My New Tropical Fish Tank

[fish_lover53]

Hi guys, 
 
Long time fish lover, and had a couple of small cold water tanks, but have decided so get a 2ft tank and tropical fish. Just wanted to get your thoughts on what fish I could get. As I'm new to tropical tanks, it's probably best (for the fishes sake) that I get some hardy fish. I'm looking for a colourful, social, non-agressive fish. Or even some useful resources to research with.
 
Thanks in advance,
 
Luke

 

[noobgamers]

 if your planning on getting fish read one of the many hundreds of fish less cycling methods on he internet its simple but for stocking neon tetra fits your categories once everything is ok e.g your tank is fully cycled theve settled in e.t.c adding something like 6 danios,harlequins,guppys,glowlight tetra,silvertip tetra,khuli loaches,panda corydoras or 8 of any of the dwarf corydoras or endlers livebearers (fish in bold you will most likely have to have them ordered in guppys endlers are very colourful but personally i would say one of the corydoras would work best as they will fill the rest of your tank also you could get as a centrepiece dwarf gourami,honey gourami,liquorice gourami,scarlet badis or honey gourami also you could keep a single Bolivian ram although im sure some on this forum will disagree with me as they're minimum tank size is 20 gallons although ive always interpreted that as a maximum size pair

 

[Ninjouzata]

What is the width and height of your tank (since you already posted length)? That will help us know the volume and dimensions are important to know too.

 
As has been said you'll want to cycle the tank first, preferably by following THIS article.
You'll want a liquid test kit (API is a popular brand) and some ammonia. You can find ammonia sources HERE though I know it can be difficult to find there.
 
Do you know if your water is hard or soft? How far away from the tank will you be viewing it? Are there any particular colors you like/want?
 
It'd be good to go to your LFS and write down the fish that appeal to you and then post it here.

 

[fish_lover53]

Thanks noobgamers!
 
I haven't got the tank yet, buying off a friend, and all I know is that it's a 2ft. Absolutely no idea whether the water would be hard or soft. How could I check? Probably viewing it from close up. No particular colours. I'll probably try and get down to the LFS soon.

 

[Ninjouzata]

If you can get the dimensions when you pick it up or have your friend measure it and tell you that would be useful.
 
Do you have any limescape build up in your home? This would indicate hard water. You can also get your water tested at your LFS. The API master test kit doesn't contain kh & gh but you can buy these seperately and test them yourself too. You can also usually find it on your water company's site.

 

[fish_lover53]

Yeah. I should be picking it up on the weekend.
 
Soft water here. Just asked a mate. I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed.