# New tank owner a easy question.



## Maruff (Jun 28, 2010)

I love all of the aquariums I see in the forums. Are there any books I can read? Last time I had a tank was 20 yrs ago and everything is new again.

So hit me with some books I need to get to reading cause I would love to have a medium planted tank. 

Also the tank will be in my bedroom so I'll need a quiet filter system can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks for reading.


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## Mantis (Aug 8, 2012)

I would start here:
New To The Freshwater Aquarium Hobby - Aquarium Forum

and just try and read as much as you can about aquariums. For a tank in your bedroom I would be sure and pay attention to what type of filter as well as overstocking your tank which leads to an odor you probably want to avoid.


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## navigator black (Jan 3, 2012)

The aquarium book trade has been slaughtered by the internet, and very few new titles are coming out. It's a shame, because the net doesn't give overviews and has terrible species info - we're seeing a huge shrinking of what is available to hobbyists. I think it's a combination of the death of the independent aquarium store and their replacement by corporate chains with their macdonald's menu of fish species, and the death of the book trade. With the net, we look up what we see (no longer very much) and with good aquariums, we see what the stores don't offer and ask them to order these easily availble options in...
They are getting old, but every aquarist should own the three volumes of the Baensch atlas.
e-books are great, but not for images, and for fish, we need images.

What size tank are you getting as filter for? It's key info...


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## jshiloh13 (Dec 12, 2010)

Plus there is so much bad information on the internet, you can't always go with the first thing you read. At least with books you could be more confident that you were getting good info.


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## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

You might try reading the link in my signature.

One good book is Dianne Walstad's Ecology of the planted aquarium

Another would be Drs Addy and loveland's dynamic aquaria.

Or you can try google searches on the above for various discussions.


whatever you decide may you have the best aquarium ever.


Despite my .

.02


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## dclark61 (Jan 21, 2012)

Regarding the filter, planted tank owners usually get a canister or internal filter so they can minimize the amount of surface turbulence during the day, which would otherwise disperse CO2.

But there are a lot of variations on the planted-tank route. Some go full-blown with CO2 injection etc., high wattage lighting etc, while others just get low-requirement plants.

I have an Eclipse System 12 with no CO2 injection and 13 watts of light (which some hobbyists will tell you is a death sentence to all plants in a 12 gallon tank). My java ferns, pennywort and anubias nana are all doing fine. I recently switched to an internal filter only because I disliked the filter that came with the tank, but the previous filter also created a fair amount of surface agitation. My new internal filter is so quiet, I can't hear it more than 3 feet from the tank.

Have fun.


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## navigator black (Jan 3, 2012)

Be careful of people trying to sell you systems - as in unfiltered tanks or boxed set ups. They tend to tell you what you want to hear (or so they think). You are always better off picking and choosing after gathering good info - choose your filters on advice like dclark's above, and see what you want to keep. The zero maintenance, no water change system advocated above by beasl is great as long as you don't plan fish in your tank - you can make a sort of tableau of anacharis and rocks and leave it at that. You'd have to choose fish very narrowly for such a set up, as its advocates won't even attempt to answer questions about how to adapt their system for fish that need current and flow (98% of the fish we keep). You don't want to go running up a dead end like that.
Stores will try to sell you poorly made heaters and expensive filters - you have to look at product reviews and dig through the back discussions here. It's easy to get informed - with just a little digging.

I'd go to the local library. The one where I live isn't great for aquarium info, but there are enough books there you can get a decent overview to get back into the swing of things. It should be the same in most places. I'd focus on the cycle/filtration, and then on the needs of the fish that catch your eye - hardness, pH, temperature, flow, space, etc. Build it up from there and it should go well.


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## Maruff (Jun 28, 2010)

First I want to say thank you to everyone.

The tank I'm looking at is 29-30. But may get my old old 20G out.

Oh another questions are the planted tanks mostly short and long or just reg dimension tank. They seem short and long to me but may be that they are huge tanks and the pics make them look small  

Oh before I forget are internal filters the old filters operated by an air pump and you had to put the white floss stuff and charcoal in it?
Will a "kit" light be able to run a light that gives off light for plants or will I need to buy a special one? (can I put light in that sentence anymore times)

I will def check with the library I have access to 2 so maybe they will have something. 

Thanks so much I look forward to getting started gotta start saving up money

Thank you all!!!


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

I like Walstad's book and have read it. Personally, I don't think it is for a beginner and would advise you to save your money until you've been doing it a while. It is full of scientific garb that you don't need to understand so much just starting out. It can put you to sleep pretty easily.

Before I started my first planted tank I read a book called "The Simple Guide to Planted Aquariums" (by Terry Anne Barber and Rhonda Wilson). It was very basic, gave me everything I needed from planning the design and included things like injecting CO2 and basic housekeeping on a planted tank. It covers everything from top to bottom and it reads well enough to not put you to sleep. BARNES & NOBLE | The Simple Guide To Planted Aquariums by Terry Anne Barber, TFH Publications, Inc. | Paperback No longer available on Amazon in hard back, but it does have a kindle edition.


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## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

Maruff said:


> First I want to say thank you to everyone.
> 
> The tank I'm looking at is 29-30. But may get my old old 20G out.
> 
> ...


any normal sized tank can be a successful planted tank but the narrow tall ones are not a good IMHO as wider short ones.

You can use the older internal filters but I don't use any mechanical filters.

any light that can give 1.5 watts /gallon (like 30 watts for a 20g) of flourescent light is good. Preferable an nice "simmering" blue white color like 6500k or so. I use lights from wall mart for tanks under 30g. The spiral incandescant replacement bulbs in round reflectors. For larger 4' tanks I just use home depot utility shop light 2 tube type lights.


my .02


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Short and long tanks are easier to light and not have lighting issues for keeping plants. If 30w was good for a tank and then you dubled the height, it would require more light for equal performance.


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## dclark61 (Jan 21, 2012)

Maruff said:


> First I want to say thank you to everyone.
> 
> The tank I'm looking at is 29-30. But may get my old old 20G out.
> 
> Oh another questions are the planted tanks mostly short and long or just reg dimension tank. They seem short and long to me but may be that they are huge tanks and the pics make them look small


Typically people just use standard sized tanks. As already mentioned, the thing you want to do is make sure you get enough light down to the plants, and of course the taller the tank, the less light they'll get.

You'll find websites that describe plants for aquariums, and they're generally categorized by the amount of light they require (low, medium, high). Each category will generally be associated with a number of lighting watts per gallon. It's basically a rule of thumb. Better is to read what kind of success people have had with different setups and different types of plants. 



Maruff said:


> Oh before I forget are internal filters the old filters operated by an air pump and you had to put the white floss stuff and charcoal in it?


That's one type of internal filter, but there are also internal filters that use a motor to pull water through them. Take a look at the ones sold at Amazon.com, Petsmart etc.. Actually if you have one that uses an air pump, the air bubbles hitting the surface would cause surface agitation and would defeat the purpose of using an internal filter to minimize surface agitation. ;-) And again, it all depends on what types of plants you plan to have. Some tend to require additional CO2 added to the tank, others do fine without it.



Maruff said:


> Will a "kit" light be able to run a light that gives off light for plants or will I need to buy a special one? (can I put light in that sentence anymore times)


Again, you need to research the lighting requirements for the types of plants you plan to put in your tank. Some low-light plants will do fine with a standard hood light ... maybe not thrive, but survive. For other lights, people will recommend that you have a certain wattage-per-gallon (say 2 or 3) and that the lights be of a certain color spectrum (10000K, actinic etc.). The amount of complexity you get into will generally depend on what kind of plants you try to keep.


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## ro laren (May 3, 2012)

> the tank will be in my bedroom so I'll need a quiet filter system can anyone point me in the right direction?


I sleep in the same room as my tank and use the Aquaclear 50. It's extremely quiet. It wasn't at first, but I took the impeller apart and lubricated the impeller shaft with a very thin coating of Vaseline and it was inaudible from then on. It's a very cheap filter to run too, you pretty much never have to change the filter media (if you take the carbon out).


Edit: Added quote


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## Mesmer (Aug 6, 2012)

New too! Someone handed me the Marine Aquarium Handbook by Martin A. Moe. Lots of good info I guess, but not the reading cover to cover sort...
We have a little used Nano-cube. Great pump etc, no noise at all. If rocks weren't so happy and critters on them not blowing around I would wonder if it was running at all, but couldn't tell you what kind it is. Sorry. Good luck, we took the plunge because everyone told us that it isn't nearly as hard as it used to be to keep up a salt tank.
Meegs


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