Just set up a new aquarium...silly question
 

Dear aquarium type peeps...

The kids wanted an aquarium so we went out and bought a 29 gallon one with all the stuff yesterday. I have some saltwater experience so hopefully it won't be too tough to get a freshwater one going.

Here's the silly question. The kids bought one of those treasure divers who opens the treasure chest with an air line. He works well, but every time he opens the chest, large bubbles come out and make a somewhat annoying bubbling sound at the top of the tank. I know, I know, if you don't want bubbles, don't buy a friggin diver!! Blame the kids.

Is there anything I can do to minimize this? Would adding an air diffuser make any difference?

Also, is it still the practice to buy 2-3 "starter fish" to cycle the tank?

The bubbling sound is what it is. After time the bubbling and humming of the aquarium did not bother me, however it seemed pretty loud after my initial set-up.
Yes, still start with a few "throw away" fish and allow approx 2 weeks for the water to stabilize. Then add the good stuff.

Yes I usually use cheap gold fish, ypou can also add bio-spira to help the tank start it's cycle, check the ammonia levels daily, it will spike in a couple weeks then will disappear....

The bubbles? Not much you can do as when the air builds up in the chest it creates big bubbles, small bubbles will mwke less noise but as long as they're building up in the chest lid it'll be loud....can you prop open the chest lid?

Starter gold fish, or go to fish store and get some crup out of a used filter to seed it. Can't help on the diver.

Have you taught the children to shoot a .22 yet? It will take care of the diver, eventually ;-)

You can buy a start-up culture for the bacteria. Use filtered water and run the tank for two weeks before adding fish. The fish they will likely fall in love with will likely be cheap and short lived anyway. These will work as starter fish...

Enjoy it! Less work than saltwater.

if you work at the air problem by diverting away some of the air pressure, might help. i'm guessing your air pump doesn't adjust..buy a three-way valve, and cut the hosing to allow a second line to take half of the air pressure away to a diffuser stone that you could hide behind a plant within the tank, creating a curtain of tiny bubbles..you could even use two of these valves and send another line/diffuser stone to the other side of the tank, if it doesn't look to 'hosed-up' for you.. :)

Thanks for the tips guys, I think I have at least markedly improved the situation.

I put an adjustable valve on the line to the diver and turned it down until the right amount of air was flowing through to the diver. Now the chest opens about every 10 seconds or so, much better than the every 3 seconds it was.

Also, bought 4 starter fish for the tank, I think they are called Mollies. The girl at the pet store said they were pretty hardy fish, they were $1.75 a piece and they come with a 14 day guarantee so even if they die I get new ones.

Thanks for the tips!

Wal-Mart fish have a 90 day guarantee. :D

Wow, really? Looks like I'll be buying fish at Walmart...

Personally.....being a fish guy I do not support walmart with their fish, they are known to sell oscars to people and tell them a 20 gallon tank is big enough when in fact you need 75 gallons for a single oscar, what happens is the outside of the O will stop growing and it's brain/insides keep growing causing serious health problems for them.......
They are one of the reasons my friend started www.monsterfishrescue.com
I'm biased though when it comes to fish which require large tanks like oscars, goldfish are no problem.......

No I don't belong to peta, they're a bunch of militant *******s, just looking out for our finned friends :)

I have no finned friends.

I have a finned fiend, a gibbesep (sp) (aka Mr. Plecoman, feed me Seymour!) I bought in 1992. ;-)

Simple akir control and I missed it...

Mollies are easy to breed. Mix w/swords. O-cat would be fun or mini gerami (sp).

I usually use danios for starters. You can put your diver under something to sort of break up the bubble as it goes to the surface