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Basic Starter Help.

914 Views 3 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  trigger, 
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Hello, I am new to the forum. I have a few questions. My parents have always owned aquariums and they were always beautiful. However, they were the ones to take care of them. I picked up a few things, like fish per gallon, cycling, and other things. I am afraid of messing up though. Can you steer me away from the basic beginner mishaps and give me a few pointers? :-?
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bearwithfish
the hardest part for most beginners is patience.... actually that is the hardest part for all fish keepers.... take the time to research and be sure things are the way you want them BEFORE the stock... you will still make a few errors and thats ok..... my first and largest mistake in the beginning of fish keeping was not letting things cycle fully..... with cichlids so far my biggest error was the ever popular impulse purchase....
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I'll try and help of the top of my head.

1) You will get more help posting this in the Tank Setups area
2) It would be nice to know what you are looking to setup eg. (tank size, stocking)

The fish per gallon thing is bullocks and does not working for cichlids. The amount of fish you can put in one's tank is determined by tank size, filtration, fish compatibility/agression, and their adult size. There are some cookie cutter setups in the library for reference.

Since you already know about cycling you are a step ahead of the average beginner.

If your just starting and haven't decided what size tank you want, a very common tank is the 75g. They can be obtained fairly cheap and you have quite a few stocking options.

For a beginner a decent canister filter and Hang-on-back power filter are up your alley. The more advanced aquarists use sumps and/or a combination of all.

If you give us more info I'm sure others will chime in.
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trigger
read, read and read before you start off doing anything. Try to find out what you want and if you have the picture in your mind, start acting... There are some articles in the library section that may help you out. Have a look @ http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/q ... e_list.php and @ http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/a ... p_list.php

And post back with any questions that may pop up in your mind :)
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