Newbie Hello

Hi,

I am not far from you, just over the border in Cleveland (in the part that used to be Yorkshire). So I know that you have fairly soft water with low KH - I'll explain more on this later.

What size tank do you have? This is important for choosing fish - they need to be able to fit. All the fish in shops are babies or juveniles and still have a lot fo growing to do.


Rather than books, you are better reading articles on here, and about fish on the website Seriously Fish, which is written by fish experts, unlike some other sites.

To get you started I should explain that the first thing you need to do is grow some bacteria, which I know sounds a bit odd 
Fish excrete ammonia, it is their version of urine. In the wild, this would get washed away but in a tank it just builds up. And ammonia in the water burns the fish's skin and gills. But there are bacteria that live in an aquarium which use this ammonia as food and their waste product is nitrite. This is also poisonous to the fish as it binds to their blood in the same way that carbon monoxide does to us. But another species of bacteria uses nitrite as food and turns it into nitrate. This is much less toxic and we remove it by doing water changes.
There are very very few of these bacteria in our tap water because the water company adds chlorine or chloramine to kill bacteria. So we have to take the few we do have and grow more. This process of growing bacteria is called cycling.
There are two ways to cycle a tank; or to be precise there are two ways of putting ammonia into the tank to feed the bacteria and get them to grow. The first is called fish-in cycling where a few fish are put in the tank and their waste feeds the bacteria. This is the old way of doing things and is now frowned on as it puts these fish at risk of harm or even death. The second is fishless cycling, and we use ammonia from a bottle to grow the bacteria before any fish are put in the tank.

I have two links for you, one for each method of cycling.
Fishless cycling
Fish-in cycling
Whichever method you choose you will need a test kit. Liquid reagent ones with test tubes are more accurate than strip testers. A shop may say that they'll test for you but you need to be able to test daily especially if you choose fish-in cycling.

I strongly recommend doing a fishless cycle. Ammonia can be found in some branches of Homebase. My local DIY shop stocks Jeyes Kleen Off Household Ammonia which is a good brand. Failing that you will need to look on Amazon or Ebay.
Fish shops do not stock ammonia as they do not believe in fishless cycling. They will try to sell you a bottled bacteria product instead and probably say that you must get fish at the same time even though all these products say they don't cycle a tank instantly. If you want to try one of these products get Tetra Safe Start as that one contains the right species of nitrite eaters, though even that won't do much if it has been stored incorrectly at any point since manufacture.
I mentioned low KH above. I won't go into details now as this post already contains enough to confuse most people but I will say that with low KH you are in danger of a pH crash during cycling. I know, it happened to me. There is a very simple remedy, so if you decide to do fishless cycling after reading those two links, I'll tell you what to do.


While you are cycling, that is the time to research fish. Visit all your local shops to see what they stock and make a note of those fish that catch your eye. Do not tell them you are doing a fishless cycle!!! Then come home and look up the fish on Seriously Fish. You need fish that like soft water, are suitable for the tank you have and will get on with each other.





I've given you a lot to think about here. Ask any questions you need. The only silly questions are those you don't ask 

In that case, you have the perfect excuse for not buying fish 

The bigger the tank, the easier it is to look after because more water makes the build up of anything nasty a bit slower giving you more time to rectify things.
If you find a second hand tank that is still in use, ask them not to clean it - or at least ask them to keep the filter media in some dechlorinated water. The bacteria will stay alive if the media is kept wet, and although they may have gone dormant they will speed up a cycle.

Hi Barbara, welcome to the forum.  I'm not too far away either in, Morpeth.  Cycling a tank is a good start to learning about how we control water quality.  However, when you're ready to get started, and if you wish too, you're welcome to message me.  I have loads of already cycled filter material you can take advantage of.  Bring whatever filter you decide on with you and we can stuff it full of already cycled media so you can get started quicker.

Which shops have you visited?  You're very lucky with many good local fish stores in your area.  Fish Alive is one I've visited in Durham and has a good range of fish and equipment as well as a lady there who catches fish like a master.  She successfully picked out individually selected guppies in seconds.  Peterlee Aquatics has a facebook page and looks well stocked.  Tropical Supplies North East in Durham is another shop I want to take a peek at in person.

For second hand tanks I'd recommend (if you use facebook) the Tyne and Wear Scales page.  The www.aquarist-classifieds.co.uk website also has many used tanks listed as well as many other things (most likely got that site from Sue).  Best bit of advice I can give for used aquariums is to look out for the lighting.  Everything is switching to much cheaper to run LED lights so bargains on tanks with T5 tube lights may not be so good as they require expensive yearly replacing while an LED will last many years.  Another piece of advice would be to buy a good thermostat heater for your tank new.  The heater is one bit of kit you shouldn't take risks with.

Hi, Sorry I have not been back sooner had a bit of an emergency with a friend's Mam ended up doing a few trip to the hospital a day for last few days, got the weekend off so catching up.

Anyway, I have chickened out a bit a really worried I would not get all this right so even though I have bought a secondhand 200lt tank which needs a good clean, new light etc. I have just last night bought an Aquanano 55lt tank, which came with a used skimmer,( not read up on what they are) a used heater, new thermometer, and new Light. I do like the look of the tank and feel a bit calmer about having a go at setting up a smaller tank until I can learn and understand more. so my next job is to get the electric bits. been on Amazon and looking at these items. My hubby thinks an under-gravel filter system is better (thoughts would be welcome)

. Aqua One Maxi Internal Filter 300L/hr
. Hailea 200w Glass Heater
. Tetra APS50 Air Pump

I have just been reading a post where they were debating about gravel or sand, I think I like the sand it sound a thought it is easier and I don't like the idea of the fish getting it in their gills.
over the next week, I will be buying the equipment and a stand of some sort as I do not have a unit big enough.
Bx

 

I would go with an internal filter something from the fluval u series as these are highly thought of rather than an under gravel they dont work with sand anyway.

You dont need an airstone so you can save on this for the time being.  You wont also need the slimmer, I'd leave this out for the time being as they tend to be quite bulky and unsightly. 

The debate over sand or gravel rages on... but what I can say is more aquarists switch to sand from gravel.  personally though i prefer gravel as it's easier and less time consuming to clean and doesn't show the waste on the surface so much.

Inspect the heaters you have and if they dont have condensation inside I would say they are ok to use.

It's actually easier to have a larger volume tank as illogical as this may sound as it means that you have a larger buffer volume of water in case anything goes wrong.  This will mean that anything that shouldn't be in the tank for whatever reason is affecting a larger volume of water and is therefore more dilute.
Another option would be to use the 55ltr as a sump for the 200ltr which would mean you could have a 250ltr system... even more water volume. 

Hope that helps, I'm sure others will offer further advice also.

Matt posted while I was typing but I'll let my post stand as it is 

Great minds think alike @Sue 

To answer your questions:

Plants. It is up to you. But some species don't do well in 3 ppm ammonia and can die. Plants also use ammonia as fertiliser so the cycle doesn't follow a nice simple pattern. It is easier to plant the tank while you are setting it up so if you decide to plant straight away I suggest using just 2 ppm ammonia. Post your test results if you need help.

Test kits. I don't use strips. They are regarded as less accurate than the kind with bottles of reagents and test tubes. I have the API testers which come as a set of pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. If you get a liquid reagent kit, follow the nitrate test instructions carefully - one bottle will need to be shaken very well because it contains a chemical which settles out on the bottom of the bottle.
Most test strips do not test for ammonia, so if you decide to go with strips you'll need two - one for ammonia and one for everything else.

There isn't a thread that has recommendations for all types of equipment. There some  reviews in this section https://forums.thinkfish.co.uk/tank-equipment-reviews/ but it is far from comprehensive. If you start new threads in this section https://forums.thinkfish.co.uk/fish-tanks-and-equipment/ titled something like recommendations for new filter/heater wanted, we will give our opinions on which ones we like. Don't forget to give the tank size 

The cycle is the same regardless of tank volume. All that differs is that it takes more mls of the ammonia solution to get 3 ppm in a bigger tank than in a smaller one.

  Thank You for the information I will have a look on Amazon/ebay for the liquid reagent kit.looking forward to going shopping tomorrow. 

Thank you that info marquismirage  I will now go look at fish and decide which I like as I know that there is a lot to consider as to which fish are compatible etc. Bx

After a bit of a no use struggle with the community calculator, I have a 55L tank with internal filter, sand,  there will be a few plants as well.

My thinking for a first time go just these fish

2 Round Banded Barb Puntius 
3 Cherry Barb Puntius
6 Cardinal Tetra
4 White Cloud Mountain Minnow

Thoughts Please. Bx