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Aquarium questions

6K views 40 replies 12 participants last post by  Guber 
#1 ·
Hello as you can see I'm new here. I plan on buying a 12 gallon tank in the near future and I'm just curious about how many/what kind of interesting fish I can put in it? As well as easy to maintain live plants. I've done a good amount of research on fishless cycling but any advice on that is more than welcome as well! Thanks in advance. I'm sure i'll have more questions to come within the day.
 
#2 ·
Sparkling gouramis, celestial pearl danios, Neon tetras, pristilla tetras,lemon tetras,White cloud minnows, threadfin rainbows, furcata rainbows are a few that would work. Read up on them and also on cycling a new aquarium or nitrogen cycle of new aquariums. Get the tank set up the way you want it so you don't disturb or stress the fish later making changes to their enviornment.;-)
 
#3 ·
fishless cycle is the best way. lighting will be important depending on what plants you choose. as a beginner, i would get easy and less demanding plants. don't over stock your tank just because you want a particular fish. a good go by is 1" of fish per gallon. you don't for say have to stick exactly to this but don't go off into the deep end either. get compatible fish. get substrate that is good for plants such as laterate or fluorite. find a lfs that you can trust and takes care of their products. if not, there are several online sites that have great quality products. alot of the times, they are better than lfs.
 
#4 ·
Thanks a lot for all the info. The only true petstore that is in my town is owned by this lady who must definitely be on drugs and she is completely bias'd toward any petstore but her own as well as biased against freshwater and the one time i went in there she just ridiculed freshwater and pushed me toward going salt and setting up coral. So i really do not like going there. Other than that i have a petsmart about 15m away from home. I'm not well versed in any fish lingo so for the substrate im not sure what any of it means. I do like the look of white sand though considering i'm going for a more tropical look in my tank.
 
#5 ·
yeah i would leave her alone completely. saltwater is more expensive to maintain. if she is trying to get you to go any other way than what you want, she isn't looking into the interest of her customers. which doesn't equal good business. if the only other place you have is petsmart, you may want to turn to the online sites. most petsmarts aren't well cared for. fish or plants. everything else is fine to get. a great place is bigalsonline. its one of the bigger names in the hobby. i remember getting heaters and hob filters from them back in 2002. still running strong.
 
#8 ·
2 of the 3 Petsmarts by my house are relatively well cared for, so before you discount buying from your local pet store I would check in on their tanks a few times to see what the consistency of care is. You are almost guaranteed to get better quality fish from some online sites, but if you were to get 10 neon tetras from petsmart it will be about $20. If you get them from a nice online site, you will pay the $20 plus another $15-30 for shipping. Is it worth it? Depending on the species of fish and the quantity, it could go either way.

BTW- Prices are subject to change, limited to quantity on hand. Neon Tetra is a registered species of the Tetra community. Distribution and duplication could happen at anytime, please check your local laws of the fact that you have just wasted the last 10 seconds reading this nonsense...:lol:
 
#9 ·
Yeah I'm fairly confident in the Petsmart nearby. Last time i went in all the employees in the fish department seemed really knowledgable and willing to help with whatever we asked. Online so far though the eclipse 12 is about 40 dollars cheaper even with paying shipping for it compared to just buying from Petsmart. I'm curious what sort of low maintenance plants would go well with a tropical themed tank also, what a good choice for a heater would be.
 
#10 ·
I can't speak to the plants question, but as far as heaters go Visi-therm by marineland seem to be peoples favorite. I use Theo heaters and have never had a problem. If you use a Visi-therm Stealth heater and put a black background on your tank, your heater will blend in, and this creates a nice look. As far as wattage goes, you probably wont need anything over 50.
 
#12 ·
Sounds like what you've got is a hobbyist turned store owner who never learned that it's more important to be a business first. Ridiculing a customer's choice is a good way to lose one. Then again maybe it's not such a poorly run business, after all saltwater is VASTLY more expensive than fresh. I could set up my 55 gallon for african cichlids for the price of a single emperor angelfish, or a large healthy coral. Set it up in style.

I don't have any big problems with Petsmart. I live near 3 with a fourth just a bit farther away. For the most part they are well cared for. They're not my go to place for livestock but with proper quarantine I wouldn't worry about adding fish from them to one of my tanks. They are very convenient for hardware. Definitely bring in competitor prices though, a lot of their stuff is WAY overpriced.

Even with my present issues I still like the Visi-therm stealths just for the fact that they aren't glass. I also like the Eclipse systems. Just make sure you get a heater for your Eclipse, that's the one thing they don't come with that's necessary for a tropical set up. A 25W stealth works just fine keeping my Eclipse 6 nice and warm. I'd probably got with a 50W on a 12 gallon Eclipse.
 
#13 ·
Yeah if Petsmart is willing to match prices from an online catalogue then I plan on buying my aquarium,heater, and test kit from there. I'm sure i'll end up buying any food etc from there. I'm still unsure on how people go about the fish part. I'm pretty up to snuff on the fishless cycling. How do you go about adding fish? and how many is the max for a 12 gallon?
 
#15 ·
Yeah I'd like some smaller fish so i can have a bit more movement in the tank. I mostly like any of the colorful tropical looking fish. Being so new to this i don't know any names. I don't know if they're freshwater or not, but the angel fish everyone talks about are really nice looking. I'm also unsure if i should get at least one of those fish that sucks on the wall as a dustbuster in my tank or not?
 
#16 ·
There are some small danios, tetras, and guppies that the 10 gal would make a nice home for. I think I would skip on any kind of "suck" fish, most get to big for a 10 gal. Maybe some snails or cory for the bottom. Check out LiveAquaria.com andThePetPlace.com, might see some fish you are interested in. I am sure lots of people here will post some good fish ideas for you to check into. I have not kept many of the smaller fish myself, so someone else will be better informed than me.
 
#17 ·
Oh man theres so many great ones to choose from, this sucks lol. Any reccomendations into some interesting to watch active fish? also, i think it would be pretty cool to be able to say theres a clam at the bottom and if possible to have both one of those cherry shrimp!
 
#18 ·
Well im new to the hobby as well, and im very impressed with my balloon mollys. I have 2 of them and they have great personalities. They will come and "kiss" your fingers if you put them in the water just before feeding time, and i also think they are great looking fish. Another fish i am happy about is guppies, they are very coulouful and look great swimming around with there big puffy tails. Both these fish stay small to so i think they would go well in your tank.

Heres a pic of a guppy and a balloon mollie just to give you an idea.

 
#22 ·
So i was down at petsmart today browsing around at the tanks. They have the Eclipse 12 i've been looking at and the 29 gallon eclipse which i may be on the verge of talking my dad into letting me get despite me having to rearrange my room to fit it. They also had a 26 gallon Aqueon? i think was the brand, I've heard a lot of great things about the eclipse systems and i'm just curious what peoples thoughts or experiences are with the aqueon.
 
#24 ·
What is the best choice of a dechlorinator? also what other sort of water treatment items should i have around in case of any events that may occur. also anyone use the python gravel vac? if so how is it? is it worth it? sorry for the huge amount of questions. Thanks in advance.
 
#25 ·
I use Prime for my water conditioner. In addition to the neutralization of chlorine, chloramine, and heavy metals it can also detoxify ammonia and nitrites if you get a spike in them. I wouldn't buy any other water modifiers aside from a bottle of Prime. Most of them range from worthless to actually harmful. At best they'll treat symptoms and not root causes.

I use a regular siphon gravel vac. While I see the convenience of a python I also see it wasting a lot of water. I don't mind the bucket brigade method for doing 30% water changes on a 48 gallon.

The Aqeon tank you're looking at, did it come as part of a package? If so what filter were they including?
 
#27 ·
Good for you! I agree with PRIME as water conditioner/dechlorinator. I might also pick up a bottle of quick cure for treatment of ICH. I have five tanks ,so it is easier to use the python. I have a pond pump with a section of garden hose on it to drain the water from my tanks and also use the hand vaccum to clean the bottom once a week. I use the python to fill the aquariums . Takes less time,same amount of water.
 
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