tank setup

[anthonylam]

i want to set up a tank. i plan to keep small non-carnivorous fish like guppies or neon tetras. i only have experience with big carnivorous fish and have never used any gravel or plants in my tanks. how do i choose the size of gravel and how high should the gravel be. my tank is about 2ft by 1 ft by 1 ft. also, i have heard that real plants are not that easy to maintain, especially when leaves die... they could get stuck at the filter. should i use artificial plants instead?

 

[Swimfins]

Hi, greetings. You've just got yourself knee high into something. I hope your aware

You should try looking at people's aquariums to see the possibilities. You have a nice tank size for livebearers like guppies. But beware, 2 guppies can make hundreds in a short time.

In my opinion, live plants are alot nicer than plastic. But, lots of people have beautiful aquariums using rocks and plastic plants.

The important thing is to have clean water and a healthy cycled tank before you introduce fish. There is lots of info on cycling the tank in this forum, look at the articles section, its good to do it with live plants to help your cycle along but not really necessary.

I'd suggest you look at what people have done, especially with yur size of tank, to help you along. Have fun.

By the way, gravel choice depends alot on what you plan to keep. For live plants you need a substrate that has fertilizer in it. (There are several on the market) For livebearers that you plant to keep, a small gravel substrate looks nice.

 

[Karnaaj]

As far as gravel is concerned just stay away from the large stuff. It provides spaces for excess food to fall where the cleanup crew can't reach. You are probably better off not going with live plants until you have some experience under your belt. There are some great looking fake plants out there that are very realistic.

 

[Harlock]

Ahh, welcome to Aquaria Central! Fish tanks are wonderful things and you have started off the right way, by researching. Since you are new, please allow me to provide you with a few links. First one is probably most important and it deals with "Cycling" a tank. The Cycle refers to building a colony of bacteria that turns waste like ammonia and nitrites into nitrates. Just follow this link and you will read about different options as well as to just why it is vital to your tanks survival.

Next, I want a moment to defend live plants. I set up my very first planted tank in January of this year, as in last month. I too had heard they were hard but truth be told, once you've done some research into how much light you need as well as fertiliziation, it couldn't be much easier. Here is a link to the Aquatic Plants section right here at Aquaria Central. Please take a look at the threads at the top of the forum all labeled sticky. They discuss many issues regarding plants and if you have questions about live plants, please just post in that folder and someone will be along to answer it when they find it. Also, if you have a moment, take a peek at the link in my signature to view my own planted tank and judge for yourself if even an idiot like me can do it. Trust me on this, if I can do something, anyone else can.

Also, guppies and neon tetras are great tankmates and a god choice for the size tank you have. You could go with a nice low-light tank and have some java moss and java fern and your fish would love you for it and probably reward you with some fry after a time. Your tank is about 15 gallons so it could house a school of 7 neons and probably 3 female and 1 male guppy to start, especially with some plants. Anyway, as you do some more looking around and get more ideas and inevitably have a question or two, please post and everyone will be glad to help. Best of luck!

 

[jonathan03]

Get any kind of gravel you want except the really big stuff. There are lots of colors and the fish don't seem to care what color it is.

An inch or two of gravel is good. The fish need some space to swim ;-)

Live plants are easy to grow if you have light. How much light do you have? If you don't have a lot go for the fake ones. Live plants do seem to help the water in the tank some though.

You should remove the dead leaves of live plants. But there are plants with large leaves like swords that make it an easy task.