Saltwater & Reef

Korwin · 07-03-2008, 11:30 AM

Hi everyone.

I'm kinda new to all this aquarium stuff. Here's my story...

Last year, my father in law bought my 3 year old daughter 2 goldfish for her birthday. They started out in a bowl, then I moved them to a 2 gallon. That lasted for about 4 months, then I moved them to a 10 gallon. One of them is 6 inches and the other is about 4 inches. I had no idea what I was doing, and their tank has been a constant battle just to keep from being utterly disgusting. I've upgraded the kit filter that came with the 10 gallon to a Penguin Bio-Wheel Power Filter and that really helped. Also, knowledge I've gained from this forum has made life a lot easier for Fruity and Bola (the fish) and myself.

So now, after fighting with that 10 gallon tank for this long, and after reading up on the right way to do things, I want to start another tank from scratch doing things the right way. I want real plants, and nice little fish. I've been reading as much as I can about fishless cycling, filters, lights, etc. Here's what I'm planning on starting with:

20 gallon long tank
H.O.T Magnum canister filter (either with the bio-wheel or maybe just a sponge for biological filtration, not sure what would be better. Any thoughts?)
Heater
A few Annubius plants and a Java Fern or two (any plant reccomendations would be greatly welcomed).
48 watts of lighting with a Nova HO fixture

I'm not too sure about the filter. For a substrate, I would really like to do sand, but I don't know about the hassle. Is it that bad?

For fish, I just want some little guys. Zebra Danios and Cherry Barbs. Maybe some Corys for the bottom.

So, thats what I'm thinking. How does that look? Any suggestions welcomed.

Thank you. Hopefully I'll get this going soon.

**melosu58** · 07-03-2008, 11:43 AM

Hello back. Welcome aboard.

FishCrazyBenBOMB · 07-03-2008, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Korwin

Hi everyone.

I'm kinda new to all this aquarium stuff. Here's my story...

Last year, my father in law bought my 3 year old daughter 2 goldfish for her birthday. They started out in a bowl, then I moved them to a 2 gallon. That lasted for about 4 months, then I moved them to a 10 gallon. One of them is 6 inches and the other is about 4 inches. I had no idea what I was doing, and their tank has been a constant battle just to keep from being utterly disgusting. I've upgraded the kit filter that came with the 10 gallon to a Penguin Bio-Wheel Power Filter and that really helped. Also, knowledge I've gained from this forum has made life a lot easier for Fruity and Bola (the fish) and myself.

So now, after fighting with that 10 gallon tank for this long, and after reading up on the right way to do things, I want to start another tank from scratch doing things the right way. I want real plants, and nice little fish. I've been reading as much as I can about fishless cycling, filters, lights, etc. Here's what I'm planning on starting with:

20 gallon long tank
H.O.T Magnum canister filter (either with the bio-wheel or maybe just a sponge for biological filtration, not sure what would be better. Any thoughts?)
Heater
A few Annubius plants and a Java Fern or two (any plant reccomendations would be greatly welcomed).
48 watts of lighting with a Nova HO fixture

I'm not too sure about the filter. For a substrate, I would really like to do sand, but I don't know about the hassle. Is it that bad?

For fish, I just want some little guys. Zebra Danios and Cherry Barbs. Maybe some Corys for the bottom.

So, thats what I'm thinking. How does that look? Any suggestions welcomed.

Thank you. Hopefully I'll get this going soon.

Yeah 2 gold fish should problly be keept in a 20-30 gallon aquairum bcuz of there whole waste deal.

But yeah your 20 gallon seems like it would do pretty good. You might want to look into some different choices of fish. For one the zebras are pretty cheap and look pretty cool but you want somthing more then just them you know. And the cherry barbs are normally known as a cold water species like the goldfish but i've been told been have kept them at higher temps. The cories are fine they are always fun. Make sure you buy atleast 4 or 5 because they are schooling fish. You should try to look for maybe 2 or 3 dwarf blue ram cichlids because they are very pretty plus they are community safe. And another fun experience is livebearers such as mollies, gupppies, sowordtails, ect. Because they are very cool colors and you can get babies very easly. But make sure you have another spare aquarium for your fry to grow up in. Since I didn't expect my molly giving birth I lost alot of my fry because they got eaten but I got around 20 of em. You usually get 30-50.

Well I hope this helps you and

Welcome to AA.

,Ben