Tank for a young child

maria · Post by **maria** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 1:21 pm

The other Jeff,

Your setup sounds hilarious. I'm sure it's nothing like that, except it must be alot of fun to watch the "lobster".

I think I will be challenging you, or at least sharing that, Master of growing algea title.

sherrymitchell · Post by **sherrymitchell** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 1:48 pm

Maria, I have several of the Eclipse tanks and absolutely LOVE them. They are a great first tank and perfect for what you are trying to do. You can pick them up on sale at many of the big box pet stores, or look on Craigslist..... I started back into the hobby ten years ago with a Eclipse 12 gallon tank, and still have that one. I've also got the 37 gallon and a 3 gallon Eclipse tank. They are terrific tanks!

The lighting in the 12 would grow anubia, java fern, crypts and anything low light. You could really go to town with that girl theme too. I think it will be adorable -- there are so many cool ornaments out there to decorate with.

Heck, your little fish keeper may even like a few brightly colored plastic plants in addition to the real ones..... I know that's probably taboo to say here, but hey, they don't die, and regular plants don't come in fluorescent colors, LOL....

As for fish, there have been good suggestions made here. The little girl may like to have a look at the local fish store to see what she likes too. Whatever you do, PLEASE DO NOT go with goldfish. They need much more room than a small tank can provide. Once she gets used to this tank, you can always build her a pond for goldfish, LOL.

Anyway, the eclipse is an incredibly simple system. I rinse the filter media pad once a week when I do water changes, and replace the pad once a month. That's it. The only other maintenance is water changes, and any tank would require that once a week anyway.

Good luck. Let us know what you decide on!

JMLenke · Post by **JMLenke** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 2:11 pm

For the girls tank, what you might want to get her is the Glowfish that are for sale, they arent the cheapest fish but they are VERY bright and zip around the tank.

maria · Post by **maria** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 2:58 pm

Whew! Good to know that eclipse is easy solution. I like the idea of a couple of plants in her tank, but I do plan on making it bright, loud and link, she's four what fun is a naturalistic tank when you are four?

Glowfish... OMG! The web photos I've found are pink, that would go pretty well in the tank.

Sherry, I'm limiting her picking out ability, probably will let her choose between two, sounds cruel but otherwise she'll want a nice big fat goldfish. "Just like my favorite snack mommy". I think if I stick with a princess castle theme it will be fun and yet horrendously tacky at the same time.

OMG! My husbands mother owned a pet store when he was little so he's had every decoration and common fish in his youth. I never had an aquarium, so when I was like "oh my gosh honey look, its a treasure chest that opens and BUBBLES", he was doing the *big* eyeroll, he's like"Maria, that's been around for more than 25 years, I had one of those as a kids.

At first I tried to think of how to pull the two themes together pink princess and naturalistic but it just didn't gel. Thanks for all the suggestions.

Ltrepeter2000 · Post by **Ltrepeter2000** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 3:27 pm

You could have the big bad forest across the river from the Princess castle, make it a setting from one of the movies as a far off snapshot of movies like Beauty and the Beast or Cindarella. You could even do a Wizard of Oz theme and make a yellow brick road to the castle and have fields of hairgrass on either side. Get a set of ruby slippers to put at the beginning of the YBR.

maria · Post by **maria** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 5:03 pm

Those are some cool ideas! Which leads me to another big question.

What makes something "aquarium safe" especially for something like red slippers or if you repainted a castle cinderella blue? I was worried that toxins could leach out of non aquarium specific products.

Might be a good question to ask at an aquarium store if no one knows here.

I love the forest/river/castle idea. You could do the river pretty easily with colored gravel, and get a little bridge to go over it. I also like the asymetrical idea where its not a chunky castle right in the middle. This will be going in a 12 gallon one so have to keep the scale right too. I bet I put so much stuff in there, only one glofish could fit, and it would have to be a skinny one.

sherrymitchell · Post by **sherrymitchell** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 6:16 pm

You could paint a background for the tank, which gets taped onto the back of the tank.... You could do the forest, castle, yellow brick road, whatever you want and it's not in the tank, so no toxicity issues there. Most fired (shiney) ceramics are fine, as are epoxy or plastic ornaments from fish shops and internet fish places..... Krylon spray paint is non-toxic -- the artists at the National Aquarium in D.C. recently told me they used it in the past, but it can flake off. There are also spray paints that are used to cover plastic. I've used them on pipes in my pond with no problems too.

The castle could be offset to the left side of the tank to hide the filter intake, with bunches of plants on the other side to balance it.... The background is also a great idea because it will give the appearance of a lot of stuff, without a lot of stuff taking up space in the tank.

This is so cool. I'm excited for this little girl. I had one of those bubbling treasure chests when I was a kid too. I loved it.

maria · Post by **maria** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 9:12 pm

I didn't even think of a background, they always have this characters they love, like Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella that would be nice to be able to interchange them on the scenery backdrop, kind of like peeking out of a tree or something.

This is why this hobby is so dangerous. I found an inexpensive on a 12 gallon Eclipse tank, now I think I need a larger tank to fit a decent castle in, I mean fish have to be able to swim through the castle, right? They can't just have this big thing in their tank blocking them. Argh!

Staying small with this one, I swear!

sherrymitchell · Post by **sherrymitchell** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 9:43 pm

Maria, the castle won't block them. They'll find a way around it, and besides, Endlers, guppies and glo-fish are all on the small side. No problems there..... This is so cool, I should have had a girl, LOL.......

magsdez · Post by **magsdez** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 5:38 am

Maria, if you bought the eclipse 12, I have some carbon filters you can have if you're going to the next meeting. I have an eclipse 12 that my BF bought me a couple of years ago and that was my first introduction to a "real" tank. I've re-vamped it to make it higher light plant-able; which included pulling out the old lighting system (I have the bulb too if you want it) and eventually, pulling out the filter system. I wanted more room and less shadowed area underneath. That tank actually looks better than my 75gal (which I still consider in start-up phase).
Also, if you'd like, my BF's father has some yellow molly fry that are looking for a good home. I think they are old enough to go now.

Tank for a young child

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