Fish Aquariums for the first timer

Demiurge

Originally posted by organ
Check my post above. Basically, once the tank is running the way it's supposed to, your good bacteria and algae will take over the charcoal's job. There was a very long discussion about this in www.aquariacentral.com You can do a search there. I've inserted another sponge in the charcoal's space to promote more bacterial growth.

Maurice

Yeah I read it, good info. I'll have to consider switching now. Honestly never heard that before. Thanks.

pixiedave

charcoal is only usefull for a week or so, some studies suggest that it is ony usefull for hours. It is good for starting a tank as stated above. (depending on filter) If your filter pads come with carbon, empty it. Once the filter pad is slowing flow, just rinse it out thourughly withy cool water. This will preserve the nitrate nitrite cycle living in your pad. If your filter cartridges are sealed, slit the top open and pour the carbon out. Eventually, your filter pad or cartridge will have to be replaced, just buy more pads and dont add any charcoal. If cartridge type, just rip of the bag part from the fram and add some filter foam. This will save you money on filter pads, thats were costs start to climb.

In my experience, over 30 years of keeping aquariums, I have come to the following conclusions;
1 Fish are much hardier than experts would want you to believe, following their rules, you will spend all your time doing watwer changes cleaning tanks, monitoring water chemistry and acclimating new fish. I feel all this is mostly unneccesary.
I do one water change a month, and i top of the tanks when they get too noisy.inbetween. I have a high range ph tester, and I keep my tanks above a certain color. I dont test nitrate nitrite, that takes care of itself.

As far as adding new fish to a tank, I just dump them in when i get home.

These practices will make a few cringe, but I have never killed a new fish, I have had fish live 10 plus years, I put maybe 3 hours of work a month to maintain a 40 55 and 90 gallon, and i spend almost no money on filter supplies. My biggest expense including electricity, is 20 bucks a month to 6 weeks on spirulina flakes, less in summer when algea starts to grpw, Africans love fresh algea and graze tghe tanks all day.

One last thing, air pumps air pumps air pumps. Plenty of air bubbles will give you a good nitrate nitrite balance, I usually have one stone right at the surface to break up protien scum, and a couple burried in the gravel. With plenty of aeration, your filters have to do less work and only have to filter particulate matter enough of a ramble peace and aquariums dont put the tank too close to speakers, if it loud to you, think how it feels in that glass box.

organ

"Once the filter pad is slowing flow, just rinse it out thourughly withy cool water."

I clean it with water I take out from the tank. Won't kill the bacteria. Don't want chlorine hurting the little workers. But if you have multiple stages of filtration, it's alright to clean a single media with tap water.

Ron,
Here are your best bang for the buck filters: http://www.hagen.com/usa/aquatic/sub_category_psubtype.cfm?CAT=1&SUBCAT=107&PSUBCAT=10701

And the B&W of filters is Eheim: http://www.eheim.com/

Maurice

kberg

Didn't read every post in this thread, but get a gravel filter if it hasn't been mentioned already.

Pablo

I would definetly go with something larger than 10gal. The problem with small tanks is the heat variation that occurs. this causes some dissesase to occur (although that are easy to get ride of). Go with at least a 20 (you can get a 20 tall that fits in a 10 gal space but is twice as tall). Otherwise the 29 is nice, and that can upgrade to a 36 in the same foot print.

Also, in my experience, if you are going with simple fish, you can go with a simple set up. You don't need to go crazy with fitration and heating (almost anything will do at first). I have had a pair of cat fish in a 29 gallon tank for almost a year now without changing the filter, and a dead light. They seem to be used to the tank, and will probably last till old age (or until I change the filter or fix the light).

At another point I had the same set of chilids for almost 10 years (they kept breeding). They were great, but required almost no maintenace once they got used to the tank.

I've also lost most of the fish I bought right after they came home.

My point is, go fairly cheap until you find out how much you like the hobby. Then you can upgrade everything to suit you needs.

Most of all, have fun with it!

TechChallenged

pixiedave is exactly right. One additional tidbit. The larger the tank, the more forgiving the enviroment. Establishing a ten gallon tank may prove more costly in the long run.