Wanting To Get Back Into Fish Keeping.

[slakey]

Since I've been working at my new job (Store Assistant at a Pet Shop) I've started wanting to get back into fish keeping.

At first I was thinking of getting one of the AquaEl Shrimp Set 30 Litre.

But today I've seen a bigger tank for not much more then the AquaEl Shrimp tank. The name of the tank is a Boyu ZJ-601A, it's 84 litres comes without a heater I think and I saw one at one of my fish stores for £84.99 with no stand, and well I don't want a stand as it would be to tall so I will put it on a TV stand, hopefully that'll be strong enough.

The measurements of the tank are:
23" long
20" tall
14" wide

So it's not a bad sized tank. I have also rung up another fish store and asked if they could give me a price for a custom made tank with the measurements of 24" long x 19" tall x 22" wide, but that'll take 1-2 days for them to get the price and he said it will most likely be pricey.

But I definitely want something similar in size to the Boyu.

I already roughly have planned what it's going to look like in my head, whether it'll come out the same is different matter lol.

So a few questions:

1. Does anyone know of a place that makes tanks to those sizes?
2. If I go for the Boyu what sort of fish can I keep in there? The lad at the fish store said a pair of Angels and some cleaning fish along the bottom and that would be all.
3. Does anybody know if the Boyu tanks are any good, it's the first time I've seen them?

Link to the companies website with the tank: http/www.boyuaquarium.com/en_ArticleShow.asp?ArticleID=1641

 

[BigIan]

yep a pair of angels and half a dozen corys would fit into there,

 

[slakey]

I like the thought of Angels, but then I'm also becoming a fan of shrimp and I love Blue Rams

I am really going to struggle to decide what to stock though.

One thing is definite though, and that is that I want sand.

I would also like a dwarf hairgrass carpet in one corner, with either some marsh root or mopani wood as the center piece with some sort of plant on it, possibly some java moss.

With the dwarf hairgrass I'm guessing that I would need some plant substrate so I was thinking of putting about 1" of TetraTec Complete Substrate and then 1"-2" of sand on top. I'd also like to get some slate in or some rocks, I want a nice natural tank to look at really

I know how I want it to look, minus the fish but it's just actually accomplishing that look as I've never really gone into planting that much, I've kept live plants in the past but this time I want it to look good and natural


Is dwarf hair grass easy to do for carpets or am I thinking of some other kind of live plant?

 

[BigIan]

I like the thought of Angels, but then I'm also becoming a fan of shrimp and I love Blue Rams

I am really going to struggle to decide what to stock though.

One thing is definite though, and that is that I want sand.

I would also like a dwarf hairgrass carpet in one corner, with either some marsh root or mopani wood as the center piece with some sort of plant on it, possibly some java moss.

With the dwarf hairgrass I'm guessing that I would need some plant substrate so I was thinking of putting about 1" of TetraTec Complete Substrate and then 1"-2" of sand on top. I'd also like to get some slate in or some rocks, I want a nice natural tank to look at really

I know how I want it to look, minus the fish but it's just actually accomplishing that look as I've never really gone into planting that much, I've kept live plants in the past but this time I want it to look good and natural


Is dwarf hair grass easy to do for carpets or am I thinking of some other kind of live plant?

i`ve never had any luck with hair grass, even with co2 ada aquasoil and 3wpg of light i could never get it to grow. try asking in the planted forum about carpet plants

 

[slakey]

Okay thanks.

I've never gone on to use a CO2 system before so it's all completely new to me.

 

[Lolly123]

Okay thanks.

I've never gone on to use a CO2 system before so it's all completely new to me.

Hey slakey,

You can make your own co2 injector, plenty of guides on the internet from which i used to make my own. Maybe if you decide to keep plants which have slighlty higher requirements then it might not be sufficient, however if you decide to go down the easier plant keeping road, it might be worth giving it a shot.

I dont know if it was just me as i'm hardly a plant expert, but i had sand bed in my old tank and quite a bit of trouble with the sand suffocating the roots of some plants.

Good luck.

 

[slakey]

Got a text from my dad saying that the fish store said the tank would cost me £181 for the custom tank

Told a mate at work and he said he can get it made for a lot cheaper then that, so going see what the figure will be from him

Hmm I've had sand all the time and the live plants I've had in with no plant substrate underneath and no CO2 have grown okay, so I shall give it a think over, I just think sand looks a lot better then gravel.

 

[Lolly123]

I agree sand does look nicer than gravel, especially with a planted tank. I wish I had the space and the money to buy a nice 5 footer..heres dreaming!