# Ultra Noob



## gunnerx

Hello. Found this board googling "toronto aquarium forums".  I'm an ultra noob with aquariums. Friends have them but I have never had any interest in setting one up. That is until my daughter who's 20 months started to really like fishes. I decided to setup an Aquarium for her. Right now I have a 29g setup and just got plants last night. Will get a couple of fishes on Saturday to get the cycling going. I am using SeaChem red fluorite as the substrate. 

Will be keeping an eye on the board for plants on sale and lots of help once I get going.

Here's the barren aquarium right now:


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## Chris S

Hey, welcome!

Just wanted to say three things:

1. That filter is likely not adequete for the size of the tank

2. There are a bunch of threads here regarding cycling a tank, read them over (search function) before introducing any fish to your new tank (trust me, it is worth waiting)

3. Without knowing the specs of your setup, I will assume you do not have a high amount of light, nor are you adding co2 or fertilizer to your tank for the plants. That said, you might have the best luck using plants like Java moss, Java fern, most Anubias species, and even some Cryptocoryne. They are, for the most part, pretty undemanding and hard to kill plants (some crypts are quite the opposite though!).

If you need anymore help, feel free to post in the appropriate forums and someone will be glad to help you out!

Chris


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## gunnerx

Chris Stewart said:


> Hey, welcome!


Thanks! 



> Just wanted to say three things:
> 
> 1. That filter is likely not adequete for the size of the tank


It's an Aquaclear 50. I thought it would be good enough for a 29g. Should I add a powerhead?



> 2. There are a bunch of threads here regarding cycling a tank, read them over (search function) before introducing any fish to your new tank (trust me, it is worth waiting)


I've actually been reading several forums and articles over the net (ex: rexgrigg.com). Definitely gonna take it slow.



> 3. Without knowing the specs of your setup, I will assume you do not have a high amount of light, nor are you adding co2 or fertilizer to your tank for the plants. That said, you might have the best luck using plants like Java moss, Java fern, most Anubias species, and even some Cryptocoryne. They are, for the most part, pretty undemanding and hard to kill plants (some crypts are quite the opposite though!).
> 
> If you need anymore help, feel free to post in the appropriate forums and someone will be glad to help you out!
> 
> Chris


It's lighted by a Coralife Dual T-5 Light Fixture with an 18 watt Daylight bulb and 18 watt colormax bulb. I'm still reading about CO2 and fertilizing. That's always possible. I'll be looking around for those plants actually. I might drop by Menagerie on the weekend. Thanks for the tips!


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## Pablo

Chris Stewart said:


> Hey, welcome!
> 
> Just wanted to say three things:
> 
> 1. That filter is likely not adequete for the size of the tank
> 
> 2. There are a bunch of threads here regarding cycling a tank, read them over (search function) before introducing any fish to your new tank (trust me, it is worth waiting)
> 
> 3. Without knowing the specs of your setup, I will assume you do not have a high amount of light, nor are you adding co2 or fertilizer to your tank for the plants. That said, you might have the best luck using plants like Java moss, Java fern, most Anubias species, and even some Cryptocoryne. They are, for the most part, pretty undemanding and hard to kill plants (some crypts are quite the opposite though!).
> 
> If you need anymore help, feel free to post in the appropriate forums and someone will be glad to help you out!
> 
> Chris


Chris saved me a few minutes of typing.

So, ^^ All the above, and I suggest you meet up with some people for a beer and to get a good setup idea together. You'll want a better filter, a co2 system, better lights, and maybe to look through lots of pics of aquascapes to get some ideas

http://www.petfish.net/pix/arts07/steve_hampton1.jpg

An aquarium is a nice thing to have in your house.

Don't cycle with fish.

What you want to do (assuming you've read enough to get started about fish water chemistry bacteria biofilters etc etc) is get the better filter, then get some biomedia from someone this will seed your tank and establish a biofilter, omitting the cycling process. You can then add a couple of small fish and let the tank break in over a couple of weeks, then proceed as usual.

Pick up an Aquaclear 70. Run both the 70 and the 50 on the tank together. The best way to run them is just buy 3 sponges (foam) for each one. Each month, just rinse one sponge clean, alternating from bottom to top. You'll always have a fully cycled, clean smooth running filter and its cheap to run.

Otherwise looks like you're doing good so far

And most important--

Ask about the LIST of fish you want to get. Dont just consider one fish, consider Groups of groups of fish and their interaction between eachother. Also given your situation I figure you'll want peaceful friendly non shy fish?

Same goes for food and pretty much everything ask first. Make sure you know how to spot a diseased fish also because that can be a nightmare to deal with.
To start your tank off, since they are hardy, forgive mistakes well, and are friendly and interactive, I suggest getting two female (because this will reduce the possibility of aggression) three spot gouramis

http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/anabantoids/images/Blue(ThreeSpot)GouramiWFA_C2265.jpg
http://www.aquariumfish.net/images_01/gold_gourami_male_w160.jpg
http://z.about.com/d/freshaquarium/1/0/M/c/fw4004.jpg
http://www.alnomrosi.net/aquafish/images/FreshWaterImage/Gourami/GouramiOpaline.jpg

This is a very common fish which is bred in blue/gold/'opaline'(dark/light blue/platinum

you can tell females because the dorsal fin is much shorter and rounder than on males

also dont let your heater touch the gravel as this creates a hot spot on the glass of the heater.

If you need to you can run the heater horizontally rather than vertically. This reduces the thermal efficiency by a bit according to some but its not noticeable IMO. this will also prevent your heater running dry and possibly exploding should you fail to unplug it when doing water changes etc.

I also suggest buying a good digital thermometer with a submersible probe, a good quality test kit with pH/gH/kH/Nitrite/Nitrate/Ammonia/Co2 and Oxygen (assuming you will be planting and using a co2 system)


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## Chris S

> It's lighted by a Coralife Dual T-5 Light Fixture with an 18 watt Daylight bulb and 18 watt colormax bulb. I'm still reading about CO2 and fertilizing. That's always possible. I'll be looking around for those plants actually. I might drop by Menagerie on the weekend. Thanks for the tips!


T-5's are nice, I'd suggest having both bulbs 6700k bulbs though. I have a 20g with them, but I use two on that tank 

As someone who is fairly new to, and basically dove headfirst into the planted tank hobby, I would really suggest that if you want to have nice plants you need to seriously consider fertilizer and co2. However, take a look at some of the pictures from a member named Dekstr - he has some great tanks which I believe are mostly low-tech tanks. It is possible for sure!

And as Pablo says, don't cycle your tank with fish, but you can however cycle your tank with PLANTS! And lots of them!


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## Pablo

but better off getting biomedia from someone-- just because when you are an ultra noob as you say, you wanna cover your behind. this is the safest way.


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## gunnerx

Thanks for the information. Definitely helps.  I've been checking out the pictures from the site and there's definitely a lot of great tanks.


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## pat3612

Hi and welcome .


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## Ciddian

Hello and welcome to the gtaa! :3

I am looking forward to seeing what you do with the tank!


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## Shattered

Welcome to the tanks, hop in the waters fine.


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## Pablo

^^
Stop milking that line


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## Bigsexybadguy

Welcome to the GTAA. As you can see, you'll get some great advice from some great people with a lot of experience.

What a great thing to share with your daughter. I've always kept a tank for almost 20 years but never have I found keeping my aquarium as pleasureable as when I first shared it with my niece, and now my son, who's 3. It really is now a family affair.

Welcome to the Forum!

Regards,

BSB


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## Shattered

Pablo said:


> ^^
> Stop milking that line


Ok, from now on I'll be a good little schooling fish and follow the group. 

Welcome to the boards.


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## Pablo

Shattered said:


> Ok, from now on I'll be a good little schooling fish and follow the group.
> 
> Welcome to the boards.


Twers said in jest dood


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## Shattered

I know, my reply was in jest as well. S'all good.


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## gunnerx

Picked up a test kit today at BA and got the following results:

Nitrite: < 0.3mg/l
Ammonia: 0
pH: 7.5-8.0
GH: 9

I will have to pick up a Nitrate test since I didn't look carefully and didn't know that the kit didn't have it.

I did a 1/3 WC today and the plants were giving off oxygen pearls! I guess that's a good thing? Is this tank close to being cycled? I guess I will test tomorrow again to see how much has changed after the WC.


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## Pablo

< 0.3mg/l

If you still see any nitrite whatsoever its not done cycling yet


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## Chris S

The pearls off your plants are probably due to little oxygen bubbles forming when pouring new water into the tank, but hey - you never know!


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## Pablo

Ya without CO2 and good lighting you wont pearl


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## gunnerx

Okie, I thought it was because the reoseafolia was sending out streams of bubbles to the surface. The plants also have brown algae on them now. Would it safe to put in a couple of fish and algae eaters now? I'm testing using the Tetratest Master Kit and it doesn't have a 0mg/l for Nitrite. Just <0.3mg/l and I tested it again this morning after the WC last night and it's the same. Ammonia is at 0.


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## Chris S

As Pablo mentioned, if you have any Nitrite, it isn't done cycling.


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## Pablo

gunnerx said:


> Okie, I thought it was because the reoseafolia was sending out streams of bubbles to the surface. The plants also have brown algae on them now. Would it safe to put in a couple of fish and algae eaters now? I'm testing using the Tetratest Master Kit and it doesn't have a 0mg/l for Nitrite. Just <0.3mg/l and I tested it again this morning after the WC last night and it's the same. Ammonia is at 0.


What are you using to cycle again? Bottled ammonia? 
Sorry Im tired and I forgot...


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## gunnerx

Pablo said:


> What are you using to cycle again? Bottled ammonia?
> Sorry Im tired and I forgot...


Plants!  Just plants that have been with fishes. My tank just had a makeover today.


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## Tabatha

Great job on the rescape, I love it!


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## Chris S

Looks much better.


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