So I Got A Tropical Fish tank for Xmas!

Hmmm, I kept fish for a good 2 years and enjoyed every minute of it. Only stopped due to moving in a flat that the lease wouldn't allow fish tanks due to weight.

The P'ing in the tank makes absolute sense chemically and wish I knew about it when I kept fish.
 
The biOrb is really designed for small tropical freshwater fish. That said, there is a marine conversion kit available, however, few experts would recommend these systems for marine use. You'd be much better off with some small tropical freshwater species instead, particularly if you do not yet have much experience.

As you might already know, aquarium filters need to be "matured" or "cycled" before adding fish. This is basically a process that involves creating a large culture of bacteria on the filter so that there are enough of them to break down the toxins in the fishes' wastes when they get added.

There are two ways you can speed this up. If you know someone else with an aquarium, get a bit of their mature filter media and stick it in your tank. Alternatively, get some Tetra SafeStart or the new formula Nutrafin Cycle (make sure it's not the old style product) and have a read up on "fishless cycling".

Follow one of the many fishless cycling guides on the 'net and test your water for signs of ammonia and nitrite (or get the shop to do it). When the water is ammonia/nitrite free, it's ready for fish. Take care choosing appropriate species. You don't really want anything that active in such a tiny tank, nor do you want anything that's going to grow too big.
 
Thanks Combat Squirrel, W3bbo and fishfishfish for the time being i will be reading lots whilst i fill the tank and get it cycling. Gunna take me an age to fill the tank! Have not been able to find the adapter for my hose pipe :(

The Mrs just said fill it tonight and put fish in on Tuesday!! I was like No NO NO! cannot be done! the interweb says NO! :cool:
 
BigBoy said:
Thanks Combat Squirrel, W3bbo and fishfishfish for the time being i will be reading lots whilst i fill the tank and get it cycling. Gunna take me an age to fill the tank! Have not been able to find the adapter for my hose pipe :(

The Mrs just said fill it tonight and put fish in on Tuesday!! I was like No NO NO! cannot be done! the interweb says NO! :cool:
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Haha nice one dude ! you tell her lad ! :D To the internetzzzz !!11 1! :p

60L is 4 large bucket fulls, nothing to stressful :D
 
If the retailer recommends the '24 hour bateria' where you can almost immediately add fish - avoid it! As somebody wrote earlier, you need to have the tank running for a few weeks 2 - 10 (4 - 6 being most likely) so that the nitrogen cycle is complete. Ammonia is the number 1 killer with nitrIte the 2nd and a little nitrAte is acceptable and in a low level can actually be slightly beneficial (read carefully re caps letters;)). The following webby will help : wetwebmedia.com
Enjoy.
 
Combat squirrel said:
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.

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.
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I defacate in my tank just to be sure. Makes a nice tank ornament too. I do avoid this if I have had a curry however, as it seems to cloud the water somewhat.
 
I really cant believe im hearing this advice! It is some of the most awful stuff I have heard.

I have been keeping fish for quite sometime and when I started was given awful advice and made big mistakes. After going to a proper fish shop I started again and with a small 70L tank. I now have a 120L tropical and a 250L marine tank, if I was you I would only listen to Combat squirrel as he seems to be the main person who has actually given you GOOD advice (the person who recommend silver dollars or angle fish needs a slap, I wouldn't even keep them in my tank).

Have a look on www.fishcrazy.co.uk forum they have a good community on there with very helpful advice.

And be aware that this DOES turn into a seriously addictive hobbie!

Stav
 
w3bbo said:
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.
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Kuhli loaches, which are seminocturnal, won't necessarily completely hide away, I have five and they do come out during the day some of the time. They prefer sand to gravel I believe. Now, Synos - they are nocturnal, didn't see them as often as I would have liked.
 
I don't see a problem with the peeing method - just helps to speed things up...

I'd leave the tank fishless for at least a few weeks if I were you - Guppies are very hardy and could then be introduced, but leave less hardy fish for at least a month. Definitely don't put any fish in on Tuesday, they'll just end up dying slowly and upset the kids. :(

Plecs tend to be very hardy as well - I'd recommend bristle-nosed ancistrus plecs as they are very peaceful and only grow to 3-4" max in the wild. You'll probably only find them in larger fish shops that stock lots of different species.

I had a 2 foot tank for years and never had any problems with clown loaches growing too big. Within reason, fish tend to grow to a size that matches the tank, and my clown loaches never grew over about 3-4" long in the two foot tank (they grow to 12" in the wild)... I have a Gibbiceps (sailfin) Plec that's 9 years old now in a 3 foot tank and he's pretty much stopped growing at about 8" long, whereas they grow to 18" in the wild. My angelfish grew too large too quickly, as well as being very territorial they nip the fins of other fish and I wouldn't recommend them for your tank as it's probably a bit too small.

Clown loaches are lovely fish - good friendly community fish that dart around the tank after each other in a group. They look very nice as well. :)
 
arc@css said:
If the retailer recommends the '24 hour bateria' where you can almost immediately add fish - avoid it! As somebody wrote earlier, you need to have the tank running for a few weeks 2 - 10 (4 - 6 being most likely) so that the nitrogen cycle is complete. Ammonia is the number 1 killer with nitrIte the 2nd and a little nitrAte is acceptable and in a low level can actually be slightly beneficial (read carefully re caps letters;)). The following webby will help : wetwebmedia.com
Enjoy.
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Those bacterial products that say you can add fish immediately do work. I've used Tetra Safestart on a 31 gallon Malawi tank and a 97 gallon Snakehead tank.
 
I agree with the sentiment of starting with Neons. I've not notice any downturn in hardiness - my cousin has a tankfull and he can't stop the little sods breeding!

Any Tetras are good starters - Cardinals are possibly the hardiest of the bunch, but the kids will certainly love a little shoal of brightly cloured Neons zapping around :)
 
Snograt said:
Any Tetras are good starters - Cardinals are possibly the hardiest of the bunch, but the kids will certainly love a little shoal of brightly cloured Neons zapping around :)
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Not true unfortunately, Cardinals are possibly one of the least hardy of the bunch when it comes to Tetras and are more fussy about their water quality than something like a Lemon, Black or even the Neon tetra.

You need to have a think about what fish you would like to keep overall because some fish don't tend to get on as well as others, we've always struggled to keep very small fish because our Angels always seem to bully them to death. Also if you want a Siamese Fighter then avoid guppies because the males often confuse the Siamese with another male due to appearance and so they may fight.

Obviously there are exceptions to the rule with fish as with any other animal you keep but any good fish stockist should enquire about your setup and what you already keep when purchasing anything new.
 
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I'm just running my first tank and have a healthy community of a few tetras, guppies, platties and mollies. They're all fairly docile and although I've had a few deaths due to my newbie-ness everything appears to have settled down now.
 
Hate said:
I'm just running my first tank and have a healthy community of a few tetras, guppies, platties and mollies. They're all fairly docile and although I've had a few deaths due to my newbie-ness everything appears to have settled down now.
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You've done well with your first tank. You seem to have sorted out any issues quickly and your fish look happy and healthy.
 
Finally got the shelf that the tank will sit on sorted!

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I have only just filled the tank today and intend to let it run for at least 4 weeks before adding the fish.

I have set the heater to 24oC and the thermometer is reading a constant 24oC for the last two hours, all the internal fittings were washed in clean water before putting them in to the tank and the tank was cleaned with a damp cloth to remove dust and other particles.

I put the two packs of "ready in 24hrs" water treatment in and have also added a 1/2 cup of urine just to get the filter going, will be off to the pet shop on tuesday to pick up some water testing kits to make sure the levels are going ok.

only problems i see at the moment are all the condensation around the top of the tank, is this normal?

Thanks for all your advice guys it has been a great help.
 
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