Old newbie here

[Jennet]

Hello all. In the early 70's I had 2 x 4 foot bow front tanks, one with Angel Fish and the other a community tank. I went of to train as a nurse, so sold the tanks with fish. In the 90's I kept Malawi Cichlids, and eventually bred a few of them. I sold those following a divorce and house move. I have since kept various snakes and a couple of other reptiles. Now in my late 60's and going back into fish. Forgot most of what I knew, so just stepping lightly back in. Have an 80 litre glass tank with plastic lid (second hand). Bought a new filter heater the other day and am about to set up for the first time next week probably. Thinking of looking at small fish, neon's and maybe guppies - need to do some research first, as not had any of these fish since the 70's. Any input and thoughts welcome.

 

[Naughts]

Hello and welcome
Your water there may be too hard for neons, but guppies or the smaller endlers livebearer could do well. Look at your water hardness on your water providers website in the water quality report. It may be recorded as GH ppm or dGH, or calcium carbonate.

 

[FattyFish]

Hi and welcome. I, too, spent time away from the freshwater hobby, mainly keeping marine reef tanks, but gave them up due to illness. I'm now back keeping community freshwater tropicals and loving it.

 

[bgarthe]

Hello and welcome to TFF.

What Naughts said regarding water parameters is very important. I would encourage you to test your water for pH, KH, GH, and ammonia [free ammonia(NH3)], NO2 (nitrites), and NO3 (nitrates). Being able to test these both at your start up and later on for monitoring purposes will make things go more smoothly and will allow you to make corrections before possibly hurting any fish. And yes…..after your tank is established, the testing frequency will surely taper off.

I just have to suggest you consider setting up a QT while you get things going. Being able to introduce fish gradually is great, but doing so after having been QTed is ideal imho. You might also consider keeping a few meds on hand just in case you need one at a moment’s notice when time would be of the essence. Meds like a dewormer, external parasite med, antibiotic, aquarium salt, Prime or Stressguard, anti-fungal med, dechlorinator (for both chlorine and chloramine), and methylene blue.

Read up on the different ways to Cycle your tank. There are several…..pick one and follow the directions exactly. Cycling is one of those things that many people have differing opinions (some strong) about and that is why reading/researching about them is good to do.

Here in the US, getting really healthy Neons is a bit tough…..not sure about the UK. After you do researching, you might find Cardinal Tetras to be a good alternative. I have a whole 33g tank with just 36+ CTs and a few corycats and I love it. Again…..because you tested your water, you’ll find out if CTs or guppies would do better…..both in the same tank is rarely going to work out as CTs prefer soft while guppies like it harder. Then there goons like me who take harder well water and soften it up to keep all my tetras and, years ago, the discus happy. So glad RO systems came to be.

When you get it going, we’d love to see pics. Oh…. Btw, I’m also in my late 60’s

 

[Essjay]

Read up on the different ways to Cycle your tank. There are several…..pick one and follow the directions exactly.

This link is a summary of cycling methods with links to more detailed accounts

Cycle Your Tank! A Complete Guide For Beginners

Fishless cycling https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/ Silent or plant cycling https://www.fishforums.net/threads/planted-silent-cycling.470400/ Fish-in cycling...

www.fishforums.net

 

[Essjay]

I would encourage you to test your water for pH, KH, GH, and ammonia [free ammonia(NH3)],

Forgot to mention - most ammonia testers test for total ammonia - both ammonia (NH3) and ammonium (NH4) together. There are on-line calculators which work out how much is in each form, all you need is the total ammonia reading from the tester, the temperature and pH of the tank water and the calculator does the rest.
If you choose fishless cycling with ammonia you only need to know the total ammonia, but if you choose fish-in or plant cycling you need to know how much of that test reading is in the toxic ammonia form and the less toxic ammonium form.

 

[bgarthe]

You can also do “fish in” by following the link below. I recently did this method with three 33g tanks without a hitch. Until then, I was a “seeded media” cycling goon.

 

[Jennet]

Thank you all for your advice. I have already set up the 80 litre tank I have by adding gravel, approx 2"s, small ornament with 3 caves in, Oase 100 filter and heater, an air pump I had previously, but bought new tubes and air stones. Used de-chlorinator and turned it on at 2pm today. I will not be adding fish for at least another week or two until after I have purchased some good testing mediums you have mentioned and will then consider what you have all written above, and then start looking for what I want. The sort of thing I have in mind is either tetra's or guppies, and I have looked up about a (peaceful ish Bolivian Ram Cichlid) after I have bought and kept some others first. Thought best not get something like this first as they are likely to get stressed in an empty tank, and also will bully the others maybe when I start adding others.

I still have one unused Arcadia 36" 30W T8 plant light if anyone close to Stourbridge in the West Midlands can make use of it. I have just bought a LED light that is suitable for live plants.

I am going to buy some aerator plants and possibly a couple of others in about a week's time, unless anyone can give me a reason why not??

Any thoughts and feedback on the above gratefully received, in order to bring me up to speed on todays way of keeping.

Now questions : bgarthe What are RO's and does the g you mentioned equate to gallons?

Oh, that appears the only question I have at the moment. The rest mentioned above I will research.

As an ending, could you please add some links to some of the useful information you have put above, to save me asking time after time which are the most useful and trusted.

Thank you all so very much. J

 

[Jennet]

Forgot to mention - most ammonia testers test for total ammonia - both ammonia (NH3) and ammonium (NH4) together. There are on-line calculators which work out how much is in each form, all you need is the total ammonia reading from the tester, the temperature and pH of the tank water and the calculator does the rest.
If you choose fishless cycling with ammonia you only need to know the total ammonia, but if you choose fish-in or plant cycling you need to know how much of that test reading is in the toxic ammonia form and the less toxic ammonium form.

Could you link me to this calculator please?

 

[Essjay]

Here it is. Don't forget to set salinity to zero for freshwater.

Free Ammonia Calculator

Aquarium calculator; Estimate the free (un-ionized) ammonia (NH3) concentration, given the total ammonia concentration.

www.hamzasreef.com

 

[Essjay]

The best website for fish research is Seriously Fish

Knowledge Base — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

It gives the hardness, temperature etc for a species; the minimum tank size (if that's the only species; with more than one species in a tank the minimum size needs to be bigger) and so on.
For example, SF says Bolivian rams need a tank with a minimum floor area of 90 x 45 cm.

 

[Jennet]

The best website for fish research is Seriously Fish

Knowledge Base — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

It gives the hardness, temperature etc for a species; the minimum tank size (if that's the only species; with more than one species in a tank the minimum size needs to be bigger) and so on.
For example, SF says Bolivian rams need a tank with a minimum floor area of 90 x 45 cm.

Whoops, there goes that idea then, mines 60 x 30 cm. But I am going to get rid of 2 tall snake vivs and have a floor area of 89 x 45 or so to best of memory, so there's a future thought.

 

[bgarthe]

Sorry for the delay. Yes, g stands for gallons. RO is the abbreviation for a Reverse Osmosis unit.

 

[Jennet]

So my water supplier, Severn Trent tells me my water is Moderately Hard. It does not give any of the scales mentioned, but just gives underneath the Clark scale and my brain cannot cope any more. I'll just stick with moderately hard I think.

 

[Essjay]

Water companies usually use words that make it sound harder than it really is. What number do they give for Clarke? There is a calculator section on here and Clark is one of the units under hardness - enter the number in there and it'll give the corresponding level in mg/l CaCO3, which is the same as ppm, and in dH.

Calculator