Long Time No Fish

Twitch

It has been a long time since I have had a fish tank. I think I joined this site a few years back when I was first getting into saltwater and needed help, but then we had to move and I just never got back into keeping fish. Well now I have a job at Petsmart and caring for the fish every day has me itching for a tank. Since I did no do so well with saltwater the first time, I want to get my feet wet a bit first before diving into the ocean. I was thinking of setting up my 2.5 gallon tank with a betta fish and maybe setting up a 10g freshwater.

It has been a while since I have kept a tank, so excuse my many questions and general no-knowhow. Eventually I'd love to have larger setups and more exotic fish, but for now I need to just get into the habit of keeping fish again.

So with a 10g, what would be the first step, given that I have both a tank and light hood.

iamntbatman

Well, you'll need to cycle the tank and come up with a stocking list for it. Have a look at these articles:

http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/f...m-cycle-38617/

http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/f...tocking-38626/

For cycling, I really do prefer the shrimp method as it's really a no-brainer. For stocking, the first thing I'd do is test the pH and hardness of your tap water. The liquid test kit mentioned in the cycling article should include a pH test but most don't come with hardness tests. However, since the hardness of your tap water isn't all that variable, you can just take a sample of your water in to the LFS and have them test it for you. If you can, have them give you numbers for GH and KH. Once you know what kind of water you have available to you, you'll be able to narrow down your fish choices a bit. In the meantime you can have a look through our fish profiles here on TFK to get some stocking ideas:

http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/profiles/

Twitch

I work at a pet store so I can test my water whenever I want. :) We only have one hardness test though. Thanks for your reply. :) I can't wait to get started. I might go into storage and pull out the 10g tank I have in there with the light hood, and clean it up today.

I will read those articles. :) Thanks!

Tomsk

You could use some media from the filters at work to "jump-start" the bacteria in your tank.Take the sponge from your filter and wet it at work and squeeze the sponge from a established filter onto it,Keep the filter wet until you get back home.This will help reduce the cycling time.Just make sure there are no known issues from that tank (disease wise)

Tomsk