What's up?

[fishbox]

Big a boo Hi, my name is Peter...my friends and family call me PJ, and so can you To be perfectly honest, I know nothing about fish, but I'm here to learn I am very happy to get to know all of you, and what not.... So, I is here to learn learn learn...and...err....well basicly...err.....learn

 

[Alien Anna]

Hi Peter! Do you actually own any fish yet, or are you hoping to get an aquarium soon?

 

[fishbox]

Sadly No but I is really hoping in getting some. My sister has two tanks, and she had loads So, I look at them, and try to learn the fish...I know I have noun, but I do want some, and hopefully will get some

 

[Alien Anna]

Then Peter you came to this forum not a moment too soon!

Please hang around, ask loads and loads of questions and learn all you can before you get your first tank. Whatever the Local Fish Shop (LFS) says, you can't just buy everything, including the fish, on day one and expect them to survive. Newbies do this all the time and they get themselves into such a horrible mess!

So, when you're ready to start, buy the biggest tank you can afford, because bigger tanks are actually easier (2nd hand is usually good - have a look on Ebay) and unless you get the fish with it, as part of the deal, you're going to have to "cycle" it first. This means building up the beneficial bacteria that process the fish's waste for them (ammonia) and convert it into less harmful nitrate.

Ammonia and nitrite (a by-product of ammonia) are the things that kill fish most often - so when people complain that they had fish, but they kept dying, this is invariably the reason. You may still lose fish occasionally, but at least that wouldn't be the reason!

I recommend you start with something called Fishless Cycling, which involves feeding the beneficial bacteria with an artificial source of ammonia to get them going, before any fish are introduced. It takes about 6-8 weeks but is well worth it.

Anyway, I'm sure you'll have lots of questions. Congratulations on going about this the right way - it's a great hobby!

 

[caz27]

 

[Braddah]

Another resouce is the classified section of the paper...Ebay is horrible...most people wont ship and it would be cheaper to buy brand new...if you keep a sharp lookaout u can find some great deals...ie. 55 gal. w/ hood,lightstrip and stand $150 (us) if I bought all that stuff brand new it would've been like $300-400. Any ways Welcome to the forum there is a wealth of info here and ask all the q's you want someone will know!

 

[ketyana]

hey maybe you can do me a favour and ask what people recommended as the best tank set up.....best filter......best heater etc available in the uk.

I need those questions answered too

 

[Alien Anna]

hey maybe you can do me a favour and ask what people recommended as the best tank set up.....best filter......best heater etc available in the uk.

The cheapest! No seriously, I like the Eco-therm heaters because they're... er... cheap? Cheaper at least - they don't have a dial on the side so you just have to go by your thermometer.

For internal filters I like the Fluval range, but that's largely because I usually buy second hand and it's easier to get the parts.

My stuff is largely cobbled-together, although I have two Juwel tanks (a Juwel Rekord 120, and a Juwel Rekord 90(?) corner tank) which acquired as full set-ups. I don't like the lighting units in Juwels - too restrictive and not great if you want live plants.

My corner tank is about 100L and has a Juwel column filter in the corner. The filter is very efficient (not to say over-kill) for a tank that size, but does require the water level to be lower than I'd like it, takes up a lot of space and doesn't produce much aggitation of the water (so less oxygen in the water of what is already quite a deep tank). I'd like to replace it with a Fluval 4 some day or better yet, an external Eheim filter so I can free up even more space.

My 3', 120L tank has two internal filters, originally intended to last until I'd saved up for an Eheim but works so well it seems a waste! The filters are a Fluval 3 and a Fluval 2. The only disadvantage is that it produces a lot of current and cleaning out two filters once a week is quite a bore (OTOH, I can clean out one filter while the other one is still running, which is a useful feature, and when one got blocked and failed when I was on holiday, at least it wasn't the only filter in that tank).

The latest tank I set up was an old Clearseal 18x15x12" tank, acquired from the skip behind the LFS. I had to re-seal it, which proved to be a much easier job than I'd thought. I obtained the hood (a Monarch Silver) from Aquarium Supplies, online. The filter is a simple box-filter design (£4 from my local pet store), stuffed with the inards of my previous pump that died on me (I chopped up the sponges and squeezed them in). It runs off an air-pump. I'm setting up a second 18" tank and I'll probably do the same with that. I get my air-pumps 2nd hand from Ebay - I've never paid more than a fiver for them (but do get new diaphragms - they're almost always in need of replacement but people don't realise it).

My conclusion is that possibly we're paying for the name a lot of times. Fluval is good, but sometimes a cheap box filter stuffed with dissected Fluval sponges works just as well! The only exception, I believe, is an external Eheim filter. I've never heard a bad word said about them, except they are very expensive.

 

[Missy]

Guess what Peter, I, as most everyone else, did it too. I'm still recovering. I even did all the research and knew about cycling but I thought I could out smart it I guess. Anyway, I added a lot less fish than you but still, I have lost about half of them and an entire batch of babies. Stay here and keep learning. This site is very informative and the people are great. LOL