i'll start from the beginning, just recently i've been talking to my workmate and we got on about fish, more precisley piranha's and this got me wanting to setup a tank in my new study and throw in some piranha's.

i then started to read up on the whole aquarium business and i have now decided i am not ready for them yet and i need to start of slowly and get to learn the ropes properly before even considering taking on a tank of piranha's

hence my quest for knowledge led me to here.

top site by the way quiet a few of you know what your doing

and i have learnt more from this site so far in the last 2 days than i ever knew about keeping fish.

i have a 2 year old and i bought him 2 goldfish in a fish bowl so he could learn to look after them and so fourth. they didn't last long and now i believe i know why sorry!

the more i'm reading about aquariums and the care of the more i'm liking the idea.


anyways i have decided on a tank and it is a juwel vision 180, 180 ltrs am i right in thinking this is just shy of 40 gallons?

and the capacity of fish would be no more than 60 inch's in total. provided there is nothing too large!


i haven't decided on what fish to start with yet, and dont worry i have read and reread about the cycling of the tank.

is there any recomendations on types of water dechlorinators, water testing kits? or is any brand pretty much as good as the other?

many thanks

eddie

First of all hello and welcome. umm your calcuations are correct for imp gallons but you come out to a little over 47 gallon (US) First of all the inch thing doesnt always work. It is a guide for smaller fish but thankfully you have a nice size tank. Im not sure if you have these products where youare but i use kordon water conditioners (thou im not sure which is "the best") as far as test kits a liquid one is best and most accurate, i recommend A.P.I As far as other products its kind of depends on what product it is. Alot of companies have strengths and weaknesses. If your lookinf for something particular say a filter they we would be able to give you what we think we be good. Good Luck and again welcome to fish keeping.

hello and welcome. im so glad you went off the "chuck a few pirhnas in a tank" idea, and have come around to fishkeeping ( as a pose to fish having)

can you tell us were you are, then we can give a better idea on products availible to you:)

as far as the goldfish in a bowl goes, i think most of us have done it, but never mind its done now,

shelagh xxxx

Many people use the API testing kit and its a good one but almost any of the liquid type will work fine. The same goes for water conditioners, almost any will work but I prefer the seachem Prime because you need so little of it that its very economical to use. Heaters are another matter. They are not all alike. Any of the bigger brand names like Rena and Visitherm work fine if you get a model designed to be fully submerged. The cheaper heaters that sit at the top of the tank are not nearly as reliable. For filters, most of the canister type are decent filters. I have experience with the Rena XP series and the stainless steel Marineland C series. Both are good filters but you will find fans of Eheim and Fluval filters as well.

Welcome and good luck in your fish keeping goals! Ask all your Questions, there's a ton of smart people on here!

hi again i'm in doncaster. I've been speaking with my brother who had a tropical tank for a few years, a 100g tank. Hmmm thats uk 100gallons by the way. When people talk about gallons do they mean uk measurement or us?

Me and my brother are going to install a reverse flow filter system when i get my tank. It is a similar filter system he had in his tank,

I saw a pretty cool fish the other day. It was called a black ghost knife i think it was. Will this thing eat small fish?

A black ghost knife will definitely eat smaller fish. The 60 inches you came up with might be a bit much for a new person to keep well enough, although for your brother it might not be a problem.
Americans talk US gallons and UK folks use imperial gallons but in the case of looking at fish stocking they are close enough for the thumb rules to be equally valid / invalid for each. Even though I live in the US, I prefer to do things that really matter in litres, they don't ever change on you.
It sounds like you have figured out what you want for a filter.

Yeah i found some threads on this forum regarding the black ghost (bgk) he gets a bit too big for my tank aswell by the looks of it. Shame i liked him,

So do you just visit different aquariums to find the fish your looking for. And what size should be the maximum fish size in my size tank