30 litre BiOrb

crazy cat lady

I have a 30 litre BiOrb aquarium which has been sitting idle for a while. My daughter has recently developed a thing for Finding Nemo so I have decided to bring the aquarium back to life over the coming weeks!

This evening I have ordered the replacement filter stone things, service pack and also a heater. I'm going to buy new stones/gravel in the coming days also as like I said, the tank has been sitting idle for a while.

I have only ever had cold water fish so this will be my first tropicl fish experience, so any tips or advice you could give me for getting started would be great.

What water treatment would you recommend?

How long would you leave the tank up and running before adding fish?

Which fish are good starter fish? And how many would you have in a 30L tank?

And then, where do I go to get these fish?

Thank you in advance for any replies

Silverfish

The clownfish (if that's what you're going to get) is a marine fish, and would not be suitable for a Biorb. Sorry.

Some tetras would be okay in a biorb I think. Or I have 10 chilli rasboras, they are beautiful little fish, and they'll be magnified by the biorb glass. Or guppies, guppies are a really nice colourful sturdy little fish.

You'll need to 'cycle' the tank before adding fish, this can take 4-6 weeks. If you can get a liquid drop test kit, that will help you to keep the water perfect, tell you when the tank is cycled and when it'll be okay to add fish, and will help prevent fish dying.

There's a sticky at the top of the forum on cycling, it looks complicated at first, but it's not really. Basically the fish waste is broken down by bacteria in the filter. The fish emit waste, the waste is ammonia, which is harmful to fish. This is then broken down into NitrItes, which are less toxic (but still harmful) which is then broken down into nitrAtes, which are not harmful in small doses.

Basically, you want to have these bacteria built up to deal with the fish waste, before adding the fish.

You can do a quick cycle by getting a bit of sponge off someone who already has a tank, be wary of the 'bacteria in a bottle' or 'Cycle' product, as the bacteria can't stay live in a bottle.

You'll need to treat the water with a water conditioner before adding to the tank to remove chlorine, and chloramine. You can use Prime (I find this to be the best, 1 bottle lasts forever) or stress coat, etc.

crazy cat lady

Silverfish wrote: »

The clownfish (if that's what you're going to get) is a marine fish, and would not be suitable for a Biorb. Sorry.

Some tetras would be okay in a biorb I think.

As much as I would love my own little nemo and Dory, I found out a long time ago that it wasn't an option Thank you anyway

kylith

I have one with 2 dwarf gouramis and 5 neon tetras. Because it's a high tank there's not as much surface area as in a rectangular tank of the same volume, so you can't have as many fish in it.