Please advise me- which tank is better?

[TremoloGreen]

Hi, I am getting my husband a fish tank for Christmas. He is new to keeping fish as pets but works with danio rerios so knows the basics of keeping/breeding them. I want to get him a small-mid-size tank for now to get started. I'm looking at these two, can anyone advise if one is better? I don't know what type of fish he'll be interested in, but probably something easy to start with, then a couple of fancier fish once he gets going.

Classic [[http://www.swelluk.com/aquarium/fish-tanks-404/aquael-classic-1785/aquael-classic-60-bow-aquarium-kit-333230.html]]
Premium [[http://www.swelluk.com/aquarium/fish-tanks-404/marina-2004/marina-premium-54l-aquarium-set-black-661480.html]]

Thanks!

Ugh, why have my links gone wrong?!

AquaEl

Marina

I'd go with the Marina. Hagen is a good brand and the tank is bigger- actually 54 litres is a brilliant size because it doesn't take long to clean but it's big enough to actually be able to put some fish in there .

The heater is a reasonable size (not sure why the smaller tank comes with such a big heater ). The filter should be reliable enough but comes with a lot of bells and whistles that you don't need. I would ditch the zeolite and carbon and just run it with plain sponges. The instructions will probably say to replace the plain sponges every month or so, but ignore it- they only need rinsing in tap water and replacing once they start losing their shape.

Don't forget a fishless cycle :) You'll need a water test kit but I'm guessing your DH knows about water chemistry and whatnot. 54 litres isn't really big enough for those danios but he probably fancies a change anyway.

That's so helpful, thank you. I think it comes with a free testing kit anyway, but I am just buying the tank and his parents are giving him some cash to buy any other bits he needs and stock it. Exciting!

Don't rinse in tap water! Eau told me so. She just had a duff autocorrect.

Rinse the sponge in tank water...otherwise you will kill all the good bacteria.

Bugger, I did it again! Tank water, not tap water. The chlorine in tap water will kill the good bacteria. Well spotted, MyFirstName, thank you.