Arnie's Tropical Setup

[ArnieStinger]

Hey there. Over the past year I've been researching Marine Aquariums and tropical aquariums and aquascaping. All hobbies that I would love to indulge in, as a hydroponics (my other current hobby) euthusiast aquariums and fish keeping sound like a step up and something that I am very interested to get into.

After reading everything on the Internet I can about tropical/freshwater aquariums (Literally days of reading online), im ready to start buying equipment for my setup, however as many articles, none of which ever recommend a brand of equipment or product, only recommend the top brand which is slightly less helpful and self-defeating.

I plan to keep tropical fish, but of which species I am undecided, so I want to leave the option for soft water and hard water fish open for now. I'm in london with a particularly high pH Hardiness and high ppm in the water, with a pH around 7.9 and ppm of 400, so raising soft water fish would be particularly costly I believe, moving on...


I have experience in the biological field (somewhat) in growing plants in hydroponic systems, dealing with water chemistry, temperatures, problems, solutions ect.

My tank is second-hand, at which I believe i'm getting a good deal from a retired Aquacultist.

At the moment I need help and recommendation from current fish-keepers and stockists over what Equipment I should buy- in specific which brands.

Here is sound of the list I've made, its after I read the whole of Practical Fishkeeping's articles which took me over 15 hours straight (I don't sleep much)


1. Aquarium Tank

2. Anti-internal bacteria medication –Interpret Anti-Internal & Myxazin

3. Anti-fungus - API Fungus Care, eSha 2000, Melafix

4. Anti-parasite medication – Parasites // Paragard Ruby Reef Rally or Octozin instead.

5. Wound care - Bio Bandage, Liquisil General Tonic, Melafix .

6. dried bogwood, Water test kit, dechlorinator

7. Adjustable Wave Maker, Air Pumps/Stones, 200w Heater?

8. Siphon Cleaner, methylene blue solution, bi-aquaculture or UltraLife, blue green algae remover


9. Some Plants I would like to get , Water Wisteria, java moss, java fern, Anubias Nana, Lillaeopsis.

10. Plant substrate and volcanic substrate (small black stones kind of look), some inert rocks

Please recommend me anything else I need, I'm going to stock all the medicines and fish food I need, all dechlorinators, spare sponges for what-ever filter I am to get.

Questions:

the temperature of the room the fish tank is in will be about 21'c ambient sometimes more, what wattage heater do I need? Recommend me one that is useable with a heat guard. what heater?

What kind of filter should I get, Im really after a filter that can clean my size tank but also a bit stronger to compensate for slow-flowing later on, the filter must also have space for multiple filters, so preferably a mechanical filter at the front, then a biological filter behind and maybe space for activated carbon once in a while, what filter is suitable?

I read and asked a fish-keeping shop owner, she said that protein skimmers will be useless in tropical/freshwater, what problems should I expect without one?

How many airpumps will I need, I can get 3-4 decent pumps at a low cost, will I need to house them in tubes to stop small bubbles, should I attach airstones onto them?

How many waterpumps will I need to create a decent flow in the tank? Im also looking to get a second-hand wave maker once my tank is established, which brand of waterpump+wave maker+ acessories will I need?

Will i need an internal filter? I can get a few internal fluval filters at a cheap price second hand, maybe a mechanical internet would be useful to clean up large particles, but I would want my external beefy filter to be the main component, will an internal filter take away any benefits from the external filter?

What kind of substrates will I need for a few plants like moss and such, can you recommend me some plant food products and regular doses?

What kind of pH equipment will I generally need, I already have alot of pH products from my hydroponics hobby, but im not sure if its suitable for fish keeping as the chemical is raw and can irritate human skin, I have ppm, pH and EC meters which help in lowering the cost for my project.

Im ok for lights, as I have HID (HPS/MH) up to 1000w (100,000 lumens at 3ft) strength lights for my other hobbie, I also have 400w HID, 250 CFL environlite, and 72w Florescent lights, not sure if t5/t8? I also havea contactor/timer and most of the electrics needed, lighting im ok on.

What brand of heater and therometer should I get? bare in mind later on I plan on setting up my tank on monitors and controllers for maintaining steady pH and monitors for temp..



Thanks in advance, I look forward to joining the forum community and learning and sharing my experience and discoveries.

 

[ArnieStinger]

bump

 

[Carlovel1]

Hi I have 2 questions for you.
1. What is the water capacity for your tank.
2. What fish do you plan to add.
Carl

 

[Miss Wiggle]

hi there, when you say tropical fish do you mean tropical freshwater or tropical saltwater? tropical just refers to the temperature of the water and the comments early on about marine set ups and then about protein skimmers are slightly confusing! running the two is very different so the advice we give will be different.

in my experience one heater is as good as another, i've had cheap ones and expensive ones and never noticed any difference. just get something with a thermostat control on it, i tend to go for two heaters in a tank to add a bit of back up incase one fails.

for filters if money is no option then get an eheim, get one rated for a tank bigger than yours - you don't give the size so hard to say. if you go for one of their externals then it will have various baskets and you can put bio or mech filtration into them or add carbon if you feel you want to. base it on the litres per hour that the filter puts out. i go for around 10 x tank turnover so take the volume of your tank in litres and times it by 10 and that should be the lph you look for on a filter.

altering pH in fish tanks is tricky and sudden fluctuations in pH will be worse for your fish than a steady pH slightly above what they want ideally, if you source locally tank bred fish they will be used to the high pH of your water anyway so should be OK. Most of the pH adjusting products around for aquarium use are pretty rubbish tbh!

 

[markandhisfish]

2. Anti-internal bacteria medication –Interpret Anti-Internal & Myxazin

3. Anti-fungus - API Fungus Care, eSha 2000, Melafix

4. Anti-parasite medication – Parasites // Paragard Ruby Reef Rally or Octozin instead.

5. Wound care - Bio Bandage, Liquisil General Tonic, Melafix .

8. methylene blue solution, bi-aquaculture or UltraLife, blue green algae remover

scratch all that lot off your list and save yourself some money. do things right from day 1 and you shouldnt need any of them, but if you did end up needing them imo it would be better to cross that bridge when you come to it. im guessing the bi-aquaculture is 1 of these so called cycling products? if so its a complete waste of money as they just dont work .

 

[OldMan47]

Please set aside all of your chemical treatments and concentrate on decent quality water instead ArnieStinger. If you have good water quality, it is very rare that you will need anything else for a fish and plants arrangement. For high mineral content water, your best bet will be any of the common livebearers. You do not need any air pumps as long as you have a filter that is adequate for the size tank you are setting up. Each filter is rated for a particular aquarium size so finding the right size should be easy. Heaters may be needed depending on which species of fish you like but many do fine at a room temperature that we people find comfortable. You will not want to change the pH of your water with any chemicals. It is far better to find fish that like hard water conditions than to try to change the pH and mineral content.