Bought A Fish Tank.

oooo - what sort of tank did you get?

A few things to look out for:

Dead fish.
Diseased fish.
Incompatable fish kept together.
Sort of casually hang around while the staff are talking to other customers and listen to what they say. Are they selling tanks AND fish at the same time? Do they mention cycling? Are they selling one or two fish when the fish is a shoaling fish and really needs to be in groups of six or more?

I went for the aqua nano 40 in the end as I just really liked it, and so does the husband. I know it's small, but there's still a decent variety of fish that are ok in it according to the community creator. I'm going to try to squeeze some plants in too, hopefully using the soil under sand substrate.
So do you think grubby tanks is just cosmetic? I mean they aren't filthy, just not super clean.
It's just a small shop so not really heard what they say to other customers yet. I would like to check out some more local shops, but this is very close and just off a street I walk down every day.
Btw saw a lovely looking catfish in one of the tanks (oh the other thing about this shops the labels are all over the place so neon tetras labelled as wcmm etc) they were tiny, 2-3cm and had really distinct leopard markings. Googled leopard Cory, but not quite like that.

Btw saw a lovely looking catfish in one of the tanks (oh the other thing about this shops the labels are all over the place so neon tetras labelled as wcmm etc) they were tiny, 2-3cm and had really distinct leopard markings. Googled leopard Cory, but not quite like that.

One of these perhaps (Corydoras trilineatus):

Puffin, Is is a Julii Cory? I think these are super cute but I believe many of them are misnamed in fish shops so I may not be looking at Julii afterall...

I have the same tank as you and considering a group of panda corys. My concern at the mo is what to put in first. I'm waiting for my tank to cycle but still won't be able to fully stock at the end of the cycle and most of the fish I like want to be with a group of buddies. Also my GH reading is about 8, but my PH is about 8-8.4 so...

Oh and I have discovered, like ColinB, that the thingies that attach the lid do indeed break very easily. My son dropped it on the floor and three of them have snapped! Hoping I can get some spares (out of his pocket money!!)

I would also add that your p@h may look clean but the advice of the staff can be awful. I understand that it is down to the individual store manager how much training the staff get and lots don't give any fish-specific training at all. Just general training in how to make a sale, and how to act knowledgeable even if they haven't a clue.
Mind you, a lot of small independents are as bad.

Not all catfish are cories. Plecs are catfish too, as are glass catfish, which you'll find under miscellaneous in the fish profiles.

Could have been this!
Described as a pictus catfish, looks very like the mosaic Cory to me!

Oh and I have discovered, like ColinB, that the thingies that attach the lid do indeed break very easily. My son dropped it on the floor and three of them have snapped! Hoping I can get some spares (out of his pocket money!!)

Oh dear! I've only found one place to get spares from.... and that's here. Nearly at the bottom of the page. Not cheap for a couple of plastic clips.

Here's a few things I would do with the Cube40 if I bought one again.

Looking from the back of the tank there are the three filter compartments. The instruction book got the water flow wrong with mine (they could've changed it by now 'cos that was two years ago). The water flow goes in at the top of the left hand chamber and down through the black sponge. Then across into the bottom of the middle chamber and up through the noodles. Then across the top into the right hand chamber with the pump and the heater (and the thermometer in mine).

The glass separater between the middle and the right hand chamber was not sealed at the bottom and I got quite a bit of flow sneaking under there. I've since blocked it, but it would've been easier and more effective to seal it with aquarium silicone before I set it all up. Again, they may have addressed that problem.

I would re-model the black sponge. I would cut the top 10cm off the sponge and push the large piece into the left chamber down to the bottom. I would then cut 4cm off the remaining sponge. I would buy some of the green medium-pored filter foam from the fish shop, and some of the white fine filter floss, and use the black sponge as a template to cut correct sized pieces off them. (The white filter floss is quite thick, but can be stripped through the middle like cutting a sponge cake for the filling. Yum!)

Then I would load these on top of the black sponge that's in the chamber. This way the water flows through 4cm of coarse black sponge, then 4cm of medium green sponge, the 2cm of white filter floss. This will keep all the debris out of the filter compartments and allow the large, lower piece of black sponge to act as a housing for the bacterial bugglies without being clogged by sediment etc.

Part of your weekly maintenance would be then to pull the top three layers of filter and squeeze them in old tank water (and occasionally replace the white floss) and the majority of the black sponge can be left undisturbed.

I would also replace the ceramic noodles with scintered glass ones that I've linked to before.

Hope this helps, and sorry to be long-winded. It's a great tank and I hope, when we've hopefully moved house later this year, to buy the 100litre version that's 60cm long that's only just been released.

Thanks Colin. I think I understand the rationale for the filter floss. Will have to look out for that in the shops. But why the green medium sponge?
And the glass media, I did follow your link the other day. These are capable of housing anaerobic bacteria too, right? The ones that break down nitrate? Is that why you prefer them? Could you just add them to the remaining space, ie together with the media provided? There seems to be a fair bit of space.

The green sponge filters out particles that are small enough to get through the black sponge. The floss filters out the rest. It's mainly because the green sponge is squeezeable and can be re-used for many years and the filter floss can't really be cleaned effectively and has to be replaced when dirty. Using the green means less floss replacement.

Yep, you can add the scintered glass in with the other noodles. That's what I did for six months so the bugglies could migrate and colonise the new stuff. Then I replaced the ceramic with glass over the course of a few months.

So I haven't got my tanks yet, coming end of the week. And I know I won't be stocking it with fish for quite a white, have done lots of reading on nitrogen cycle.
But...
What do you think about this for fish in the aqua nano 40?
The community creator on here seems happy, but what are real people's experiences?
I don't want anything too tricky to look after at first. So I chose panda Cory over salt and pepper catfish. I really like the galaxy rasbora but not sure how easy they are to find in the shops!
What about otocinclus? Can they be kept with cories?
I will also probably add snails and or shrimp.