New In

[dan1066]

Firstly hello all,new here today thought id sign up as i plan to join the tropics world very soon. Currently have 6ftx2ftx2ft tank housing a variety of coldwater fish, shubunkins,carp,fancys,fantails,goldies and plecos. I decided to have a change around and plan to buy another slightly smaller tank to rehome these and turn my larger tank after a good refurb and clear out to a tropical one. So a couple of pointers im after,which are the commonly used filters used under gravel,subs etc. What are the popular safer tropical fish to start with,and test kits used by you guys in the know,and any other pointers,advise you may have? Thanks in advance guys and girls.

 

[gbailey141]

Hi and welcome to the forum. There is a lot of usefull people on here who can help with pretty much anything. To give some thoughts on your questions, firstly undergravel filters are not so popular nowadays as most new tanks come complete with an internal filter. For a tank your size I would suggest you look at external filters as they are generally quieter, easier to maintain and you can fit more filter media in them. There are quite a few different brands such Eheim, Fluval & Tetra. As for test kits most people use the API Tropical test kit. Cheapest prices seem to be on E-bay. The most common tropicals are things like Platys, Mollies and Danios. If you are starting from scratch you will want to read up about the fishless cycle here: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=113861 Also be carefull on any advice given to you by your local fish shops as sometimes it's not always right.

Good luck and keep us posted on how you are progressing.

Gav

 

[dan1066]

Hi and welcome to the forum. There is a lot of usefull people on here who can help with pretty much anything. To give some thoughts on your questions, firstly undergravel filters are not so popular nowadays as most new tanks come complete with an internal filter. For a tank your size I would suggest you look at external filters as they are generally quieter, easier to maintain and you can fit more filter media in them. There are quite a few different brands such Eheim, Fluval & Tetra. As for test kits most people use the API Tropical test kit. Cheapest prices seem to be on E-bay. The most common tropicals are things like Platys, Mollies and Danios. If you are starting from scratch you will want to read up about the fishless cycle here: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=113861 Also be carefull on any advice given to you by your local fish shops as sometimes it's not always right.

Good luck and keep us posted on how you are progressing.

Gav

Too true had si much rubbish advise from petshops when comes to fish. As for the filters im using a fluval one now an its pretty good,i do seem to have some issues with water quality in the tank at the mo which im getting on top of now but i think this is due to poor water quality in my area east anglia,suffolk coast and i moved house only a few months ago so this has disturbed what was a beautifully balanced tank before,part of the reason for a good clear out and strip ddown of the tank as its just not been the same and riddled with problems since,plus always wanted some tropicals but dont want to lose my goldie collection. Ill get searching on here for bits of information and further advice. Cheers.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Dan.
If you can keep healthy shubunkins, you have everything you really need for your tropical tank except the heater. Tropicals need water that is a bit warmer than typical room temperatures so a heater at 1 watt per litre, about 4 or 5 watts per gallon, is all that is really needed to switch a tank from cold water to tropical. If you can afford to give up some of the filter media from your cold water fish, you could even start a new tropical tank with a small stocking level without going through a typical cycle process. About 1/3 of the media moved to the tropical tank's filter would allow you to start right off with a few tropical fish. Since you already have a well established tank, there should be no hurry locating a new tank. That means you could search the local ads for tanks for sale and probably get set up very nicely on the cheap. I always go to my local fish club auctions with an idea of what equipment I might like. I have recently, in the last few months, bought a 20 gallon tank for $3 and many other simple items like the light strip for a 10 gallon that I got for $2. The 20 is now in service for my Betta simplex breeders and the light strip got put right to work since I needed one over one of my tanks. If you don't know about fish clubs, you can check here for some that may be local to you or even Google fish clubs using your home town name. Almost any fish club holds periodic auctions as fund raisers for the club and you need not be a member to buy things there. Most will also accept sales items from anyone, even non-members, because the club keeps a percentage of the sale proceeds for the club itself.