New 180lt beginnering

I am just getting my first tank this evening a 180ltr with I am going to keep tropical freshwater fish.

And I am wondering is there anyone out there who could advise me what type of fish/decoration etc as I am a beginner

Hi and welcome to the forum, i just have a 180L set up myself found every one here to be great help with all questions i had.

If you go to the search section on the forum you will come across alot of info on setting up a tank feel free to ask any questions ive learned so much here tahn you just dont get from the net or books search from "my tanks" and you will come across my finished 180l, good luck with setting up ur tank.

Alan

If you are going to use real plants and have it well planted put the tank some where that doesnt get much natural light, i had bad problems with algea from the last month with the tank in my sitting room had to move it to under the stairs, if you are going to use fake plants there shouldnt really be too much of a problem with algea then. Also with real plants make sure you have a nice deep substrate ( gravel or sand ) over an inch so the plants can root well.

On fish well thats up to you:laugh: its always nice to see a shoal of fish like tetras like runnynose tetras are great together when they colour up. I got some fire tetras today they have a redish colour of them, also fish like corys for the bottom of ur tank are great but they would be what i would like;) Id take a trip to some of the sponsors shops and just have a look at the fish they have, find out what you like and ask the people working there what fish go with each other.

But before you do that you will have to cycle ur tank. There are a few different ways to do this, you will need to buy water conditioners to remove chlorine and chloramine from ur tap water and then you will need stuff like stress zyme to add good bacterica to ur filter to set the biological system in the filter and tank.

If you go down this route leave the tank running for 3 weeks( maybe more ) and add a small bit of food to the tank every few days and add some hardy fish like mollies and plattys to cycle the tank.

Or you could get "safe start" which would allow you to added fish right away to ur tank, im using this now to cycle a new tank and remember to add fish slowly like adding 5 mollies one week then a week later add a few more tetras say, so you give ur filter time to adjust to the bio load from the fish.

There are many other ways of setting up ur tank these are just two hope it helps, any idea on what fish you want yet should post a few pics when its up and running

Alan

Alright buster welcome to the forum, good to see another Liverpool fan, not long for use to wait to collect the premiership

The best thing to do buster is to research as much as possible, view other peoples tanks to get ideas and see what you like and dislike. Go to fishshops to see what fish you like, do a lot of reading and most important take you time.get a list of fish you like and see if they compatable.

i know buying a tank the urge to get it setup and loaded with fish is sometimes uncontrollable so resist as much as you can.Believe me the more time you take the less fustrated you will be and you will get the greater satification when the tank is setup and you will save a few bob aswell.

Forum is great buster so use it, best of luck with you new tank and most of all enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.

Cheers

GB

Welcome along Buster,
Buster Id forget about the decoration part for the moment and would as Alan has pointed out read up on the cycling of the tank. Im not a fan of adding a fish to cycle the tank,it needs to be partially cycled before a fish can be added, also if you are just adding a fish to cycle it then its pointless as the fish you eventually want to get may not suit the existing so called cycling fish. So really its best to read up on how to cycle the tank firstly and work from there. Ask as many questions as you can .The tank is a good size and capable of many options.Its down to personal choice. First thing though is you need a good filter and heater for the tank of that size before you decide on any fish. The fish you choose will also determine the surrounding or decorations as you call it.
The substrate will need to be considered,the actual plants or fake plants if you perfer (Im not a fan of them!). Whether to add bogwood etc.
If you are thinking of fish then beginner fish are probably a community tank set up. Lots of fish you can get for different areas of the tank eg.bottow dwellers,mid and upper water dwellers etc..
As for fake plants and algae,live plants are actually a good way to reduce algae growth,the live plants compete for nutrients that the algae would otherwise use. If you go the fake plant look then you just need to watch the amount of light the tank gets. Expect a diatom bloom during the cylcing period,all harmless and doesnt last long if you do the cycle properly.
Finally and most importantly, ask questions and research alot! Happy fishkeeping.

Gavin

Thanks for the reply's

I am going to go down the community road I got the tank off a friend who has upgraded to a 480lt tank so he cycled the internal and external filter for me .

I added 8 zebra danios on sunday and he also gave me 4 vallis off cuts so they are in.

Lucky man......... saves so much time having them cycled already... so what other fish you thinking of gettin....? Mine is a community setup to;)

Good luck and enjoy:cheer:

Alan

Alan

Going to go danios / peaceful barbs / tetra's / otto's see how it goes from there

Damien