I’ve been thinking about getting an aquarium for a while now. I had a 29 gallon freshwater setup about 10 years ago at my parents, but my constant moving throughout college and grad school has prevented me from having anything until a few years ago.
I’m thinking of something along the lines of a 50 gallon freshwater setup.
Questions:
-Good places to buy equipment?
-Good places to buy fish?
-Good places to find a stand? I want one that is black, semi-modern. No oak colored stands.
-Is the level of upkeep with a tank of that size significantly different than my old 29?
-Live plants: how much of a pain in the ass are they?
-Would the weight of this be an issue with floor strength? It would be on hardwood floors, oriented parallel with the floor joists, which are 16" apart. House built in 1890 (true 2x10 joists).
I either want to do this right/exactly how I want it, or not at all…
In general, the bigger the tank the easier the upkeep. I’ve got a 55 gallon freshwater sitting 6’ to the left of me and pretty much all I do is top the water off when it gets low and change the filters. It’s got a pair of red belly pacu’s chilling in it, which means any time I put a pleco in it, it gets eaten. :headbang:
Anyhow, props to doing it right. It’s really not too hard, just requires a bit of correct information. My fiance’s father was a professor of biology with a master’s in marine biology, so I’ve been systematically conditioned to have a lot of respect for doing aquariums the right way. Plus most fish store employees are real hardasses that will straight up tell you “don’t do that” if it’s questionable.
Get equipment where ever it’s the cheapest. I like getting fish from Markheim. They don’t fuck around with sick fish like Petsmart and Petco do. The Fish Place in NT is another good one. Make sure you ask questions about what can go together so you don’t wind up with fighting dead fish.
My fiance tells me that live plants are a pain in the ass, so I just do plastic.
I’ve never tried them myself because of what my fiance tells me from her experience so that’s about all I can say.
As for initial setup: A hardass will tell you to set it up and have the tank filled/running/filtering for a week. Then add one “starter” fish to begin adding biological stuff to the tank to get the pH right slowly and all that jazz. Slowly add more fish. I cheat and don’t really follow that. I might run the tank for a day or two then toss in a couple of hearty fish, give it a week, then have at it.
Do not get gold fish. Do not get live bearers like guppies, mollies, platies, and swordtails. They’re resistant to disease that other fish aren’t, which means they carry disease that will kill the other fish in your tank.
Otherwise just pick a theme for your tank. Do you want a few cool looking bigger cichlids? Do you want a bunch of little tropical fish schools? Do you want one Oscar? Well, bad example. An Oscar needs at least 100 gallons but they’re cool as hell. Eat live goldfish, can be trained to swim through hoops, etc. I had one when I was learning the hard way that 20 gallons is too small that would spit rocks at me while I was sitting at my desk because it wanted to be fed.
The bigger the tank the easier to maintain good water conditions.
I almost always buy used set-up b/c of the cost difference. Just make sure its not a very old set-up (usually a tag with a build date) and not resealed (or if it has been a very good job).
I just picked up a 29 gallon eclipse 3 system, 2 years old, brand new bulbs and 3 extra filters, a 5 gallon pal of crushed coral and a heater on eBay for 140 bucks. So amazing deals can be found.
when I was in Buffalo I bought all my fish and supplies from Markheim. http://www.wnybiz.com/markheim/ (definitely use the coupon for buying some fish)
I don’t know if Rob (pony tail) still works there, but that guy could give you great advice.
Live plants are a pain and more work than the fish from what I have heard. Plus cichlids rip them apart in 5 mins.
I suggest cichlids for a fun colorful tank.
Any other questions let me know.
I would want a lot of smaller/medium sized fish. I always liked the action of a lot of different fish moving around in a large aquarium, and how it made it seem like a bigger ‘world’. Big fish are cool but aren’t really my thing. My last tank had plastic plants, and though they were alright I really want something that looks as natual as possible. I will have to read up more on live plants…
just an fyi about live plants. They may have snails in them. These stupid things reproduce fast as hell and the next thing you know you can have a shit ton of them. That happened to us when my mom got some live plants. We had to buy a clown fish to eat the snails, plus we had to use chemicals to kill the rest. It still took awhile to kill them all. So if you do go with live plants i would suggest doing what we did this time around. We put the plants in a bucket of water for like a week and had the snail killing chemical in there to hopefully kill any snails on the plants before they were added to the tank.
I’ve got a 55G that’s running downstairs with larger fish in it that I’m willing to sell. I’ve got 2 different stands, and such, if you want to stop over and look at it we can talk price for the different equipment/etc. If you don’t want the fish I was going to take them down to Fish Place anyways. Not sure what I completely want for it, but it really depends on what accessories you want with it.
As for real plant tanks, you can take a look at my other 55G I have that is basically maintance free other than toping the water off. Tons of live plants and smaller fish. There are snails but they haven’t caused an issue so I haven’t done anything about them, they seem to keep the glass cleaner though.
I’ve got a 40gal long, which is 4ft with 1 med fish, and about 7 smaller fish, and 1 6" catfish. I have the tank FULL of live plants and they are awesome. I’ll take pictures tomorrow, and if you wanted to stop over and check out either my salt or freshwater setups you’re more than welcome, I’m near UB south. I don’t think I’ve had a fake plant in 3 years and I never will again. There really is nothing like watching plants bloom, especially if you can get your hands on banana plants.
I have a 75 gallon and a 29…This is my advice, stay away from Chain store, stick with the local shops…two places I would shop are, creekside and fish place or palace…great prices and owns are usually on site…
I have a couple of oscars and green terror, aggressive tank but its fun.
Oscars are dirty fish, so tank size and population along with what kinds of fish you have along with amount you feed is what affects how clean your tank will stay…
Much appreciate everyone’s input. 2point4z, I’m not looking do anything for at least a few weeks, but if/when I do I will drop you a line on that stand. Do you have any pics? For those looking to get rid of their tank setups, I appreciate the offers but this is something I’d like to put together myself.
As for salt water, I’m not staying away from it because of the effort, but I rather like the more subdued colors of freshwater tanks.
