arjin101

Without a doubt. Regular maintenance (gravel vac) is really all you need.

Fun lets see: 1. What is the largest tank you've ever cared for? A 280 gal Reef. Was a great tank2. What is the most amount of tanks you've kept? Why? Not counting the store, personally I kept roughly 1000 gallons +/- when I was at my most 3. What is the next plant you wish to have in your tank? Not much of a plant but a style. I want to do an iwagumi something about the carpet and rock. 4. What is the biggest challenge you face with maintenance? Being lazy and saying "oh it can wait for later"5. How often do you test your tank? Monthly or when there is a problem, see the answer to "4"6. Do you have aquarium salt on hand and what was the last time you used it? Aquarium salt is a must. I use it for quarantine and health. 7. Have you ever kept a tank with a planted substrate, what did you like or dislike? I have not use the newer planted substrates. Flourite was ok didn't see much difference. 8. What is your favorite thingamajig that you have for your tank? (something you use) My python by far9. What is your favorite color and do you have any fish in that color? blue yes currently have a patriotic red white and blue dumbo betta10. Choose 2: Seiryu stone, Ohko stone, Red Lava Rock, Mopani wood, Manzanita wood. Mopani and Manzanita.

Wow! Going to show my hobbyist age here. Probably my favorite is the old undergravel filter. It works plain and simple. If I carried a higher bio-load I would use powerheads and sometimes put reverse-flow-kits on them with prefilter sponges on them and a small HOB to clean up the water column.

Goldfish can be considered "dirty" as long as you have good filtration, do your weekly maintenance you should be able to keep 3-4 in a tank that size when they are full grown. Depending on your maintenance regimen and how much filtration (not to be confused with water flow) you could keep more. My suggestion is let your skills decide and if you are not opposed to rehoming start with a few more and grow let them grow into it. 4 2-inch fish in 125 looks kinda barren and leads to "oh I can add a few more" then you run into a tank filled with 50 fish and not willing to get rid of any. (What? Me? No, I never did anything like that, I don't know what you're talking about)

Like what the others have said it kind of depends on what you keep and how you are using it. If you only have one small tank or specific species that need water parameters that are very tight RO water can be expensive and you have put additives in it to reach the parameters you need (remineralization etc) Most fish people keep can do well on dechlorinated tap water. I use to tell my customers it depends on how far down the hobby rabbit hole you want to go. I had some that basically turned into chemists by the amount of additives they put in their water while some just squirt some Amquel in their tank and called it good.

I have several stores that sell fish and aquarium products. The three that would be considered LFS, one is a former employee of the other two stores. He has a nice store but expensive and unless you are big dollar clientele his employees are very cocky and pretend to know more than they really do. The other two stores are owned by the same person. They are very expensive and have the attitude of selling incompatible things only to sell you more after it dies. When I go into these stores I feel like I am being accosted by an over zealous used car sales man with a lot full of lemons. We also have several big box stores. We have a new one that just opened "pet supplies plus" which the staff is good, take good care of their tanks and willing to learn, however they don't have many tanks and not a big selection of supplies. My go to now is to do my research and buy off Aquarium Co-op and Amazon for supplies. For live stock I typically only get fish from the big box stores or if I go out of town to the Minneapolis area or Omaha both of which are about 4 +/- hours away.

I went to my local ACE and they have a waterbed (yeah youngsters it was a thing) refilling pump. It's the same thing as the python sink attachment. Was about 5 dollars. I used it for years until the dog ran through and got caught on the hose and busted it off. That's a story for another time. lol

Thank goodness for search function. Thank you!

Merry Christmas! I have been keeping aquariums on and off since I was 8 years old, during my prime I had roughly 1500 gallons of water ranging from bettas to a reef tank (I was an aquatics manager at a LFS to feed my addiction). I was also a mod on a fish keeping board during that time. Over the last few years I have been on a hiatus. Unfortunately while surfing youtube (the rabbit holes have a strong pull) I ran across one of Cory's videos. I got sucked back in. So now I am in the process of acquiring a tank and equipment. As the title says I live in SD so the LFS options are minimal. I plan on starting small unless I can talk the wife into a bigger tank. I am going to probably start with a 10ish gallon low tech planted with some nano fish. I seem to have fallen for shrimp (Neocardia sp) and chili rasboras (Boraras brigittae). In the future I would like to get back into breeding. In real life I am a nurse (cardio/pulmonary and oncology) I am married and my wife and I had an amazing baby girl (my possible "in" for getting a bigger tank - insert diabolical laughter here) about 6 months ago. I love hunting, fishing, camping, bushcraft, hiking and amateur radio. I am also a nerd at heart so all the geeky sci-fi, fantasy; games (board and pen and paper. Not so much the video games), shows, movies etc is my jam. I tend to lurk more then chat until I am more comfortable. It amazes me how much the hobby has changed so I will have a lot of re-learning to do. I appreciate all the good information and look forward to enjoying the hobby again with y'all!!