Help me design an idiot-proof aquarium set-up!

In My Humble Opinion
21

That’s a saltwater tank - way more complicated setup and maintenance than freshwater, IMHO.

OP: I didn’t do fishless cycling to start. I got a pair of cherry barbs (was told they’re quite hardy) and went from there. The cherry barbs lived for years, so it’s not a death sentence to do that. Just start slow.

A betta + a small school of tetras (like, 5 or so) should be fine in a 10-gallon. Don’t overfeed (seriously - it’s ridiculously easy to overfeed, surprisingly difficult to underfeed) and you’ll be fine. I have java ferns in my tank, which isn’t terrible well-lit, and they do great.

I have a suction tube for water changes - it vacuums up crud from the gravel at the bottom very nicely. (Water changes don’t mean just scooping up water at random.)

22

Nice nano reef tank Acid. One of these days…

Don’t even attempt a salt water or reef setup Appleciders, those are way beyond beginner level.

You will find that everybody has an opinion on types of filters to recommend but I really hate the Whisper models. Not only are the filters more expensive and more of a pain to replace than other models, they also clog faster and since they combine the mechanical/carbon section you can’t really reuse them with good results.
I prefer AquaClear personally, the foam insert is easy to clean and can be reused up to about 4 times, after that the sponge tends to get too soft and clogs more easily.
The carbon section is nice and self contained with a generous amount of carbon in each one.

These come in 3-packs. The third section is the biological section…meh. They recommend changing them also on a rotational basis but I find you can just rinse them off a little to get some of the muck off (you want to keep the good bacteria) and then reuse it.

Also Acid has it right about the importance of good filtration so ditch the Whisper in my humble opinion and get something with better flow (in your case 20gph or more). There is no such thing as over filtering.

Also, Bio-wheels suck. Don’t buy.

Forget the plants if you want a simple, relatively care free tank. I love planted tanks for the look and general feel of a live ecosystem but they do require a lot more maintenance.

No Plecos! A few Cory’s, or my favorites- Loaches for bottom dwellers/cleaning crew.

Tetras are nice but I think they are kind of boring. Consider some Rasbora fish (8-12) they also like to school together.

Don’t get a Betta, they are beautiful fish but are a pain in the balls and are best kept by themselves although some people have success keeping them with a few Gourami since they are related.

Try to get a nice heater, the thermostat tends to stick on the cheaper ones resulting in boiled fish for breakfast. :mad:

Oh, if you do decide on an AquaClear maybe just buy one Ammonia insert in case disaster strikes. After that you really shouldn’t ever need Ammo-lock or other water treatments that Petsmart and Petco try and push on you.

If your water parameters (Ammonia,Nitrite, Nitrate, PH) continue to be screwed up after cycling the tank then you are doing something wrong and all the so called water treatments are only covering up a larger problem instead of fixing it.

Oh and Algae remover doesn’t work either, save your money and just do frequent water changes and buy a glass scrubber to keep it under control.

One more thing, I’ve had much better luck with the liquid test kits over the strips. The strips tend to dry out over time and give false readings.
API makes a nice test kit.

That’s all I can think of. Good luck.

23

OK, I went shopping and got myself a new HOB filter (rated for a 20 gallon tank), a thermometer, and a test kit. The store also gave me some kind of miracle cycling product, some yellowish liquid in a bag. I filled the tank, used the dechlorinator that came with the tank on the water, and dumped in the cycling product. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find ammonia with no surfactants, so I haven’t added anything else. I’m inclined to do fishless cycling; I don’t feel a rush and I’d like to do this a little more elegantly, if possible.

What’s a good temperature to heat to? Should I keep the light off at this point to minimize algae?

24

Going fishless eh? Well good luck to you. I’ll help though. Set your heater to 74-76, that should be about right for most tropicals and will encourage bacterial colonies to form quickly. Light is not critical, but I suggest you run it on a timer anyway. It is good to get into the habit of having a light cycle working in the tank for a bunch of reasons. By the time you have fish in it, you’ll be used to the on off cycle and know when you’ve time to take a peep at it throughout the day. Leave it off and you’ll not look at it and have to start from scratch. Algae is part of life with tanks and it is part of the ecosystem in the environment. It has beneficial aspects like fixing nitrates and such. Get one of those magnetic scrubbys and use it once a week to keep your glass clear. if you can’t find ammonia, you can always throw a small bit of shrimp or fish from the grocery store (seriously, small, like your thumbnail) in there and let it decay. That will give your bugs something to do. This works fairly well for kick starting new tanks. Always run the filter.

25

I’d not want to mess with CO2 injection.
Plants help keep things healthy by using CO2 and releasing oxygen.
Hornwort is a nice floater. It has no roots; you can stuff the end under gravel or a rock. It is a nice low light level, quickly growing plant.
More than anything you ever want to know about neon tetras.

In keeping tropical fish and killies in aquaria and goldfish in pools, I believe the most important thing is to not have many fish. Ten Neons sounds good. These guys do have to swim around in their own poop, or rather the part the filter doesn’t remove or the bacteria and plants use.
I keep bettas in a twenty high with tetras and corys; everyone gets along.
You do need to cycle the tank as already mentioned. Perhaps start with three Neons and buy seven more in six weeks.

My suggestion again, few fish and lots of plants.

26

>>Set your heater to 74-76, that should be about right for most tropicals and will encourage bacterial colonies to form quickly.

Out of curiosity, what would someone do in the summer if their house gets warmer than that? (I keep my thermostat at 80 to 82 deg F)

27

A ten gallon tank is a natural heatsink. Unless it’s near a window it should not creep over 80. For smaller tanks, a cooling fan might be necessary. Most people make them out of a PC fan.

28

So after that long hiatus…

Short version: The tank is set up, cycled, planted, and inhabited by a single betta, which has been alive for about a week and seems happy.

Long version: Cycling was a big mess. I added ammonia, but it took a couple of weeks to get nitrite levels to show up at all, and it took weeks to go down. My pH crashed to about 5.5 or 6, and I’m not sure why; I did add a few well-washed river rocks, which it occurs to me could be leeching minerals. After almost two months, I got to a point where the ammonia and nitrites were being processed, albeit slowly (usually a couple days) and I did a near-total water change to get rid of any excess ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates, then did it again, just for good measure. I bought a single male betta, who I’ve had for about a week with no problems. The only possible issue I see with him is that he does not eat when fed, but rather allows the food to sink, then eats it off the floor of the tank gradually over the next twenty or thirty minutes. I hope I’m not overfeeding; it’s a tiny pinch (only three or four flakes) only once a day.

I got a few plants as bulbs from the LFS; the aponogetons have entered a boom-and-bust cycle where they grow wonderfully for a couple weeks, put out some nice leaves, then all die off at once. I wonder if they’re not dying because they’re collectively using up all the CO[sup]2[/sup], then coming back as more CO[sup]2[/sup] becomes available. As they grow back, I’m going to prune off leaves more aggressively to try to keep them from all dieing off at once. The bulbs also included a couple water onions, which grew right to the top of the tank in the first two weeks, then stopped growing entirely. They’re still there, green and healthy-looking, but not growing, which is just fine, really.

Anyway…

If the betta’s still doing well in another two weeks or so, I intend to get a few more fish. I’m rethinking neon tetras just because they seem more likely to just sit in a school, and I’d like to get some more movement in the tank. I saw female bettas at the store, and they seem attractive enough, but I’m quite unclear if they’ll fight with a male. Advice on the internet seems to vary wildly. I’m worried, though, that because it’s a relatively small tank they won’t have as much room to avoid one another, and so I might have bad results. I love the looks of tiger barbs, but again, the advice on the internet seems to be that they’re fin nippers, and that they’ll harass my betta. I see swordtails and platies that look nice enough, too.

I’ve also seen cherry and ghost shrimp discussed, and I like the idea of getting a few if they’ll help keep algae off of my plants, gravel, and rocks. Again, I’m unclear if bettas will eat them. I’ve seen snails, especially Malaysian Trumpet Snails discussed for this purpose, but I don’t like the idea that they’ll become an infestation. Any thoughts?

29

We have a male beta and two females in a heavily planted community tank. He divides his attentions between the two and all seems well.

I wouldn’t trust Cherry shrimp with betas. They may very well decide that the shrimp are lunch. They will certainly eat the young ones.

30

That’s your 20 gallon tank?

31

Yes, a 20 gallon high with three betas, six black neons, six corys and a couple of bloodfins.

32

And lots and lots of plants. :slight_smile:

33

Scarlet badis would be a good choice, and or cherry red shrimp.

34

I wouldn’t expect neons to just sit in a school- unless you have a reasonable group (at least 6), they barely school at all, and they’re pretty much always moving, even when they do group together.
I’d check you don’t have a problem with crap neons in your area though- around here a really depressing number have disease problems- probably due to serious over-breeding, with no quality checks.

I’d be a bit careful adding a female betta in such a small tank- I used to have a psycho one, she literally harrassed half the other fish to death, including my male one! It’s normally the males that harrass the females, but I guess she’d never read the right books. Took me ages to work out which fish was the problem, which is why I didn’t stop it.

Assuming yours aren’t weird, I’d add one only if there’s plenty of hiding places (floating plants are good for this, they don’t seem to like hiding close to the substrate)- normally females wouldn’t approach males at all unless they were ready to breed, and males will try and chase them away if they come too close at other times. If they can’t get out of sight, that’s when you can expect trouble.

They also might well try and breed if you have a pair, and it sounds like you haven’t got space to rear the babies; personally I hate watching them put all that work into it, and finally hatch the eggs, only to watch the babies all get picked off (often by the parents). It seems less stressful to both me and them to just not give them a chance to breed in the first place.

35

It’s interesting that you note that bettas seem to prefer hiding near the top of tanks; mine spent a lot of time behind the filter before he got more comfortable. I’ll leave off on the female, though; it does sound like I haven’t got enough room.

How on earth would I figure out if there’s a neon tetra problem in my area?