Getting Back into the Hobby

[Robchops]

After a 2 year + Hiatus, I have decided to get back into fish keeping. I used to own a 29G Biocube and ran it as a small salt water tank with a couple Clown Fish a nice CUC, and a few different Corals.

I would love to get back into saltwater but unfortunately I do not have the room at home to do so. Currently my spare room has been turned into a "reptile room" and is kept in the low 80s which I am concerned would cause a huge algae build up if I put a tank in there.

Anyways, so after speaking with my boss, I was given the go ahead to put a fish tank in my office. I could probably go upwards of 12-15 Gallons, but probably not much more than that. I have chosen Fresh water as it is a bit less maintenance than saltwater tanks.

I do however have a few concerns, as I have never run a fish tank outside of my own home before. I work the typical 5 days a week 8-9 hours a day during the week, and usually have the weekends off. Sometimes I do come in over the weekends for an hour or two just to catch up on some work, but that's probably only once or twice a month. With that in mind does that pose an issue to the health of the fish? Also are there any fish that would be ok with back to back days without any sort of attention?

Thankfully I work for a SaaS company which runs numerous servers and supplies vital services to the city and other high priority clients... which means that the risk of a power failure over the weekend is pretty much non-existent as we have backup generators that can power the entire office for up to 72 hours.

I should also mention I do not work in a cubicle as I do have my own office. So I would either use my spare desk to hold the weight of the tank, or possibly purchase a dedicated stand for the aquarium depending on which one I went with.

My other question is what sort of fish would be happy in a small tank in that 12-15G range? I would love a small schooling fish to watch all day, but I just don't think I would have nearly enough room for any schooling species. I have owned a fresh water tank in the past, however I have never owned anything smaller than a 29G and I guess that is what concerns me. Going to something this small seems like I have pretty much no options for acceptable fish.

Finally I was just hoping to get everyone's opinions on small tanks in that range. Are there any tanks in that range that people have had good experience with? I like the Fluval Edge tanks, however I can only find them in the 6-12G range... and the 12G tanks do not look like they have much swimming room for the fish.

Anyways thanks everyone for your feedback.

Rob