New tank

[Mluhr@gmavt.net]

What a wonderful resource this forum is! I am getting back into the tropical freshwater fish hobby after 50+ years, and would like to know if you can advise me on a tank setup of approximately 72 gallons. I would like to know, with your expertise and experience, what variety of fish and quantity would be ideal.

I am planning, as I said a 72-gallon tank and I have had some experience in fish keeping, albeit 50-60 years ago. At that time there was no such thing as recycling, conditioning, etc. fish tanks. From my memory, which obviously is not too good, I don’t remember that we lost many fish. We had angels, black mollys, zebras and neon tetras,, maybe others, in a approximately 10gallon glass tank, which I assembled from ¼” plate glass—never had a problem. Now with all the new fangled pumps, filters, etc., it seems I must obtain a PhD in fish management.

I wonder if you could a) guide me according to the number of fish I should acquire and b) the species of fish. I would like to keep this tank as low maintenance as possible.. Would you also recommend an under gravel filter, which I seem to remember I had many years ago. If not, what do you recommend for pumps, filters, etc. We have available raw lake water, 5-micron filtered lake water, and RO water. Which would recommend that we use to fill the tank?

Thank you for your help.

 

[Aussie_hippie_2]

Well, let's start out with a small list of fish you want shall we? Maybe you should go to your local fish store (LFS) and glance over to see what catches your eye. Make a list, put it up and we'll tell you what you need to know about them.

 

[wataugachicken]

and when you're just starting you can really plan ahead and do biotopes like an asian tank, or an amazon river tank, etc. . .

 

[SirWired]

As others have said, post a list of what you are interested with (a Freshwater Aquarium Fish guidebook can be helpful here), and we can dispense advice.

As far as a PhD goes: If you can understand the cycle, and buy twice as much filter as the box "rates" them for, you are pretty much good to go for water chemistry. If you perform weekly 50% water changes, and don't overstock, and never kill/remove all of your biomedia you don't need to know much else.

SirWired