I need advice, first timer!

minhha2006

minhha2006

New member
Hi all. This is my first thread and I am thrilled to be a part of the community. That being said, I am wanting to start my first tank.

Due to my small apartment, I do not think I can keep anything more than 10g. This is not going to be a permanent home for me, I have a year or so left so I am looking for something to sustain and learn with until I have a more permanent home. I am currently in school and funds are not terribly hefty, but I think I can manage if I take it slow.

So, first thing, where do you all suggest I get a small tank from? I cannot access the classifieds area just yet, but do you all sell small tanks that size there?

Second, after seeing some of your setups, I think I definitely want something that gives me night as well as day time LEDs. Where would be a good place to begin my search?

Lastly, forgive my noobness, but are coral and this forum for that matter only for marine, or do some of you do fresh water as well?


Thanks in advance, I will be checking this thread like no ones business!

Regards,


Minh
 
Welcome to RC. How much space can you spare for the tank? LEDs are not my choice of lights, so I will let others chime in. And, yes this site is dedicated to marine.
 
Thanks for the warm welcome. I currently live in a studio in the heart of a city (Georgetown) so small is a bit of an understatement.

I was looking at small tanks because of the mobility aspect. Moving into the apartment was tough enough and I am thinking ahead a bit. I have a free table top that I wanted to put the tank on, roughly the size of some 10 or 5g tanks that I saw today while visiting some LFS's. I know that larger is better :eek1: , but quite frankly, I just don't have the space. The rest of my table tops are larger, but they are all glass! The apartment was furnished so I didn't have any say in this.
 
Also, briefly, why are LEDs not the choice for you? I'm interested in your line of thought. I plan on live plants, but thats the only plan so far.
 
Ah ok. It appears that I have a good bit to learn. In the meantime, I will stay to learn and develop some ideas for a marine tank ("end" goal) if you all will have me.

I think it is best that I only stick to asking about tanks and lighting for now, correct? Everything else seems to be out of my league, or not of relevance.
 
Hi Minh,

For a10g tank, just go to Petsmart or Petco. Petco does $1/ gallon sales, and a 10g won't cost much more that that even without being on sale.

While this forum is just for salt water (and coral can only be kept in salt water if that was a question), I do think in your situation (temporary location, limited space and budget), you might be smart to start with a freshwater tank. They can be beautiful, enjoyable, and great practice for a marine tank. You would not need to worry as much about lighting either, even for a starter planted tank. In addition to my reef, I have a tropical planted tank in my home office. Practicing with plants - I suggest swords and java ferns - is good before getting into corals. Since these plants can be weeds in the wild, no need to feel bad if the don't make it. Freshwater fish are (typically) much less expensive than marine, but that does mot mean you should treat their lives more lightly. Most are easier to keep though.

For LEDs - I love my Reefbreeders.

Kim
 
I think that most of the live plants you're going to find in saltwater are forms of algae (correct me if I'm wrong, I don't really know). I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that if you want live plants, you're going to end up wanting corals, too. Most people (myself included) would say not to put fish in anything smaller than a 10 gallon tank, and the fish you can put in a 10 gallon are extremely limited. Firefish, some of the smaller gobies - neon goby, clown goby, court jester goby, two spot goby - longspine or yellowstriped cardinals, white or harptail blennies, yellow banded wrasse, tanaka's pygmy wrasse, or white banded possum wrasse. That being said, you can only keep one or two fish in a tank that size.

As or equipment, you will only need live rock, a small powerhead, a good test kit, and a refractometer, and a source of distilled water or RO (reverse osmosis) water. You can use a HOB skimmer, but you don't need to on a tank that size. A HOB filter can be used as long as you replace the carbon filter media with something else, like live rock, or some type of algae, although you might need to put a light over it with the algae, someone else can probably chime in on that. You should do a 10% water change every week. And welcome to RC.
 
Silly clownfish said:
Hi Minh,

For a10g tank, just go to Petsmart or Petco. Petco does $1/ gallon sales, and a 10g won't cost much more that that even without being on sale.

While this forum is just for salt water (and coral can only be kept in salt water if that was a question), I do think in your situation (temporary location, limited space and budget), you might be smart to start with a freshwater tank. They can be beautiful, enjoyable, and great practice for a marine tank. You would not need to worry as much about lighting either, even for a starter planted tank. In addition to my reef, I have a tropical planted tank in my home office. Practicing with plants - I suggest swords and java ferns - is good before getting into corals. Since these plants can be weeds in the wild, no need to feel bad if the don't make it. Freshwater fish are (typically) much less expensive than marine, but that does mot mean you should treat their lives more lightly. Most are easier to keep though.

For LEDs - I love my Reefbreeders.

Kim
Click to expand...

Perfect. Thanks for the great response. I was actually at Petsmart today and I saw one with a light/day lighting option. Sadly, I saw no such deals today. It blows my mind about some of your setups here. As I said, I've been lurking for a bit now and its fascinating!

That's exactly why I wanted to start with freshwater. I plan on keeping all (2-3) of my fishies alive, no worries there!

Aside from LFS and petsmart ect, where else can I source a tank that got lighting included? Part of my obsession right now is the lighting!
 
You could try looking at LiveAquaria.com

People take guppies, sometimes, and acclimate them to a saltwater environment. You could possibly set up a saltwater tank and put in a few guppies. That might help you to get a bit of a feel for taking care of a saltwater tank.
 
Welcome to the forums. I would search around for a nice 10 gallon rimless setup. I wouldn't worry about lighting at this step, figure out if you want salt or freshwater first. Search craigslist or ask your LFS for assistance. Freshwater would certainly be easier to maintain and deal with when your move comes, just something to think about.
 
Maybe get yourself a good book, and spend a couple of months reading and asking questions on the forum, if you rush into this hobby it will cost you in mistakes and dead fish ( as well as $$).
If you've never kept fish before freshwater is much easier albeit not quite as enjoyable (personal preference)
I've seen quite a few awesome reef tanks set up that were slowly added to with frags and over a year of 'grow out' they were amazing, best of luck!
 
For sources, start looking through the sponsors at the bottom of the list of forums. Many of the online vendors offer discounts to RC members. You are best off getting the actual tank local. Most places won't ship a glass aquarium that size. It would cost more to ship than buy local and you would likely get a box of glass shards. I've never looked at acrylic in that size range.

As TheBookWorm suggests, LiveAquaria has great info on the requirements and compatibility of the various fish they sell. For freshwater, I would buy local rather that online, but would look for a good independent LFS, not a chain for the livestock. BTW, if I could do it over, I would not have put a dwarf pleco in my 20g planted freshwater tank. It kills snails by smashing them against the glass until the shells break (I call it snail soccer), so I can't keep snails, I almost never see this fish because he hides under my driftwood during the day, and the darn fish has been in there for over 10 years. By far my oldest current FW fish, but younger than most of my marine animals. Most popular freshwater fish apparently have a lifespan of 2-5 years. The little guys like platies, swordfish, guppies (all good starter fish) only live a couple of years, but easily reproduce in the home aquarium, so if you have good hiding places for the fry you can raise them and even take them back to your LFS for trade.

In a 10 g, I would do 3-4 platies (I like the red ones) or neon tetras. You can't go wrong with guppies either. Try to get one male and the rest female.

I think mollies can be acclimated to salt water, but the only reason I ever hear of people doing this is to feed lionfish and the like.

BTW, I think it is great that you are willing to start small, or with freshwater and build up to a big reef. Too many people just say "I want that fish" and get something they can't keep alive, then come here to ask for help too late.
 
You can get 10 gallon aquariums pretty cheap, and from a lot of different places. With freshwater, definitely get something local, unless it's something you can't get local. Shipping would end up being $30+, plus the cost of the fish.

Really? I've been thinking about introducing some snails to my planted tank (will they eat the plants), but if the pleco will kill them, I might have to reconsider.

You could always consider doing a betta tank, with some of the smaller species of cory.
 
Thanks, I don't have an issue with starting small. I know this is something that should take time so better to learn first.

Great advice. I found a used tank and the guy is giving me some offspring fish that he has. The parent fishes had babies a while back so that's what I'm getting.

Sand v gravel..go!
 
Welcome! I've always had Freshwater planted tanks but just started a reef 2 yrs ago. If you wanted to go the planted route, check out the Planted Tank forum - I'm a long-time member there...very helpful and lots of plants for sale in their classifieds section.

I'm a huge fan of cherry shrimp and teeny fish with them like galaxy danios with easy growing mosses with driftwood and the like for a small tank...if you're interested in shrimp then they can help you over there for sure! They come in all sorts of colors - red, blue, orange, yellow, even striped.

For the reef though, if you're like me, a small tank will be ok for a little while, then you'll want to upgrade. I started with a 12 long and that lasted 6 months til I upgraded to a 40 breeder.

Freshwater is more manageable than salt if you have a small volume to work with, speaking from experience!
 
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Hmmm, I don't have a small tank up any more (but I will soon!) but here's a pic of my 55 from a few years back...my little water garden.

And this is nothing, member tanks on yonder planted tank forum will blow you out of the water (so to speak).
 

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