New To Tropical Fish

[Deleted member 80606]

Hello Everyone. I am new to tropical fish, as a child I had a 100 litter tank with around 15 gold fish for 5-6years.... but thats it

I’ve just acquired a second hand 60liter (13.2 Gallen) “Fish X Box” on a bit of a whim. The person that had the tank really didn’t look after the fish, the water was yellow and the fish were sick and dying. They’ve gone to a pet shop to be nursed and I’ve got the tank for a small price.

I spend a few hours reading all the great info on these forums last week, so I know what I need to do. I used this weekend to cleaning up the tank, buying new bulbs, sand, a heater and I've been filtering water and treating the water which took hours. I also bought myself a Sera 60L pump as I understood it to be very quiet and I was going to wait a week before I bought some plants, as to let the water settle.

But!!! The pump is very noisy and it is really bothering me. I’ve ensured there is so air inside and had it apart about three times looking for grit. I dose makes far less noise when it isn’t stuck to the glass so I can only assume the noise is pure vibration being booster by the TV stand I had to strengthen up to take the 65kg weight. I am sure you all know the sound well, a deep buzzing.

This constant noise has made me rethink the tank. I don’t have that that much space, I will no doubt move in the next few years and I have a lot of project I need to put more time into. Also I’ve really gone off this tank. It is a bit ugly and doesn’t fit in with my otherwise matching furniture that I’ve been trying to harmonising for when I do move.

All that said... I have been bitten by the fish keeping bug. If I had something a bit smaller, something a bit neater, something a lot quitter I’d be happy. So I’ve been looking at the Fluvial Edge after seeing some beautiful layouts with rich green plants. From what I can tell it a very easy to keep.

So I'd like to know the following:

1. Any tips or tricks to reduce the noise of my pump?
2. What the overall impression of the Fluval Edge?
3. How nosy is the Fluval Edge? YouTube videos suggest a light water trickling, can that be reduced, I'd like near to silent.
4. Fluval Shielded Halogen Bulbs... can you get these in blue? White looks blinding and modifications look hard.
5. Fluval Heater, where does this go? Is there a tidy place for the wire?

Any advise would be great as I work out what I'd like to do.

 

[fluttermoth]

1. Sometimes filters do need to 'bed in' before they run at their most quiet; so you might want to let it run for a while yet, see if it improves

2. My son has an Edge, and while we like it a lot, don't forget that we have a; a lot of years of experience in fishkeeping and b; a lot of other tanks for keeping things that wouldn't go in the Edge

3. The Edge is pretty quiet. I don't think the triclking can be reduced that much, but it's hardly noticable. I don't think there's any such thing as a tank that runs silently; they all make some kind of hum or trickling noise; but the things is you stop hearing it after a very shory while; your brain learns to 'filter' out the noise.

4. No idea, sorry. The light aren't blinding (unless you lift the light bar up with them still on!). You can't really run a tank with just blue lights anyway if you want plants.

5. It just sticks on the back like a normal heater; thee is nowhere on the Edge that I've found to run the wires hidden (I may just be not seeing it); it' one of the minor quibbles I have with the Edge.

I personally wouldn't recommend an Edge for a newbie to fishkeeping; while it looks lovely, it's a PITA to work on and if you didn't know what you were doing, as well the problems of keeping a stable water quality in such a small volume, I think you might find the whole thing a bit of a struggle.

You're also so limited with stocking; my son has three male Endler's, two ghost shrimp and an assassin snail, and I wouldn't want to see anything else in there really; I guess we could get another couple of Endler's in there, but thet would be it; you'd be looking at 6 or 8 of the smaller tetras or microrasboras for it to be fully stocked.

 

[micko]

I don't know about fluval tanks so cannot help you on any of your questions but since your new to tropical fish I would suggest not to downsize in tank size. Smaller water volume means that water quality is harder to maintain.

 

[colleen0309]

I've never had an fluval edge, so I don't know much about them. Just wanted to welcome you to the forum. Good luck!

 

[Deleted member 80606]

Thank you for the warm welcome and the advice. I am not sure what to do now as I really don’t like this tank and don’t want to go too far only to regret it.... so I have a bit to think about. I was even looking at the price of acoustic foam today. Wondering if some under the shelf would help the noise but then I still dont like the tank.

With the edge in mind I was only looking at getting tiny fish. 1/2 Albino Cory, 2/3 Fancy Guppies and maybe a pleco. That or something with a nice glow like a neon Tetra or Danio.

But yeah it is a small tank and if it is going to be too much work keeping the water clean I don’t know if is worth it. It’s just such a nice tank.

I'll give it a week to think.

 

[fluttermoth]

Albino cories grow far to big for an Edge, and anyway need to be in groups of 6+; they are a very social fish. I can't think of any plecs that would go in, apart from otocinclus, and again they need to be in groups of 6+, which would leave you over stocked.

The only real options for an Edge, stocking wise, are 3 or 4 male guppies or Endler's or 6 or 8 microrasboras, smaller tetras, or a betta. You can add shrimp or snails, but there isn't much else can go in there.

 

[colleen0309]

How about a few male guppies, a couple nerite snails and some shrimp? A nice piece of drift wood and some live plants? Could look really nice.