Considering a fish tank?

We have been tossing around the idea of getting a fish tank. What is the best set up for a tank and the best fish for beginners. We are not afraid of the work involved but a low maintenance set up would be great.

You have not given any information on what you really want.
Tank size etc. is what you must decide on your own according to your budget or available space at home. If it is flexible then it is the best, since we can have more room to adjust your plan. Just how much do you want to spend on the whole setup?

You must also at least decide on if you want tropical fish, or non tropical fish.

Without more of the minimal required information, we can throw hundreds of different setups at you that might not even fit into your expectation.

Tropical fish is what we were thinking. We discussed maybe $200-300 budget. We have beautiful footed wall table we were thinking of using as a stand. I dont care for those background pictures people attach to their tanks, so those are definatly out. The available space is flexible to a point, the outlets would be the concern, but we could move a thing or two around. To start we were thinking a 50 gallon tank. I have seen some different shaped tanks online, other than the standard rectangle. I am leaning towards a hexagon shaped tank, but that depends on the cost. I'm figuring maybe $100-175 for set up and a additional $100 or so for the fish.

Fish is something very new to us, at least a tank set up. So any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Just a thought, are salt water tanks, fish and accessories more expensive. I have seen some really beautiful salt water fish.

Here is the list of basic (must have) items you need in order to run a tropical fish tank.
Fish tank,
Filter system,
Heater,
Air pump,
thermometer,
water conditioner,
fish food,


The other things you need for tank maintenance,
aquarium vacuum,
fish net,
two 5 gallon bucket,
algae scraper.

More items needed for aquarium nitrogen cycle,
API freshwater master kit,
Pure ammonia.

More items which are not must have but they are good to have.
Substrate,
tank cover/hood,
Lights,
decoration.

You would really be looking at beyond your maximum budget of $200~300, and since you want a hexagon shaped tank, your best bet is to get a used one from ebay for cheap. A 50 gallon might also be out of your budget.
Check out the prices of these hexago shaped fish tanks from Petsmart.


It is also recommended to use a real fish stand instead of other furniture which are not designed to hold heavy weight. A 50 gallon tank filled with water, equipment, substrate could weight well over 400~500lbs.

I also wouldn't recommend saltwater fish for beginners. They are more expensive to have, harder to maintain.

Are you willing to scale down on the tank size or do you wish to raise your budget limit?