Red Flags - what to watch for?

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newtosnails

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Jun 13, 2006
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Hi all, We have decided to move to a bigger tank and we would actually like to take on a bigger tank than what we had before. We've always loved aquariums and wanted one, so this isn't a split second decision or anything.

My question is this; We are going to start looking into buying an aquarium from a LFS starting this weekend (not sure how soon we'll actually buy). We will be very new to all of the big aquarium stuff (like plants and bigger fish), and so we will have a ton of questions about starting the tank and what will have to do to maintain the tank once it is up and going. Except for any advice I get here, we will be at the mercy of what the LFS employeee tells us. Are there any major red flags to watch for? Anything that if the employee says to us we should run, not walk, out of that store?

I am going to make sure I have a good understanding of what going on before we start one of these bigger tanks, so anything I'm not sure on I will research here and other places on the net - BEFORE we buy. One question I do have, is if we have a well planted and well set up large tank (large to us anyway, say 50gal), is it possible to be almost maintainance free? From what I've been reading it looks as though as long as you make sure there is proper bacteria balance in your tank, and you have live plants, that your tank is virtually maintainace free. is this true? And I do understand it's takes a while to get there.

So, any red flags to watch for at the LFS? And can a 50gal tank set up and planted properly, be low maintainance?

Thanks in advance everyone! :)
 
newtosnails said:
One question I do have, is if we have a well planted and well set up large tank (large to us anyway, say 50gal), is it possible to be almost maintainance free? From what I've been reading it looks as though as long as you make sure there is proper bacteria balance in your tank, and you have live plants, that your tank is virtually maintainace free. is this true? And I do understand it's takes a while to get there.
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RED FLAG!

I'd say stay away from whatever site/person/book/LFS told you this. I don't care what Diane Walstad writes in her books (SACRILIGE!). They are not self-contained eco-systems and you will need to do regular weekly maintenance of waterchanges and vacuuming to keep the tank in order and your fish alive.

In all seriousiness, go window shopping first and don't buy anything. Talk to each LFS, LPS or whatever. See what they recommend. Make notes. Post here as to what they recommended et al and we can tell you who to avoid like the plague and who to buy from or "trust", and to what degree.

Unfortunately, there's no way to educate or tell you what to really watch for as the list is endless.

Roan
 
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For a 50gal tank, what kind of water change will I have to do? How much water will we change out and how often is this needed in a filtered tank? And if we have a sandy bottom in our tank for the plants, how can we vaccuum this? Sorry, I know these are probably stupid questions to all of you!

We have never used a vaccuum system before. My husband's mother used to have a 55gal tank and she also did not use this. What she did was once every month or two she would empty the whole tank and put each of the fish in a bucket with the tank's water. She totally took out everything; water, gravel, decorations in there - everything! She would wash the gravel and decorations in new water and refill the tank and treat the new water. The whole process took her an entire day, and it was night time before she was able to add the fish back to the tank. If we get a 50gal tank, are we going to have to do this too?
 
Wow, old myths and wives tales a-go-go. In a 50 gallon tank, you will probably need to do about 10 gallons of water change a week, with a gravel vac, depending on fish load of course (more/bigger fish means more/bigger poop). The self contained eco-system tank is a fallicy, and a well-groomed and maintained planted aquarium requires more frequent water changes than a moderately stocked "fish" tank. Putting a filter on your tank doesn't change your maintenance regimen, because you need a filter on your tank, period. You'll also need a heater, period. A sandy bottom needs to be vacuumed just like gravel, just hold the vac a off the sand to get just the detrius on top. Your husband's mother was torturing her fish, no nice way to cut that. Like Roan Art said, post everything you hear at the local pet shop here, we'll let you know what's right, and what to run away from. It's truly refreshing to see someone asking before they buy, not when their fish are already dying.
 
newtosnails said:
For a 50gal tank, what kind of water change will I have to do? How much water will we change out and how often is this needed in a filtered tank? And if we have a sandy bottom in our tank for the plants, how can we vaccuum this? Sorry, I know these are probably stupid questions to all of you!
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No, they are not stupid. In fact we are in the process of putting together a humungous Newbie Guide on AquaFacts. Your questions are more of a help to me than a hindrance :)

Ideally you would change out 50% of the water every week. Maintenance on one tank, on a regular basis, shouldn't take you more than an hour, tops. That includes changing the water, scrubbing the algae off and trimming the plants. Sometimes it might take only a half hour. Depends on how fast your plants grow/algae forms. It takes me about two hours to do waterchanges/trims/scrubs on three 75g tanks.

With a Python system, you can drain the tank while you do something else -- but I would stay in the same room for safety -- and fill it while doing something else as well. I type here while I'm doing water changes :D

Here's an article by RTR on siphoning a tank:

How to -- And Not To -- Siphon, by RTR

never used a vaccuum system before. My husband's mother used to have a 55gal tank and she also did not use this. What she did was once every month or two she would empty the whole tank and put each of the fish in a bucket with the tank's water. She totally took out everything; water, gravel, decorations in there - everything! She would wash the gravel and decorations in new water and refill the tank and treat the new water. The whole process took her an entire day, and it was night time before she was able to add the fish back to the tank. If we get a 50gal tank, are we going to have to do this too?
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Absolutely not. Heh, this must have been a LONG time ago.

What you need to do is read up on cycling:

Cycling a Freshwater Tank, by Daveedka


What your mother-in-law did was cycle her tank over and over and over and over again.

This article will also help. Written by Dorkfish and very well done:

The Freshwater Aquarium for Newbies, by Dorkfish

If you have any more questions, please ask!

Roan
 
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Also where are you located. If you are in a mahor city take a look at craigslist.org. People have used tanks on sale all the time... I know I have a 50 gal for sale now since I upgraded to a larger tank. There are some nice ones on there with equipment. It could be a cheaper route to go then buying a brand new tank. Just a thought...
 
Craigslist.org is great!

I just found a 75 gallon with heater, light, hood, filter and stand for $150 on craigslist.org! There were a ton of used tanks listed of all sizes - great option if you want to start a bigger tank.
 
RE cycling

Just to be sure here. I will have to do a fishy cycle because of my poor guppy and snail that are stuck in the 1gal tank, so before we start I want to be sure I'm understanding how to do this.

It will take me about 4-8 weeks to cycle my tank, and this is how I'm supossed to do this -

1. Set up the tank, do an intial treatment of the water (reccomendations for city tap water?)

2. Add my guppy and maybe a couple more guppies with my snail

3. Watch the water, test it twice daily and do water changes as neccessary as ammonia and/or nitrite levels spike (do I do a 50% water change?)

4. Once the levels are back to normal, contiunue to keep testing for a few days.

5. Once the levels have stabalized for about a week, add a couple more fish and repeat the steps above.

So do I understand everything correctly? I would also like to add at least one larger fish, preferably more than one, so at what point do we add these?

Thank you guys so much for all of your help! I almost feel bad to keep asking questions, you guys have just been so helpful already! Thanks again! :)
 
And if you want to do yourself a big favor, you should use Bio Spira , it'll speed up the cycling process.

I use it for every new tank now.
 
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