My First

[Davey Jones]

Hi guy's i thought i'd share my excitment with you, i've nearly set up my first aquarium.
We have two in the house that i've set up for the kids full of bright gravel and tacky ornaments, you know the stuff kids like. My daughter's tank is a 50 litre juwel and my two boy's share a 70 litre tank.

I've been slowly getting the bits and pieces together as i'm on a tight budget ( have you seen what three kids and two large dogs can eat ). I managed to rescue the tank from someones garden, it had been there for three years completely water tight and full of green slime, you can imagine the smell .
The tank is 48" long 18" wide & 26" tall and it even had its glass sliding lids hidden in the bottom of the tank in the slime.
I managed to get a Eheim 2217 external filter for £20 from ebay a couple of weeks ago although it hasn't got any media in it yet.
Got two heaters today a pair off 200w Tronic heater/thermostats for £12.50 again from ebay.

Havn't got the lights yet, as i'm not sure what to get, so any advice would be gratefully received, also not looking forward to paying for them, seems this may be the most expensive bit.
I also like the look of black sand as a substrat rather than gravel, i've heard fish like sand over gravel and that they like darker colours over the lighter ones. Again any advice would be welcome
All the best and looking forward to your sugestions...DJ

 

[Davey Jones]

Any One?

 

[The-Wolf]

unless you are going planted and your tank is situated in a bright room
you can do without lights untill your budget allows.

arcadia ballast units are around £20 new, but you should be able to find them on ebay secondhand for far cheaper
as for the actual tube, again it depends on if you want plants or not.
plants are going to require a higher spectrum than fish, croos that bridge when you come to it.
for now start with one ballast and a original tropical tube (arcadia).

a black substrate with a black background will show off the fish colours to their fullest
but you may not like the 'dark' look to the tank.
I perfer a more natural looking substrate, gravel is ok but many bottom dwelling fish prefer sand.
I use pool filter sand but many use argos/homebase etc playpit sand.

HTH

 

[Davey Jones]

unless you are going planted and your tank is situated in a bright room
you can do without lights untill your budget allows.

arcadia ballast units are around £20 new, but you should be able to find them on ebay secondhand for far cheaper
as for the actual tube, again it depends on if you want plants or not.
plants are going to require a higher spectrum than fish, croos that bridge when you come to it.
for now start with one ballast and a original tropical tube (arcadia).

a black substrate with a black background will show off the fish colours to their fullest
but you may not like the 'dark' look to the tank.
I perfer a more natural looking substrate, gravel is ok but many bottom dwelling fish prefer sand.
I use pool filter sand but many use argos/homebase etc playpit sand.

HTH

Hi Wolf thanks for the advice, i think i'll be going for a natural coloured sand, not sure about the plants, i think i may get some nicer looking silk plants (not to many), and then plant some Dwarf Riccia.
Do you know if i'll need co2 or not?
I also have some nice pieces of large drift wood that came out of a local stream and i've had soaking in my crystal clear pond, only trouble there though is upseting the gold fish as they have taken to sheltering in amongst it.
As for the lights good advice i was thinking of the big lighting units, don't really need those though.
Thanks again DJ