Need advice : setting up an Aquarium

Viper_7

Does it have to be tropical? They do take more care.

Cold water fish don't necessary mean boring goldfish. There are a large variety of fancy fish suited for cold water, also it's not necessarily cold. Your home is heated etc, can get a good variety of tropical fish that are happy with a large temperature range suited for an indoor aquarium and doesn't need to be heated.
Look at real plant life - not plastic, not only do they look better they maintain the water quality too.
Be aware that acquariums can't just be left to their own devices, you do need to spend a good 30 mins each week cycling the water and cleaning the filters etc. Location needs to be considers or you'll be going backwards and forwards with buckets of water.

Sui_Generis

Thanks all for advice.

Froglet wrote: »

best place for really good advice is here http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/forum/index.php i am a member and there is loads of help there

Will do.

k.o.d wrote: »

If you join an aquatic website and start asking questions that is a good start.
I do agree with making sure you buy as big as you can with the aquarium for 2 reasons
1. It is fairer on the fish, although for some fish their territory is much smaller than 60 litres
2. Much more importantly, the larger the volume of water, the more stable conditions there are for fish and at the end of the day, that is what you are looking for

I see the sense in bigger = greater buffer etc but initially I'll have to start off small and I can easily see that it would grow as a hobby I've spent more than a little time lingering around the tanks at Maidenhead Aquatics in recent years That said I have to keep in mind that the first foray needs to be modest (with luck it will expand) so I'm moving away from the biorb but now the Fluval Edge looks interesting and if the hobby grows it could be a useful starter tank. I know its smaller but it could be relocated to other rooms and that's a consideration. I've seen a few more "nano"(?) tanks that look interesting too.

Viper_7 wrote: »

Does it have to be tropical? They do take more care.

Cold water fish don't necessary mean boring goldfish. There are a large variety of fancy fish suited for cold water, also it's not necessarily cold. Your home is heated etc, can get a good variety of tropical fish that are happy with a large temperature range suited for an indoor aquarium and doesn't need to be heated.

I'm inclined to tropical but I'll look more at coldwater before I decide. Maintenance shouldn't be a problem - children take more and it will be something to do together Sadly location is a problem (hence reluctance to go larger at the moment) and overnight temp can be an issue in the living room occasionally (thermostat defies all attempts to maintain stable temps despite being changed 3 times and being told its in the "perfect" position). So I'd be happier relying on a heater.

CFC

Mountain cloud minnow are a very small cold water shoaling fish. I have a shoal in a bio orb in my living room. The tank needs very very little maintainance I find, and it isn't noisy. As the pump is external if you happened to get a noisy one you can swap it out. The water to air ratio - it's got a pump so surface area isn't a problem as you are not relying purely on surface gas exchange. The bio orb is a lot more expensive than other similar sized aquariums but I bought it because I like the look of it.

jessmist

I found the forum on thinkfish very helpful when i started out with my aquarium.
Have a look here http://www.thinkfish.co.uk/

MrsTinks

We went in to look at tanks and stuff today and the filter media for the Fluval worked out at under £10 (and I think there were 3 carbon sachets so next 2 times I will only need to buy the second pack... I'll read them later lol) One was £4 something, the other £3 something
I had a long chat with the girl we usually speak to in there as hubby is really keen on a Marine tank (small one) so we're looking at possibly selling the tropical tank we have and getting a new marine one. But I also asked about other fish for the Edge as there was easily room for some more after the sad demise of another guppy 2 days ago... And she suggested quite a few! But the one I went for in the end was the cherry barb - we've had them before in our large tank where they did pretty well (until in our infinite wisdom *cough* we got a tiny little blue lobster... needless to say he didn't stay small long and the cherry barb soon became sushi... won't be making THAT mistake again...). Once all the guppies die from medium age as is usually the want with guppies I am seriously considering replacing them with a Siamese Fighter. The barb should be ok with 1 male fighter in there as they don't have long fins like my guppies If I put him in now then the guppies would probably keel over in the next few days from stress of him trying to eat their long gorgeous tails! :eek:

Sui_Generis

MrsTine wrote: »

hubby is really keen on a Marine tank (small one)

Here's a marine setup in the Fluval Edge.

Actually the same poster has an amazing marine tank elsewhere (here) on that forum, she loves to post photos of the tanks as they develop and I find it fascinating.

MrsTinks

When I said small marine tank... I meant about 90 litres LOL
Also worth bearing in mind is that you shouldn't try and convert a freshwater tank to marine once you've had freshwater etc in it... Just a point - I know that that poster hasn't - she did it right with starting straight into marine with the tank
One thing I discovered from the people at the fish shop was that they sometimes help people sell their tanks (obviously they have ultirior motives of selling you lots of fish and eventually upgrading your tank ) but if you want to be uber MS then you could ask them if they know of anyone selling say a Biorb (they seem to come up a lot second hand apparently? ) or look on gumtree etc etc etc

Sui_Generis

Gumtree, now there's a thought!

k.o.d

MrsTine wrote: »

When I said small marine tank... I meant about 90 litres LOL
Also worth bearing in mind is that you shouldn't try and convert a freshwater tank to marine once you've had freshwater etc in it...

Why can you not convert a freshwater tank to marine? I had better go and empty my reef tank now

MrsTinks

Because it's
a) a hassle to change the equipment in the tank
b) the bacteria in a freshwater tank isn't guaranteed to be killed and could cost you some expensive coral - apparently

If it's never been used for tropical then it's obviously not going to have the bacteria in there