Low Cost Low Maintenance Starter

[roundar]

Hello Aquatic Community, I'm a pseudo-beginner...

A few years ago I took up this hobby but dropped it about a year in as it was taking more of my time and money than I was comfortable with. I gave all of the equipment I had acquired to a young person who seemed (and is still to my knowledge ) very interested in the hobby. So now that my situation has changed a little, I've got more time than I did then. I still really want to avoid taking on more than I'm comfortable with so I was curious about some starter options. What are some of the most setups you guys have seen out there?

( I'll post pictures if I can get some advice :) )

[SmokeyCFH]

Well obviously they have the 10-20 gallon starter kits at walmart, petco, petsmart and any LFS. I'm personally partial to craigslist for a decent price for a larger tank. And as far as having little time, I'd say a freshwater community or even cichlids. As long as you have enough time for water changes you should be fine. But the worst thing you can do is NOT take care of your fish. A few days ago I got a free tank and I'm extremely glad I did because the person who owned it obviously knew nothing about water changes and the environment the fish were in was unsuitable in my opinion.

A 60 gallon would be a nice little community, one or two aquaclear HOB filter or a canister if you're willing to go the whole nine, a heater, some sort of substrate and some fake plants (I'd stay away from a planted tank for now until you're more comfortable with it) maybe an airpump, then eventually fish after you have it cycled and you should be golden. You'd have an active, eye-pleasing aquarium for your enjoyment. :) Good luck! and dont give up. :)

[roundar]

Thanks for your response. I was looking at the book provided here on AC and I thought that smaller was better for less maintenance, but in fact see that a ~30G would be better. I also read that plants might actually be a good idea for a beginner since they provide oxygen and use up fish waste. What I was likely to do was water changes every month maybe occasionally more often. And in that case how should I go about filtering a 30G tank? I remember reading mixed things about UGFs but I'm not sure what other direction to go.

While it may change before I get a tank I was thinking about going with small schooling fish in a natural looking tank. Any thoughts/advice on any of this would be appreciated.

[SmokeyCFH]

There are a few filters that I really really like, tetra makes an internal whisper filter that I absolutely love! It's really, IMO, the only great product tetra makes. Also I really like aquaclear HOB (hang on the back) filters, but if you want ultimate filtration with cleaning ease I would go for a canister filter, preferable a RENA. I have two rena's and they work like champs. I'm not a huge fan of bio-wheels though I own two of them and I just got some newer tetra HOB filters that have really good flow but they're design is far beyond flawed.

As far as schooling fish...tetra's, norman lamp eyes (those are just plain cool), danio's, barbs, silver dollars, loaches.

[MCHRKiller]

I would start out with a 20-30G tank, a canister filter, and a good light fixture. I would skip kits as they dont offer very good equipment for their cost. Buying a new tank offers the benefit of a warrenty, and tanks in this size range...are not very expensive to start with. For example:

New 29G tank-$50
Fluval 205 Canister-$95
30" 65watt PC fixture-$60
2 bags of EcoComplete-$40

The new 05 series of Fluvals are very impressive and are without the design flaws of the 03-04 models, they no longer leak at random times just because. I have a 105 on my 10G at work which I clean 2X per year...it is a great little filter.

For a low tech on a budget I would opt for a PC fixture, many people have grown to hate PCs but they are a great choice when you dont want to inject CO2 or spend a ton on the fixture. You can still get a year or more out of the bulbs and they lack the intensity of T5 which means you dont have to inject.

As for fish you can load the tank with small colorful fish if you choose the right species. You could easily keep 20 Chili/Galaxy Rasbora, along with a group of dwarf chain loaches, a few Otos and maybe even a betta. Your bioload from these tiny fish would also be low meaning you would only need to do a waterchange every couple of weeks and probably no more than 3-4 filter cleanings per year. Some good plant choices would be Crypts, Fern, Anubias, Sagittaria, Hygro, and moss. A weekly dose of liquid fertilizer and some root ferts would be all you would need.

[roundar]

I started a blog here on AC. I'll post further details, pictures, and questions there.

[Lady Hobbs]

I would start with the largest tank you can afford. A small tank is harder to keep with far less options than a larger tank. No matter the tank, you still need to keep up with regular maintence just as you do with any other pet. No tank is maintence free.