initial set up for freswater aquarium

Question
Hello,
I have a 9 year old girl who has been dying to take care of some peet fish.  Consider me ignorant in this subject so I really need all the help that I can get in starting up an aquarium.

I am currently in the tropics (82.4 - 89.6 deg F)
- do i still need to have a heater?
Planning to get a 5-gallon tank first.
- what equipment do i need?  
- what filter is best for this?
I am not planning to use live rocks.
I want to maintain this small-sized tank for the next 4 years or so.
Which types of fish are easy to maintain considering what we know (or not know) about these beautiful water animals.
what is nitrogen cycle  -can you explain in simple terms? =)

Thank you for spending time on my questions.  Any addditional info that you think might be useful in  my endeavor will greatly be appreciated.

-

Answer
Hi Ethel,
How wonderful your girl is so eager to take care of some fish!! ;-)

I'll answer your questions simply and down to vital basics. It's not always necessary to go into elaborate detail.

*I'm not sure how much the temperature -does- fluctuate during changing seasons but if the room temp might drop below 68-69 F then I would consider getting a heater. I love visatherm brand, its very reliable.

*One note about the tank size. Can you go up to a 10 gallon? Ten gallons are usually inexpensive and often cost less than a 5 gal. The reason for this is it helps for you to start out with a decent size tank like this which allows more room for fish and water quality would remain a bit more stable.

*Basic equipment for an aquarium:

-*Cover and light ( try to get florescent lighting)

-*Filter (I like hang on the back power filters the best)

-*Heater

-*Thermometer

-*Aquarium siphon hose (for partial water changes)

-*Spare 5gal bucket reserved just for aquarium use

-*Water conditioner

-*and of course a fine grain gravel, plants, and a few decorations for creating little retreats for the fish.

~               ~                     ~

Some good beginner species are-

Zebra and leopard danios, black skirt tetras, platies, cherry barbs, Neon tetras, glowlight tetras, lemon tetras, white cloud mountain minnows, dwarf gouramis, corydoras catfish....

I like aquariums that contain a balanced fish society (if you may. ;)

One where the stocking scheme follows similar to this route-

*6-7 small schooling species; danios, tetras,
*1 tad bit larger fish that stands out from the rest (dwarf gourami)
*3-4 corydoras catfish schooling on the bottom.

Remember this is for a ten gallon tank. For a five-gallon, you'd probably want to cut the numbers to just 4-5 little schooling fish and -maybe- 2 corydoras on the bottom.

Before you do any stocking of the tank. Make sure you are aware of the cycling that must go on with all new setups. Neglecting this will lead to fish loss and sicknesses.

All aquariums must establish a "biofilter" which is beneficial bacteria that live on all surfaces of the aquarium. Fish produce ammonia, which is deadly to them even in trace amounts.
The good bacteria get rid of the ammonia first by converting it over to what's called- "nitrite"--- nitrite is still toxic but more good bacteria develop to convert the "nitrite" into completely safe "nitrate". you keep nitrate in check by your usual maintenance partial water changes.

~You can easily test for all three levels, ammonia,nitrite,nitrate with a simple test kit from your petstore. It's really helpful to know the levels of each to determine where your tank is in cycling and especially if your fish are safe. The test kits will come complete with full instructions and advise about what the levels mean and what action to take.

But the Biofilter is not yet present in a new setup and it takes 4-6 weeks to establish fully to keep your fish safe. If you go ahead and stock your aquarium with many fish too soon after you set the tank up ammonia will spike very quickly and the fish will suffer.

You must stock your tank very slowly and gradual. Adding only 1-2 fish at first. Waiting at least a good week or two and during that time testing the water for ammonia and, if after testing the ammonia is ZERO, you may add 2-3 more small fish. But make sure you test the water the day after to insure the biofilter was not overwhelmed. Sometimes it needs time to catch up to the extra fish added. Continue this careful process until your aquarium and fully stocked.

During times of trouble when your fish are acting listless, or the test results are showing rapidly climbing ammonia or nitrite levels. Immediately do a 50% water change. Using your aquarium siphon hose.

Always make sure the replacement water is treated with a water conditioner and the temp of the water is equal to or just a bit warmer than your tank's temp.

I do hope this will help you out on your aquarium keeping. The keys to successful fishkeeping are lots of knowledge. You can never learn too much and I encourage you to read in the fishkeeping magazines and books available now that are very up-to-date and offer practical advice on everything related to fish care. Just one word of warning; is to really never trust the petstore advice, because in my experience they are almost always wrong.


Best wishes!
Karen~