Tropical Fish Aquarium Newb

Post Reply New Topic

As the title suggests I am about to embark upon a new hobbie of keeping tropical fish. I have a 140 litre tank (3ft) and would rather have more smaller fish than fewer larger ones.

So any suggestions for

1. The mix of fish ( I would like at least 20)
2. Which products eg water conditioners, food manufacturers etc to go with/steer clear of.
3. Cleaning/Maintenance regimes.

Presently I have just set the tank up and it is cycling, I am using 'Prime' and 'Stability' by Seachem to aid this, I have a fair few rocks in the tank, about an inch of gravel and an Aqua One internal filter using the venturi to add the oxygen. Plus an overhead light.

So that is it, I am furiously reading about the various fish and their preferred environments and would love some helpful advice.

It is my fondest wish to have a giant tropical aquarium set-up I only have a plecostomus though, because my lame sister has goldfish and they would kill everything that is sensitive to ammonia..
I bought someJungle brand pH tablets (supposedly to keep the pH between 7-8) and they didn't work at all! The pH was WAY too high (8.5-9) which as you probably know makes the ammonia level an even more concerning issue. Anyway, I'm going to avoid that brand in the future, because it was expensive and ineffective. My father once had a tropical aquarium set up (about 20 years ago ) with around 20 fish, and then because he was inexperienced he put in a Yabby and a Gold Sucking Catfish, both of whom promptly sucked the eyes out of all of their fellow fish.

Last edited by book_noodles on 23 Jul 2010, 1:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

If you've never kept fish before I'd recommend starting with freshwater fish rather than a saltwater tank (if that's what you mean by keeping tropical fish). I love keeping fish and have a special fondness for goldfish and koi. They are lovely, personable little pets and usually very tame. Sometimes, with saltwater fish, the animals are caught in the wild and can be afraid of anyone who comes around the tank. I knew a guy once whose spectacular tank would appear to be vacant every time he walked in the room because all the fish would hide in a panic.

Even simple goldfish can be very interactive and respond to your voice. They tend to be very curious and can come to recognize you.

So are you getting a saltwater set up or a freshwater one? I can make recommendations for a freshwater one, but not for saltwater...

I actually studied fish keeping at college (National Diploma in Aquatics and Ornamental Fish Management. I completed the first year of a 2 year course, but got the usual aspie social crap on the work placement, which kept me from completing. If I'd finished I'd be qualified to manage a big aquatic retailer, or work maintaining a public aquarium).


Keeping fish is really simple, but the industry likes to make it look really complicated, so they can fix all those problems by selling you chemicals.

You don't get problems in the first place, if you look after the water, and you start by putting water in the tank that's fit for fish to live in. Tap water is good enough if you leave it to stand overnight, or boil it to get the chlorine out.

Then if you have a biological filter in the tank, you need to put some dirty water in the tank (from another fish tank) and let the filter run for at least 2 weeks before you put any fish in, so all the bacteria colonies in it have grown to the point they can support fish, and you don't just have the first type of bacteria, that produce the most toxic wastes.

Fish waste = ammonia
Bacteria 1 takes ammonia and makes nitrite.
Bacteria 2 takes nitrite and makes nitrate.

Nitrite is the most toxic, followed by ammonia, so you need to give the second lot of bacteria time to grow before you put fish in, or you will end up killing them all right at the start, as the bacteria colonies have to grow one after the other as they have food suppies to support them. Chemicals will not make your bacteria grow faster.

Nitrate is still toxic to fish, so you will have to do regular water changes, where you take about 10% of the water out of the tank, and put 10% clean water back in. You should do that about evey 1-2 weeks, although it varies depending on how heavily you've stocked the tank (on a tank that measures 1' or 30cm deep and front to back, the quantity of fish you can have fish is how many can be lined up along the length, although you have to allow for growth too).

If you're growing live plants, then you should have a lot less fish, and change the water a lot more often, but in smaller ammounts. On a smaller tank that can be as simple as taking a cup full out and replacing it every day.


Water changes are the most important part of fishkeeping, as they keep the water fit for fish. So long as the water is looked after they are a lot less likely to get stressed out, and get diseases, and you can keep the more 'sensitive' fish, instead of just hardy species like goldfish.

What a cool post, polarity!

Have you ever thought of the beautiful discus?
I had a pair of these along with 'live' plants ;they do require an acid pH and 80+ water temp, but they aren't fussy eaters as some of the literature would suggest.
They are native to the Amazon and I bought the tank raised ones because they are disease resistant (learned this the hard way).

I once owned a saltwater reef tank , very large and very expensive ,had over $7000 in it , but it required too much work to maintain and after two years I sold it..... beautiful though.

Edit to add: A 140 L. tank could house 4^ , I would think.
It's been 19 years since I had this hobby, but a chloramine and chlorine remover by sea chem would do the trick.
Most fresh water tropical fish are hearty, but if you're a naturalist activated carbon would work overnight.

Also in fresh water, the amount ammonia and nitrite ( the nitrogen cycle) aren't an issue (as nearly as much in saltwater) due to the pH being close to neutral.

I had a to deionize my fresh water for the monthly water changes in that saltwater rig ^, NO such chemical should come into contact with the live corrals.
Have fun

[img][800:767]http://i771.photobucket.com/albums/xx360/mld_album/discus-aquarium-6.jpg[/img]

Thanks all for your replies so far.

To answer some of the questions I want fresh water tropical fish, I like seeing fish schooling and darting around the tank, so I want fish that get to probably no more than 5 - 6 cm, discus are beautiful but I would need a massive tank so that I could have lots. One issue I have already discovered is my heater cannot keep up. It is 200 watt so it should be able to cope, but Ballarat is cold in winter and when I am not home or asleep the heating is turned off, so either I need to insulate 3 sides and the bottom and top or get another heater? also in summer it can get very hot here, I have friends who lost all their fish because the ambient temp was too high and the tank overheated???

An idea for tank insulation:

My old reef tank as mentioned above required the opposite ;cold water, due the the excessive heat load from the overhead metal halide lighting (500 wattts) and the ambient room temperature being higher than the required tank temperature.
I had incorporated a titanium chiller in the plumbing to keep the water cool and this consumed way too much electric .
So my idea to insulate the tank was borrowed from the concept of thermopane windows.
The air space in between the panes in a window is worth an r value of about 3 , or 1/2 of an inch of styrofoam in equivalence.

You can thermopane a tank by lining the exterior with acrylic panes of plexi-glass , and it would require a half inch of air space between the glass of the tank and this lamination over three sides; I used styrofoam on the back and bottom sides.
A lot of fabrication and added expense, but it cut the chiller run times by 50%.
My tank was 5ft long by 2 feet in depth and 2.5 feet in height.
A 3 ft one would be easy to do the 3 sides and it would work great ...... (I should have patented this idea).