Newbie With Questions!

[Twinklecaz]

Hi everyone, I'm Caz and I'm new. I just have a few questions I'm hoping you might be able to help me with.

I'm slowly getting together my aquarium. I've got my tank (60cmx30cmx35cm) and various other equipment but my first question is about the fish. I really want to keep Platys and Harlequins. I figure as these fish are relatively small (although I know Harlequins need to live in a shoal) that I can get maybe 2 fish that are slighlty bigger (preferably in nice colours)so I have a nice mix of sizes/shapes and colours. I'm thinking maybe 2 Dwarf Gourmis? What you recommend this? Ideally I would have liked to have had 2 small Angelfish but I've heard a lot of bad press about how they bully smaller fish so figure this may not be the best idea. Or can any of you recommend some fish that I haven't thought of?

I'm also trying to work out just how many fish I can afford to have because a book I have basically says I can have 60cms of fish but forums such as this one seem to think it's much lower than that. I do fully intend to plant my aquarium and get quite a large airstone.

My next question is about test kits. Are they really necessary? The one's I've seen are £20 each (so if I want to test for PH, Amonina and Nitrate I'm obviously looking at £60) and I just can't help but wonder if these things I aimed at everyone or just the real pro. If they are necessary can any of you recommend a good test kit that can test all three things and isn't too expensive? I've just bought a big lump of bogwood for my tank which I am currently soaking and I understand that it lowers the PH so maybe if I do get just one test kit it should be that? I read somewhere (either on this fourm or the other one I joined) someone say that they didn't believe test kits were all that vital and keeping the aquarium clean and stable was all that really mattered. What do you all think?

Sorry for all the questions!

 

[englishbettas]

hi, you could have a male betta(siamese fighter) aswell. harlequins and platys would be fine as my mum keeps those together. i dont have a test kit and my fish are fine. as long as you ave good filtration and it is at the right heat then you should be fine. also make sure you do water changes. what about some neon tetras aswell for your tank they are pretty bright and colorful. i dont see why you couldnt have angelfish as long as you asked the fish shop(or an expert) before you buy as to which fish you can keep with them. thats covers about all of it i think.
oh yeah one more thing, hi!!!
englishbettas

 

[chrisbassist]

I'll leave the fish issue for someone else.

but test kits, it's a must. and you should be able to get it a lot cheaper than that. They normally do a "master" kit, which has all of the basic tests, normally between 20 and 30 ££.

If you really don't want to spend that money, interpet have a pond test kit. which uses tablets instead of liquid. It's about £10. It's not as accurate as the liquid based kits, and wont last as long, but it will get you started,

basically, fish produce ammonia, and ammonia can kill them, but you will get bacteria forming that turn it into nitrite. unfortunately, this can also kill them. So more bacteria form which turn that into nitrate, which is still not good for the fish, but is OK in much larger amounts than the others, which is where you do water changes...

If you do some reading in the beginner section, there is more info. I'd also read about fishless cycling, where you get the bacteria to build up before adding fish (so you don't kill or hurt any fish)


But more importantly, welcome to the forum.


EDIT: once the tank is established and has all the bacteria required, testing is a lot less important

oh, and the tank is a little small for angels. no matter how lovely they are... I wouldn't put them in my tank which is a little bigger than yours...

 

[jacko32]

hi you can get a nutrafin mini master test kit which tests for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate from ebay for £17 they last ages
also your tank isnt big enough for angel fish you would need a tank of around 30gallons and about 40-50cm deep you could have dwarf gouramis which would go really well in that set up

 

[Twinklecaz]

Thanks guys. Yeah I kinda figured you'd say I need a test kit. 20-30 sounds much better, I don't mind doing that atall. I do want to do it properly. One thing though, I really don't get this fishless cycling. Is it basically that I set up the tank with everything except the fish and keep testing the water until all the readings are right?


What do you think about the Dwarfs then? Or should I just leave it at the Plattys and Harlequin? I'm thinking there must be a slighly bigger fish that's obvious and I just haven't thought of it yet lol

 

[chrisbassist]

with fishless cycling you need to add ammonia to the water, every day or whenever it's processed all the ammonia in the tank. which simulates fish poo. and gives the bacteria food.

if you have a look at the FAQ section theres info in there about it.

 

[Twinklecaz]

hi you can get a nutrafin mini master test kit which tests for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate from ebay for £17 they last ages
also your tank isnt big enough for angel fish you would need a tank of around 30gallons and about 40-50cm deep you could have dwarf gouramis which would go really well in that set up

Ooo thanks. Do you know how big Dwarfs grow?

with fishless cycling you need to add ammonia to the water, every day or whenever it's processed all the ammonia in the tank. which simulates fish poo. and gives the bacteria food.

if you have a look at the FAQ section theres info in there about it.

Thank you!

 

[fishyfeet]

Ooo thanks. Do you know how big Dwarfs grow?


about 2" high by 3" in length max

 

[jacko32]

hi you can get a nutrafin mini master test kit which tests for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate from ebay for £17 they last ages
also your tank isnt big enough for angel fish you would need a tank of around 30gallons and about 40-50cm deep you could have dwarf gouramis which would go really well in that set up

Ooo thanks. Do you know how big Dwarfs grow?

they usually grow to between 2-3 inch but there can always be exceptions
have you looked at any south american dwarf cichlids like borellis and rams you may find you like some of these take a look at dwarfcichlid.com you wont be disapointed

 

[ThePetExpress]

Hi Twinklecaz,

The prices you quote do sound rather steep. We sell a range of water testing kits for around £5 each and they've been very popular with our customers.

If you are still looking to buy some kits, have a look at our treatments page, which can be found here:
https/www.thearkpetshop.com/?p=2_6&gr=Treatments&pid=210

If you are interested in buying anything from us, let me know and I'll supply you with a discount code to let you have a little bit off the listed prices.

Good luck with your fish!

 

[jacko32]

Hi Twinklecaz,

The prices you quote do sound rather steep. We sell a range of water testing kits for around £5 each and they've been very popular with our customers.

If you are still looking to buy some kits, have a look at our treatments page, which can be found here:
https/www.thearkpetshop.com/?p=2_6&gr=Treatments&pid=210

If you are interested in buying anything from us, let me know and I'll supply you with a discount code to let you have a little bit off the listed prices.

Good luck with your fish!

none of the test kits on your site test for more than 1 thing the nutrafin mini master from ebay at £16.95 test for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate so it works out around £5 cheaper and all your all your tests are kept together

 

[Truck]

If you're in the UK go for salifert test kits, they're more accurate than any of the other brands you might see, personally I wouldn't touch API kits, they're a waste of time and are insanely inaccurate.

 

[jacko32]

If you're in the UK go for salifert test kits, they're more accurate than any of the other brands you might see, personally I wouldn't touch API kits, they're a waste of time and are insanely inaccurate.

the nutafins are pretty good and decent value for any begginers

 

[Truck]

If you're in the UK go for salifert test kits, they're more accurate than any of the other brands you might see, personally I wouldn't touch API kits, they're a waste of time and are insanely inaccurate.

the nutafins are pretty good and decent value for any begginers

With regards to accuracy they're about the same as the API kits.

 

[Twinklecaz]

Thanks everyone. Lol see this is why I'm taking it slowly, so much choice.

Cheers ThePetexpress, that's really nice of you