Need suggestions: Articles for aquarium beginners

[vinz]

Hi, I'm looking for ideas for beginner articles. We are waiting for a new version of the forum software which will come with a CMS (content management system). This will allow us to publish articles.

For a start, I would like to build up a small collection of articles for aquarium beginners. The articles can lead to other and they should be simple and friendly enough that a higher primary or lower secondary school student can understand. The obvious ones:

- How to start an aquarium? (Should lead to cycling, adding fishes, choosing fishes etc)
- What is tank cycling?
- How to cycle a tank?
- How to add fish to a tank?
- How to choose fish?

Later we may look for volunteers to write and edit the articles.

[Goondoo]

I believe it will be most helpful if it is possible to chun out the top 20 most asked question.

[vinz]

For example? I believe some of the top 20 questions will be answered by some of the beginner articles... we could probably link the top 20 questions to actual articles.

[David Moses Heng]

1. How much money must i fork out for the start up?

2. What is CO2 injection and what does CO2 do?

Can I contribute the materials that I wrote for my workshops?

[vinz]

Altum Lover,

Of course. We will be sourcing for writers and editors later.

[essabee]

Joining the forum after being more than 40 years in the hobby - my questions were more of the nature of what the others are doing with their hobby?

[stormhawk]

There's always the question among newbies, as to what is the best diet for their fish or inverts. That might form a good article. Though I think species-specific articles would be best. At least it will deal directly with that particular species alone, instead of a general article.

[random2]

Think most of the present articles suggest ways of starting up an aquarium, equipments, cycling and so on.

Maybe what I missed when I started the hobby was knowledge on types of aquariums or maybe the approach on researching fauna. maybe an article on types of setup like general community aquariums, biotopes, species tanks and such can be explained.

More than facts, the approach to decide on what a beginner would like to do with her/his tank would be good. It might sound a bit vague, but I think such an article will have readers.

Some things like -
Community tanks
Planted tanks
Biotope tanks
Species tanks
Setups for -
bottom dwellers
catfishes
killies
loaches
and ofcourse - tank busters

[sailing_derrick]

When i was a noob some of the most important questions i had were
- how many fish can i have in my tank
- can these fish go together
- is this equipment good
- is my fish sick and if so how do i make it better

[diazman]

i asked this questions when i first started to keep fish.. might sound silly though ..

what is aged water?
how should i aged the water?
how many fish can i include in a tank?
how do i put a newly bought fish into a tank?
what type of filtration should i use?
how many types of medication should i buy for my fish?

[Fuzzy]

1) What is a good size of tank to start with?

2) How do I find out what species are suitable for a community tank?

3) How do I choose what substrate to have in the tank?

4) How do I prevent algae from gaining a foothold in my tank?

5) Why is Anti-Chlorine / Chloramine essential?

6) How many fish can I put in an "X" sized tank?

7) Is a Canister filter necessary for smaller tanks?

What plants can I grow with basic lighting and equipment?

[Blue Whale]

1. I want to start a tank, how much should I set aside? What are the things I should get? Should I go for 2ft? 3ft? 4ft? 5ft? (why cannot get 5ft?)

2. Can I add fish immediately after I setup my tank, put in my sand, planted and get my filter going?

3. What sorta filter is going to be for my tank? Some talk about flow rate, how fast should it be?

4. What kinda lights should I get? What is MH? What is FL? What is PH? How can I differentiate them?

5. Water must be left over-night? why? Fish can die is it?

6. How should I choose my plant so that my fish will not die?

7. Where can I get my supplies? Equipments? Plant Nutrients? Fishs? Plants? Tubes? tanks?

8. Planted Tank must be dosed how many weeks upon planting? So what constitute Healthy plant? What color should I be look out for? Brown means plant dead? Green means healthy? Red means my plant is bleeding right?

[Fingerling]

haha, when i was a beginner all i wanted to know was all sorts of diseases that would affect my fishes, and their cures and remedies, so that my precious fish wouldnt die on me!!!!

i wouldnt mind giving a hand to create a list of different diseases affecting different species of fishes in detail with their cures and remedies.

[smoove]

I'm really a neophyte and these are real questions from me:

1. What should I know about substrates, how to choose and lay them in sequence?
2. How to choose the right plants for your kind of substrate?
3. What are the basic supplements a newly set-up tank needs?

The rest of my questions were raised by the brothers above.

[luenny]

I started this hobby a long time ago when there is no canister filter and CO2 injection system. Tanks were simple then and I have the sun for my plants. The questions I have back then were:

- How do I prepare my tank for the fishes?
- How do I know which fishes to get and how many of them to get?
- How do I ensure my tubifex stays fresh for a longer time? (At that time live tubifax were the in thing - so was undergravel filter).
- Where can I get gravel and stones and drift wood for my aquarium (That time, most aquarium don't sell such things, you have to go find it yourself).

I don't know if this will help since things have changed so much.

[[C]irRuS]

I feel that there should be an article that will guide beginner with low tech, low maintenance, and most important low cost setup for planted tank.

It is always better to start with a low cost setup at the beginning, as beginner do not know how long this new hobby will last.

It will be good to start from the very basic:
- using of cheap substrate such as lapis sand with base fertiliser
- guide for plants that can survive well in low tech environment
- guide to setup DIY co2

[schizome]

For me and I'm sure many people who do not even bother to step foot in this hobby due to the thought of high costs:

What is the cheapest, most low budget nano tank that I can set up in my room/office including plants and fish?

[pcfreak]

1. How to stop my fishes from dying every time i start the hobby (Nitrogen cycle)
2. What filter should i get so that i can cater for future expansion.
3. Good beginner fishes.
4. How to take losses (after naming them individually and they die on you) gracefully and learn from experience.

[ranmasatome]

what are the basic things i need to start a tank?
What is high-tech and what is low-tech?
How come my tank looks so sparse?
What are the different kinds of gravel and how to use them?
What are the different kinds of fertilizers and how to use them?
What is PPM? How do we measure it?
Why must have a certain amount of ppm?

just a few i thought off the top of my head.

[silane]

- how to setup a shrimp tank?
- what are the equipment needed? fan or chiller?
- is CO2 necessary for shrimp tank?
- should my shrimp tank be pretty bare, or heavily planted?
- what kinds of shrimps are good for beginners?
- what are the basic plant for shrimp tanks?