So, Getting An Aquarium Again

[natonstan]

Hello, I recently kept Leopard Geckos in an aquarium, but I now have a proper terrarium for them ( front opening doors ) so I've got the old Aquarium spare, and I have kept a tropical aquarium with my mum when I was about 8 and Ive kept Goldfish myself for years, but I now think it would be a good idea to set up a tropical aquarium in my room ( I'm now 16 by the way ) , so basically Ive got the tank ( will get measurements for you later ) , gravel substrate on the bottom, a few plants and a rock . All being well I'll nag my dad into taking me to get a Filer & Heater tonight or tommorow, and then i can set it running for a few days , I'll also get a Thermometer, more decor and plants and medicines and food etc. ( already have a lot of frozen Bloodworms from keeping Newts) , can anybody give me some advice on what else i need?

 

[Ficious]

an air pump, some sort of airstone...maybe some start right to dechlorinize your water.

 

[natonstan]

By airstones, can I use an ornament that blows bubbles into the tank ,and yeah I forgot bought the pump and water purifying

 

[Miss Wiggle]

have a read of the link in my sig 'step by step guide to setting up an aquarium'. it covers off all the equipment you need, the stuff the fish shop will try to sell you but you don't need, how to set the tank up safely for fish and a little bit on choosing appropriate fish.

covers off a little bit of all the basics and gives links to more detailed info

 

[rabbut]

The set-up link miss wiggle has in her signature is very useful if you need a refresher from your last round of keeping fish, but the fishless cycling link in her signature and in her tank set-up thread is probibly the most important document we have on the forum. It saves un-nessisary stress, suffering and death to fish, that often results from LFS advise of running a tank for a few hours/days/weeks and adding fish. This will lead to lots of work and fish deaths, so save yourself the effort and expence of fish-in cycling, by reading that thread and fishless-cycling your tank using liquid ammonia

Poke arround the pinned topics and it will refresh your memories of last time you kept fish. Any questions that crop up, feel free to post about. The only stupid question is the one left un-asked

HTH
Rabbut

 

[waterdrop]

Also I'd like to comment that because you only have the tank, gravel etc. and -not- the major hardware yet, you have the perfect opportunity to pause and take just a little extra time that may pay off nicely in the longer run. A heater (if you find the right wattage) and thermometer would be pretty easy to get on this first quick trip, but the filter is quite important and it helps if some thought is put into it.

Since you haven't got the tank measurements yet, we'll just go by formulas (and much of this will no doubt be in the links too..) A guideline starting point for overall filter size is to calculate 5 times the volume of the tank for the turnover rate. For example, a 10g (US gallons) would come to 50 gallons per hour as our starting point "turnover" rate. Its a bit better to look for the actual "flow rate" from a manufacturer, rather than a "rated for tank size." And even then, once you've found their flow rate, you would want to go somewhat over what they say. So a filter that advertises a "60g/h flow rate" would be ideal for our 10 gallon example.

Next you need to consider the 3 most common types of filter designs: Internal, HOB and Cannister. There are still others but we'll leave them out of the discussion as too exotic. The internal stays inside the tank, thus having the advantage of no siphon tubes for input/output, but has the disadvantage of using up tank space, having water all over it when you take it out to clean and also possibly forming unexpected entrapment spaces for fish between the box and tank walls.

The HOB (Hang On Back) usually has greater capacity than the internal and doesn't take up tank space. It generally has smaller media capacity than a cannister and its open-top design is just a bit more messy for cleaning but not much. It sometimes makes more noise than the others with its little water return over the edge of the tank. This category also carries the danger of many type of proprietary media holding designs that are not needed and just meant to keep you buying a particular "cartridge" from the manufacturer.

The External Cannister is larger and sits down below the tank in a cabinet usually. It has the largest media capacity of the three, which is a major advantage usually. It is usually the quietest and it is very nice for cleaning as the input/output tubes can be shut off and the box carried to the tub/sink and nice trays of media lifted out and rinsed in tank water. Another advantage is that they offer more flexibility in power outage situations than the other two usually. The down side of cannister filters is that they are more expensive than the other ones.

So I hope I haven't overwhelmed you with details. My own 16-year-old son would not have listened to 4 words of this! Fire off some questions if you wish. The members are all quite good at answering these.

~~waterdrop~~