Trigon 190 Setup

[MissyFishy]

Wondering if someone could give me some advise as I am new to tropical fish keeping. Have bought a Trigon 190 tank from ebay for tropical use.
I am aware that just using white lights would not be good for all of my intended fish, however the T5 light unit only has a single switch so cant switch one light on at a time. This is a problem as I would like to run a blue light for a couple of hours a day, can anyone advise me how to get around this.

Also I am thinking about planting the tank. Does anyone have any advise on suitable plants as my depth is approx 20ins and I am looking to have it densely vegetated.

Any helpful ideas and advise would be gratefully received.


Many thanks

Sarah

 

[KittyKat]

A bit of an odd question.. I will assume you don't know much about fishkeeping as you said you are new so will start at the.. start!

1. Cycle your tank, I strongly recommend fish-less with ammonia, other main option is fish-in (too much hassle and not morally sound, form my point of view). Your filter might already be cycled if the tank still has fish in it up to the point when you collect it and you do not dunk the filter in chlorinated water
2. Equipment:
   • Tank
   • Heater
   • Filter
   • Thermometer
   • Lights on timer
   • Substrate (I prefer play sand)
   • Nets, buckets, etc
   • Good liquid test kit (most people recommend API) for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, preferably also hardness
   • Medication (anti-whitespot, anti-fungal)
   • Dechlorinator which also removes chloramine
3. Stock (this is what I would have, assuming you have never kept fish):
   • 1m 1f dwarf gourmis
   • 15 harlequin rasboras (OR 15 cardinal tetras)
   • 10 Corys (if you have sand) OR 1m 2f bristlenose plecos
   • 1m 1f Bolivian rams
4. Plants: here are some I recommend to all beginners as staring points..
   • Java moss
   • Java fern
   • All Anubias species
   • easy hygrophilas and cabomba

Blue lights are not that great for a freshwater tank, I would advise against. Just standard, white bulbs are great for most plants and fish. What are your intended fish? Why would they have a problem with while lights?