Hello - I'm new to the hobby!

[wolvex10]

Hello,

I'm new to this hobby. I'm building a 28 gal tank for the purpose of getting my hands wet and teaching my son about keeping pets. I have a 28 gal. bow front tank (Marineland) and a simple power head filter for 30 gals. I've put about 35lbs of gravel in my tank (25 natural, 10 black) and some decorations. I'm now waiting to see how this settles out before buying fish.

I have questions about cleanlisness, maintenance, fish selection, and a bunch more. Hopefully I'll get a few posts out. Looking forward to meeting and learning from you.

Thanks!

 

[dragonfish]

Welcome to MFK. Lots of good info and knowledgeable people here.

 

[HunterX]

I assume you have an undergravel filter with the powerhead? Thats ok, but I would add a small powerfilter too. Welcome to the hobby!

 

[wolvex10]

Perhaps I mispoke (miswrote??). I have a power filter, but I have no undergravel filtration. Most of what I read suggested that UGF was ok, but could be avoided with other bio filter approaches. I'm planning on adding some additional filtration that will stay in my power filter permanently to be a bio filter. Without UGF I hope I will have an easier time of keeping the gravel clean with easier vaccuming.

But what the heck do I know? Only what I read in a book or two. Happy to hear opinions.

 

[Red Devil]

welcome and hope to see you on posts..

 

[HunterX]

You certainly dont need an undergravel filter, on the other hand your gravel is just sitting there why not use it for more biological filtration? They are cheap and with or without it, you'll have to vacuum the gravel during water changes. Not the best if you want to have live plants in the substrate though. In any case I always run more than one filter in case one breaks or stops for whatever reason. It also gives you more capacity for the inevitable overfeeding, missed water changes, and impulse fish you had to buy!

 

[wolvex10]

Thanks HunterX,

A backup filter is an excellent idea. I suspect I wil be easily susceptible to the impulse fish. I'm planning on starting with a plan for very few fish and to give it time so that I can "impulsively" add a few along the way once my hands get a little wet.