I want it to be a tropical fish tank. Do I need to fill it with purified water (I live in DC, which has nasty tap water)? How many pounds of rocks do I need? How many fish can the tank support? Do I need a heater/filter? Can I put in live plants?. Thanks in advance.
Tropical as in saltwater? If this is your first serious fish tank, I’d highly advice AGAINST a saltwater setup. Very complicated, very expensive and the fish are A LOT more expensive to replace if you mess up.
you will need to cycle the tank
this requires that you purchase test kits. specifically ammonia,nitrite and nitrate test kits
this is done to seed bacteria in the tank that will eat the fish waste. without this bacteria the fish waste will poison and kill your fish
i’d suggest you get a fish book that explains the nitrogen cycle
if you insist on setting up your tank with further reading get the test kits and some organic material like a small pack of frozen brine shrimp food from the fish store, to dump in the tank, and begin monitoring your tank water on a daily basis. when the test kits record safe levels of ammonia and nitrite you can put fish in the tank at one inch per gallon. this nitrogen cycle will take about 6 weeks. first you will see a spike then a leveling off of ammonia in the tank water then a spike and leveling off of nitrite.
Sounds like you’re asking for a lot of opinions, as opposed to factual answers.
You’ll have to tell us more about what you’d like in the tank. Then we can tell you how to make it happen.
Find a good local pet store, preferably an independent one, and start asking questions. Tropical fish keeping is one of the most information-intensive hobbies imaginable, and there’s no WAY you’ll get enough good information here to give you what you need.
A word of advice: support the person who helps you by buying from them. When I managed a fish store in Chicago, people would come in and pick my brain for hours, then go down the block to save a buck on a bag of gravel at the PetScare bigbox. The store I worked for went out of business after 80 years in the same family.
I thought “tropical” refered to warm freshwater fish. Angelfish and neon tetras and that sort of thing. As opposed to swimmers like goldfish that don’t really need a heater.
Well, I’ve set up tonnes of aquariums in my time - I currently have a 66 gallon that is sadly lacking in fish - one of my new year’s plans is to restock it.
So, what follows are my OPINIONS only. I’m sure others will have their own ideas.
You can use tap water, assuming it’s safe to drink. Let it stand for at least 24 hours so any chlorine in it dissipates. You can buy water “toners” at most pet shops that will speed this up and may be useful for water changes, but they are not an absolute requirement.
Make sure you get a really good filter - this will save you a lot of time, energy and heart ache in the future. Personally, I favor the Fluval brand filters - I’ve had nothing but success with them - buy one slightly larger than you think you need, and buy extra filter media to have on hand. Additionally, have a water testing kit, and some amonia block on hand - you might need it (ask at a pet store - they can provide all of this stuff for you).
Choose which every type of gravel you like - assuming you’re not using an under gravel filter the amount isn’t super important. Personally, I have gravel of various sizes which I landscape - lower in teh front of the tank, higher in the back, but this is just a personal preference. Additionally, I have about 25 (20? 30?) lbs of natural rock which I purchased at a fish shop. You can use natural rock you find, but pour boiling water over each rock before you add them to your tank to kill any nasty beasties.
Natural plants are a lovely addition, and can help with the health of the tank, both maintaining and monitoring - however, some plants are prime targets for fish to eat. Depending on your motives for starting the tank this can be a good or a bad thing. Wisteria is usually pretty hearty, kind of pretty, and can stand having a leaf or two nibbled off.
In order to cycle your tank, guppies are a pretty good choice - they are inexpensive and hearty, and many fish stores will let you trade them in at the end of the 4/5 weeks for other fish. Additionally, they are pretty so depending on what sort of tank you want to set up, you can just leave them in there.
Finally, choose which sort of fish you want. I used to have large ciclids, however, I found them sort of stressful - they tend to be quite agressive, even if you set up teritories for them - you can wind up with one bully fish killing all the others, or picking on them or whatever. I traded them in for smaller tropicals - zebra fish, neon tetras, gouramis, silver dollars, tetras of all descriptions. Some of the sharks are really cool looking and tend to get along with others ok. Additionally, I strongly suggest getting at least one pleco to keep the sides of the tank clean, and at least one loach to keep snails under control - if you’re going with real plants the snails may be an issue. Some other fun things to add are lobster, or crabs. They look really cool and are pretty easy to keep.
With a 30 gallon tank, you can handle 30 inches of fish to start (depending on your set up, filter, etc, this number varies, but it’s a good rule of thumb.) So if you’re having smallish fish, you can have 20 or 30. If you’re having large fish, you can have 5 or 6. It’s better to underload, rather than overload your tank.
I think that’s what I can think of right now.
Ugh - please ignore the typos in that post. I’m sick and on drugs and don’t remember how to use MS word…
A new fish tank, how fun!
I would recommend going to all the aquatic pet stores in your area and looking around. Take note of the kind of fish you like and do some research on the environment they naturally live in. If you want live plants, that limits the kind of fish you can get. (I don’t know a lot about fish, but I wanted plants and a friend of mine who has cichlids said the cichlids will pretty much destroy the plants–so, for me, that meant cichlids were out, even though they are very interesting fish.)
Spending a lot of time planning your tank will save a lot of grief later on.
If you do want live plants, you probably do not want an undergravel filter, and you want a finer sand than if you didn’t have plants so that the roots have something they can hold onto. You will also need to make sure you have the right kind of lighting for your plants.
I had a really good time planning and stocking my tank, and it took me a couple of months. There are a ton of web sites/message boards about aquatic issues, many with pictures.
Thank you for all the informative responses. Since DC’s water tends to have lead in it, among other things, will I need to filter it before I put it in the tank? Also, can I add plants, or some small fish before i finish cycling the tank? Thanks.
I highly recommend the forums at this site if you are interested in live plants. Live plants are pretty easy - basically weeds, but you have to make a couple of equipment choices in order to have success.
I’m no chemist or biologist, but if you local water is safe to drink, I’d be surprised to hear it was unsafe for fish. The chemistry may affect what fish and plants you have success with.
The best source of info would be any local clubs. (Again, you could check the planted tank forums.) They would have the best experience with your local water and merchants, and are not trying to make a buck off of you.
Research before you buy anything, and anticipate your future needs - because it sucks to buy something reasonably expensive and quickly find it doesn’t serve your purpose.
I advocate canister filters - which are good for plants as they lessen surface agitation. Hydor makes an in-line heater that allows you to get another piece of equipment out of the tank. And yes, tropical fish will need a heater.
If you want plants, consider a substrate such as flourite, eco-complete, ADA aquasoil, or soilmaster select - or at least a 50/50 blend of one of the above with gravel/sand. I belive planted tank has a link to a substrate calculator to tell you how much you need.
The other factor will be lighing. A standard strip light will be inadequate to grow much other than a few very low-light plants. But you can start with a strip light and a few low-light plants, and then upgrade later.
You can save a ton of money buying equipment and supples on-line, and fish and plants from on-line hobbyists. Tho I strongly advocate giving business to local merchants if they provide you service.
It might seem like a ton of info at first, but there really are a rather limited number of factors you need to be aware of and decide upon. But I highly recommend that you do a bit of reading - and ask a lot of questions - before you just start killing fish through trial and error. IMO, you are rarely best off to simply accept the advice of a single fish store employee. There are some good ones out there, but there are far more who are ignorant, and/or simply interested in moving what they have in stock. Even with the knowledgeable ones, there are several points on which people can have different opinions. Rather than just accepting the opinion of someone who has a financial stake in your decision, I recommend you try to decide what is best for yourself.
Just looked at the local forums. If I were you, I would definitely get in touch with these guys. Aquarists are generally pleasant geeks who are more than happy to share their knowledge, experiences, and resources with new folk.
(If you do get in touch with them, tell them eds from ThePlanted Tank sent you!)
You can give it a try. With that size tank, don’t start with more than two or three small fish, and don’t get too attached to them. Keep in mind that cycling the tank is an ongoing process. Once the tank has cycled for the first time, you’ll have a bacteria population that is adequate to handle the amount of ammonia generated by your current population of fish. Once you add more fish, your bacteria population is immediately less adequate to handle the increased amount of ammonia that the fish will generate. So once you’re tank has cycled for the first time, don’t immediately add twenty fish. Add just a few more and allow the tank to cycle again before continuing to add fish. As your population increases the cycle times become increasingly smaller, and addition of new fish creates less of an impact.
And you can plant heavily from the get-go.
If all fails, buy a flat screen with a screensaver of fish… 
If you can drink it, it will be ok for fish. If you can’t drink it then you have bigger problems.
As to adding fish and plants - plants are just fine. Guppies, as I mentioned up thread are very hearty and will be ok - but don’t go crazy - 4 or 5 is probably plenty. This will also depend on how effective your filter is. If you opt for one of those “hang of the side of the tank, clog every 2 weeks, don’t filter worth sh*t” types, I would hold off on getting fish.
Most places, if you call your local water company and ask them to send you a copy of their annual water report, they will. That should tell you a lot about your water. You’re interesting in the pH, hardness and what they treat the water with.
Adding plants right away is good since the plants will probably already have lots of beneficial bacteria on them from the tanks they were grown in. Plants can also help mitigate the initial nitrite spike that’s part of the tank’s cycling process.
Another way to help cycle the tank quicker is to borrow some gravel from someone who’s already had a tank for awhile, or maybe even ask the store if they consider giving you a cup full of gravel from one of their tanks.
Yet another way is to trade filters temporarily with someone else’s tank, since their filter will have lots of bacteria in it.
Water Sprite, Vallesneria, and Hornwort are some good starter plants. The vall might do well and continue to grow. The Water Sprite grows very fast, sucks up lots of nutrients, but deteriorates. If it’s happy, it’ll grow lots of new, young plants on the older, dying leaves. Otherwise, throw it out once it starts dying. The Hornwort also grows fast and uses up nutrients, but it floats and blocks light from other plants, and it’s liable to deteriorate quickly in a tropical fish tank without extra care. It’s fairly disposable too.
About plants. If you aren’t absolutely set on real plants, there are some good looking artificial plants these days. I’ve got a 32g hex tank that is much taller then a regular rectangular tank. I found a nice silk plant that is tall enough to go from the bottom of the tank to the top, and wide enough to block the view of the equipment behind that corner of the tank. All of the fish stores I’ve been in recently carry them.
I’m going to join the chorus suggesting that you find a good local shop, wander around and talk to the employees and owners. If at all possible, avoid the pet super stores. I don’t trust the fish to be health or the employees to know very much.
30 inches of fish is not a starting point. They grow. Gravel depends on type of fish. Some like to burrow. Angel fish are cichlids. That means if it fits in its mouth it is food.
You have to learn which are friendly or aggressive. Some people keep Piranhas . They require live food.
I like Oscars. Aggressive but smarter than the average fish.