Newby from Durbanville

Hi Guys,

I just got a small 55l tank from the pet shop and cant wait to add some fish. It has been running since Tuesday and was hoping to add a few tropical fish on Monday. That would be 6 days, but I read it takes 30 days to settle the tank? This needs some real patience. Still need to get the water tested soon. This will hopefully be a start to a bigger tank eventually. Looking forward to learning lots. What would be the best fish to start adding and when?

 

Welcome to TASA.

Read up on the Nitrogen Cycle, and cycling your tank.
There are a lot of threads on this here.

You can also cheat, and add something like Seachem Stability for 8 days, to shorten the cycle.

The choice of fish is largely a matter of personal choice.
A 100 people will probably give you a 100 different answers.
My suggestion would be to read up as much as you can on the different species available.
Something to also take into consideration is the size of the tank, the equipment you have as well as suitability of the livestock to your environment and availability in your area.

If I had to start up another 2 or 3 foot tank, I would first get some plants going, then stock it with shrimp, some Corydora, and a few Nerite snails.
I am particularly fond of Cryptocoryne species, Anubias and Bucephelandra, with some Bolbitis for plants.
Add some dragon rock, with the plants attached to driftwood and spider wood, and you have a ready made home for the livestock.
Julii, Sterbai and Panda Corydora are relatively shrimp safe.

Post some pics as your tank progresses.

 

A trio of guppies ... and soon you could be supplying your LFS ;-)

You are in for some great learning ... with every failure you gain experience.

Later Ferdie

 

He he @A new day ... that is like saying one has never seen that bear eat a fresh salmon the entire season if you are standing watching him catch his first fish after hibernation. One can learn soooo much from a trio it should be part of your fishbowl parenting license.

It is also probably the first fish that somebody will try and sell back to the lfs, do a DIY on the filtration to stop fry loss, run a calendar to know when she will drop, google fish cross breeding, ask about importing those special fish that only the guys on the other side of the planet can sell you and want to keep outside when the weather permits.

Best part of all given sufficient time they will fill the largest of tanks and it will look awesome.

But yes ... post pics so that we can see what is what.

Later Ferdie

 

Please don't laugh at the tank as this is the first time doing this. After looking at other setups on here I am embarresed to post my tank.

 

There is no need to be embarrassed about your first tank.

I have some pics of my first tank, that I will NOT post.
Plastic plants, psychedelic coloured gravel, and totally unsuitable fish.
I shudder to think how many fish I needlessly lost due to not knowing, and not having anyone to give guidance as to choice of stocking.

 

I thought about starting with guppies and those little neon fish. My daughter love all the different colors. Just love how nice the tanks look with real plants. Suppose it takes time to get to that. Thanks for all the advice.

 

See thats what I like about all of you pro’s. At the shop they will sell you anything. I will get the Guppies to start with after I had the water tested. We don't want the fish to die, because of my stupidity. Been reading and watching videos, but there is just some much to learn.

 

Just looking at what some guys do, make me want to buy a bigger tank already. Will definitely ask on here. Any guys from Cape Town, northern suburbs here?

 

Awesome. Will go and get my stuff from them then. Thanks for the help. Really appreciate it.

 

Hi @NovakSA

Welcome to the Forum
Loads of excellent advice has been given, + 1 on the use of Stability to start up your tank and the advice of reading up on the nitrogen cycle
No need to be embarrassed either of your tank or of asking questions, we all started somewhere and we still all learn something new all the time
All the best and keep the updates coming!

 

What a lekker tank to start with ... and yes MTS is real.

Things that I battle with to this day is composition. look at your tank - you have 3 nice scaping elements - why are they all in a straight stripe, are they all evenly spaced? Play with the following - move the green middle bunch to the right back so that it is snug against the pot on the right back. Pull the ornament on the left 5 cm forward ... look at the tank from various angles. You have just created more play space for your imagination. By playing with depth, not being linear and a sprinkle of "random" placing the game changes.

My thinking at the moment is still that you get two types of tanks - those that are focused on the livestock and those that have livestock to add animation to the canvas of the tank. Be it real, synthetic or even no plants (think a fast moving river tank) ...

Later Ferdie