starting a 40 gal.

[yamahaguy06]

Hi all, im ussaly talking in the salt water forums but, me and my dad are setting up his 40 gal long. It is going to be fresh water of course. Im going to run a fluval 304 and a 150 watt heater. It will have the usual air hose going in there but thats all. It will be a tropical tank. You guys think im missing anything? Besides the water conditoners(aquarium salt, water declorinator...) im just going to run the pre filter,carbin and foam in the fluval. thanks all let me know what you think...

-sean

 

[MOsborne05]

You normally don't need aquarium salt other than as a preventative measure. What type of fish do you plan on keeping?

 

[FroggyFox]

Sean - I think you need to add something else in that fluval besides foam. Did you get it new? If so it usually comes with some ceramic cylinders that work really well for colonizing bacteria on and you should fill at least a basket with that. The carbon is not so important in Freshwater...many people dont even use it at all unless its to take medication out of the water or other specific reasons.

Have you read through the freshwater beginner stickies? Even though there are a lot of similarities between SW and FW, there are still a lot more things that are different...such as the FW cycling process when you first set up a tank etc. Ecotank wrote a pretty good general "how to set up a tank", you might take a look at it. http://myfishtank.net/forum/showthread.php?t=19568

 

[yamahaguy06]

Tropical, a assortment of semi agresive. graumie, barbs, angles, fish like that..I heard you dont need salt(on a normal basis) but can add it every now and then?

 

[yamahaguy06]

yes the pre filter mediasorry forgot to add) but ill check that out.. thanks. any more replies wold be great. man i love this sight.

 

[yamahaguy06]

ok I read something about adding amona?? whats that all about? and I think I can get my hands on some biorospira.soo. thats good. but a 304 should do the job right..

 

[matt201985]

Dont add ammonia, i talked to my lfs's, and they said theres no need for that and its bad for the water, just cycle it will some danios or biospira works too.

 

[matt201985]

when u cycle a tank and add fish, u dont want ammonia in the ater, it kills fish

 

[prettypleco]

You add ammonia if you are doing a fish-less cycle. If you are doing the bio-spira [which is great stuff by the way] you can add your fish immediately. As far as filters i usually add a Hob along with a canister. Aquaclear or penguin are good ones in my experience. And actually if you have not bought the fluval a rena filstar xp3 is the bomb and cheap at bigals. I have a fluval, xp3 and an eheim and i am in love with the xp3. Have fun!!

 

[yamahaguy06]

good deal guys thanks for all the post

 

[RockingCricket]

I added aquarium salt to my aquarium when I was keeping freshwater under the advice of a LFS. I was told that it helps to ward off disease and it did enable me to keep more brackish fish such as green puffers and my fav old fish, a scat. Noone else seemed to mind it. I never was able to grow plants with any success from that day forward though.
Good luck man. *thumbsups

 

[yamahaguy06]

maybe ill just skip out on the salt. But I think im going to throw in a small power head, along with the 304. just to stir it up a little more...

 

[Lotus]

Cycling with fish in a freshwater tank is equivalent to cycling a SW tank with damsels... it's unnecessary and harms fish. There are a bunch of stickies at the top of this forum about fishless cycling.

Few people these days use salt in freshwater tanks. With the powerheads, some freshwater fish prefer calmer water (especially those from lakes). You can add a second filter to the tank, if you feel the water flow isn't enough. I'd say on a 40g, you won't really need too much extra flow.

 

[yamahaguy06]

cool, thanks Lotus. Thats what I was basicly wondering(if the 304 was enough filter for the tank) Because it is raited for up to a 60 gal. I guess salt water, and fresh water realy very in the water flow area. Deling with salt you almost want a freekin worl pool going on lol. hope you all are having a mary christmas.