Aldi Fish Tank

[chestnutree]

Hi all, first post here.

I just purchased one of those brilliant value for money Aldi fish tanks. 54L, comes with everything. I'm sure you guys must have spoken about them?

Well first query... it comes with a choice of 2 background images. In the box rolled up is some sort of film. blue on one side, black on the other. now i can't imagine blue or black is the choice of "images"? so i tried to peel it apart thinking it was sticky and would reveal an image...but no. i eventually managed to peel it but in bits, as if it wasn't meant to peel...not revealing any image underneath. Am i doing something wrong? the instructions say to just simply stick the image to the outside of the tank at the back. thats all they say....my partner is the aldi store manager, they know nothing more about the "special buy products" than what it says on the box. so im stuck. surely it's not a choice of blue or black? am i being thick?

My other query is setting up the tank. i have a filter tap so i filled the tank with filtered water. stuck in the pump/filter, heater and thermomitor.Plenty of air bubbles in the tank and it was sat comfortably at 25c the next morning. I would quite like a clown fish. As i have read they are salt water, do i just simply add salt? im going to also buy a hydrometer salt tester to get it right and a few other tests like ph, nitrite, nitrate as suggested on other sites. How often do i need to check these levels? what are the correct levels?

What is best to use on the bottom? gravel? special sand?

Do i need the expensive live corals? What about anemones?

How long does the tank need to be left to "settle" for before adding fish? or corals etc

i was thinking of growing some triops first. i've always wanted some but never been able to grow them very well as i've had no heater in the small tank i had. When i've finished with these as they only last about a month, can i just put the other fish in or do i need to clean the tank properly and wait weeks before putting fish in?

Do i need anything else to keep tropical salt water fish? (are they called marine fish?)

How much can i normally get these for? anyone know the best places in nottingham? Preferable stapleford,trowel, beeston sort of area

Thanks

 

[Truck]

Hi all, first post here.

I just purchased one of those brilliant value for money Aldi fish tanks. 54L, comes with everything. I'm sure you guys must have spoken about them?

Well first query... it comes with a choice of 2 background images. In the box rolled up is some sort of film. blue on one side, black on the other. now i can't imagine blue or black is the choice of "images"? so i tried to peel it apart thinking it was sticky and would reveal an image...but no. i eventually managed to peel it but in bits, as if it wasn't meant to peel...not revealing any image underneath. Am i doing something wrong? the instructions say to just simply stick the image to the outside of the tank at the back. thats all they say....my partner is the aldi store manager, they know nothing more about the "special buy products" than what it says on the box. so im stuck. surely it's not a choice of blue or black? am i being thick?

My other query is setting up the tank. i have a filter tap so i filled the tank with filtered water. stuck in the pump/filter, heater and thermomitor.Plenty of air bubbles in the tank and it was sat comfortably at 25c the next morning. I would quite like a clown fish. As i have read they are salt water, do i just simply add salt? im going to also buy a hydrometer salt tester to get it right and a few other tests like ph, nitrite, nitrate as suggested on other sites. How often do i need to check these levels? what are the correct levels?

What is best to use on the bottom? gravel? special sand?

Do i need the expensive live corals? What about anemones?

How long does the tank need to be left to "settle" for before adding fish? or corals etc

i was thinking of growing some triops first. i've always wanted some but never been able to grow them very well as i've had no heater in the small tank i had. When i've finished with these as they only last about a month, can i just put the other fish in or do i need to clean the tank properly and wait weeks before putting fish in?

Do i need anything else to keep tropical salt water fish? (are they called marine fish?)

How much can i normally get these for? anyone know the best places in nottingham? Preferable stapleford,trowel, beeston sort of area

Thanks

Before attempting marine fish I strongly advise that you give fresh water tropical fish a whirl first, they're very easy to keep and will give you valuable experience, which you will later need when moving onto marines.

To answer some of your questions, clownfish are salt water fish, so do need some sodium chloride adding to the water, you can't use plain table salt though, It must be a pure sodium chloride substance, you're best off buying it form a retailer online, if you wish to keep corals you are going to need RO water, which is water in it's purest form, and can be bought from most marine retailers, including Trowell garden centre, which I live close to, I used to use them for most of my marine things. Instead of buying a hydrometer I suggest you get a refractometer instead because they remain accurate longer than a hydrometer and don't need constant calibration.
For a Marine tank you will need a calcium carbonate based sand, plain crushed coral sand is fine. You will also need some live rock which contain bacteria which will filter your water, so a normal filter isn't required, unless you wish to run phosphate remover and carbon in it. you will also need powerheads to provide flow. The marine side of the hobby can be very expensive, and when you get into corals you'll need good lighting, which will also cost £££. As for test kits you will need:
Ammonia
Nitrite
nitrate
PH
PO4, to begin with.

If I were you I would head over to the New to hobby section and read up on fishless and fish in cycling for fresh water tanks, There are hundreds of freshwater fish available which are a fraction of the cost of that of a marine fish. A pair of clownfish can set you back £20 where as a pair of platies will set you back £2.


One of the best retailer for tropical and marine near you would be bardills which next to Massive Island on the A52. Trowell GC is just up from bramcote island on the A52, also next to bardills is a tropical retailer called Japanese water gardens, which are a bit hit and miss, sometimes they have good stock, sometimes bad. And when I bought marine live stock from bardills they infected my tank with whitespot

 

[seffieuk]

Hi all, first post here.

to TFF and the saltier side of life

I just purchased one of those brilliant value for money Aldi fish tanks. 54L, comes with everything. I'm sure you guys must have spoken about them?

Nope, sorry haven't heard of them

Well first query... it comes with a choice of 2 background images. In the box rolled up is some sort of film. blue on one side, black on the other. now i can't imagine blue or black is the choice of "images"? so i tried to peel it apart thinking it was sticky and would reveal an image...but no. i eventually managed to peel it but in bits, as if it wasn't meant to peel...not revealing any image underneath.

yes you are - we are a funny lot on the salty side - we like everything to be natural - so one side is blue and one side is black - you just choose a colour and stick it on the back of the tank using vasoline

Am i doing something wrong? the instructions say to just simply stick the image to the outside of the tank at the back. thats all they say....my partner is the aldi store manager, they know nothing more about the "special buy products" than what it says on the box. so im stuck. surely it's not a choice of blue or black? am i being thick?

Yep, choice of blue or black - I would go for black, hides cables etc

My other query is setting up the tank. i have a filter tap so i filled the tank with filtered water. stuck in the pump/filter, heater and thermomitor. Plenty of air bubbles in the tank and it was sat comfortably at 25c the next morning.

ok, I take it you are new to fish keeping?

I would quite like a clown fish. As i have read they are salt water, do i just simply add salt?

Right, this is where I say whoaaa, you have a tank that is about 12 uk gallons. Firstly the tank is not big enough to keep clowns and secondly you need to do some work on understanding the basics of salt water keeping.

im going to also buy a hydrometer salt tester to get it right and a few other tests like ph, nitrite, nitrate as suggested on other sites. How often do i need to check these levels? what are the correct levels?

Buy a refractometer instead

What is best to use on the bottom? gravel? special sand?

Aragonite sand

Do i need the expensive live corals?

Corals are not always expensive but have specific requirements

What about anemones?

Too small and too new

How long does the tank need to be left to "settle" for before adding fish? or corals etc

Tank has to 'cycle'

i was thinking of growing some triops first. i've always wanted some but never been able to grow them very well as i've had no heater in the small tank i had. When i've finished with these as they only last about a month, can i just put the other fish in or do i need to clean the tank properly and wait weeks before putting fish in?

Its a big tank for triops!

Do i need anything else to keep tropical salt water fish? (are they called marine fish?)

Yes, Marine fish. You need fitration, like Live rock, powerhead, maybe a smalll skimmer and have done lots of research and asked lots of questions

How much can i normally get these for? anyone know the best places in nottingham? Preferable stapleford,trowel, beeston sort of area

Can't help with hthis, but most of us buy on line and over a few months as this can be an expensive hobby!

Thanks

So, lets start again:

You have a 12 gallon tank that is suitalbe for a small marine fish and shrimp, it is unlikey the lighting is any use for corals other than a few mushrooms.

You need to grab yourself a pen and pad of paper and start reading as much as you can about setting up a nano tank - there are many great journels on here to begin with along with many pinned threads.

Then ask, ask and ask again, you will have many questions, we all do to start with questions are good.

Don't be disheartened, it is do-able but on the salty side patience is most certainly a virtue

Seffie x

 

[chestnutree]

Cool, thanks.

I now live in stapleford so they were the 3 i knew of. so u would reccommend bardills out of the 3 for anything but the stuff that infects the tank? lol..

Only reason i wanted to go straight for the cool stuff (marine fish) was because if i started on the fresh water, i can't really just get rid of them when i move onto marine. or do the fresh water survive in marine conditions also?

I found this coral sand on eBay, http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180446565397&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT
How many 1KG bags would i need to get roughly an inch on the bottom of a 60cm x 30cm tank? i have no idea how much 1kg would be size wise.

What are the "live rocks"? are they cheap? do they survive in fresh water tanks?

Is a mod able to move my post over to the new to hobby section?

 

[Truck]

Bardills are generally okay, I don't think the clowns I purchased were properly quarantined. You can sell the fresh water fish onto LFS's or other fish keepers.

you would need about 4-5KG

Live rocks are porous bits of rock from the ocean that contain bacteria and other creatures which will filter the ammonia and convert it to nitrite, then nitrate and then nitrogen, from an LFS live rock can cost anything from £10-£15 a kilo, and you will need about 6 kilos. No they don't survive in freshwater.

If you report this post and ask a mod to move it in the report I'm sure they would.

I personally feel that you should give fresh water a whirl first, so you can get used to the water changes etc, 12 gallons is very small in marine terms, and although it is doable, you may struggle to keep the water parameters within limits, so getting some practice first is a good thing, because fresh water fish can tolerate inappropriate conditions better than marines, so you won't be loosing costly stock, should something go wrong.

 

[chestnutree]

Sorry i missed your post seffie. Was already replying to the other post at the time.

it's 60cm x 30cm, 45l. i was hoping it was enough for the clown fish as i didn't think they got that big?

i'm still trowling through the pages on here and from the begginers section. i don't understand what the mature filter media is? i have a large pond in the garden with a huge seperate external filter/uv light. is there something in there i can take out and put in the tank? each time i clean it theres tons of sludge,lol. but also some weird mini grey worm things in the very bottom around the nobbly ball things.

i can't believe thats the background. the box uses the words "image" and shows on the box a tank with a nice reef picture (no small print saying for illustration only or anything like that) so thats annoying. i can't imagine they cost too much? Will post a link on the actual tank when im home.

Is the sand i posted below sufficient? how many 1kg bags would you say?

Which corals or live rocks should i be asking for?

Some of these pinned threads are looong. im going to be here all night,lol

Thanks x

 

[chestnutree]

Sorry truckasauras, you also replied while i was adding a reply. im right messing up this thread!

LFS? live fish supplier/shop?

i see some mentioned about online suppliers. they send live fish and stuff through the post? Which sites would you reccommend?

i may bite my tongue and just get fresh water then if thats what the experts suggest. i'll have to go see what cool looking fish i can get. some neons what temp do most fresh water need to be kept at? if i got fresh water, would i still need to do all the water testing?

 

[Truck]

LFS= Local fish store

Not sure on the online retailers

yes you will still need to test and they range from 20-32oC

 

[seffieuk]

Are you reading the journels on the marine section or the tropical section? We don't really talk about 'mature media'. Mature media is something like sponge that has a lot of bacteria on in (used in fresh water tanks but not salt), you can then just move it to a new tank and it will colonise the tank quicker than starting from nothing.

The best way to start a salt water nano:

Read loads, take notes ask questions.
learn about the cycle
learn about live rock - they are the heart and lungs of our tanks

Seffie x

 

[chestnutree]

i started reading the new to hobby section's pinned topics. it also talks about cycling the tank. it says it's best to cycle without fish, but if this is not possibly and you already have fish then this is what to do. i don't have the fish yet....even though it says it's best to cycle without fish, it doesn't say how you do it,lol.

 

[seffieuk]

Ah, ok - its a bit different on the salty side - you will need to read the journels in the Marine section for that

Seffie x

 

[chestnutree]

As well as now considering fresh water/tropical by truckasauras, im also thinking about the nano tank suggested by seffie. i went to the nano reefs section on this site and clicked the resource centre pinned topic...but there doesn't seem to be a short section actually telling me what a nano is. could you explain briefly please?

 

[seffieuk]

A nano tank is a tank under 30 gallons containing salt water. It usuaully has live rock to filter, powerheads for flow, sometimes has a small skimmer to remove organics, waste etc from the water and only has a small amount of live stock.

so in your tank you would need:

Approx 6 k of live rock
a powerhead, probably the Koralia nano
heater
a small skimmer (but can do without as long as you do weekly water changes)
refractometer to test sg of water
test kits
the salty stuff

You could keep a small goby and shrimp combo - check out youtube, they have some cool videos
You could probably also keep some mushrooms

Seffie x

 

[chestnutree]

u can get water mushrooms? wow,lol

powerhead, is that a filter? i have a filter which sprays accross the top creating bubbles with adjustable speed. Also have the heater.

Still not big enough for nemo though

 

[seffieuk]

u can get water mushrooms? wow,lol

indeed, very cool

powerhead, is that a filter?

No, a powerhead just moves water, it doesn't filter

i have a filter which sprays accross the top creating bubbles with adjustable speed. Also have the heater.

Still not big enough for nemo though

Nope maybe learn about tropical fresh water fish and then plan to buy a tank for a pair of clowns later on - you will need a tank of approx 125 litres

Seffie x