Greetings, And Many Questions

[zygmore]

First off, greetings to everyone on the board. I'm glad to have found such a knowledgeable place.

Me and my fiancee decided a couple weeks ago that a fish tank would be the only pet she'd let me keep in her apartment, and thus started my adventure into fish.
The tank is going to be a 20 gallon tank, and that's about the only thing I have in stone. I went ahead and tested my tap water, and here are the figures i have for
that:
PH: 7.2-7.4
Ammonia: .5
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Hardness: 150
Alkalinity: 120
That's after the water was sitting out for about 20 hours.

I want to have live plants in the tank as well, not sure what fish I want but know I want at least one type of schooling fish. Really wanted an angelfish but the tank is only
18 inches high and I don't want to crowd the thing. Also, I plan on having an air pump running some decorative pieces.

Here are a few of the questions that are churning in my mind:
1.The filter set-up would probably be a HOB in the center, with a sponge on each side. Would a powerhead on each sponge be too much for it, or should I just opt to have
the air pump run the sponge filters. And, if the air pump runs them, would I need to have 2 separate ones, one for the decorative air stuff and one for the filters.
2.Live plants: Put them in before or after the cycling of the tank (will be doing the fishless cycle)
3.What's the best type of substrate to use for the plants?
4.Can the location of the pick-up tube for an HOB be modified to pull water from somewhere else?
5.I know I don't want to modify the parameters of my water, so what would be good starter fish?
6.Heaters- Digital vs. bi-metal? I plan on having 2.
7. Any projects that I could do to keep the cost down?

Currently that's the ones that are most apparent in my head atm. There are others, and I'll post them when they come up. I would appreciate detailed responses if possible
because I like to have as much knowledge about something as possible, so I know what I'm doing.

As you can tell, I am very eager to get started. And also very eager for knowledge on the subject. Although I haven't even thought about fish before, i want this to be an
enjoyable experience for me and last a long time.

 

[m00se]

Welcome! There are many, many more knowledgeable people on this forum than myself, but I'm here now, so I thought I'd offer my minimal input

As for your plants, I (and others on here) have planted up aquariums pre-cycle with no problems. If anything, they'll eat up a bit of your extra nitrates, so it can only really be a good thing. I use gravel for my substrate for my plants, and they grow like mad. There are other, specialised substrates designed specifically for growing plants in, but I don't know much about them. Others on here do - looking the 'Plants & Planted Tanks' section on the forums for much more on that and other plant-related questions. If you're running sponge filters with ornamental/airstone aeration, you're better off buying and air pump with multiple outlets (mine has four) and a load of tubing. It's cheaper in the long run, and it's only one plug! As for keeping costs down, you're already looking into sponge filters, which cost next to nothing to make yourself (and work very well). If you're thinking of planting your tank at all, you should also really look into injecting CO2. The commercial kits for this can get very expensive, but if you're willing to do a bit of DIY you can make yourself a system at very little cost. I made my CO2 system using an old 2L coke bottle, some airline connectors, a bit of aquarium-safe sealant, yeast and sugar, and it cost me only a few quid. The only thing I have to pay for now is more yeast and sugar when the output slows down.

Not sure about the other questions, but others, as I say, will no doubt be of more help than I Good luck with everything, and well done for coming here and doing some research. You'll save yourself a lot of time, money, frustration, and dead fishies.

P.S. I wonder if it was a subconscious thing - you called your Mrs. your 'finance' instead of fiancee - or is that just your nickname for her?

 

[zygmore]

Chose the wrong item in spell-check, lol...

 

[waterdrop]

Hi zygmore and welcome to TFF!

A 20G is a nice size, big enough to make the water chem easier but not too big to physically struggle with. Nice that you've posted up your tap results already. Often paper strip tests will include hardness and alkalinity tests, so am wondering what type of test kit you have?

If you size your HOB choice properly there'd really be no need for extra sponge filters, unless you particularly wanted them for some reason. They wouldn't hurt of course, other than taking away some room in the tank. AquaClear make nice HOB filters in that the box is open and can accept different types of media easily. I think many people run HOBs to one side or the other of the back wall, so that the intake pipe can be a bit more hidden in a corner. Intake pipes can be modified to an extent. As long as you can get a siphon going with them and you don't increase too greatly the pipe surface area that the pump has to pull through. The starting point recommendation we usually mention is 5x turnover, which means the pump should filter the entire volume of the tank 5 times per hour. Some planted tanks increase that to 10x, but partly that's to help cut down on algae and some of that desired water movement could also be acheived with powerheads. Air pumps are mostly an aesthetic thing and you can go with multi outlet pumps or use gang valve units to divide up your lines.

There are three functions that filtration is divided into: mechanical, chemical and biological. Common chemical media are carbon and zeolite. These are better left as optional media to be used only when specially needed. Mechanical and biological will be the two types needed on an ongoing daily basis. Nearly all media types play overlapping roles between these two functions. Sponges, ceramic rings, ceramic gravel and bioballs are the normal biomedia, with sponges and ceramics fighting it out for the top spots of what's considered to be best. Coarse sponges, medium sponges, larger loose media progressing to smaller packed media, fine polyfloss.. all these things play a role in mechanical filtration, which is the trapping of debris. Well designed filters have large, flexible media volume areas which allow the water to pass through slowly so that debris can be trapped, and yet overall the filter pump should be moving a lot of water through the tank both to get it filtered and also to not allow slight ammonia pockets to develop in the tank.

As a beginner, its important for your homework to focus on the Nitrogen Cycle, on understanding the different types of cycling and understanding the fundamental role of the ammonia and nitrite(NO2) toxins. Its important to learn good testing and good water changing technique and to begin learning what good maintenance will be all about.

~~waterdrop~~
edit: should have mentioned there are some good substrates made to give some additional help to plants: eco-complete, flourite and some others -- not a substitute for dosing liquid fertilizers but a help

 

[cowboy507]

ill try my best to answer some questions
1.The filter set-up would probably be a HOB in the center, with a sponge on each side. Would a powerhead on each sponge be too much for it, or should I just opt to have the air pump run the sponge filters. And, if the air pump runs them, would I need to have 2 separate ones, one for the decorative air stuff and one for the filters.
i dont believe that this much biofilter is needed.

2.Live plants: Put them in before or after the cycling of the tank (will be doing the fishless cycle)
this can be done any way. some prefer after, i believe, because high ammonia could burn the plants...dont quote me on that one though

3.What's the best type of substrate to use for the plants?

whatever you like would work! sand and gravel do well

4.Can the location of the pick-up tube for an HOB be modified to pull water from somewhere else?

this could easily be done. waterdrop explains this

5.I know I don't want to modify the parameters of my water, so what would be good starter fish?
most that you will find in a lfs will be good starter fish, it depends on what you want though...i might recommend
6+ neon tetras (best to add 6 months after cycling)
guppies (if you want live bearers)
also most any type of live bearer
most cories (at least 5+)
hatchet-fish (good top water fish, again a shoal)
1 male betta (if you do this dont add any fin nippers, or fish with flowing fins like male guppies)
5+ female bettas (they like to be in a sorority)
most assortments of tetras are good also.

if you find fish you want, but dont know if they go together post another thread and we will help you decide.
since you are doing a fishless cycle this will give you some time to search for what you like!

6.Heaters- Digital vs. bi-metal? I plan on having 2.
I believe that bi-metal is cheaper, but i dont know any advantages of one over the other

7. Any projects that I could do to keep the cost down?

check out the diy section on here. there are lots of projects!
eg: filters, pythons, and many other projects

hope this helps!

 

[zygmore]

Yeah, i know the filtration idea seems a little overboard, but my luck is the type where, while running a quarantine tank for a new fish, one of my other filters would cut out, and w/o 3 i would
be screwed. I know it sounds a little redundant, but i like to be able to prepare for those worst case scenarios.

Thanks for the input so far, and I have tried to familiarize myself as much as possible with the topics dealing with cycling. As far as the test kit, I bought the api freshwater master kit, and
bought some cheap strips that had the hardness and alkalinity tests on it.

Another question about the powerheads:
If I use one to power each sponge filter, would that cause too much of a current flowing in the tank, alongside the hob.

 

[waterdrop]

Hard to tell. Too much current is sometimes hard to judge until after the fact. Sometimes you can redirect and positon enough to keep the fish from being blown around. One good thing is that lots of movement can be good for keeping algae away.

~~waterdrop~~