Aquariums

I really like the idea of a plantscape tank and a handful of shrimp. Probably the best bet as I'm new to the whole thing.

 

Are you going to do high tech, low tech, or Walstadt?

 

Walstad or low. If I would go the high tech route, I'd be constantly worried about it and would likely over do it with the CO2, fertilizer etc. Plus not looking to pour a lot of money into a 5g.

 

I’m sure you’re familiar with r/plantedtank and r/aquascape, but they’re two of my favorite subs and have tons of great info.

 

Yup, love them and in awe of some of those set ups. I think the 5g I posted before would be a good starting point.





Think it's the first two that I saw that brought me to the idea

 

It's feeding time lol.

 

I’m thinking about getting a freshwater aquarium for my girls. They are 8 years old. Maybe a 20 gallon? I’ve never had one before so just looking for advice. Preferably under $200 and low maintenance. Is that doable?

 

I'd think so. Can probably do an all in one setup from any pet store for that price.

 

Here’s the setup. Didn't realize we would have to wait a few days before buying the fish. $168 dollar in so far. 10 gallon freshwater setup with black light for glowing fish.

 

That's a pretty great little setup for them. Should be really enjoyable.

 

What did you feed them? Little shrimp?

 

Ummm that was live brine shrimp I think. Or frozen cubes.
I think I hate my soon to be ex more for me having to sell all of this than almost anything else lol.

 

Really exploring the idea of getting an aquarium, but I know absolutely nothing other than I like to be under the influence and stare at them. Point me in the right direction, please.

 

I spent just over $200 for the setup posted above with 6 “glow” tetras.

got the fish yesterday. The girls (and me) enjoy watching them swim around. Pretty cool so far.

 

Why don’t y’all want me to have an aquarium?

 

I don’t have mine anymore so I've been kind of ignoring the thread.

 

Salt or fresh and how much do you want to put into it?

 

I’ll chime in that as a beginner I’d recommend starting with a community fresh water tank.

 

I really have no idea. On a scale of 1-10 on the knowledge of aquariums scale, I’m a 0. I just like to look at them.

 

This..

 

With any salt set up you’ve got to address a number of more complicated options. Lighting, substrate, filtration etc all need more attention than freshwater. I’d recommend a 20 gallon South American community tank and avoid live plants for the moment. This will give you a few cool fish to look at while you get the hang of maintaining water quality, cleaning the tank, treating illness, etc. Biggest benefit to this angle is you’ll spend significantly less money than a salt or even more sophisticated fresh water set up, and in the event “this sucks it’s too much work” happens you’ll be out $200 instead of $2,000.

 

So I’ve had the aquarium for a month now and all 6 fish have survived so far. Even with losing power for a week due to hurricane Ida. I was able to stick a battery powered bait-fishing aerator in the tank while the power was out and that kept things going.

I did a water change (not sure what it’s really called) but I removed a gallon or so of water and replaced with new water. The tank got a little dirty while the power was out, but after a few days it cleared up. All has been well since that time. Really pretty easy and low maintenance so far.

 

This is great. Thanks a lot.

 

Awesome. Thank you.

 

killrbee7 update on your RedSea setup?

My son wants one and before I pull the trigger I want to know if these all-in-one setups are really as easy/low maintenance as they say? How many hours a week are you dedicating to it, etc.?

 

The quality of the Red Sea is top notch. That said, no matter the setup you choose, you will be spending time with maintenance. Between my two tanks, I probably spend 2 hours a week. That doesn’t count any time spent going to the LFS or making RODI water.

Are you planning on doing a reef tank or fish only? Fish only is considerably less work and headaches. Also, while it may seem counterintuitive, a larger tank is easier (takes more to screw it up).

 

No lie on the larger setup being easier. My 180 was worlds easier to maintain than the 75 I had first.

 

Chumbolone when in doubt, go larger than needed. I went with a much larger skimmer than was really "required" for my tank, larger UV sterilizer, etc. Especially for a tang heavy tank like i had. It allowed me to "overfeed" the tank without causing crashes or other issues. That in turn let me have some quite large and territorial fish together with no issues. That plus lots of hiding spots.

 

I wanted to do reef, but I don’t think he’ll care. I’ll read up on it some more. Bigger might be an option.

 

Damn no updates in a long time....does anyone have a water box on here? I'm thinking of getting the 320.7

 

Put getting an aquarium off, though I'm re-entertaining the idea. Any lower end maintenance fish with a personality that won't require a large tank?

Current possibilities: pygmy corydoras, smaller pufferfish, loaches or a betta

 

revisiting this

got a 20 gallon. thinking of loaches or pea puffers, though puffers are intermediate care. any other suggestions for a beginner, longer living freshwater fish to research up and get?

 

Apistogrammas or German blue rams always make a great centerpiece for small planted takes. Just stay on top of water quality.

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/...1TPTTMAIWw_LyG3HG5sJozvIHNnU4I2YzMebDMmeTGaE9

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/...lNtHLVlAscA-Oc19wh2iWQEfy0CAVYXzw-mGwCUq579BZ

 

plus a scraper. freshwater 20g long planted tank. what am I missing? not fishing it till I read more and am more comfortable

 

You have the essentials covered. You could add in Quick Start if you want to cycle your tank quicker. I also really like Flourish Excel to help the plants and prevent algae blooms, but you certainly don't need either.

 

That post makes me miss my aquarium. Can’t wait to get out of my apartment so I can get another saltwater tank set up.

 

You need a substrate. Also planting and maintaining a planted tank is much easier with some nice aquascaping tools. Get yourself some decent tweezers and scissors.

Also also, hardscape.

Also also also, test strips aren’t good. Get a decent test kit.

 

it's a start. need a heap more aquascaping, but that's for the future.

settled on giant hairgrass, crypt parvas, anubis barteri, and water sprite as starter plants. got some ammonia in it. won't be fish stocking, outside of shrimp and potentially snails, for a good while.

took 3+ hours to fuss with the plants, dragonstone, slate and substrate. cord management is on the docket too.

 

Make sure you don’t bury the rhizome on that anubias - it will kill the plant. Honestly, I’d just find a crevice in the dragonstone and stick it in there. It’ll do fine just getting nutrients from the water column. (The roots may find their way down to your substrate). Also, it will generally be perceived as a deeper tank and more visually appealing if you angle the substrate slightly so that it’s higher in the back of the tank than the front. Otherwise, I think that’s a good start.

 

Fixed and fixed. Gracias. Evened the substrate horizontally, filled in the back more. It does add depth to it. Stuck the anubias between the two dragonstones.

 

When you fish be careful with water levels, I had mine a bit too full once and came home from work with a fish that jumped out where the filter gap was.

 

looks better. parameters don't mean much this early, but it's still cool to see

 

When I had an aquarium my fav fish was the red tailed "shark" (it really looked like a catfish)

 

emma nice start. I can’t recommend r/plantedtank and r/aquascape enough for tips, ideas, and general knowledge.

 

I’ve got a couple of old glass bowl terrariums with lids; going to setup a Walstad bowl one of these days…

 

emma one thing I found that helped was I did my aquascape in my big tank outside of the tank and “glued” the pieces together. They have stuff that’s aquarium safe. Granted I sort of had to do that cause I need lots of hiding spots for the various tangs and they also would move stuff, assholes lol.

Looks like you’re off to a really good start too.

Also reef2reef was immensely helpful for me. I think there’s freshwater topics and stuff there too but even if not, there’s a huge resell market for all kinds of equipment on there. I bought a lot of my stuff from there.