I was recently at a LFS and noticed how awesome fish are. I particularly liked the salt water ones, but I figured I should start with freshwater. I need to know alot of stuff. First off, I need to know what I need.
Here's what I already have access to:
tank (either 10, 15, or 20 gallon)
filter
heater
light

Things I think I need:
One of those bubble rock things
water dechlorinizer (I think)
substrate
decorations
pH/ammonia/nitrite/nitrate test kits
fish food

Okay, I pretty much need to know how much this stuff costs. Did I miss anything I need? Should all of this be readily available at my LFS?

I know one of the fish I get will be a betta (hopefully Halfmoon), but I think just 1 fish will be a little boring. I really like eels, so I tried to find some freshwater eel-like fish that are good for a small tank. I found out about fire eels, and they look awesome. But I don't have a big enough tank, so that will have to wait. I want to know about Kuhli loaches- would I be able to put a halfmoon betta in a 10 gallon tank with 4-6 Kuhlis? How about a 15 or 20 gallon? What do these fish eat (I think bettas eat pellets, but what do Kuhlis like) and will these foods be available at my LFS?

Now onto the next thing: cycling. I did some research on this, and I got the general idea. I'll say what I think is right, correct me if I'm wrong. So I could buy some cheap fish and put them in my tank. Their waste will be converted into ammonia, then nitrite, then nitrate. Nitrate forms some beneficial bacteria that feeds on ammonia, which can kill my fish otherwise. Alternatively, i could use items from a healthy tank instead of live fish, as they could die in the proccess.

Do I have that right? Is there anything I can do other than live fish or items from another tank. I was told simply fish flakes would work. Would the product Tetra SafeStart work? Anything else?
How long will cycling take with each of these methods? Do I have to test ammonia/nitrite/nitrate every day during cycling? What should the levels be after cycling?

How often does water have to be changed, and what percent of the tank? Do I have to add anyting to the water when I change it? Tell me what I need to do.

How often should I clean the tank completely? When I do, do I have to recycle it? Tell me what I need to do. Also, are there any fish I can get to help eat algae and just keep my tank a bit cleaner?

I think I've covered almost everything I have questions about. A bit lengthy, but I really need to know this. I figured this would get some better answers than "I want an aquarium with a betta and loaches, what do I do?" Thanks to anyone who responds!

You've gotta have some tubing and a supply for the air IE and airpod (what i use)

First off, well done on asking questions first up before you did anything. Another quicker way of cycling the tank is by using pure ammonia and dosing the tank to about 4 ppm - I won't go through the entire process on this post. There is s very good thread that explains how to do a fish less cycle with ammonia, I think it is in the new to aquariums forum, just look for it and you'll get a lot of good info. The last tank I set up I did that method but I was able to add some filter media from an established tank and my cycle was complete in 2 and a half weeks. You will definitely need a test kit to check on levels of ammonia and nitrite etc.

Is there any reason you are starting with such a small tank? Generally bigger tanks will allow you to stock more fish and are more stable. I don't know about the fish you were asking about bout I'm sure there will be others here who can give guidance about these fishes, the best advice I can give is to do some research into the fish you want and make sure that you can provide what they need and that all the different species are compatible with each other.

You should do water changes at least once a week and change out about 30 - 50% of the water depending on how messy the fish are, size of the tank and if you have live plants or not - again, other people will give advice on this as well. Take things slowly, don't be in a hurry to get things going.

I hope things go well for you.

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45g pentagonal
4 Swordtails, 2 dwarf Gouramis, 5 Mollies, 1 Rainbow Shark, 6 Molly fry 6 zebra danios

88 gal Malawi tank
4 Yellow labs, 1 Baenshi, 2 Borleyis, 3 Trewavas, 2 Livingstonis, 1 Venustus, 2 Green Terrors

I think you should decide whether or not you want a planted tank before you add your substrate. An easy, inexpensive, and attractive (natural looking) looking substrate that is also good for plants is a product called safe-t-sorb sold at Tractor Supply Company. It cost $5 for 40lbs. If you want to do plants later, you'll already be set to go. Like a lot of substrates, require a lot of rinsing. One bag is enough for up to a 75g. Planted tanks are much easier to care for than people believe.

A 20g will be too small for that many khuli loaches. I would suggest doing a quick google search for their care requirements. Always better to do that before you buy anyway. It sucks to find out afterwards that the fish you now have need to be removed.

Definitely get a test kit. Most get the API master test kit. Can be found online for about $24 shipped or you can spend $35 at you local fish store.

I'm glad you stopped in here.

Let me keep it simple and possibly shock ya in the process. IMHO all you really need to do is start the tank as a planted tank then do the rest.

You migh look up beaslbob builds on this forum. all that is just "my" method of using plants. No mechanical filters, no air stones, no pumps, no water changes just the plants.

But that's just my idea which is worth at most.


.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

WHEN YOU SAID YOU WANTED EELS, I WAS LIKE... Ok get black kuhli loaches. They are loaches. But they are the funniest little "whiskered eels" I call them, you'll ever see. I have 3 of the little guys in my 10 gallon, and they are the most fun ever! They will hide, like normal eels, but if you just get them a place to hide ( don't get sand, they'll just burry themselves) They will be the best little tropical fish you'd ever get *in my opinion* check em out!

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20 gallon semi planted:
Filters: top fin 10 and 20 power filters.
Fish: 2 panda cories, 1 peppered Cory, 5 kuhli loaches, and 4 cherry barbs.

Also about the kuhli loaches, they will eat shrimp pellets, and will get along if not hide from the fish you mentioned according to my experience with them. I have three very healthy ones in my 10 gallon. Do some research. There the best!

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20 gallon semi planted:
Filters: top fin 10 and 20 power filters.
Fish: 2 panda cories, 1 peppered Cory, 5 kuhli loaches, and 4 cherry barbs.

betta's are hit and miss with being able to keep them with other fish, some are so mean they will attack anything....and some others dont mind a friend or two. but typically bettas are best left alone

First off, welcome to the hobby! Here we go, so hang on to your hat...

1. Tank, heater, filter, light are great starters. Good substrate, as Ben (jrman) mentioned, is not a bad idea at all, if you do decide to go with live plants (which I strongly suggest). Safe-T-Sorb is great, as is special substrate like a beaslbob setup (1" soaked peat moss, 1" play sand, 1" Eco Complete, Fluorite, FloraMax or similar plant-specific substrate available at most pet stores).

Plan long term - the more money you spend now on things like a bigger tank, better lighting, and better substrate, the less you'll have to spend later when (not if) you plan on upgrading. Also, trust in the power of your local classifieds - other hobbyists or those who got into the hobby and end up giving up end up selling their FULL aquarium setups (some even with fish!) for pennies on the dollar. You could easily buy a 20-40 gallon tank with light, heater, filter, substrate, and stand for $60-$100, which is about 1/6th the price if you bought all that stuff new from the pet store.

I would advise an airstone, air tubing, and air pump, for aeration of the water (duh), to add CO2 if you have live plants, and as an emergency aerator for events where you might have to medicate for disease.

Dechlorinator (a.k.a. tap water conditioner) is VITAL if you use tap water. It's the only chemical I would suggest adding, as well. Some like adding aquarium salt, but it doesn't really make a difference in a healthy tank; it does come in handy when your fish are sick though. Also, DO NOT get any biological supplements - when your tank has an established nitrogen cycle, there's no need for additional biological supplements. In fact, they can screw up the cycle.

For decorations, I would strongly advise some driftwood (real, not fake), and some live plants. Plants help the tank by supplementing the filter (i.e. they help absorb waste products in the water, just like a filter). They love soaking up ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate, their root systems thrive in dirty substrate so you will actually NOT want to vacuum your gravel, and they provide a more natural environment for your fish so their stress levels are significantly lower.

You'll want a good test kit, and we usually suggest the API Master Freshwater Test Kit, $25-$35 at your local fish store (LFS). It's a little more complicated to use than test strips, but it has ten or twenty times the amount of tests as a bottle of strips is good for, so your buck goes further. It's also a lot more accurate than test strips - you can read ammonia in 0.25ppm increments, for example.

Don't get a big can of fish food - it will last you FOREVER. Instead, buy the smallest and keep buying them as you run out. That way, the food will remain fresh and your fish will benefit more.

2. Bettas are fun but males can be territorial, especially with fancy or brightly colored fish like gouramis and fancy guppies. If you're looking for a good centerpiece fish, I would suggest a male gourami, female betta, or a school of 6-10 tetras or rasboras. Keep in mind their full adult size, and plan accordingly. DO NOT BUY A COMMON PLECOSTIMUS!!! They can grow up to 2 feet long. Also, don't buy a Chinese or Siamese algae eater - they are VERY aggressive, and don't eat algae very much. If they get big enough, they will start attacking and killing other tankmates to make room for themselves. Khulis are nice, but remember their size. I'm not sure what the Khulis eat, but the bettas eat pellets as you said.

3. You've got it mostly right, except for the bacteria part. The nitrifying bacteria (nitrospira and nitrosomona) feed off of the ammonia and nitrite, respectively. So when either ammonia or nitrite are present, the bacteria will start populating the tank naturally and start consuming the ammonia and/or nitrite. Nitrate is the end product of the cycle, and can only be removed from the tank by partial water changes OR live plants. Adding things like a used filter, used substrate, etc. (not water) from an established tank can speed things up, but the key thing is to have a source of ammonia to "seed" the cycle. It can be live fish, but it can also be pure ammonia, a raw piece of seafood, or daily doses of flake food. Anything that produces ammonia by decomposition or waste.

4. Tetra SafeSTart (TSS) is a very controversial product, as are any other "bacteria in a bottle" products. From my understanding, TSS contains heterotrophic nitrifying bacteria, which does in fact work to speed up the cycle. However, autotrophic bacteria is the bacteria that will eventually take over. I've had great success using TSS in establishing cycles in 4 tanks now. However, the fact that the bacteria in TSS are heterotrophic can make the cycle establishment unstable at best, and can downright not work at worst. Plants, on the other hand, are a guaranteed success. Plants love nitrogen in any form they can get, and they can get nitrogen most easily from ammonia, then nitrite, then nitrate in that order. So, adding plants will actually do what is called a "silent cycle", where they will handle the brunt of the ammonia and nitrite generated, then as the nitrifying bacteria take over the plants will revert to getting their nitrogen from nitrate.

5. Fish-in cycling can take weeks. Same for fishless cycling. Silent cycling really doesn't have a time limit, as you can add plants and pretty much immediately add fish (from my understanding; I've never done a silent cycle myself). You don't need to test every day, just test whenever you are curious. After a MINIMUM of a week, you can tell when the cycle is fully established when you have 0ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrite, and traces of nitrate (from 20ppm-80ppm). Keep in mind - these readings are in a tank WITH something producing ammonia in the tank, be it fish or any of the aforementioned sources of ammonia.

6. Partial water chances (PWC's). I recommend 50% weekly, but that's personal preference. The more plants you have in your tank, the less water changes are necessary. However, adding fresh water in a planted tank helps the plants by providing fresh minerals and other nutrients the plants will leech out of the water. In a non-planted tank, PWCs serve by removing nitrates.

Add dechlorinator, and that's it. You'll want a siphon hose with a gravel vacuum on one end, a few 5 gallon buckets (your grocery store might give you some for free), and dechlorinator. Siphon out water first, water your house plants with the water or just dump it in the yard or down the drain, and fill buckets with fresh water and siphon (don't dump) the water back into the tank. Use your hand to approximate the temp of the water to match the temp of the tank (your hand approximation is usually accurate to within a few degrees). Siphoning the fresh water into the tank allows the fish to gradually acclimate to the new water - dumping it in might shock them. Kinda like us humans jumping into ice water. Also, wring out your filter media in the old tank water to clean it - don't replace the filter media too often because filters are THE place for nitrifying bacteria to chill. The only thing you'll want to change every two weeks or so is the carbon, but if you have live plants in the tank you will actually NOT want to use carbon - it strains nutrients out of the water your plants would otherwise use.

7. The only times you would ever have to overhaul your tank completely are if you have an undergravel filter (which you don't want if you have live plants - they dislike moving water around their roots), or in the event of a cataclysmic tank crash from disease, parasites, cynobacter infestation, etc. Otherwise, your tank can theoretically run for decades (hence why spending more money on the initial startup costs is worth it in the long run). I suggest you get a good cleanup crew to control algae and waste. Multiple kinds of bottom dwellers are ideal, in my opinion. I'm a big fan of shrimp, as they eat all types of algae, are very docile, and are super cool. Their downside is that they are very delicate and sensitive to bad water conditions like high phosphates, nitrates, and copper. There's also snails. I would suggest Nerite snails if you can get them - they will lay eggs but can't multiply unless they have brackish water, also Malaysian Trumpet Snails (MTS) for their ability to burrow into the substrate to clean it a bit, bushynose plecos (which only grow to about 4"), otociclus (sp?) catfish (a.k.a. otos), corydoras catfish, and crabs.

Hope this helps! Sorry for the lecture.

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Officially fishless until after the move....tune in later for details!

Thanks so much Gizmo! You have no idea how much that helped. I have been being told to start out with a bigger tank, and now I am sure I will . But yea, you answered nearly every question I had, so thanks alot.

Not a problem Standing by to answer any others

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Officially fishless until after the move....tune in later for details!

Just FYI, here's a few good reads I've always reverted to when I want to verify my statements:

Basics to starting a Planted Tank - The Planted Tank

The Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle

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Officially fishless until after the move....tune in later for details!