New to Aquariums

Well the best thing I can do right now is recommend a book for beginners. I believe it may just gone out of print, but I just found a new copy at a used book store for dirt cheap and I am sure other books stores may have it on their book shelves. It is You and Your Aquarium by Dic k Mills. I find it to be a book of vast wealth of knowledge for the starting aquarists in both marine and freshwater tanks. But shop around and look at other books, you may find some other helpful books, even on the beginning marine aquarist.
Read as much as you can, from the net and off. Find a trusted Local Fish Store and talk to the shop owner. Alot of times, you can find a place that is pretty knowledgable on fish.


jim

first cycle.

http://www.aquamaniacs.net/cyclingsafelyfishless.html

theres the game plan for fishless cycling. just need ammonia and and some test kits. no fish is harmed and you get a feel for the whole chemical process of the tank.

second, stock some fish that are hardy enough to live if you screw up somthing . discus arent the most resiliant of species. you could opt for a myriad of other cichlids that are easier to care for, just a colorfull, and are ewasily as interesting. make sure you read up on every fish that you think of buying to insure you know what your in for.

There are some hardy strains of discus out there--do some research, and figure out what your water is like currently (hardness, pH) to see what will work.

Fishless cycling (excellent link above) will provide you with some time to research fish. Take a note book to the local fish store, and write down the names of the fish you really like, then hit the web and see what you can find out. The things you'll want to pay attention to: Adult size of the fish. Aggression. Parameter preference (although most fish will adapt to a range of water conditions, so don't immediately eliminate a fish just because of this).

If you are interested in SW, though, I would recommend looking into that as well. SW is very different from FW, so being experienced in FW doesn't help. SW isn't any harder than FW, though the start up cost is a bit higher. Some of the basics, like cycling, is the same for either. SW has a bad reputation, a leftover from the days when salt mixes were not readily available. Truthfully, the SW tanks in my house require less frequent water changes than the planted FW ones. There is very little difference in monthly costs for a SW tank versus a FW planted tank

From very recent personal experience I can tell you to take your time. My next tank will be much more planned out.

Figure out how much time you're willing to spend taking care of the tank and its inhabitants. Decide if you want to have a community tank with a bunch of peaceful fish or maybe a species tank that focuses on one or two species of fish only that may be a little more aggressive.

Test your water. Different fish like different Ph levels and different levels of hardness. Although Ph levels of the water in your established tank may change a bit, they probably won't vary widely from the Ph levels that come out of your tap. Pour water out of the tap into a glass and leave it out over night. Bring it to a local fish store (lfs) and have them test it for hardness and Ph. It will help determine what fish are even appropriate for your water.

Do you want live plants? They look much more natural than the plastic plants and can be generally beneficial to your tank. Its easier to plant them before you stock with fish so think about it ahead of time. Remember that some fish love to munch on plants so you should have an idea of what fish you want before you go buying plants.

Plan your substrate and decorations ahead of time. If you're going to have live plants, you might want a certain type of substrate. The size of your gravel can also affect some bottom feeding fish. Plan what type of decorations you want to put in the tank. There are TONS of choices from natural to full on goofy. Keep in mind the needs of the fish you'll be stocking. Some need good hiding places to make them feel safe. Some also desire cover in the form of low level plants or the like.

Well, a bit long winded and I'm about as far away from an expert as you can get but these are some things I wish I had thought about BEFORE I started my tank.

Good Luck and welcome!

Some good advice has been offered however I woiuld not recommend you try live plants in your first tank. The fact that the tank is a hexagon (very tall) will mean that they would need a lot of light.

The best advice I can offer to you is to take it slow. Try to add the fish slowly, although I know this will be difficult. OrionGirl had a good idea in taking a pad to the store and writing down certain species.

Basically your options are a peaceful community tank (coldwater like goldfish or tropical with a heater), semi-aggressive to aggressive territorial fish like cichlids, or a carnivore/predator tank. I personally have only kept community tanks so I am best suited to offer advice in this area. There are many very colourful species & most will do well in your size of tank. A few peaceful tropical species include rainbowfish, barbs, danios, gouramies, platies, cories, tetras, and guppies.

As was mentioned live plants can be a real addition to a tank. I believ your tank is on the tall side of things (I think, not sure). If this is the case growing live plants with the light that came with it (2 flourescent tubes?) is not the easiest thing. As with picking the right fish you should make good plant choices as well. There are some really easy to grow plants that require lower light and little care (Java Fern being my favorite). It may look to you that there is lots of light but plants see things different, especially if your tank is tall and the light has to filter through a lot of water. Poor plant choices are a fact of life sometimes but too many of them can lead to lots of extra work as you have to clean the tank a lot more or the decaying plants will really mess up the water.

And one word of advice I can offer on fish is not to mix goldfish and tropical fish. Both require different things.

Good luck

I agree with all the great information here, and would reccommend reading some good books.
The Ultimate Aquarium by Mary Baily and Gina Sandford is a good beginner's book. It has a lot of good easy to understand info on Fresh- and Saltwater Aquariums and the differnent families of fish you'll likely see in the store.
I think it really good that you found this site, and that you asked questions about cycling, planning, etc ahead of time.

Graeme

Hi,
Welcome to Aquaria Central.... A good book that helped me is:
Aquariums for Dummies. A good starter site for info is,
www.thekrib.com, look in the begianer faq here. Good Luck,
mt_marcy!