Introduction: Hi there. You can call me Xuanqi (an alias). I’m a female college student who lives in an apartment with my sister. We both commute to different colleges. I have always been interested in keeping fish. I used to change and clean other people’s tanks in high school. I live in NY state, close to NYC. (This is a lot of personal information, I know, but I tried to be as vague as possible while giving enough detail to ask for proper referrals.) Currently searching for a job or internship but don’t have one yet so I’m still dependent on my parents.
Big Problem: I’ve done over a year and a half worth of research on freshwater tanks and I was able to convince my mom to let me get a 30 gallon tank. I don’t mind spending what I need to in order to give my future pets the best life they can live, but I want to try and save money wherever I can. However, I recently had a really bad experience with my Local Fish Store (LFS). The guy who owns it is not a bad person at all, but the person who actually works at the storefront has been doing some shady business. First, they kept on trying to push saltwater tanks on my poor mother and I. I have not owned my first tank yet. What business do I have to do with saltwater? I’m a college student. I’d have to spend my tuition money to maintain a saltwater tank. However, then they added insult to injury by also convincing us that the only stand we could get (it looks very nice) was the 30L Innovative Marine Nuvo 30 gallon aquarium set. I was desperate, and my mom doesn’t trust the online resources I got my research from so I relented and we got the stand. But they kept on delaying the order for a tank. When we finally came, we saw that the LFS went out of business! Not only that, they admitted they were going out of business when they were selling these things to us. There’s no way that an aquarium supplier would give a store going out of business a tank so we had no choice but to cancel the tank order. (And they still tried to offer their services despite this.) Because of this bad experience with the LFS, my mom became hesitant to buy any tank at all, even the matching tank online for cheaper on Amazon, and she kept stalling until I told her that the only place selling this tank was doing so for 150 USD more than Amazon (since Amazon’s supply ran out). I know I should be more patient, but I’ve been setting up this tank for almost two years now and I’m running out of patience. The commercial pet stores nearby me are a horror show, and I once saw a moonlight gourami eat his fallen tankmate at the one closest to me. All the other local fish stores are at least 20-30 minutes away with no traffic (but where I live, traffic is more the norm than the exception). TL;DR: I’m losing patience with fishy salesmen, and I don’t know what stores to trust.
Questions:
When I did my research, there were a few inquiries that remained unanswerable.
1) I live in a penthouse. How can I properly maintain a 30 gallon fish tank in one without making too much of a mess when doing water changes? It’s not the ideal place to have a fish tank, and the location in the penthouse I picked is okay as long as the shades are down, but I really do have no other choices due to the almost noxious excess of window space. Also the only way I can get a friend where I live is by getting a pet. They don’t allow cats or dogs here, but they do allow fish.
2) My water is consistently around 7.7 in ph and average in hardness (forgot the exact value, will show later), and as far as I know, the fish who can live the most optimally in such conditions are fish like cichilds. From my research, I’ve summarized that they are fierce in temperament and are difficult for beginners to handle. Are there any other fish that are easier in temperament that can live in conditions like this? It’s much easier to harden water than to soften it, I’ve found. Also, the temperature is consistently in the low 60s or lower (Fahrenheit) because the superintendent won’t raise the heat in a building with poor central heating, even though one of my older neighbors caught pneumonia. I suspect the heat won’t go up until one of the older tenants die. Livebearers like guppies are an option, but my dad doesn’t like them because his own once cannibalized her own newborn fry.
3) Do I need to purchase the matching tank for this aquarium set or can I replace it with something easier to use? Everything is brand new so a vinegar or bleach solution rinse is not necessary. I do not have my hardscaping or aquascaping equipment yet because of my stocking limitations (see above). There is a lot of advice on how to convert freshwater tanks into saltwater and vice versa. Yet, a lot of it probably doesn’t apply to never used before equipment. My main concern is... what do I do with the equipment like pumps? Can I repurpose these tools for freshwater use, and if not, what can I do with them? Saltwater tanks and freshwater tanks have somewhat different yet similar requirements. With saltwater, the list of additional equipment is pretty straightforward, but a lot of people are divided over the list of equipment a freshwater tank can use, save for decor, plants, and the barebones equipment one would put in a quarantine tank. What’s the general consensus here?
Big Problem: I’ve done over a year and a half worth of research on freshwater tanks and I was able to convince my mom to let me get a 30 gallon tank. I don’t mind spending what I need to in order to give my future pets the best life they can live, but I want to try and save money wherever I can. However, I recently had a really bad experience with my Local Fish Store (LFS). The guy who owns it is not a bad person at all, but the person who actually works at the storefront has been doing some shady business. First, they kept on trying to push saltwater tanks on my poor mother and I. I have not owned my first tank yet. What business do I have to do with saltwater? I’m a college student. I’d have to spend my tuition money to maintain a saltwater tank. However, then they added insult to injury by also convincing us that the only stand we could get (it looks very nice) was the 30L Innovative Marine Nuvo 30 gallon aquarium set. I was desperate, and my mom doesn’t trust the online resources I got my research from so I relented and we got the stand. But they kept on delaying the order for a tank. When we finally came, we saw that the LFS went out of business! Not only that, they admitted they were going out of business when they were selling these things to us. There’s no way that an aquarium supplier would give a store going out of business a tank so we had no choice but to cancel the tank order. (And they still tried to offer their services despite this.) Because of this bad experience with the LFS, my mom became hesitant to buy any tank at all, even the matching tank online for cheaper on Amazon, and she kept stalling until I told her that the only place selling this tank was doing so for 150 USD more than Amazon (since Amazon’s supply ran out). I know I should be more patient, but I’ve been setting up this tank for almost two years now and I’m running out of patience. The commercial pet stores nearby me are a horror show, and I once saw a moonlight gourami eat his fallen tankmate at the one closest to me. All the other local fish stores are at least 20-30 minutes away with no traffic (but where I live, traffic is more the norm than the exception). TL;DR: I’m losing patience with fishy salesmen, and I don’t know what stores to trust.
Questions:
When I did my research, there were a few inquiries that remained unanswerable.
1) I live in a penthouse. How can I properly maintain a 30 gallon fish tank in one without making too much of a mess when doing water changes? It’s not the ideal place to have a fish tank, and the location in the penthouse I picked is okay as long as the shades are down, but I really do have no other choices due to the almost noxious excess of window space. Also the only way I can get a friend where I live is by getting a pet. They don’t allow cats or dogs here, but they do allow fish.
2) My water is consistently around 7.7 in ph and average in hardness (forgot the exact value, will show later), and as far as I know, the fish who can live the most optimally in such conditions are fish like cichilds. From my research, I’ve summarized that they are fierce in temperament and are difficult for beginners to handle. Are there any other fish that are easier in temperament that can live in conditions like this? It’s much easier to harden water than to soften it, I’ve found. Also, the temperature is consistently in the low 60s or lower (Fahrenheit) because the superintendent won’t raise the heat in a building with poor central heating, even though one of my older neighbors caught pneumonia. I suspect the heat won’t go up until one of the older tenants die. Livebearers like guppies are an option, but my dad doesn’t like them because his own once cannibalized her own newborn fry.
3) Do I need to purchase the matching tank for this aquarium set or can I replace it with something easier to use? Everything is brand new so a vinegar or bleach solution rinse is not necessary. I do not have my hardscaping or aquascaping equipment yet because of my stocking limitations (see above). There is a lot of advice on how to convert freshwater tanks into saltwater and vice versa. Yet, a lot of it probably doesn’t apply to never used before equipment. My main concern is... what do I do with the equipment like pumps? Can I repurpose these tools for freshwater use, and if not, what can I do with them? Saltwater tanks and freshwater tanks have somewhat different yet similar requirements. With saltwater, the list of additional equipment is pretty straightforward, but a lot of people are divided over the list of equipment a freshwater tank can use, save for decor, plants, and the barebones equipment one would put in a quarantine tank. What’s the general consensus here?
