larger volumes of water are more stable.
a 2ft tank doesn't take long to get dirty and the fish use up the minerals in the water quite fast, hence needing more reguarl water changes, also small tanks have small filters that don't hold as much bacteria as a large filter, externals are the best,
small bodies of water can fluctuate quite alot, ph can crash causing death to fish, the more water the more stable, more buffers and minerals naturally present in the water.

 

cheers for that!

How big is big then? I've seen this which I'm assuming is 180litres, that big enough?

http://www.petsathome.com/invt/12406

I'm not much into the cleaning and removing water side of things, so anything that removes the need to do this as much as possible - much preferred!

 

fish are such a classy addition to a house. love them.

loving the trucks above!

 

well i clean both of my tanks out weekly, that involves about a 40% water change, cleaning of the sand, glass and filter. It takes me about an hour to do, and it does need to be done!!

It is harder to establish a tank into a healthy one than it is to keep it healthy i would say, as natural bacteria needs to grow in the filter to neutralise the nitrites/nitrates etc.

But i love both my tanks, and can't wait til i have the space for a bigger one!!

Rich

 

i've got a 6ft tank with marine fish, had it about five years now.





my puffer fish is camera shy lol.

 

Whats involved then?

How do you change the water? and how do you clean the sand?

Sounds like a lot of maintenance and a lot of cost too, with lights, filter, heater and pump sapping the electric, and 90litres of water per week to replace in a 180l tank... + food, what we talking a month? Ł1, Ł10, Ł100 in total? no idea!

 

There really is no limit in cost, depends on what you want! Go to your local pet shop and have a look around. My tanks cost me Ł100, got about Ł50 of fish, and plants/sand etc cost about Ł20. Not sure on how much it costs to run cos i don't pay the electricity bill

Keep the tank in a warm room and the heater will rarely be on anyway.

To clean the tank, i take out all the ornaments, clean the glass with a scrubber on a stick thing, then to clean the sand, you run over it with a syphon tube. This picks up all the fish waste/uneaten food etc, while also removing the water. My tank is a 60 litre, and i do about 2 bucket fulls. Then i use fresh tap water treated with de-chlorinater to top it back up, give the ornaments a scrub, clean the filter sponges in the dirty water in the bucket, and thats it!!

This has to be done weekly, or the uneaten food turns to ammonia, along with the fish waste, and this is posionous for the fish, and will kill them very quickly.

Go have a chat with someone in a pet shop about it, or look over on www.fishforums.net .

Rich

 

try and go for 300 litres or above for ease of maitanence.

 

saw that once at a customers house I delivered to a few years ago. did look and very funny. had a massive tank. this guy had a few quid.

we just have a 4 year old fairground goldfish.

 

No i wouldnt advise going that big at first. It really is very easy to get a tank set up, have a look at fishless cycling on www.fishforums.net . If you decide that fish keeping isn't for you, then a 300litre + set up is an awful lot of money to waste.

http://www.petsathome.com/invt/15753

This is what i have, and its ideal for a beginner. Comes with everything you need (although the filter is rubbish so change it for something else).

Rich

 

Thats it?! Sounds like a weekly mission which I'll get bored of doing after about... once

fcuk me that would be a mahoosive tank and probably cost a bomb to keep that amount of water heated no doubt!

Yeah would be cool to have it just like in the film, with the fish, the starfish, the crab and even the mountain that bubbles etc

4 years old - thats amazing! thought you were lucky if you managed to get them to last 4 days!

 

one of mine is salt water marine, but no pics up of it yet as its filthy lol