Hi All

The wife and I are building a new house, and we both love idea of having an aquarium somewhere in the basement design.

Just signing up and reading to see if it's a commitment we're ready to make, my wife had one when she was a little girl and it was a slimy mess. I understand you can create low maintenance aquariums, looking to educate myself on that design.

Cheers!

Welcome! With proper water changes and some plants I'm sure that you can have a beautiful aquarium!

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"Being ignorant is not so much a Shame, as being unwilling to learn".-- Benjamin Franklin

Summer's right! When in doubt, do a water change. If still in doubt, add plants!

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10 gallon tank: 2 Tetra Whisper PF10 filters, mixed substrate, 1 male molly, 1 female platy,1 pregnant platy, 4 platy fry, 4 zebra danios
15 gallon tank: beaslbob build, peat moss substrate, pool sand substrate, 4 zebra danios, 10 neon tetras, 8 harlequin rasboras, 11 ghost shrimp, planted with: hornwort, anacharis, wisteria

hello and welcome, there is lots of good info on here and how to keep an aquarium looking good

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What happens if you get scared half to death, twice?

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http://s1050.photobucket.com/albums/...eefingMadness/

For a low maintenance aquarium IMHO the key is to start with lots true aquatic plants to balance out, and stabilize operation.

You might check out the beaslbob builds on this forum. Just one way of acheiving that.

my .02

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

Thank You! For any others offering suggestions - I know nothing :D. I'm assuming freshwater is much easier to maintain than salt?

You know enough to ask question here.

Yes Freshwater is supposed to be easier.

But the same idea of using plants also applies to marine setups. Only there are basically no fast growing true plants in saltwater. So you use algaes like macro algaes (kinda look like plants) instead.

But freshwater is at least less expensive. So a good place to start.

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

hello an welcome

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if you loan some one money an never see them Again it was money well spent !!!!!

Welcome to the forum!

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Tank
125g african cichlids making it work
75g rimless Reef in progress

Welcome!Glad to have you here,hope we can help you in any way possible!

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http://bountifulbettas.blogspot.com/

"Come to the dark side....we have cookies...and filters/heaters/and water changes!"

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Help those in our hobby to exceed beyond their expectations.
Aquatic Engineer