First tank EVER
- Thread starter mhcnoriega
- Start date
Read the sticky 'freshwater cycling' at the top of this freshwater newbie forum. Once you get your test kits you can start cycling the tank. It will be a few weeks before it is ready for fish so will have lots of time to decide what kinds of fish you want. You can also put in plants while the aquarium is cycling, but again you want to research. Probably low light plants would be the best choice unless you go with fake plants. Those are guarenteed to not die on you!
I haven't seen anybody else mention it so I would say the very first thing to think about is siting, where in your house you plan to put the tank. A 60-gallon sounds absolutely huge to me (I have a 10 and a couple of 1.5-1 g boxes, one of which just stands ready for hospital/quarantine duty if needed.)
Of course the first thing we all want is a place we can put the tank that it will be easy to look at. But among the things to consider are: is the floor sturdy enough to hold the weight of tank, stand, equipment and water? 1 gal=8.35 lb so that's 500 lb of water alone, plus other stuff. That's a major load which will presumably be in place over a long period of time. Not saying you have to call in a structural engineer but it's worth going down to the floor below the one where the tank is going to go and look up. Accidents, even disasters, happen but happen less often if prepared for in advance.
How close is it to a source of water, particularly a sink or faucet you can attach a hose to or else is large enough to fill a bucket in? (Many bathroom sinks are too small, you'd make a zillion trips back and forth just filling it, not to mention water changes.) Is your proposed site near a window? Sun beating in can cause problems (can be hard on low-light plants and sometimes promote algae growth.) And you want to be close to an electrical plug on a good circuit, with a good power strip because you're gonna be plugging in LOTS of stuff.
Just a few things to think about before setting up. Lots easier to make changes now in the planning stage than later after things are up and running and find out that spot just will not work for one reason or other. Have fun.
Of course the first thing we all want is a place we can put the tank that it will be easy to look at. But among the things to consider are: is the floor sturdy enough to hold the weight of tank, stand, equipment and water? 1 gal=8.35 lb so that's 500 lb of water alone, plus other stuff. That's a major load which will presumably be in place over a long period of time. Not saying you have to call in a structural engineer but it's worth going down to the floor below the one where the tank is going to go and look up. Accidents, even disasters, happen but happen less often if prepared for in advance.
How close is it to a source of water, particularly a sink or faucet you can attach a hose to or else is large enough to fill a bucket in? (Many bathroom sinks are too small, you'd make a zillion trips back and forth just filling it, not to mention water changes.) Is your proposed site near a window? Sun beating in can cause problems (can be hard on low-light plants and sometimes promote algae growth.) And you want to be close to an electrical plug on a good circuit, with a good power strip because you're gonna be plugging in LOTS of stuff.
Just a few things to think about before setting up. Lots easier to make changes now in the planning stage than later after things are up and running and find out that spot just will not work for one reason or other. Have fun.
thanks a lot guys. so I'm going to do a lot of research first and see where that takes me. I'll also check the pictures out.
If you want the community approach, I like to choose a "centrepiece" type fish, and then figure out what will complement that species.
Another fun thing to consider is the biotope tank - recreating a specific geographic region somewhere; that's also a good way to help restrict your choices and make something natural.
Another fun thing to consider is the biotope tank - recreating a specific geographic region somewhere; that's also a good way to help restrict your choices and make something natural.
I agree on choosing location wisely, as well as choice of fish. I have a 90 gallon and I bought it in 2008. I ddin't have it empty on porpose so much,jsut that I couldn't afford to buy the remaining supplies for it,until this year. But for a tank that big, you do want to make sure of what you want. I had over a year to think about what I wanted. I'm glad I couldn't buy anything until last week, becuase I finally knew exacly what to get. I think the fish are very happy too (good mix) .
(good mix) .