I have a few newbie questions...I'm getting a tank soon, so I'm trying to learn everything I can before I start. It will be a 20 gallon tank, but I don't know what kind of equipment yet.
1) I had kinda been hoping to put some live plants in the tank, but I went over to the 'Planted' section of the forum and read some stuff, and it looks really complicated! I have to worry about having enough CO2 and fertilizers, and appearantly you need soil under the gravel, which seems that it would be messy, especially when doing gravel vacs. So, should I stick with plastic plants in the beginning? It seems that it would be a pain to add them later, though.
2) I'm having trouble finding pure ammonia to do a fishless cycle. I've read in the suggested articles about using raw shrimp (which some say is messy) or fish food. But, I haven't heard anyone on this forum talk about using fish food. Does it not really work?
3) I made the mistake of reading some posts over in the "Unhealthy Fish" section of the forum. Fungi, parasites, ich, etc. Does everyone end up with sick fish? Now I'm worried that this will be a lot of trouble and more worrisome than enjoyable.
Thanks in advance for everyone's advice!
1) I had kinda been hoping to put some live plants in the tank, but I went over to the 'Planted' section of the forum and read some stuff, and it looks really complicated! I have to worry about having enough CO2 and fertilizers, and appearantly you need soil under the gravel, which seems that it would be messy, especially when doing gravel vacs. So, should I stick with plastic plants in the beginning? It seems that it would be a pain to add them later, though.
2) I'm having trouble finding pure ammonia to do a fishless cycle. I've read in the suggested articles about using raw shrimp (which some say is messy) or fish food. But, I haven't heard anyone on this forum talk about using fish food. Does it not really work?
3) I made the mistake of reading some posts over in the "Unhealthy Fish" section of the forum. Fungi, parasites, ich, etc. Does everyone end up with sick fish? Now I'm worried that this will be a lot of trouble and more worrisome than enjoyable.
Thanks in advance for everyone's advice!