Well, this is slightly amuzing.....

[AngelLeah1981]

The tank in these two photos is going to be my sump and is now being temporarily used as a freshwater fish tank. I'm moving in 6-9 months....thought I'd put that in there since this seems so weird. lol. ha ha. My husband just deployed and since I can't use my fantastic 120 gallon yet I thought I would put this 40 gallon to good use. I figured the fish could keep me company and give me something to do. Anyways, it's very bare and I'd like to keep it that way because the more I buy the more $ I'm out when I give my fish to the lfs and move about 1,000 miles away and set up my saltwater tank. I have some questions because I've never done freshwater fish before. I told the lfs I would rather not have any gravel or sand and they told me to let the tank sit for 2 days and bring a sample of my water in and they will test it and tell me if I have to get sand or gravel....that it all depends on my water quality. Is this true? I'm hoping to get away with no sand and gravel.....b/c of money and hassle. I want this to be as simple as possible but I also don't want my fish to die. I put 2 handfuls of marble rocks and a teeny tiny plant in there just because I had it from years ago from a very small tank. Also, as you can see in that first pic after I put my water conditioner and PH balancer in the water some of it settled on the bottom and is just sitting there like sugar or sand. Will this go away? Is this bad? These are the chemicals I put in and the equipment I have:
Tetra Aqua - Aqua Safe water conditioner - new with BioExtract and Tetra Easy Balance water treatment with Nitraban. 40 gallon tank, 20-40 Aqua Tech water filtration, heater rated for 30-60 gallon, large air stone with old very small pump, a glass cover and basic lighting, and a thermometer. Any advice would so be appreciated.

Also, I don't know if these pics are going to come out right and if they don't here is the link to the photobucket...just click on the first two pics.
biorhythm - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
Thanks.
Leah

[glampka]

It's an lfs - they're going to try to sell you something - that's their job. Sand/gravel like in a saltwater tank would give you a bed for bacteria to grow in. You can do the same thing with a canister filter or biowheel.

[Matt Rogers]

I agree with glampka.
What type of fish were you thinking about?

[Diver_1298]

Like any biological system. waste = ammonia and too much will kill any fish freshwater or marine.
There's no reason why you can't go bare bottom
You still have to build of your biological filtration slowly and make sure you have adequate filtration to cover all the fish you plan on putting in the tank.

Jim

[AngelLeah1981]

It's an lfs - they're going to try to sell you something - that's their job. Sand/gravel like in a saltwater tank would give you a bed for bacteria to grow in. You can do the same thing with a canister filter or biowheel.

In the filter I have it has a thing that traps bacteria and you're not supposed to replace it. Is this good enough?

I want some African Cichlids and I'm maybe thinking about getting 2 blood parrots but an hour ago I fell head over heals for a Red Devil. He was so cool. He wasn't the prettiest fish in the tank but he WAS SO COOL. He kept coming to the tank and looking at me when the other fish were ignoring me. I was there for 20 minutes and the whole time he was right there watching me. If another fish would come by he would chase them away.....not too aggressivly though. It was cute. I'd put my finger on the tank and move it and he would follow it and he kept opening his mouth and he seemed like the only one in the tank with a real personality. He was so cool. Can you mix these three types of fish together?

PetsMart tested my water tonight and said it was perfect but to try to clear up the sand looking stuff in the bottom of the tank so I came home and syphoned it all out into a trashcan and stirred and stirred and messed with it for a long time and poured it back in the tank and it just settled right back in the bottom like before. sigh. I was wondering if it was because my water temp is at 75 instead of 78 like I was previously told it should be but they said as long as it is between 74-78 it is fine. Is this true?
Thanks.

[ReefPlayground]

I keep my reef systems and cichlids systems between 75 and 77. I like the lower temps as it slows down the fish metabolism rates and the growth rates on different species of algae.

A bare bottom would be fine. But if you are doing Africans / or CA/SA cichlids, do a sand bed. with cichlids, it depends on which species and amounts of each species you plan on keeping. BTW - Make a list of what you want before you actually start buying fish, and make sure you can mix everything together. There are certain species you would want to add first, second, etc etc, last when you are dealing with cichlids. so do your research.

Certain species require sand beds for nest building. Lets use something common, Cobalt Blue Zebras as an example. Say you are going to keep a group of cobalts. 1 Male /w 3-5 Females. What you want to do is let that male settle a little, he is going to harass those females 24/7. Giving him a spot to make his nest will keep him A- more calm, B- stationary. Calming him down will keep the stress of the females, and keeping him near his nest will discourage him from going all over the tank chasing the females. With respect to zebras, a sand bed helps.

Now, say you are doing Haps. A lot of hap species are sand sifters - ie: rostratus, buchos etc. You want t keep a sand bed for these species because they like to occasionally sand through it looking for food.

A sand bed with africans can also help in regards to feeding. Certain species. Xeno's for example, do not readily take prepared foods. Wild african or CA/SA species do not always as well. Having a sand bed with species like xeno's will be beneficial as you can inject the sand bed with things like live bloodworms. This will increase the fish's activity levels as well as get it to eat prepared foods.