New to tropical fish - seeking some advice

[Byron]

Just a comment on numbers when adding fish. Once you have the plants and they are showing obvious signs of growth, and here I strongly recommend some floating plants too, any shoaling fish species such as cories and tetras should always have the entire intended number added together. So if you want 10 Pristella Tetras, buy ten and add them at the same time. Same for the cories, when you add them.

 

[Retired Viking]

Looks like all your question were answered, Like @seangee I silent cycle my tanks with plants. Some good floating plants are hornwort, moneywort, water sprite and anacharis which you can also plant in the gravel if you wish. Frog bite and salvinia are good floating plants that just float. When you are first cycling it is best to let them float on the surface because that is where they do the best at gas exchange (co2/oxygen) and grow faster. They absorb more ammonia the faster they grow. Anacharis is the floating plant in my sunken forest tank. Like @seangee I have a shoal of ember tetras but @seangee look so much cooler.

 

[trash.binh91]

I'm sorry if I'm treading on other's toes, but dont forget to cycle your tank before adding fish!

 

[seangee]

Yeah those shipping costs are a killer. Don't be in too much of a rush to add fish. Let the plants establish and really grow - and make sure you have lots. I am currently doing a silent cycle on an 85l tank. I have around 80% of my surface covered in very fast growing surface plants and added 20 tiny ember tetras.

Actually my comment on shipping costs may be misleading
I was impatient for the embers and knew they had been at my local Maidenhead for over a month so took a drive over. If I bought the same fish on-line from a reputable supplier I have used before the price would have been almost identical even including the shipping. It obviously doesn't make so much sense for 2 or 3 fish unless they are expensive fish, or something you really want and can't get locally.

 

[jonnyc88]

Thanks for all the kind replies, I will have a read tomorrow as I'm now knackered after assembling the tank
Leak test tomorrow and 20KG of Swell Limpopo Black Sand ordered as per recommendation. Also got a 3D tropical background to cover up the ugly side of the wall.

Tank is pretty good comes with everything you need to start. (cabinet, LED light, heater and filter)

edit: Missus pointed out I've installed the doors upside down, not sure why I didn't notice that lol. I've rectified that now.

 

[jonnyc88]

The two units used in fishkeeping are ppm and German deg (aka dH). So the figures you need are
251 ppm
14.2 dH


The other thing is volume

In fishleeping, gallons are always American gallons so your tank volume is 145 litres or 38 gallons (rather than 32 Imperial gallons)

Cheers for that! I'll remember that going forward

 

[jonnyc88]

We are currently leak testing the tank so filling the tank to almost full and leaving for 24 hours.
So far so good so fingers crossed.

Is it recommended to siphon off the water and start again or can I just put the sand in without refilling? I suppose it’s easier to plant without any water in the tank.
With the water is it recommended to add water treatment? Currently we are just using tap water.
Next in the list is to get the plants in.

 

[seangee]

Your choice. Best to add conditioner in case your water contains chloramine. Make sure the sand is well rinsed. Here is the least messy way of adding sand to a tank that already has water in it.

 

[Byron]

I have set up or re-set so many tanks...I would drain the tank completely, then dump the rinsed sand in as you rinse it. When you finish that, arrange the hardscape (wood, rock, whatever). At that point if plants are intended I usually fill the tank about half, then plant. This will make quite a mess sritting up the sand. When finished, I then drain the water out right down to the lowest point on the sand. Then place a bowl or similar vessel in the tank and run the fresh water into that to avoid disturbing the sand. Add conditioner.

 

[jonnyc88]

Thanks @seangee and @Byron. I think we will completely drain the tank after leak testing, basically pretty much following what @Byron said.
However we will see how things are after putting the rinsed sand in and filling up to half tank, not too sure if we want to drain the water again but will see. Got myself a siphon so would help draining.
After planting we'd fill to the intended level, add conditioner + plant food and monitor the levels
Ordering the plants now, going with some driftwood and selection of cultured plants.
Also got myself selection of accessories (stainless tweezers, spatulas, nets, cleaning tools etc). Spending loads but really feeling excited about this.

 

[Retired Viking]

Tank and stand look good, You are finding out this is not a cheap hobby if you are doing it right. There is a nice set of 15 inch tweezers on amazon that work great for taller tanks. They are advertised for feeding reptiles. I had bought the shorter stainless set before I saw them. Use both with all my tanks but the longer set helps keep me a little dryer.

 

[jonnyc88]

Tank and stand look good, You are finding out this is not a cheap hobby if you are doing it right. There is a nice set of 15 inch tweezers on amazon that work great for taller tanks. They are advertised for feeding reptiles. I had bought the shorter stainless set before I saw them. Use both with all my tanks but the longer set helps keep me a little dryer.

Well there is no point calling it a hobby if you ain't doing it right
Thanks for the tip about the tweezers, I've bought the standard ones for now which should get me started. However in the future I might want to get longer wants to avoid stressing out the fish too much with my hairy arms lol.

 

[Retired Viking]

When I reach into my 55 gallon tetra tank my arms are surrounded by little tetra thinking I am going to feed them.

 

[jonnyc88]

So I’ve ordered 20kg of sand and it barely covered half inch of the tank. We plan to have a slope so ordered another 40kg. Hopefully the stand can take the weight ...

 

[jonnyc88]

200W heater blew within 5 minutes of using it so ordered a Fluval to replace it.
Quite a lot of effort taken to get this far but both of us well chuffed
Hopefully water clears soon.
Tempted to get fish in for coming Weds/Thursday but probably will wait a week for the water and plants to settle.