So I Got A Tropical Fish tank for Xmas!

[dalex]

Best advice I found was find a good local aquarium shop,not the large retail park places,talk to the owner as they are full of useful information and tips.
Then have a read on the internet of places such as http://www.fishforums.net
Had mine for a while now,in tank is silver angels,silver dollars,silver shark,6 neons,10 harlequins{good shoalers},
Run tank empty for a fortnight to settle water,add fish one or two at a time so the filters and bio system can adjust,cheap fish like neons at first before splashing out .
Then its 25 % water change a week,using Tetra Aquasafe.
and get the kids to feed them
Best of luck



Dave

 

[Minxy]

My other half and I have been keeping fish for 14 years, we have had a marine aquarium on the go for little over 18 months which is a 5foot system.

My main advice would be this....DO NOT PUT MARINES IN A BIO-ORB. As Squirrel has said I think your missus was spoken to someone who was out to make a sale. When we set out we were given a lot of bad advice by a lot of people and we've managed to pick out the right bits. Marines are not easy to keep by any stretch of the imagination and even as experienced fish keepers, we have been astounded by the amount of work our tank takes to keep it healthy and running. This is not due to it being such a large tank because the smaller marine aquarium you have, the more difficult it is to keep the levels stable.

Back to the Bio-orb, don't overload it because the equipment just wont cope with it. Buy something cheap and cheerful to get you started, livebearers are always a good bet because they are hardy and will put up with pretty much anything conditions wise....platys, swordtails or even guppies (beware they breed like rabbits)

Other than that....set it up, give it a couple of weeks to mature (we've never peed in a fish tank, that's just plain disgusting), keep testing the water, put your plants in and then you'll be ready for fish.

 

[Yrkoon]

a good easy method to cycle a tank would be just to dump a few prawns in it and let them decompose then in a few weeks test the water with a kit.

there should be 0 nitrites and ammonia and high nitrates then you can just do a massive water change to get the nitrates down.

 

[King4aDay]

I wouldnt recommend clown loaches to be honest. They are expensive, a fiver each in my local shop and are prone to white spot.

For that tank id start off with a couple of hardy fish, like neons, and add a couple of corys later

For me id stock it like this :

4x Neons
4x Zebra Danios
2x Bronze Corys
2x Dwarf Gourami

Nice looking fish that will occupy all levels of the tank

Neons are not hardy anymore really, they're all massively inbred to supply the trade and hence tend to be pretty prone to just dropping dead. Also neons, danios and corys are all schooling fish, I wouldnt recommend keeping less than half a dozen of each (especially the corys). Obviously that'd be pretty heavy overstocking in a tank this size, so I'd swap the corys for ottos and then have either neons or danios (or whatever).

 

[Fuzz]

One thing no one appears to have mentioned yet is the orb type tank tend to get over filled...
They are designed to work with a large surface area of water ie. 3/4 tank full MAXIMUM

So basically, don't over fill it.

 

[Minxy]

a good easy method to cycle a tank would be just to dump a few prawns in it and let them decompose then in a few weeks test the water with a kit.

there should be 0 nitrites and ammonia and high nitrates then you can just do a massive water change to get the nitrates down.

A nicer way of doing it than peeing in the tank. That's all I'd think of every time I looked at the thing!

 

[Combat squirrel]

A nicer way of doing it than peeing in the tank. That's all I'd think of every time I looked at the thing!

You see this is what annoys me, lol, the view of urine is based on societies view of some drunk person weeing in the street.

Putting prawns in is more risky, period - why ? They could have something in them, like parasites or something, and what your trying to achieve is de-nitrifying bacteria, not bacteria that also deal with decaying dead stuff.

This may come as a complete shock to you, but urine is actually sterile, it has almost 0% of anything bar ammonia, other urine constituents etc, biologically its pretty much sterile, only picking up any bacteria that may be present in the piping on the way out !! lol

Seriously why is everyone freaked out ? its the chemical you want, it doesnt matter where it comes from, its the most suitable substance for what your aiming to do, in this case, biologically balance a fish tank.

 

[Minxy]

You see this is what annoys me, lol, the view of urine is based on societies view of some drunk person weeing in the street.

Putting prawns in is more risky, period - why ? They could have something in them, like parasites or something, and what your trying to achieve is de-nitrifying bacteria, not bacteria that also deal with decaying dead stuff.

This may come as a complete shock to you, but urine is actually sterile, it has almost 0% of anything bar ammonia, other urine constituents etc, biologically its pretty much sterile, only picking up any bacteria that may be present in the piping on the way out !! lol

Seriously why is everyone freaked out ? its the chemical you want, it doesnt matter where it comes from, its the most suitable substance for what your aiming to do, in this case, biologically balance a fish tank.

Urine may be sterile but it isn't a pleasant substance and I'd rather not think about **** every time I looked at my pride and joy ta.

Prawns are safe dependant upon where you buy them from, you can even get them from a pet shop. Another route (one which I don't particularly agree with) is sacrificing a couple of cheap fish and letting their bacteria kickstart the system when they cark it.

 

[Combat squirrel]

Urine may be sterile but it isn't a pleasant substance and I'd rather not think about **** every time I looked at my pride and joy ta.

Prawns are safe dependant upon where you buy them from, you can even get them from a pet shop. Another route (one which I don't particularly agree with) is sacrificing a couple of cheap fish and letting their bacteria kickstart the system when they cark it.

Im not talking about filling up the entire thing with P, like half a plastic bottle, a little less than a cup full ! lol, you simply cannot tell when its in the tank, and anyways you do a 25% water change every week, so it wont matter.

My beef with the situation is this, you say 'you'd rather not think of P when you look at the fish tank'.......this is simply a human emotional response, not whats best for the eco system in there, as said you wont see it, infact after 4 days the water is as clear as crystal ! lol

And again.......decaying a dead body of any species isnt what were aiming for here, we want denitrifying bacteria, the fact is simple, you want to make an envionrment where the fish will P/Poo and it not kill them, your only going to achieve anything by putting dead fish/sea creatures in there if you fully intend to have frequent dead fish!

You see what im sayin? its not my opinion , its FACT

 

[Minxy]

Im not talking about filling up the entire thing with P, like half a plastic bottle, a little less than a cup full ! lol, you simply cannot tell when its in the tank, and anyways you do a 25% water change every week, so it wont matter.

My beef with the situation is this, you say 'you'd rather not think of P when you look at the fish tank'.......this is simply a human emotional response, not whats best for the eco system in there, as said you wont see it, infact after 4 days the water is as clear as crystal ! lol

And again.......decaying a dead body of any species isnt what were aiming for here, we want denitrifying bacteria, the fact is simple, you want to make an envionrment where the fish will P/Poo and it not kill them, your only going to achieve anything by putting dead fish/sea creatures in there if you fully intend to have frequent dead fish!

You see what im sayin? its not my opinion , its FACT

You can refrain from using a patronising tone on me thanks. It's unnecessary.

As said, we've been keeping fish a long time and we've had various sources of knowledge, some which we've found to be useless. Just because we have found different methods work for us does not make them any less valid. Fish keeping is all about personal experience.

To the OP, find yourself a decent local fish stockist, read up on fishkeeping and then do whatever works for you. For me...putting pee (of any volume) in my aquarium wasn't appealing.

If you are adament that you wish to keep marines then take a look at this site... http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/index.php
I expect there to be similar for trops.

 

[Yrkoon]

i used the fishless prawn method on a wee 2 foot tank i was setting up to use as a fry tank for salvini fry.

i had 0 ammonia, nitrite and about 160 nitrates so i got rid of most of water put in fresh water and had about 5 nitrates.

i then put a few salvin fry/juvies in tank and they done pretty well and next test next day was fine so a few days later i dumped rest in the tank and they done great

i suppose the prawn could have been harbouring some dodgy bacteria which is why i tested a few to start with and most came through ok apart from some runts getting mauled by their siblings.

 

[Combat squirrel]

Apologies if it came across as that minxy, its not what was intended.

I just have a very 'whats best for the fish' approach, and I look at it in a chemical way, I start with 60L of H20 and I need to add x, x and x and thats 'perfect' and as close to the natural envionment of the inhabitants.

I just aim for the best possible living experience of the fish, at least you know im not one of these people that throw fish in untreated water, make it look nice and go back to the fish shop complaining the fish have topped it ! lol, poor and cruel it is to the poor fish that end up with a person that doesnt really know what there doing or takes the time to find out whats best, at least a combination of yours and my advice will stop these fish having a long and painful death.

 

[Minxy]

Apologies if it came across as that minxy, its not what was intended.

I just have a very 'whats best for the fish' approach, and I look at it in a chemical way, I start with 60L of H20 and I need to add x, x and x and thats 'perfect' and as close to the natural envionment of the inhabitants.

I just aim for the best possible living experience of the fish, at least you know im not one of these people that throw fish in untreated water, make it look nice and go back to the fish shop complaining the fish have topped it ! lol, poor and cruel it is to the poor fish that end up with a person that doesnt really know what there doing or takes the time to find out whats best, at least a combination of yours and my advice will stop these fish having a long and painful death.

Appreciated, I'd like to think most fishkeepers think the way you do.

 

[Yrkoon]

Appreciated, I'd like to think most fishkeepers think the way you do.

full aggreement there is a lot of work and knowledge required to keep fish happy

 

[Orcish-Horde]

Right guys who of you has the experience to help me?

I have just been given a Biorb Tropical Tank and was wondering where to start with Fish and plants?

The kids want a clown fish but i dont want to get one and it die the next day would be happier to get something that will be a little harder to kill (if you get my meaning).

I understand the water will need conditioning and the filter will take a little time to build up the bacteria needed to keep the tank healthy.

Just need to know where to start.

Any help would be appreciated

Thanks all.

If you haven't keep fish before I would stay clear of the clown fish/marine set up. They are not hard to keep you just need to understand how to keep them. Fresh water is much more forgiving as you learn how to mantain you setup.

That a side, Clown fish are rather hardy and easy to keep. All thats needed is LiveRock, water movement, marine salt, RO water and some food. Do a search for, nano tanks and you should find all the info you need.

A few forums for you to look into.

http://www.ultimatereef.net/

http://www.fishforums.net/

 

[BigBoy]

Thanks guys will report back to the mrs personaly im not that worried about the clown fish, just the kids want to see nemo.

First thing they said when i took off the wrapping paper was Nemo will live in there

Lots of reading for me to do then thanks for the advice and to be honest my p does not bother me so p it will be There is a bottle of water conditioner in the pack dont know what its for as i have not opended it yet. was too busy playing with the wii when i came home last night.

 

[CliffyBiro]

Thanks guys will report back to the mrs personaly im not that worried about the clown fish, just the kids want to see nemo.

First thing they said when i took off the wrapping paper was Nemo will live in there

They'll have a tough time finding Nemo in there.


I've always wanted a tropical fish tank but know I wouldn't be able to look after them right.

 

[Combat squirrel]

Thanks guys will report back to the mrs personaly im not that worried about the clown fish, just the kids want to see nemo.

First thing they said when i took off the wrapping paper was Nemo will live in there

Lots of reading for me to do then thanks for the advice and to be honest my p does not bother me so p it will be There is a bottle of water conditioner in the pack dont know what its for as i have not opended it yet. was too busy playing with the wii when i came home last night.

Cool matey, the water conditioner simple removes chlorine from the water, it damages the fish, usually its 4ml to every 36L of water or so (one I have says that on the side of the bottle, but it varies depending on brand), so fill up the tank, tip in your water conditoner give it a good stir for theatrical effect , cup or so wee in the tank (best nip to the loo and fill up a cup, dont wanna scare the kids, haha), and then wack in half a bottle or so cycle to start buildin the tank, rest as said above

 

[Slinger]

some angel fish and silver dollars. Much cheaper than clown fish. They look pretty to. Or you could get some guppies and neon's. They tend to be a little more durable. Post a picture of your tank when you get it set up please.

You kidding me ? angels and silver dollars shouldnt even mix imo, they need quite a large tank, not a biorb, just cruel. your recoomendation of guppies and neons would suit better.

 

[w3bbo]

Get plenty of guppies. They are perhaps the easiest fish to keep aswell as looking pretty (males). Just make sure you have at least 2 females to each male otherwise the males tend to nip each others tails. Be prepared to have lots of babies around in a few weeks .

A couple of Black Mollies. These are what I like to describe as indicator fish as diseases are easier to spot on these than other fish.

A couple of swordfish. Nice sociable fish.

Neons/Harlequins - Very nice to look at in a shoal but don't tend to last too long and prone to getting eaten by larger fish (Angels/Gourami/Sharks). Nice starter fish though.

Zebra/blue Danios - Swift streamlined fish that are mainly top dwellers.

Plecostomas - Bottom feeders that will keep algae and a lot of fish crap at bay.

All the above will live happily together without too much care an attention in a well maintained tank. You won't need to worry too much about setting an acidic or alkaline ph level as they are pretty much fine in a neutral (ph7) tank.

Decorative 'show' fish:

Angel fish, while very pretty to look at are extremely territorial and are not recommended to place with small fish (neons etc) or fish with decorative tails (Guppies etc).

Silver Shark - Adds the cool factor to a tank "WOW you have a real shark!". Great fish but can get a little large in a small tank, much the same for red tail sharks.

Clown Loach - These look nothing like the marine Clown fish. Whoever tells you they do knows not what they talk about!

Guorami - Much the same as Angel fish (territorial, can be aggressive).

Kissing fish - Love to eat Neons - DO NOT MIX LOL

Do not buy kooli loach. They might look like snakes/eels in a bare tank but once you put them in your gravelled tank you wont see them again - they bury in gravel.


Best bit of advice is given above though. Do not be tempted to fill your tank up with fish until it has settled (2-4 weeks is normally fine). Introduce your fish slowly, do not just tip them into the tank, leave the bags to float to equalise the temperature. If you can, put them in a quarantine tank for a week before introducing them to your main setup.

I personally have never felt the need to pee in any of my tanks though, bit controversial that one lol.