Jon the Hat Posted 9 May 2014 Posted 9 May 2014 You should totally do it, if you can spare an hour or so a week for maintenance My wife isn't keen. I had a 3ft tank when I was a teenager with a decent selection of fish. Does everyone really cycle the tank properly when they get a new setup?
Samilktray Posted 9 May 2014 Posted 9 May 2014 My wife isn't keen. I had a 3ft tank when I was a teenager with a decent selection of fish. Does everyone really cycle the tank properly when they get a new setup? I usually get some used filter pads from somebody to speed up the process.
Bellend Sebastian Posted 9 May 2014 Posted 9 May 2014 My wife isn't keen. I had a 3ft tank when I was a teenager with a decent selection of fish. Does everyone really cycle the tank properly when they get a new setup? I did, and was quite fortunate in that I managed to do it as quickly as is theoretically possible (about 2 weeks). A lot of shops still say fish in cycle is OK but in serious aquarist circles (not saying I am one yet) it's pretty much a no no. Samilktray's got the right idea. Always helpful to know someone with some mature filter media
James. Posted 9 May 2014 Posted 9 May 2014 Any suggestions on convincing the wife? I'm in exactly the same position. She disagrees with keeping living things in an unnatural environment. I think it'd be easier if she could avoid seeing the aquarium but I'm planning to have it in our flat hallway area so every time she arrives and leaves she'll be confronted with imprisoned fish. She has dismissed (and rightly so) my slightly tenuous suggestion that fish are stupid and won't care. Could I suggest that a lot of these fish will have been bred in tanks so they wouldn't know any different? What are the best arguments against the cruelty angle?! I think that's really the only obstacle to be honest. What are your wife's concerns JtH? Cheers for the previous post by the way Bellend, have already done a fair amount of reading on fishless cycling and some of the other articles in the beginners section. It's a good forum.
Samilktray Posted 9 May 2014 Posted 9 May 2014 I'm in exactly the same position. She disagrees with keeping living things in an unnatural environment. I think it'd be easier if she could avoid seeing the aquarium but I'm planning to have it in our flat hallway area so every time she arrives and leaves she'll be confronted with imprisoned fish. She has dismissed (and rightly so) my slightly tenuous suggestion that fish are stupid and won't care. Could I suggest that a lot of these fish will have been bred in tanks so they wouldn't know any different? What are the best arguments against the cruelty angle?! I think that's really the only obstacle to be honest. What are your wife's concerns JtH? Cheers for the previous post by the way Bellend, have already done a fair amount of reading on fishless cycling and some of the other articles in the beginners section. It's a good forum. In my experiences (living at home and having a mother to deal with, so slightly different) I iust arrive home with it. Not a lot she can say if it's already there.
Finnegan Posted 9 May 2014 Author Posted 9 May 2014 James, tell your missus that if she doesn't rescue and house the fish then Marsh is going to go round to the pet shop, take them home and do unspeakable acts to them.
Jon the Hat Posted 9 May 2014 Posted 9 May 2014 My wife's concerns are 1) Poor fish, 2) I wont look after it and it will look shit. 3) The fish will die and our daughter will be devestated. 4) I wont look after it and it will look shit. 5) it will take up half the lounge sideboard.
James. Posted 9 May 2014 Posted 9 May 2014 In my experiences (living at home and having a mother to deal with, so slightly different) I iust arrive home with it. Not a lot she can say if it's already there. That's the nuclear approach and definitely under consideration. The fallout would be pretty spectacular but temptingly probably quite shortlived. James, tell your missus that if she doesn't rescue and house the fish then Marsh is going to go round to the pet shop, take them home and do unspeakable acts to them. An act of rescue is the sort of spin I hadn't thought of. My wife's concerns are 1) Poor fish, 2) I wont look after it and it will look shit. 3) The fish will die and our daughter will be devestated. 4) I wont look after it and it will look shit. 5) it will take up half the lounge sideboard. Actually yes me not looking after it was definitely another concern. She is convinced it's just a phase and I'm prone to starting things and losing interest citing amongst other things a failed attempt at learning French, a dead Bonsai tree and a drunken claim I was going to start a restaurant blog. Maybe she has a point.
Jon the Hat Posted 9 May 2014 Posted 9 May 2014 Actually yes me not looking after it was definitely another concern. She is convinced it's just a phase and I'm prone to starting things and losing interest citing amongst other things a failed attempt at learning French, a dead Bonsai tree and a drunken claim I was going to start a restaurant blog. Maybe she has a point. They know us better than we know ourselves... Last years remote control car purchase is in the shed in bits with a broken drive shraft. It was very quick though!!
Bellend Sebastian Posted 9 May 2014 Posted 9 May 2014 This wasn't really a plan as such but after spending over a year reading Practical Fish keeping and staring at aquariums on the internet during any spare moment my other half probably thought that there was no point trying to deny what was going to happen. I can understand the cruelty thing up to a point, particularly as it's quite easy to mistreat fish, usually through ignorance rather than intent. Most popular tropical aquarium fish are tank bred, so generally you're not suddenly restricting a fish to 180 litres that previously had the run of the Amazon, but I suppose that's not an amazing argument. Also, with a bit of research you can replicate the environment the fish would live in in the wild, even simulate streams for species that live in flowing water, for example. Best incentive for doing a proper job for me is that it's not that much more effort to do it properly than make a complete hash of it. A properly maintained tank is a great feature. Even my other half would concede that
Beliall Posted 9 May 2014 Posted 9 May 2014 The fish tanks in the pet shop are overcrowded. If you take a few home they will have more room to swim about.
Samilktray Posted 9 May 2014 Posted 9 May 2014 Currently debating what set up to have in my new tank, its only a small thing.
BoneDog Posted 9 May 2014 Posted 9 May 2014 Went in a pub tonight that had a massive aquarium. Clocked it when I was walking through the doors so went to have a look and it only had a few goldfish in it. What a shambles.
JadeFalcon Posted 10 May 2014 Posted 10 May 2014 whatever you do.... dont buy a small tank, always get as big as you can and dont over fill the tank with fish, you will cause more problems than you can handle and read up on tank cycling, starting a tank is a ****ing strugle. if you dont cycle it the fish have a good probability of dying right off in the first few weeks, as when you add fish and start feeding them they poo and the uneaten food and poo rot in the bottom and the ammonia levels will rocket as there is not enough good bacteria to process all the ammonia. the way i did it was to get a tank a few weeks before i go the fish, fill it with standard tap water, buy a tap water treatment that adds some good bacteria and takes out the metals in the water, set up the pump/filter and run it for a few weeks adding small amounts of food on a daily basis so its rots down and gives the good bacteria something to feed on. as the good bacteria builds up it will live in the filter. do a 20-30% water change twice a week just so the ammonia levels dont get too high till the good stuff builds up enough to combat the the bad stuff. after the tank has cycled and the new fish are in there quite a few sites will tell you to buy new filters every so often but this is a bad idea as that is where the good stuff lives, what i do is when i do my water change i keep a jug of the water from the tank. take out the filter and just give it a quick swill in the water without taking off too much of the goop from the filter then pop it back in. it may seem daunting setting up a tank but once they are setup they usually run themselves apart from a gravel vacuuming every so often/ i've not changed the water in mine in 2 months now they are still happily swimming around no problem.. a good indicator of too much ammonia in the water is gill burn, gills will turn bright red
ElusiveEd Posted 10 May 2014 Posted 10 May 2014 I've set up a marine tank after years of putting it off due to the fear of getting the water parameters wrong. Gotta say, it's been a breeze so far but as the above posters say, you really have got to cycle a tank, even moreso with a marine aquarium. Salt water, live sand, live rock etc. and lots of checking the salinity, PH, KH, Ammonia, Nitrate and Nitrite along with regular water changes. Once you get that balance right and the tank is fully cycled and showing good water quality then it's time to add the livestock. So far I have cleaner shrimps which feed from my hand. They also set up cleaning stations where fish drop by to have their fins, body's mouths and teeth cleaned. They are fascinating to watch. I have 2 clown fish (Nemo's as my son calls em) Red legged hermit crabs, sand sifting snalls, Feather dusters, corals, anemones, a Blue Tang, (Dory from Nemo film) Yellow Sailfin and a mandarin blenny. I find marine fish have a lot more character than tropical or coldwater fish, trouble is now I just want a seriously bigger set-up now i know I can do it.
Samilktray Posted 4 December 2014 Posted 4 December 2014 Moved up to a 5ft tank this week, thoroughly enjoying it.
Bellend Sebastian Posted 4 December 2014 Posted 4 December 2014 You've got a foot on me, Sam, nudge nudge etc. What have you got in it? Apart from water, obviously. Also, I demand pictures
Benji Posted 4 December 2014 Posted 4 December 2014 Moved up to a 5ft tank this week, thoroughly enjoying it. Fantastic - any pictures?
Samilktray Posted 4 December 2014 Posted 4 December 2014 Its just a community tank at the moment, centrepiece is a white/pink siamese fighter. Ill whack some pictures up in a few weeks once its looking more like the finished article, the plants and such arent filling the tank just yet.
Benji Posted 4 December 2014 Posted 4 December 2014 After what must be 5 years one of my two clowns died recently Had a really good set-up to the extent that they were laying eggs - I just never got round to sorting a separate tank and at the time there was a cleaning shrimp who was all over them / had the fish in constant worry so they often ate them. Really showed that spending the extra bit to get the true perculla's (not tank bred) was worth it. The other one seems to be as happy as Larry though, probably had enough of the Mrs moaning. Itching to get a massive tank.
johnny the fox Posted 4 December 2014 Posted 4 December 2014 went to Pet world, had to give my name and address , phone number and email..then was rationed to two fish... good thing I suppose..
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