Hello all I have never owned an aquarium before and one of my friends has a 50 gallon with a stand and filter set-up that he is going to sell me and I was kind of researching the topic and think I would like to try an "amazon" type setup. I was just wondering what all I will need to get and some recommendations on fish and plants that do well together. Also what other equipment should I look into getting. I believe it comes with a light but I am not sure of the quailty. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
First timer 50 gallon
- Thread starter sygdom
- Start date
Many of the "amazon" fish won't do well with plants, so lighting may not be an issue. I suggest you do some google searches after visiting the local fish stores, to see what interests you. Also, search thru our ciclid forums for things that catch your eye. You will need a heater most likely, and a good liquid test kit is a must.
What he said ^
Once you find some fish you like you can have sort of a "stocking plan" and then your best bet is to list it here and people can tell you what won't work together. If you go to websites like liveaquaria.com or petsolutions.com they usually list max sizes and temperament. Don't completely trust it but you can use it as a guideline.
I just got a 50g and I stocked it with mostly hardy community fish like mollies, guppies, glofish, and angels (not so hardy but can enjoy a community). I suggest something like that to start. Now that I understand so much more I'm going to have a couple smaller tanks to put the glofish and then mollies and guppies in and move on to some more difficult fish.
Make sure and check a few of the stickies in each forum on here and also on monsterfishkeepers.com because there are some really great explanations for cycling and for the "one inch per gallon rule".
The most I'm important thing to learn about is cycling to start because I thought I did enough research and absolutely did not and lost some fish. I've gotten everything under control but you don't want to go through that rough ride. Make sure if his tank was setup that you leave the filter reservoir with some of the tank water in it and maybe a couple of inches of water still on the gravel on bottom and you might not have to deal with cycling before you get fish. That's all if he still has the tank running though.
I'm pretty new to the hobby so I don't know everything but there are a lot of helpful people here and I'm sure you will learn a lot
Once you find some fish you like you can have sort of a "stocking plan" and then your best bet is to list it here and people can tell you what won't work together. If you go to websites like liveaquaria.com or petsolutions.com they usually list max sizes and temperament. Don't completely trust it but you can use it as a guideline.
I just got a 50g and I stocked it with mostly hardy community fish like mollies, guppies, glofish, and angels (not so hardy but can enjoy a community). I suggest something like that to start. Now that I understand so much more I'm going to have a couple smaller tanks to put the glofish and then mollies and guppies in and move on to some more difficult fish.
Make sure and check a few of the stickies in each forum on here and also on monsterfishkeepers.com because there are some really great explanations for cycling and for the "one inch per gallon rule".
The most I'm important thing to learn about is cycling to start because I thought I did enough research and absolutely did not and lost some fish. I've gotten everything under control but you don't want to go through that rough ride. Make sure if his tank was setup that you leave the filter reservoir with some of the tank water in it and maybe a couple of inches of water still on the gravel on bottom and you might not have to deal with cycling before you get fish. That's all if he still has the tank running though.
I'm pretty new to the hobby so I don't know everything but there are a lot of helpful people here and I'm sure you will learn a lot
The most important thing is too make sure you understand the tank cycle and let your tanks cycle. Also what Bob said, an API test kit for freshwater aquariums is a must!!