Tank size to go for

[Paul78]

If not a couple shoals of smaller fish would look fantastic in a larger tank.

That is where I’m leaning at the minute couple of shoals and something for the bottom of the tank and see what that looks like.
With the right fish could have a nice community tank

 

[seangee]

Hi there,the water hardness in my area is hard.

Best to get the numbers though. "Hard" is too subjective to rely on. Mollies and most livebearers will do well if the water is indeed hard (in fishkeeping terms). So will African cichlids, although they need very hard water. Angels, Discus, tetras and corys are all soft water fish.
but lets find out what we are dealing with before jumping to any conclusions.

 

[Paul78]

Best to get the numbers though. "Hard" is too subjective to rely on. Mollies and most livebearers will do well if the water is indeed hard (in fishkeeping terms). So will African cichlids, although they need very hard water. Angels, Discus, tetras and corys are all soft water fish.
but lets find out what we are dealing with before jumping to any conclusions.

Fair enough point my tap water on my test how’s 7.2 ph and 8.0 alkaline and 0 chorine do I need to test it for anything else.
Thankyou for your reply

 

[Essjay]

The first thing to do is look on your water provider's website for hardness or total hardness. You need a number and the unit of measurement. If it's not there, you could phone them to ask, or take a sample of tap water to a fish store and ask them to test it for GH (though in this last case, if they use test strips, some of them only measure up to 180 ppm aka 10 degrees, or dH).

The reason we ask for numbers is that words can be misleading. My water company gives my hardness as 'slightly hard' but the number is 5 dH, which is soft in fishkeeping terms.

 

[Paul78]

The first thing to do is look on your water provider's website for hardness or total hardness. You need a number and the unit of measurement. If it's not there, you could phone them to ask, or take a sample of tap water to a fish store and ask them to test it for GH (though in this last case, if they use test strips, some of them only measure up to 180 ppm aka 10 degrees, or dH).

The reason we ask for numbers is that words can be misleading. My water company gives my hardness as 'slightly hard' but the number is 5 dH, which is soft in fishkeeping terms.

Ok thankyou I will do that in morning and post then thank you for all your help

 

[Naughts]

hi there,
I’m going to get my family a tank in January.
I want a 244 litre one for a rough size could go bigger or smaller. What’s the best tank and filter etc
I want to keep a couple of shoals and some shrimp maybe a centre piece fish or a pair and clean up crew.
It will be a planted tank.
Any recommendations would be great
Cheers

That size is great, loads of options for stocking. I'd say look at the space you have/ want to give and look at the cost, then get the biggest tank you can.
Have you kept fish before?

 

[Paul78]

That size is great, loads of options for stocking. I'd say look at the space you have/ want to give and look at the cost, then get the biggest tank you can.
Have you kept fish before?

Thank you for your help and no never kept fish total beginner

 

[Paul78]

The first thing to do is look on your water provider's website for hardness or total hardness. You need a number and the unit of measurement. If it's not there, you could phone them to ask, or take a sample of tap water to a fish store and ask them to test it for GH (though in this last case, if they use test strips, some of them only measure up to 180 ppm aka 10 degrees, or dH).

The reason we ask for numbers is that words can be misleading. My water company gives my hardness as 'slightly hard' but the number is 5 dH, which is soft in fishkeeping terms.

Hi,
The web page for my water provider say in German degrees is 15.28 but I will phone them before work and see what I can find out. It dose not say how many ppm for my area just says 201 to 300 ppm so I will find out thank again

 

[Essjay]

German degrees is one of the units used in fishkeeping, it is usually referred to as dH. That converts to 273 ppm, the other unit. You will need both those figures to research fish as some profiles use dH, others use ppm. This is the best site for fish research https://www.seriouslyfish.com/knowledge-base/ . Other sites are not as accurate, and fish shop workers are notorious for poor advice.

As you have never kept fish before, you won't be aware of cycling. This is the process of growing bacteria which remove the toxic waste excreted by fish, and can take a few weeks. The best for fish is to do a fishless cycle before you buy fish, the simplest method is here https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/ A bacterial starter such as Tetra Safe Start may help to speed this up.
Alternatively, plants can be used to cycle a tank, and by this I mean a good number of plants rather than the odd one or two. With this method, the tank is planted, then you wait until you are sure they are growing and not about to die. Then get a few fish and test for ammonia and nitrite every day to make sure the plants are taking up all the ammonia. When you are sure they are staying at zero, get more fish, and so on till you have all your fish.

 

[Paul78]

Thankyou for your advice.
I have planned to cycle with just plants to make sure the tank is running correct and plants are healthy. I will be doing that In January And am happy to wait until I add fish as I want it to be successful

 

[Retired Viking]

I started out with plants too and did a silent cycle. After a couple of weeks I added one shoal of fish at a time first 5 red eye tetras then 5 embers tetras and then neon tetras. Keeping a close eye on the water quality. It worked very well. Floating plants like hornwort, water sprite and frogbit also work great at reducing ammonia.

 

[Paul78]

I started out with plants too and did a silent cycle. After a couple of weeks I added one shoal of fish at a time first 5 red eye tetras then 5 embers tetras and then neon tetras. Keeping a close eye on the water quality. It worked very well. Floating plants like hornwort, water sprite and frogbit also work great at reducing ammonia.

I started out with plants too and did a silent cycle. After a couple of weeks I added one shoal of fish at a time first 5 red eye tetras then 5 embers tetras and then neon tetras. Keeping a close eye on the water quality. It worked very well. Floating plants like hornwort, water sprite and frogbit also work great at reducing ammonia.

i think it is the best idea to start with and get the tank running right.
Then add my first shoal when tests are stable consistently.