research before you get fish you've taken the best first step possible to sucessful fishkeeping so kudos to you.

I would echo the sentiments above, you don't need a book. I've yet to find a decent beginners book with no faults in or that covers everything, I've yet to see a book which covers fishless cycling at all! When I first started out I got loads of books, I started out by following what they said and using them as my only research method and I had a nightmare of a time because I was working from mis information. Now I do all my research on the web and I've had a whole lot more sucess.

What it comes down to is there are quite a few grey areas in fishkeeping, a lot of places where you make a judgement call one way or another. When you read a book you have one person's opinion presented to you as fact or the only way to do things. When you come on a forum like this you've thousands of members all with their own individual experiences, whatever decision you have to make you can fairly safely assume someone else will have made it before and most of the time you'll find someone who went one way and someone who went the other. You can make a much more objective decision based around several people's experiences and knowledge rather than just one.

If someone writes a load of old rubbish on a topic in a book then there's no way to tell if it's right or not, there's no peer review process it's just assumed as fact. If one of us writes a load of old rubbish then someone else will pop up and say that's wrong because ..... So the information you get is much more likely to be accurate and if you're ever not sure of the accuracy you can just ask opinions and people will give them.

So in a very rambling way I'd say you don't need to buy any books, this forum is the perfect place to start your research, as WD said read though the pins at the top of the new to the hobby section, some of the most useful ones (IMHO) are linked in my sig so have a look through those as well. The important thing to concern yourself with initially is cycling the tank, so focus your initial research on all the topics on cycling.

 

[Mr Bliss]

Yay another planted tank convert!

I'd just like to repeat what waterdrop and Miss Wiggle said: it's great that you're doing your research beforehand! It'll make things go so much easier and you have better chances of setting up your tank exactly the way you want.

I support the planted tank idea. In addition to looking awesome, live plants are good for your fish. Just a word of warning: what Miss Wiggle said about different opinions and experiences is doubly true for planted tanks, if you want to get even semi-serious about "aquatic gardening". It confused the hell out of me when I was beginning to set up my planted tank, but it all makes sense once you grasp the basics of how to balance light, nutrients and CO2 (and in case that sounded daunting: you don't need to have lots of light, added CO2 or fertilizers in order to keep a beautiful planted tank; these things just give you more options. But if you do increase one of the three, especially if it's light, you need to pay attention to the other two as well).

I'm a planted tank newbie myself, as I've kept cichlids and ignored plants most of my life, so I'm not going to offer much advice, except to point out the core concept of planted tank keeping: it's all about learning to grow plants without growing algae, and there are both high tech and low tech ways to do this. I'd start low tech (possibly with yeast-based DIY CO2 injection) if it's your first tank, because it costs less, and you can ease yourself into the hobby and make up your mind about it before investing in more expensive stuff.

I'd recommend the Planted Tanks subforum at this site as a good starting place for your research. The Journals section over there is an excellent place to look for inspiration and see what kinds of setup people use to achieve various effects.

One tip that's good to take into account early on:

- Do your research and decide on a suitable substrate before setting up the tank. There are lots of commercial and DIY substrates for planted tanks, from sand and gravel to cat litter and phenomenally expensive things like ADA Aquasoil, and the options for mixing and layering these are infinite. You can grow some plants in sand or gravel, but again, more "advanced" substrates give you more options. This is good to keep in mind before you start, because everything else can be changed easily later on, but taking out your substrate and putting in a new one would be difficult once you have the aquarium up and running.

edit: It seems I rushed ahead a bit here. Yes, do what Miss Wiggle suggests and get familiar with the process of cycling a tank first. You'll find out that the so-called high tech planted tanks aren't really cycled at all, but cycling (and the nitrogen cycle in aquariums) is a process you need to understand in order to be succesful at the hobby, no matter what path you choose.

 

[Ajwlive]

Haha thanks, I really want my tank to work and im willing to put in alot of effort and do alot of reading before I start.

Thanks for the above information, I just read a few topics and I must say this topic Step by step guide to your first aquarium By miss Wiggle is fantasic and has cleared up alot of things I had questions on, also the new tank syndrome topic for fishless cycles and ph, ammonia and Nitrogen cycle was very very helpful, so thanks to all the people that helped make those topics

Ok so I have decided to create my own tank and get the parts to tailormake the tank to my specifications and I have a few more questions

where can I get a good quality tank + Hood and wooden stand (I like the aquaone tanks but these have everything built in) any websites?

Its going to be about 40 gallons, Sponge filter is the way to go?

I want a heavilly planted tank with lots of cover for fish and very clear water, is their any plants I should avoid? (I have just looked through a topic on this yet not sure whats easy and good for a begginer, I can always come back to this later if people arnt sur)

and lastely I want a community tank with lots of small fish quite bright coloured fish, not aggresive fish , any suggestions and ones I should avoid? (did see some posts on the forum but wasnt sure)

Thanks again for any advice its much appreciated and im really looking forward to starting my own tank

 

[Miss Wiggle]

glad you found some of our topics helpful

where you get a tank depends a bit on what's local to you, there's an LFS near me which can get you a plain glass box tank and stand in just about any dimensions so I've never had to shop around on-line for one. I'd say for one weekend during your planning take a trip round all the fish shops in your area, leave the wallet at home but you can get an idea of which shops are good (look at the health of the fish and such like) and where gives the best prices on equipment etc. Also while you're going round write down the names of all the fish that you like, then when you come back here you can post the list up and we'll try to wittle down a stocking list suitable for the tank from the fish you like or make some similar suggestions. Stocking is such a personal choice that it can be hard for us to make suggestions sometimes.

for me, on a 40 gal tank, i'd go for an external cannister filter without a doubt, it'll have some sponges but some boi media in as well.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, excellent suggestion MW, that's always a wonderful exercise to do, to make repeated "familiarity" trips to your LFSs and take notes. On one of my trips like that to a local PetSmart I took the time to make more detailed notes in a little pad (I'm sure I looked like a nut case) but later I came to the intersting realization that fully half of all the fish they were showing would simply grow too large for all but the largest tanks. I had to laugh though when I realized there was an easy way to keep track.. they put all the too big ones on the right half of tanks and all the normal ones on the left half!

I totally believe in picking out the equipment individually. Esp over here in the US, the package setups just seem to always have one or more pieces of equip that don't work out. I think the tank itself and the filter and filter media are especially important to plan out individually.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[vinylman]

Hi A and welcome. The only thing I'd add to what you've already been told is to take your time. It really doesn't take much effort to get things right. Get it right at the start and you'll avoid problems later on. Also, don't think maintenance is going to take a lot of your time; once you've got the hang of vacuuming the gravel and changing water, it can take as little as 30 minutes every week or two. The most important thing I could pass on to you is RESEARCH, RESEARCH, then RESEARCH SOME MORE. It's vital whenever buying fish, or even making a shortlist. Always work on the eventual adult size, that's very important when stocking your tank. Buy a liquid test kit before you start, that way you can find out the hardness and PH of your tapwater. Most fish you'll buy in your LFS should be easily adaptable to your own, but avoid the extremes. And don't fall into the trap of the LFS telling you that you need ''a bottle of this, and this, and that''. Once you're up and running, all you'll need to buy with any regularity is dechlorinator and fish food (maybe liquid plant food, too). Don't be afraid to ask questions here. In fact it's best that you come here and double check anything you're told in your LFS. There are some very good ones, but there are some that give out verbal BS, so do always check here - there's always someone around day or night. Not many people come here BEFORE they buy; that's already a great start. Welcome to our world - it's rather fab.