No maintenance tank??

[fish wrangler]

A friend wants to set up a tank for his daughter(17 months), but he wants it to be low to no maintenance. He wants something flashy like mollies or platies. Any help with this.

This idea was just brought up to me so I haven't been able to get many questions answered from him.

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[Mebbid]

How many gallons is the big question.
Next what kind of fish does he want?

 

[Andy Sager]

You may want to explain that in order to have a no or low maintenance tank requires the tank to be extremely balanced in respect to stocking, water chemistry, and ecological soundness and this all adds up to a lot of money on the front end and usually ends up with a rather boring looking tank( unless it is a rather large tank.) In the long run, it is better for the fish,( IMO) to do some routine maintenance than none at all.
Again, IMO, it's better he not set up a tank at all than set up one that will only be a poor environment for the fish to live in.
The reality is that not everyone is a good fit to own a fish tank. Better they know up front than in the end.

Hope this helps

 

[fish wrangler]

How many gallons is the big question.
Next what kind of fish does he want?

I have to ask him on the size tank.
He wants mollies or platies, but i also reccomended zebra danios if he gets s 20L or similar foot print.

You may want to explain that in order to have a no or low maintenance tank requires the tank to be extremely balanced in respect to stocking, water chemistry, and ecological soundness and this all adds up to a lot of money on the front end and usually ends up with a rather boring looking tank( unless it is a rather large tank.) In the long run, it is better for the fish,( IMO) to do some routine maintenance than none at all.
Again, IMO, it's better he not set up a tank at all than set up one that will only be a poor environment for the fish to live in.
The reality is that not everyone is a good fit to own a fish tank. Better they know up front than in the end.

Hope this helps

Thats basically what I tried to tell him.

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[trennamw]

I had a 3 gallon Marineland/Tetra Crescent kit, that ended up being lower maintenance after the filter broke. Because of its plants.

I put floating brazilian pennywort in, probably any "wort" would be similar. And an ozelot sword and some crypt parva and microsword, which were probably inconsequential. The ozelot didn't get too big and I liked the drama of a big plant in a little tank. The pennywort was really pretty, interesting roots. I didn't fertilize. An api root tab would be a good idea.

After the filter broke all I ever did was top it off. And test routinely, but the tests always showed even better water parameters than my filtered and heavily maintained tank.

A betta and a nerite lived inside. I wouldn't recommend other fish, anything that breeds isn't low maintenance, and most anything that schools needs a bigger tank and then comes the high cost and more maintenance and balance.

My son was 3 when we got our first betta, he liked having the small tank on a low shelf, he could hug it. Lol.

It just moved into a 10 with an Uncycled filter just for circulation. Frogs are moving in soon, it's going to be an experiment in whether the plants continue to grow like crazy and the filter never really cycles for lack of ammonia, or if the filter does cycle and the plants have to live off nitrate instead.

With a cycled filter the tank always had 20ppm nitrate with large frequent water changes.

A seachem suction cup ammonia meter is important, I think, if trying this approach. Unlike the api test it shows the ammonia that is toxic not total ammonia.



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