After thinking it over some more, I don’t really see a point in the coldwater aquarium other than just having another aquarium. Instead of two 20 gallon aquariums, I think having a 30 gallon show aquarium that is 36″x12″x16″ would be better. The quarantine tank will be a 12 gallon Marineland Eclipse 12, which is around 20″x12″x12″. When deciding what to stock for the 20 gallon tank, I kept having to decide on trade-offs. 30 gallons gives a lot more flexibility.

Livestock and Flora

• 1x Betta
• 8x Cardinal Tetra
• 4x Cory cats
• 3x Otos
• some ghost shrimp
• some red cherry shrimp
• snails probably whether I like it or not
• Java Fern
• Some sword plant
• Java Moss
• Anacharis
• Cabomba

The betta is the center piece, with the cardinal tetras school about. The cory cats should be active and happy with their shoal. The other fish yet to be chosen will just swim around. The shrimp and snails will scavenge the bottom and keep the tank clean. The betta might eat the shrimp or snails. The temperature should be around 78 °F to accommodate all the fish. Driftwood will be offset to one side to allow to make the middle as open as possible. I will plant near the edges of the aquarium. Maybe add some hiding places with broken pottery.

I’m really tempted to start with the quarantine tank in my office and buy the 30 gallon tank when I get a house, whenever that will be. The cost come to $200 for the quarantine and $600 for the 30 gallon, which is better than $1200 for two 20 gallon and a quarantine. I’m saving $400 and getting more of what I want.

To start off with the quarantine tank. I’d start with the American flagfish with driftwood, java fern and java mass to get the cycling going, then add the betta. Then add some shrimp to see if they get killed. Hopefully they will reproduce. After that I will get another tank, move the american flagfish and shrimp, then add the cardinal tetras and finally the betta.

The sad thing is the lifespan of the betta is only about 2 years.

I’m not a dog or cat person, but I think fish can be pretty cool. I remember seeing koi in the Japanese Tea Garden when I was little. My cousin has a little pond in his backyard, which survived with low maintenance. It would be nice to have a house and a koi pond on the property, but judging from where I am likely to live, I don’t think I can find a property large enough. In a small property I or my neighbors would be annoyed by the noise. I’m also not too fond of paying maintenance costs. Koi are too high maintenance, because they require a lot of water and proper care. I still would like to have a small low scale pond though. I saw some wine barrel ponds and I really like the idea since wine barrels should be plentiful around here. A wine barrel holds about 55 gallons of water and is fairly deep providing enough depth to protect from predators and keeping the fish alive when the top of the pond freezes solid. It is also high enough that I don’t think kids would accidentally fall in. The barrel would be about 500 lbs when filled, so I don’t think it can be knocked over so easily. There already is a barrel in my backyard, but it is used as a planter.

Wine Barrel Pond

I want this to be as self-sufficient as possible. Plants and fish, so there’s CO2 <-> O2 conversion happening all the time, but I will add an solar aerator to increase dissolved air in the water, so the pond can support more life. I’ve identified two plants that also work in freshwater aquariums: Anacharis and Cabomba. The barrel needs a self for the plants since the light will get attenuated the deeper the pond is. I plan for the shelf to be about a foot down and take half the area. The pond will be stocked with mosquito fish, feeder goldfish and a comet goldfish. the comet is there, because I want a goldfish to get big. If it gets big enough it may warrant me building an actual pond. The bottom will be lined with gravel for bacteria to live and break down the waste from the fish. I think I also need a few floating plants, but I need to make sure they don’t block the ones on the shelf. Maybe a water lily. I think this pond should be fairly self-sufficient since it will be outdoors. I will have to do water changes once in a while and monitor the water to make sure my comet is safe. I want to get enough fish so that they may actually breed too.

Cold Freshwater Aquarium

Instead of a tropical aquarium, which requires heating, a non-heated aquarium is lower maintenance. After reading a lot, I’ve decided to go with acrylic, because it’s stronger, clearly, and less likely to break even though it scratches more easily and is more expensive. 20 gallons is the target size, because it is the largest I can go without being tempted to put in fish that require more space. A fully loaded 200 lbs tank seems somewhat manageable. I can’t put any different kind of fish when I go to 30, because those fish would do better in bigger tanks. My cutting down on the size I also cut down on the filters/lighting/heating. Most of the reading saysI would do better with a long tank rather than a tall tank. It’s better for the plants and fish, since the fish can swim further and plants get more light. The fish require about 5 water changes per hour. The plants require 2 to 4 watts of lighting per gallon. The fish require 3 to 5 watts of heat per gallon. This sets the accessories. Under gravel filters are out of vogue. Canister filters are a good choice, but the bio-wheel looks good too. For a bigger tank, I would have to use a wet/dry filter. For lighting, I’m going to choose a bulb for plants since I want them to grow. People add CO2 for aquascapes, but I’m too cheap to shell out $200 just for CO2. The plants will be getting their CO2 from the fish and air pump. I’m going to an air stone for more dissolved air in addition to the bio-wheel, which supposedly does a good job. The lights will be on a timer since I’m lazy. After adding up all the cost, it comes out to about $500 for a 20 gallon aquarium. That seems pretty steep. Ah, but what fish will I put in this cold water aquarium. I think it’s just going to be cheap fish, so I can learn how to properly take care of fish and grow plants. I’ll to stock this aquarium with shrimp and fish that might reproduce. After I’ve gotten the hang of it, I will build another aquarium for tropical fish.

Tropical Freshwater Aquarium

At first I wanted to feed the fish from the cold tank to fish in this tank, but cichlids need a larger tank. Carniverous fish are out. Bettas are beautiful, so I want a male betta. The betta will be the center piece with other fish chosen to accent it. Most likely fish which school, tetras (6 or more), cory cats (3 or more), danions (6 or more, 8 or more). Cory cats need a bigger tank, so they are out. Cardinal Tetra is the best match for temperature. I doubt the betta will bully the tetras since they school. I’d put the tetra in first, then the betta, so the betta will not be as territorial.

For quarantining the fish, I’d probably get a Eclipse 12. The 10 gallons would be enough for most fish as a short term stay before they move to the larger tank.

Considering my living situations, it will probably be 5 years before I can set this up. Reminds me a bit of selecting parts for a computer. Overall costs, $200 for wine barrel pond, $500 for cold water aquarium, $500 for tropical aquarium, $150 for quarantine tank. This makes me think that fish keeping is an expensive hobby and I haven’t even considered koi yet.

I can use the water I change from the pond/aquariums to fertilize my plants.

Much of the conclusions came from looking at liveaquaria.com and other websites.