New tank purchase for a noob

I have friends that have used both and from they tell me they are pretty good set up for the most part. I’d go for the 29 gallon if it were me.

As far has how many fish you can keep. You need to research what you want and go from there.

given the chouce i'll alway take the largest tank i can fit and afford

You said 39 gal biocube. did you mean 29? or is the 24 gal nano cube a 29 gal? i'm confused! i don't know the dimensions on these, but if they are tall enough (which it sounds like they will be) you should be able to keep an angelfish and some tetras in it. (i'm personally a fan of bleeding heart tetrs and black skirt tetras are cool too)

I've bought a few tanks from craigslist and I feel ok about it. The first one was a 10 gallon, that was supposed to come with a filter, light, hood, etc. When I picked it up I found that it had a gigantic 40 gallon filter because they were keeping goldfish, which would not be so good for a betta, which is what I wanted to keep in the tank. I ended up selling it for a profit.

I just bought another tank from CL, a 5 gallon this time. It came with filter, hood, light, thermometer, heater. When I got it, the filter was missing its cover, and the heater was glass, so it should be replaced. It was also horribly dirty because it was saltwater and I had to scrape algae off of everything. But it was an excellent set and would have cost me more than double what I paid for it new, an after an few hours of cleaning it looked immaculate.

But for me, since I'm living on a student budget, it's definitely worth it to buy from craigslist. You're still saving more money even if you have to run out and buy a few things. I'm sure if you're ever confused that you're missing something you could post what you have here and people would help figure out if you needed anything else! The only thing is you seem to have specific dimensions that would fit in your place, and sometimes people don't know how many gallons their tanks are, so you could show up expecting one thing and get another. You also have to be patient if you're looking for something specific, so that's another downside. It took me a month+ to find the 5 gallon I mentioned before with the dimensions I wanted.

Anyone know TOP FIN 5 Aquascape with Whisper 2-5 filter? I bought the tank for the filter. I bought the hydor 2-5 heater. I am a "noob" to anything but the one gallon aerstone betta keeper. (And yes I feel official, but my doggy is upset!) do I need a baffle for a canister filter? The canister is going to make the 5gal more like 4.5 gal--its takes up the back of the tank with the hex flat shape.

I trusted the Whisper 3i this is the Whisper 2-5, I need seasoned approval ratings, do I use pantyhose, as I have seen suggested on this site? Thanks everyone!