Looking to start a tank again!

[Gools]

looking n to settng up a small fresh water tank. What do I need to know to set one up? It's been about 6 years or more since I had fresh water. Do I have to let it cycle like saltwater? Any help or reading material would be appreciated. Thanks

[Invigor]

yea, the cycle's still there and needs to happen I've never had to "cycle" i just very slowly add fish and the bacteria grows slowly without getting out of hand.

if you have a friend with a fw tank, get a thing of filter wool and have your friend run it in his filter, then take it a week later and put it in your newly setup tank. tons of bacteria help seed the tank in a timely fashion.

[Gools]

I want to start a small community tank with those neon tetra's. But as in saltwater tanks they recomend you start with a damsel to cycle. Is there a certain fish you should cycle with or just add any fish slowly one at a time.

[Invigor]

zebra danios are great for starting tanks, you have to seriously try to kill them. depending on your tank size -- I got 8 for my 33gal tank and it worked alright before I added in some other fish.

Neon tetra's can be touchy, I lost 25 when I tried to start a tank with them. they all got ich and I didn't get meds in time and the bacteria wouldn't take care of the ammonia fast enough, so when you start adding neons just take your time with it, maybe 4-6 at once once you have had your danios for a few weeks. just check your nitrites and ammonia make sure they're 0!

[Gools]

Ok Thanks for the info. I'm also interested in keeping live plants what should I need to know for those? What kind of lighting do they require?

[Invigor]

depends on the plants, but i aim for about 2-3watts per gallon for standard tanks. from my short lived experience with plants, they're much like corals and like to be in a well seasoned tank before they really thrive. I haven't had luck with new tanks and live plants surviving

[Cap'n]

Agree with the danios; I have the same three I started with close to a year ago; great dither / community fish.

Disagree with the plant info. Get yourself some java ferns and valisneria with a lot of natural light and / or flourescent and you're set.

[trilinearmipmap]

For planted tanks check out the Aquabotanic web forums at www.aquabotanic.com

You do not need to do a cycle if you are starting a planted tank, in fact fishless cycling a planted tank would be a classic newbie error.

The basics you need for a planted tank are

Lighting: 2 to 3 watts per gallon, most people us compact fluorescents
Substrates: a plant substrate such as flourite, onyx sand, or eco-complete
fertilizers: read up on the Barr method of fertilization or PMDD, take your pick
CO2: optional

Anyway good luck.

[StirCrazy]

do not use a fish to cycle a tank weather it be salt water or fresh water it is just cruel to the fish to make it go through thoes conditions. If it is a tetra tank you want them I assume that you are thinking of planting the tank also. in that case if you do it right there will be no cycle at all.

by this I meen that if you buy the right plants and enuf of them they will adsorb all the amonia befor you get a chance to even detect it on a test kit.

as mentioned 2 to 3 watts per gallon is about a good happy medium. if you stay that low don't waist mony on onix sand or florite ect. just get a substrate that is 2 to 3 mm in size and do it 2 to 3 inches deep to give lots of room for root development. if you think that laiter you might bump the light up to 5 to 10 watts per gal and go for high light plants and get serious about the planted side then buy the better substrate. but at this light level you will most likly have to add CO2 and fertalizer also.

the key to doing the plants and havign them live is to pick the right kind of plants, giant hygro, most anuibus, jungle vail, hygro stricta, are all good low to medium light plants, for starting the tank focus on *fast growing stem based plants* these kinda are a large intaker of nutrents from the water, I trim mine down once a month and they are growing out of the water by the next time to trim.


Steve

[Gools]

So What kind of lighting do I need? I'm thinking of setting up a 45g tank. With just regular flouresents. Can I just use 6500K from like home depot? That's what I use on my refugium and my macro grow good. Also do I need to add any supplements, for the plants? I have read a little about the Co2 systems, but I don't want to go that far right now anyway, maybe down the road. Can regular playsand from the hardware store be used as substrate, or do the plants require some sort of nutrients from the substrate? Thanks guy for all your input.