Freshwater newbie

[Pnewt]

Hey everyone.

Im new to freshwater tanks. I am more of a saltwater enthusiast but i dont have the time or money for this tank to be a saltwater tank right now.

I will be setting up a solana 40 gallon all in one tank next week. Eventually it will be saltwater but to start it is going to be freshwater. I read the getting started fishless cycle article already. Without anything to seed the tank with what timeline am i realistically looking at for a cycle?

also the light housing is for a halide bulb and abviously i dont need that kind of lighting for a fresh water tank (i think?), what are my other options or would this actually work?

Thanks for any help!

~Newt

 

[Pnewt]

I also noticed in the article it said to use tap water.. Is that actually the preferred water source for fresh water? rather than R/O water?

 

[HooKooDooKu]

Cycling a tank from scratch with nothing to jump start the process will likely take about 4 to 6 weeks.

I would not go so far to say that tap water is "preferred" to R/O water, at least not from a water quality stand point. I think the reason you might have seen something that said tap water was "preferred" might have been from a cost perspective.

I believe that water chemistry in the typical home aquarium isn't as fussy for a fresh water aquarium as much as it is for a salt water aquarium. In other words, R/O water might be considered over-kill for the typical fresh water aquarium. It might be as simple as the typical fresh water fish is easier to care for compared to the typical salt water fish.

As an example of what I'm talking about, when I studied salt water aquariums, I came across acclimatizing instructions for some salt water species that required complex drips that took many hours to safely complete acclimatization. But for the typical fresh water fish from a typical pet store, you can complete the acclimatization process in less than an hour.

 

[sinibotia]

I would say dechlorinated tap is absolutely preferred to R/O with only a few exceptions. R/O water has nothing in it but pure water- freshwater fish need a lot more than that. All of the minerals and other "stuff" dissolved in tap water are necessary for proper freshwater fish osmoregulation as well as chemical processes involved in maintaining the biofilter, maintaining stable water quality, etc. Now some freshwater fish need water that is closer to RO water in which case RO water may be preferred.
The exception of course is if you have a set of minerals that will reconstitute RO water to exactly what you want for the fish you are keeping... but that's only even necessary for extraordinary cases.

 

[Pnewt]

awesome thank you for the replies! great advice that i will absolutely use! do you all have any ideas about the lighting situation?

I am glad to hear water isnt quite as complicated with fresh compared to salt. I dont plan on this being a fresh water tank for a super long time though. we are moving soon and once we are really settled in and financially stable ill be transitioning back into salt water.

 

[sinibotia]

I don't know anything about halide bulbs What spectrum do they put out? I know the main difference between freshwater and saltwater lights is the spectrum. If you can get a halide bulb that puts out 6500K then you'll be all set.

 

[Pnewt]

okay too easy! ill do some research on it now

 

[Pnewt]

that was easy. looks like that is something i can buy pretty easily

 

[sinibotia]

I should ask- are you planning on plants?

 

[Pnewt]

Well I want this to be a fairly easy build. Not a lot of maintenance. I'm trying to ease my wife into it and get her used to the idea of a salt water tank in the future



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[Pnewt]

another thing i know basically nothing about is type of fish and how many i can have in a freshwater tank... As i am new i want hardy fish but something my wife will enjoy looking at as well. any help/suggestions will be greatly appreciated

 

[The_Desacrator]

Imo plants are stupid easy to take care of. In my experience good light plus fertilizers has worked great for me. If I had a fresh 40 I'd go with angelfish. You could put like maybe 4ish in there with room for bottom feeders. I personally like Cory cats as they are cute, active, and clean very well.

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[Pnewt]

cool thanks for the advice! ill take a look at that. So for plants what do i need to know? as far as substrate and lighting? i have a metal halide fixture i did look up some bulbs i just dont know what spectrum i would need

 

[libertybelle]

If you're starting out with plants it's always a good idea to 'get your feet wet' with something near impossible to kill. I have a huge spectrum of plants on my profile page listed under my 29 gallon that are all pretty indestructible (save the crinum) and most of them are available just about anywhere and are not picky about substrate.

Usually bulbs ~6700 or labeled full spectrum are the way to go for plants, but I don't know much about metal halide fixtures

 

[Pnewt]

sooooo unfortunately we have decided to move back home in about a month in a half. The build will be on hold until we get back and im going to go with a saltwater tank. here are some pics after cleaning it out though.

 

[Pnewt]

BTW i paid $60 for this setup. found it posted online and jumped on it!