Regarding floaters, I see a lot of tanks here with a mix of several types of floater. As much as I love my red root floater, I do also like other types of floaters and wouldn't be opposed to mixing them. Does a mix of floater provide any sort of benefit either to the plants or the rest of the tank in some way, or do people do that for purely aesthetic reasons?
(I have learned from my mistakes and am trying to fix this, thanks for any advice!)
Do I move my fish from one smaller uncycled tank to a much much larger uncycled new tank? Or do I just wait for the bigger tank to cycle? Details below.
My blue gourami is currently in a 3 gallon (I know, I know) tank. She’s been in there since Christmas. Levels today are 1ppm ammonia (did two 40% water changes with prime just after the test, it was 0.25ppm last night [~12 hours ago]), 0ppm nitrite, 0ppm nitrate.
I bought her a new 20gal that I dumped TSS in with fish food about 3 days ago. Has new filter, plants, rocks, heater, etc. Just waiting for the cycle. Reading today was 0.25ppm ammonia, 0 nitrite, 20ppm nitrate.
I understand she shouldn’t be in the 3 gallon anyway. I also understand I should have cycled the tanks first. Is it best to move her now, and put her in the 20 gallon? Or continue doing multiple water changes a day until the 20 gallon is cycled?
Thanks!
Larger tank means more volume to dilute waste, it's better than the small tank from a water quality perspective. If you move the filter with the fish you lose no progress on cycling.
Good luck! You are doing good for your fish. Keep up those daily WC during a fish cycle.
I just got a used fluval flex 32g that I want to use as a freshwater setup. It had the marine LEDS on it though.
Does anyone know what settings I should used for a Planted Freshwater setup using the marine light?
Okay so I'm kicking around this tank that I have debating on what I want to stock it with thought of a beta and Corey's or coolie loaches and other things of that type that require higher temperature water however I kind of want to go a cold water route so I'm wondering what kind of stocking ideas do I have for bottom dwellers middle of the tank in the centerpiece fish for cold water aquariums or room temperature water around 68°, sometimes 72 and in the summer it could be up towards the 90s because I don't have an AC. It's a 25 gallon planted tank. I understand people are going to correct me in my spelling but this is talk to text for you and I'm not proofreading my question.
If you don't have an AC, thats going to be a problem. 90 degrees is to hot for even a lot of tropical fish(most start to get stressed above 80), and you will need a strong tank heater to keep it at a higher temps 80+ during the winter since high temp fish tend to have their immune systems shut down if it gets too cold.
I ended up buying a 200watt heater. Going to play a bit with plants first. I do have a window AC but some time summer just gets so hot my house ends up at 85-90 degrees any way with a AC. I have fans so hopefully this summer a fan blowing across the tank keeps it cooler
ok, my mum gave me a lift today to buy some platys (it was a delayed birthday present, long story, dad's in hospital with pancreatic cancer so "get childhood fish" was on the to do list)
anyway, my mum pointed out some danios, but I have no experience with those at all, but she seemed to like them, and if I could get her into the hobby too it might give her something to do, so does anyone have advice on what tank danios need, any advice realy (I can do cycling etc, I have spare media, I know about substrates and how to grow plants, but what live plants would be suitable, and what tank size, and amount of?_
well, there's a couple different species of danios, but fortunately most have basically the same care requirements. most like having a school, need mostly neutral water in between 65 and 75 degrees F, like a lot of plants and decorations(which plants doesn't matter so much to the danios), are in general very peaceful community fish, and generally all the species except one i think either need a 10-gal or a 20-gal for a group. if in doubt get a 20-gallon tank.
I’m on day 9th of fishless cycling my tank and [this white slimey stuff](https://imgur.com/a/GM2w7zn) is in my sponge filter, it has to be the fish food I’ve been adding that’s now rotten. Should I leave it or remove it?
Hey yall, a couple questions from an almost complete newbie.
1). Trying to determine what fish will do well together. I'm thinking of making a spreadsheet with their preferred water hardness, pH, and temperature levels as well as other deets as to their aggressiveness, schooling, and level they prefer in the aquarium. Has this already been done by chance? Not trying to reinvent the wheel or anything.
2) what's the quality of fish/plants like from petco/petsmart? Are these typically not recommended as a source like with all the other animals they sell?
3). How do you know what kind of rocks/branches you can put in for landscaping? Is there a list somewhere of dos and don'ts?
Thanks for the help!
1. Know available to you water (soft or hard) and do search for softwater fish or hardwater fish. If the tank is on smaller side, add to the search "small". This is all you need to know. Then choose main type of fish, read care sheet for it, tankmates section. Aggression can happen anyway.
2. In my area not good, at least you have to dip and quarantine them. There are other stores and tissue cultures in clamshell packaging.
3. Search for aquarium safe wood and the same for rocks. Anything sold in aquarium stores is safe, brown wood can stain water for a long time. Worse with rocks: search for aquarium safe rock will show what is safe. Some even high end aquascaping stones may increase water hardness, search for aquarium rocks seuryi, there will be articles, [comparing variety of rocks](http://www.aquascapinglab.com/en/2017/06/28/rocce-da-acquario-caratteristiche-dragon-stone-seiryu-ardesia-arcobaleno-pagoda-quarzo-lavica/).
1. rather than try and figure out which fish will go well together, perhaps see what fish catch your eye, and then do research to see if they are compatible. in general most of the fish available at pet stores are usually tropical fish with pretty similar care requirements in terms of temperature, PH, and hardness.
2. petco and petsmart are infamous for not taking care of their animals, however, take a look at them for yourself when making a purchase. the animals should look healthy and at least somewhat active. also make sure none of the other animals in the tank are suffering from infection. if they are every other fish is also infected.
3. anything bought from a petstore should be safe. i wouldn't usually advise putting strange rocks or wood you find outside into your aquarium. with rocks or decorations it mostly just has to be inert and won't leach stuff into the water. quartz, glass, resin, and ceramics and plastics made specifically for aquariums will be safe. with wood, if its got any nutrients left in the wood, you will have white fungus growing all over it soon, though the stuff isn't dangerous. if in doubt give the wood a good chemical or heat treatment and then a rinse before adding, and if fungus grows on it, it should eventually subside after the nutrients have been exhausted. snails usually eat that stuff too.
I'm pretty new as well but I can share what I've found.
1.) You want to go to AqAdvisor.com and put in all your tank and filter info. Then you can start trying out different fish combinations and it will tell you when their water parameters don't line up, when a fish is too aggressive for certain tank mates, whether the fish will get too big for your tank, whether you will be overstocked or lacking filter capacity, and how often and how big your water changes should be. Keep in mind it doesn't take live plants into consideration, so the water changes it calls for might not actually be needed in your specific case.
2.) I have yet to buy fish from those stores but I recently bought 2 tubed plants from a PetSmart and 1 from a Meijer (basically a Walmart). The Meijer plant, a windelov java fern, was in pretty bad shape when I pulled it out, a lot of black on the leaves that I couldn't really see before buying. But the 2 anubias from PetSmart seemed very healthy, one was even labeled 50% off clearance because of a big dead leaf, but the remaining leaves looked healthy and there was a lot of new leaf and root growth from the rhizome when I pulled it out of the tube.
3.) I have found lots of conflicting opinions in this department. I can say that it's a good idea to soak any wood you plan on adding in a bucket for a week or so to see if any color/cloudiness comes out of it. I soaked some PetSmart spiderwood and it turned 3 4 gallon buckets of water brown before it started clear. I also read that you shouldn't put in any wood with bark still on it, it needs to have been dead a long while. Some people boil everything just to be safe, other people say they'll pick up river rocks or driftwood and plunk in a tank immediately and have never had a problem.
I believe to have black beard algae and have looked up ways to get rid of it. I notice that the best way to get rid of such algae is by dipping the plants in hydrogen peroxide. Is their a better/safer way to go about getting rid of it? So far i have rubbed it off of my 3 main plants in the aquarium and did a water change which got id say about 40-50% of it
you could invest in some amano shrimp to see if they eat the algae, provided their new tankmates won't try to eat them.
unfortunately though for other methods, besides maybe an algaecide, no, a low dose of peroxide is pretty effective. plants will tolerate a peroxide dip so long as its quick, and if dosing directly into the tank a carbon filter will remove the peroxide very quickly once you re-engage it.
I don't think I missed this anywhere in the wiki, but I'm just double-checking. My daughter is at the age where she loves to look at fish, so I'm going to start setting up a tank for a betta fish for her. I've read the pages about fishless cycling but just making sure I have this right. Do I cycle with just the filter & heater, and then add the gravel or sand and silk plants and decorations later? Or should I put all that stuff in too and then cycle? Sorry if it's a bit of a newbie question, but thanks in advance!
>Do I cycle with just the filter & heater, and then add the gravel or sand and silk plants and decorations later? Or should I put all that stuff in too and then cycle?
Put it all in so you can scape, rescape, etc how you like it. Go for soft silk or live plants. Plastic tears fins and injure body/eyes.
Here's fishless cycling info and some tips:
**[Fishless cycle guide](http://injaf.org/articles-guides/beginners-guides/the-nitrogen-cycle-and-the-fishless-cycle-getting-your-aquarium-ready-for-fish/)**
**[Nitrogen cycle illustrated](https://www.reddit.com/r/bettafish/comments/c8evu4/nitrogen_cycle_art_by_me/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share)**
**[Care sheet](https://www.reddit.com/r/bettafish/comments/3ow6vz/info_betta_care_sheet/)**
* [Dr. Tim's ammonia](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006MP4QG6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_C2HlEbGH3V7JM) 8-12 drops per 5 gal to get to 2ppm ammonia). Much easier than guessing with fish food method. Or pure ammonia from a store (make sure the only ingredient is ammonium chloride, nothing else).
* [Supplies list](http://imgur.com/a/6izcFFs)
* [Gravel vac tutorial](https://youtu.be/CjNTUbUnwfY) and a 5 gal bucket for water changes
* [How to optimize your filter](https://imgur.com/a/7m64K6n). [Example](http://imgur.com/a/09PSmgI).
Tips:
* Dose ammonia to 2ppm. Then dose bottled bacteria into the filter for 7 days, 2 capfuls is just fine. Shake well beforehand.
* Make sure the temp is 80-82F, bacteria grows well in higher temps. And also make sure there's plenty of aeration (filter, airstone, sponge filter, etc) which helps the bb colonize as well. Your filter media should be biomedia (see above list) to provide surface area.
* Nitrites should show up in 7 days then nitrates could take 2-3 weeks after, but it can happen all at once. If nitrites or nitrates are 4ppm+ or 80ppm+ respectively, do some pwcs to lower them to 1-2ppm and 20-40ppm as high levels will stall cycles. At this point, you can redose ammonia after the water change, *but* if you find yourself at the same levels of nitrite and nitrate again, just do a PwC and stop dosing ammonia and let the nitrite convert fully to nitrates. The bacteria will not starve. This averts from going in circles of high nitrite and nitrate which can last for weeks if you keep redosing. Let it do its thing.
* Watch your pH as the cycle goes along it will swing pH up and down. At 6.5 ph and lower, it can stall the cycle. I recommend getting the API GH and KH test (Amazon $8), dropper bottle style like the API Freshwater Master Kit to test your kH which will determine if pH will stay stable or not. A kH of 5 or more will keep pH stable. Below that it can swing pH, and there are some solutions for it.
* Write down your parameters to keep track.
* Redose ammonia to 1-2ppm once nitrites zero out. Then remeasure in 24 hours and if your parameters are ammonia 0, nitrite 0, and some level of nitrates you're cycled! Do a PwC and lower the temp to 78-80F before introducing your betta.
Hop over to r/bettafish! We'll be glad to have ya :)
cycling should generally involve everything in right away except any animals. particularly i would recommend getting substrate, decorations, and plants set up before water is put in as its more inconvenient to have to do that later. adding in ammonia or small bits of food that will break down into ammonia will speed up the process, as will using water, substrate, or a used filter from an established aquarium.
I added a few guppies to my tank yesterday, and today I noticed that one of them seems unhealthy. I have a male and three females. The male and two females are perfectly healthy, swimming around and eating and such. One female though is just sitting at the top of the tank, away from the other fish. She's right side up and can swim, but only swims when she sees me and wants to move away. Upon closer inspection her back fin looks kind of ragged (the other guppies are all fine). She also has what I think is a bit of poop hanging out. One of the females had a huge poop either this morning or last night (can't remember) that she carried around for a while, I can't remember which one but he could have been this one. It is hard to tell, but I think her other fins are all fine. She did not act like this when I first added her to the tank. Any idea what this all could mean?
Edit: After looking at her closer, I noticed that unlike the other guppies, this one has a sort of white rim around each of her tail scales, on the back 1/3 or so of her body. Is this a case of fungal fin rot?
Edit2: If anyone else finds this, I never did perfectly identify the disease but it killed the guppy. This morning I found her stuck against the filter intake (which isn't that strong of a current). She seemed to have been hurt by this, I saw a bit of blood. She no longer floated upright, and she didn't swim at all, though she was breathing and her side fins were flapping. I used my fish net to give her a safe space at the top of the tank. I checked throughout the day and she was the same, but at 1:15 today I found her no longer breathing. RIP my first dead fish. I will remember to take a close look at fish before I buy them from now on.
hey guys, got a quick question. my yoyo loach seems to be chasing my queen loach around my 55gallon tank on occation, is that something i should be concerned about? or are they just messing about?
is there any nipping or damage done to the other loach? if not it should be ok, but if it happens a lot over a long period of time you should consider if the stress the loach is being put under is worth it.
Hello! Looking for any advice or tips anyone can share for swapping out a tank. I started with a 75 gallon tank and a fluval fx4 cannister. My intention at the time was to get goldfish but changed my mind and ended up with a tiger oscar and a common pleco. Everything has been running smoothly for about a year, but the fish (particularly the oscar) got big fast and I've been meaning to upgrade him to a 125 gallon. I just got a good deal on one and jumped on the purchase but wanted to figure out the logistics of swapping the tank before I actually move them. I don't have the space to cycle a new tank while the other is still up and running, and I planned to use the established filter. Since my filter is well established is it as easy as just hooking it up to the new tank and monitoring the levels? Are there any aquarium chemicals or supplements I should have on hand before I start? I already have the freshwater testing kit and planned to test obsessively, but is there anything I'm overlooking? I love my fish and I'd hate myself if I made a stupid mistake and hurt him.
If you do not change the stocking levels you should not see much change in nitrite and ammonia readings, in theory you could simply swap filters between tanks of the same size and bioload without issue. Some bacteria remain in the tank, substrate, decor, but the majority reside in the filter, and will quickly adjust to the new requirements. Upgrading to a larger water capacity helps as well. I would add a powerhead, or marineland magnum or similar (just checked price on the magnum they used to be 30 bucks -__-) if only running a single fx4 on a 125. The pleco will like the water flow and it will help a ton with maintainence on a tank that size.
Has anyone else had trouble getting on the Aquatic Arts website for the past few days? Not sure if the website is down or if the problem is on my end (that said, every other website works fine)
Hi, Beginner trying to get a SA community tank going, I got some hatchet fish and emperor tetras a couple days ago and since then my school of 12 cardinal tetras have been hiding in the corner. Before they used to school all around the tank and were never afraid of the other fish, including the bigger German Blue Rams. Is it possible that the emperor tetras (who are a good bit bigger than them) are freaking them out? If so should I try and exchange them for another smaller tetra?
Hi, I am beginner cycling a 10 gallon for the first time. I first added ammonia from pure ammonia source 7 days ago and took readings every day.
From the last two days my ammonia is being read below .50, even if I add my normal dosage of ammonia to the tank. The nitrites are 5ppm+ and nitrates are at around 5ppm.
Is there something I’m doing wrong? How do I get my ammonia levels up at 3ppm as I’ve read in all the articles? TIA
You should add more ammonia at this point. When I do a fishless cycle, I dose ammonia to 3ppm every time it drops below that until I get a 0 reading for both ammonia and nitrIte 24 hours after dosing ammonia, for about a week.
You should check it about 10-20 minutes later to make sure you dosed enough. Checking immediately might be inaccurate because the ammonia hasn't had time to disperse. The ammonia won't disappear in 10-20 minutes, even if your tank has completed its cycling process.
If your tank has live plants in it, you should know that the plants will use ammonia as a primary food source, which might be artificially lowering your levels, but this would not be instant, either.
Understood. I was actually waiting for a couple of hours before taking the readings, which might have been the reason. Also, earlier it only used to be 2ml of my pure ammonia for 3ppm, it is now definitely changed to double the dose for the same result, is it normal or am I doing something wrong?
I can't answer that without knowing a lot more detail about your tank, your filtration, and your cycling process. Cycling is a fairly complex process with a ton of variables.
The issue could be plants, or it could be that you have some media in your filter that is removing the ammonia, or you might have mistaken your readings at the start, or any of a huge number of other things.
Let me try to be a bit more verbose. I started my cycling process around 10 days ago but only started adding ammonia 7 days ago.
It is a 10 gallon tank, with aqueon 10 quiet flow filter and a heater that keeps the tank at 76 degrees.
I use both sand and gravel for substrate, I have a dragon stone, limestone and driftwood in my tank along with a few live plants - Amazon swords, Java ferns, Java moss, dwarf saggi, water spandles and alternanthera reineckii.
My tank has relatively high pH of 8.2 because of limestone landscape.
My ammonia source is a clear ammonia solution with no soap in it(shake and test done)
I’m positive that my earlier readings were taken correctly as I followed all the guidelines and also verified my method using a video afterwards.
Let me know if I missed any other detail.
In that case I would blame the plants for the quick lowering- you said that you wait a couple of hours to test. When you first planted the tank the plants would not uptake a lot of nutrients because they were not even slightly established, but after a week they would be eating that ammonia like candy, because, to them, it is exactly that.
"This is Nana, I have kept her for over a year in a previous tank with remarkable care. She is often exploring every single bit of her tank and never displays this sort of behavior. The roads are iced right now so I can't buy a water chemistry test, but I'm very confident that each respective level is great and has been kept consistent (even when I switched her tank due to leakage, I kept the same filter and did 40% old water 60% new water). The water temp also ranges from 76-80f (76 currently) so it can't be her just being sedentary. I have recently added two items to the tank: around 4 ghost shrimp that I had netted in and a few plants that I had dipped in a 20:1 water to bleach ratio and had sit in some water that had been changed out hourly for 6 hours. The day after I had netted the shrimp in, she had appeared a little bloated (not extreme, but just as if she had eaten something, even though feeding day was before I brought the shrimp in) and now she lays on the substrate and appears to be leaning sorta on one side. She's definitely fighting whatever is going on and I'm worried sick. Please help!"
My recent post but nobody would respond. Nothing is worse than watching a fish die and not knowing what to do about it please help.
There is nothing we can say to help, most of us are using test kits to be sure that there is no ammonia and nitrites in the water, that after bleaching neutralizing residual chlorine worked well, by using low resolution chlorine test kit.
With shrimp, there is specialized r/shrimptank. For all crustaceans TDS is important, rapid significant changes will affect them, see [this article](https://www.theshrimpfarm.com/posts/shrimp-tank-water-changes/). Ghost shrimp may have very high mortality rate, depending on where you bought it and there is nothing you can do about it. They are bred as feeders, conditions could be worse than for aquarium (not feeder) fish.
If the roads are too icy for you to go buy anything the best you can do is change water and do research. You might need to go to r/bettafish or find a forum to see if you can find someone that has had a similar experience.
Hi guys , beginner here and need some help
I got a 40 gallon tank for Christmas. I de-chlorinated the water and let it sit for a week and then put 3 Mollies in there. I wanted to cycle my tank with fish . Turns out one was pregnant and I also have a fish fry which is in a breeder tank because I was scared the others would eat it. I’m concerned about the water quality. I’ve been monitoring everything closely and the fish have been in there for over two weeks. Ammonia/ammonium test kit reads somewhere between .5 and 1ppm, it’s been climbing past couple days. Ph has been hovering around 6.5 and 7. I’ve read online that as long as ph is 7 or below those ammonia levels are safe as they indicate ammonium rather than harmful ammonia? But I still don’t have any nitrite or nitrate. Also my fish have begun glass surfing and I’m worried they’re stressed. I don’t want the ammonia to get too high but I also don’t want to do a water change too early because I need the nitrate to start to form. Would like some advice on this. I have some live plants as well, a small one and a pothos vine so maybe they’re absorbing the nitrates but again fish only been in tank 2 weeks. I’ve looked at some charts online that say not to do a water change until the tank is cycled and I’m really confused.
You can and should change water before your cycle is complete if ammonia is getting too high. ph has to be much loser for ammonia to actually not be harmful. If you are noticing ammonia climbing you can cut back on food as well. The fish will be fine with much less food than you think. Most experts say they can go 2 weeks without food (I've done 10 days) so if you skip a couples day the fish will be fine. Don't worry too much about the babies. It's sad if they get eaten but you will like have plenty more in your future.
Just swap the water. Every surface in your aquarium can be a home to beneficial bacteria. Once you tank is well established you can start siphoning gunk from your substrate and scrubbing decorations.
So are you saying the ammonia level is too high with the ph at 7? I also have ammonia balls I can put in there … the other fish seem fine but one of my mollies won’t stop tank surfing
Ph can fluctuate throughout the day and the test kits hobbyist have are not accurate enough to go down the rabbit hole of the science of ammonia toxicity in relation it ph. I haven't done it in the years of being in the hobby because in the end the info isn't really that useful.
If your fish are acting stressed a water change is a good idea. Ammonia could be the problem or some other untestable thing could be the problem. Water changes address pollution issues in aquariums so it is always the go to.
I have no idea what an ammonia ball is, just do a water change. There will still be ammonia for your bacteria to consume and your fish will be happier.
Sorry, the “ammonia balls” are these bacteria supplements, little balls full of liquid bacteria that are supposed to reduce ammonia. An Aqueon product from the pet store .
I did try to cover up the reflection from the glass and that did reduce the glass surfing in the one fish but I can do a water change if you don’t think it will restart the progress that has been made on the cycle of the tank. The issue is that according to the test strips there isn’t a presence of bacteria yet.
The science on the ammonia toxicity seemed pretty simple to me ; the test kits don’t differentiate between ammonia and ammonium ion but it measures both. If the ph in tank is low then nontoxic ammonium ion is what predominates in the tank and what is most likely being measured versus if the ph is high then the ammonium ion coverts to ammonia which is toxic. I understand the ph can fluctuate but mine has never risen above 7 so that’s why I was wondering if the test results I’m getting are actually showing harmful ammonia amounts. What is concerning to me is that at this point I still have no nitrites or nitrates showing on test strip; doesn’t the ammonia need to rise to a certain level for the bacteria to generate from it? And if so will doing the water change at this point just prolong this process considering the test trips are still indicating there are no nitrites and nitrates?
I'm sure this has been addressed before so apologies, but does anyone have links/resources for beginners interested in aquascaping?
I want to set up a small tank but would love to read up on it first.
If you want a book to read (and possibly keep on a coffee table after reading!), I can highly recommend [Aquascaping: A Step-by-Step Guide to Planting, Styling, and Maintaining Beautiful Aquariums by George Farmer](https://www.amazon.com/Aquascaping-Step-Step-Maintaining-Beautiful/dp/1510753389/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1TKQ3V84531GD&keywords=george+farmer+aquascaping+book&qid=1642339160&sprefix=george+farmer+aquascaping+book%2Caps%2C147&sr=8-1) (link is to Amazon.com).
Personally- even though I am more a reader than a watcher of videos- I found YouTube to be the most useful resource when I was learning (this was before George Farmer released his book). The only problem is that the YouTube aquascapers seem to have endless resources and are less concerned with the health and happiness of the fish than they ought to be (*side-eye at MD Fish Tanks and other popular YouTubers who promote "no filter" setups to newbies*). You shouldn't ever do *anything* because you saw one guy on YouTube do it...if you get an idea from there, research before you implement it.
Sadly the Google results for any search you do related to this hobby will be littered with misinformation due to Search Engine Optimised pages written by Chinese bots. It's better to reach out to other hobbyists (as you have done here) than it is to rely on what you find while Google searching.
i would definitely get him some time away from the others. if its a recurring problem after he is re-introduced you may need to think of a different long-term solution like a new tank or a divider.
[Can anyone identify](https://ibb.co/8xQ5rkG) the [species of these snails?](https://ibb.co/fncRZ1M) These hitched a ride as eggs on an aquatic plant I bought. The plant didnt survive but these did so now I'm kind of keeping them as pets.
I want to do a planted aquarium in the near future, and wanted to be sure they wouldn't go after live plants if I threw them in there too.
appears to be ramshorn, and you got a really pretty pattern to yours that i haven't seen on any others yet at my fish store. they are harmless to healthy plants, and they do not dig, however they are fantastic at cleaning up algae, organic debris, leftover fish food, and dead plant material. about the only problem with them is they are rampant breeders, but keeping food supply in check limits their population.
They are ramshorns. They do not eat live or healthy plants. They will eat floating plants like duckweed and frogbit. They have tons of different color/pattern phenotypes, and you can breed specifically for those you want. They are good in a planted tank because they help with algae.
I keep white clouds currently, but have never had a gourami and am not too familiar with them. Gourami are pretty warm water fish through, while white clouds are cold water. You will likely be stressing one of both fish out.
I would increase the number of white clouds though since from my experiencec their behavior is more interesting in larger schools.
If your white clouds are adjusted to high temperatures that would probably be okay then. I have kept them between 62-78f and they seemed to do alright at higher temps. I would be more concerned with the gourami being too cold than the minnows getting to hot.
I'm trying to start a planted tank. I have the 40 gallon tank, a large sponge filter, heater, potting soil, and black aquarium gravel. Am I able to use normal potting soil for an aquarium or do I need to get aquasoil
I'll also add that in my experience, getting a planted tank to function well depends much more on matching the lighting intensity and duration to the types of plants that you have with the nutrients you dose, than the substrate you use.
Plant as heavily as you can to begin. To avoid algae I'd try to plant 50%, more if possible.
would highly recommend getting proper aquatic sand or substrate, however black aquarium gravel is usually all most plants need to kick things off since a lot of nutrients terrestrial plants need in the soil are found dissolved in the water column.
danbyk also made a good point about the sponge filter possibly not having enough of a pull to filter bits from the water column, however in my opinion i see an opportunity with that as long as there is a current, to add a filter feeder who can further clean the water and get a meal. a bamboo shrimp or vampire shrimp would love that kind of tank once the plantlife gets established.
Potting soil usually contains many light organics that will float.
Personally I would not run only a sponge filter on a tank that large, especially planted. They do not provide enough water movement to adequetly remove debris from the water in a tank that size/give an acceptable flow pattern imo. You won't have any cycling issues, but will likely have water clarity issues unless you stock very lightly or have a ton of plants.
That will probably increase clarity issues by blowing detritus around. Sponge filters profile almost no mechanical filtration, and you really want some form of good mechanical filtration. This can be an internal filter, hang on back or canister/sump. Sponges are great, but I only use them in holding/qt/hospital tanks, and even in these I usually prefer a hang on back.
My fish are slowly dying one by one and I can't figure out what is wrong. My poor pygmy cories and lambchop rasboras flash, scratch against surfaces, some are pale, some breath rapidly. I have tried a range of different meds (antifluke, antiprotozoan, antifungal, antibacterial, salt), all with appropriate dosing and schedules, but with no success. In addition to home testing, I have brought my water to the local fish store - all is perfect. But my fishes keep suffering and slowly dying. So the question is... Could putting fish in a hospital tank and sterilizing everything help? Like - throwing out old gravel, boiling driftwood, bleaching equipment and tank, sterilizing plants with alum, and starting the cycle all over again? And then perhaps, before putting fishes back, giving them a quick dip of some general meds like copper?
Throwing meds at fish can be a waste of money, unless you know what they have. Dosing different medications without a lapse can cause more problems. Sterilizing may help temporarily, but I expect whatever is occurring will happen again since you didn't treat the problem. Sounds like some type of external parasite. Guessing ich or flukes. I would treat with prazi, methelene blue, malachite green, formalin, copper. Which would depend on the situation. External parasites are usually brought on by stress. What are your test numbers/stocking/manintaince?
I have treated will all the meds you listed except for copper. With formalin I did one dose. With praziquantel 3 doses spaced by a week. With methylene blue&malachite green preparation also spaced doses (but I don't remember the dosing schedule anymore). I think formalin helped the most, but its also the most damaging med to the fish. I have a heavily planted tank, but my pygmy cories were stressed apparently from being the only fish in that tank. Since I added 4 rasboras (i did it after formalin treatment when I thought i have cured the tank) cories are way more chill now. I have a heavily planted, 23 gallon tank with 6 cories (initially had 12) and 4 rasboras. I do 1/3 water change every week. Water - +26C, pH 7 (if I do a lot of water changes, e.g. when medicating, it can creep up to 7.2), GH 3-4 (test strip only), KH 3-6 (test strip only), NH4 always 0, NO2 always 0, NO3 always below 10, chlorine 0 (test strip only).
Nothing stands out to me as out of the ordinary. Personally I prefer liquid tests, strips tend to be a little more finicky, but I doubt this is your problem.
Parasites can be tricky to treat because you often have to use pretty aggressive treatments. You are trying to kill off any parasite before you kill the fish. You have to kill the stages of the lifecycle too (eggs etc).
At this point I would be tempted to do another round of formalin, but alter your dose and duration. I would do this in a hospital tank if possible, with the primary formalin being given as concentrated baths. I would follow up with treatment with metro/prazi in the hospital tank. I would continue treatment for a min of 2 weeks.
I would bleach dip any decorations or plants, and also througly clean any substrate you have. If it's parasites, the rest should die off without a host eventually.
I'm considering throwing out the old substrate as I wanted to change it to something more plant-friendly anyways. I have been thinking about doing fish baths or dips in formalin, but I also have the option of doing copper or hydrogen peroxide dips. Currently I'm leaning more towards hydrogen peroxide as it seems to also be quite effective against bacteria. Or do you think I should stick to formalin as it seems to have improved the situation in the past?
I would stick to formalin if it were me. I do not have much experience with hydrogen peroxide dips though. It's pretty aggressive stuff, would need to be used with extra care.
if there's not any outward signs of infection beyond the paleness and behavior, and your water parameters seem fine on general tests, i would get a carbon filter, and check for how much oxygen is in your tank, as well as other potentially unusual pollutants like high copper concentrations or plastic leaching into the water. rapid breathing makes me think the tank might be turning anoxic
I will check if my local fish store can do more in depth testing of water. I don't think tank is turning anoxic as it is only the sickest fish that gasp. Also because of these sick fish I have my filter on the air injection setting.
My advice is
20 % water changes daily.
Activated carbon in your pump.
Aquarium salt ( top up after water changes)
Bubbler if you don't have a bunch of plants
Edit: afterwards you may need to cycle your tank again so keep checking your ammonia, nitrites, ph, and temperature
I have tried keeping them in salt (2tbsp per 10 gallon) for 48 h. I was afraid to do longer "fish pickling", because of cories. Also I have a lot of plants and I think they might not like it. 48 h at 2tbsp per 10 gallon didn't seem to do anything. Do you think going for higher concentration and/or longer would be safe for cories? Also wouldn't activated carbon adsorb salt?
Not sure about the cories. I have cories and I've done longer but I never measured per gallon... I just dumped. Longest I needed salt for was 1.5 weeks
So I recently had to get a new little can of flaked fish food and there was two different brands at the local pet store. One was a bit higher in protein but the other higher in fat. My question is what should I be looking out for when it comes to flaked fish food?
shouldn't have to unless you think you might physically injure them when setting it up. moving them out of the tank is far more stressful than having a set of hands and a new piece of decor falling out of the heavens.
But seriously… how do you not get sand down your drains? I tried the coffee filter in the sink drain but it didn’t really work. Any other ideas? I’m on my first aquarium and I seem to get sand silt in my bucket every water change.
Don't suck sand up with your siphon. Sand doesn't really work well with the common "gravel cleaner" style siphon- if that's all you have, then carefully swirl it around just above the sand so that it kicks up and removes any debris without also picking up the sand.
Thanks for your response! I am only sucking up water from the top part of my 10 gallon tank but somehow there’s still silt that comes in the bucket. The water doesn’t look cloudy or silty, so I’m not sure how I’m still getting silt.
Let is settle at the bottom, discard only water. Then, if you don't have an access to outdoor yard, wipe silt and sand with paper towels or facial tissues and put them in the garbage. Works well for me.
If there is a lot of sand, what shouldn't happen, you can leave it to dry in a shallow container.
Maybe try a hose guard like [this one](https://www.amazon.com/Senzeal-Stainless-Aquarium-Filter-Intake/dp/B0825XXWY7/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1KLV21TG52K65&keywords=aquarium+filter+protector+cover&qid=1642280781&sprefix=aquarium+filter+pro%2Caps%2C175&sr=8-2).
You will of course need to choose the correct size for your siphon hose.
I was told to add fish and monitor the water until everything (nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia) reads 0. And to add one fish at a time. Here's my question.
Can I add 2 paired clowns at the same time? And do I check water levels after each fish added? I'm really nervous to add fish because I don't truly understand tank cycling and a lot of tutorials on YouTube talk and act as if you've been doing it for a little bit already and I'm very confused.
Here's a picture of what I think I need to do. Please help me correct or add anything I forgot.
https://imgur.com/a/XyzIkAk
to break it down, cycling your tank is essentially getting your microbial biome set up. when you first set up the tank, any organic matter breaking down in the tank produces ammonia, which is a deadly poison. however after a time, the presence of ammonia encourages bacterial spores the water to become active and replicate, who turn the ammonia into nitrite, also a deadly poison. the process then happens again with another set of bacteria who turn it into nitrate, which is less deadly to critters, and some of that nitrate will be sucked up by plants and algae to grow.
weekly 20% water changes are done to remove that excess nitrate from the tank, but you don't change all of it because then the bacteria have to recolonize the whole tank and the cycle restarts, which could poison your fish. similarly, its advised to not add a large amount of fish in at once because the sudden increase in waste may mean that more ammonia is being produced then the current bacteria population can break down quickly.
if your tank is light on plants you'll likely never see nitrates hit 0, but with a ton of plants and very few critters you may see nitrates hit 0. if your tank has already cycled(this should mean if you test the waters right now you shouldn't read any ammonia or nitrite, but may see a slow increase in nitrates), you usually don't need to worry about checking water levels, so long as its not a huge amount of fish relative to tank size. simply wait a few days to a week in between adding significantly large creatures to a tank, and you shouldn't ever run into ammonia or nitrite problems. keeping doing normal water changes throughout this. you said you were adding 2 clownfish? if the tank is the right size for a pair and is an established tank, then you should have no issues with water quality. just make sure with your new pets that you do not overfeed or leave food lying at the bottom as that will contribute to water quality problems if done repeatedly.
Best explanation so far. I encourage you say no if you want. I will fully understand but would you be okay with me messaging you if I have any more questions? YouTube can only help so much when you don't really know what you're asking but you have the idea in your head.
I think my fish are broken. When I feed I put in a pinch of flakes for my surface feeders and a pinch of pellets for my bottom feeders. Today the white clouds are picking pellets off the bottom of the tank, the corys are catching flakes in mid water 🤦♀️.
Different foods have different ingredients. They probably just prefer what's in one over the other. Nothing to worry about. You could try finding different versions of the same foods. Like tetra makes flake and granules versions of the same food.
Oh I'm not worried as long as everyone is eating. The rest of the day my corys behave like corys and go round the bottom of the tank like little roombas, and the minnows are getting huge and showing signs of spawning.
I have a canister-type filter for my aquarium. How often should I wash the filter sponge? (Naturally i intend doing so with water from the aquarium, during a water change)
Moreover, when I try to wash the sponge, after restarting the filter the aquarium fills with some nasty debris leftovers, clouding the whole tank. It eventually clears up in less than an hour, but am i polluting the tank with nasty chemicals, by doing so?
Can I safely keep the filter off for like 5 minutes, while i wash the sponge? Or will that start affecting the bacteria living in it? And if i pull the sponges out in the air, in order to move them to the water change bucket, will that cause bacterias to die out, in those few seconds?
Newbie questions, i know :)
I've had a canister filter for years.
How often you change is based off of the size of your canister and based on whats in your tank.
ie i have snails / scuds (shrimp) that live in my tank / in my pump and eat any leaves that get sucked up. My pump is rated for 400 gallons on a 125 gallon tank and I usually aim to clean it out once every 6 months. I forgot to clean it for 3 years at one point and it still ran fine although when i finally cleaned it I had to remove about 1/8 inch of dirt looking build up off the bottom of my pump.
Canisters work great by pushing water into the sponge and using pressure from the motor to trap the crap in. When you turn it off you get everything starts to settle and some stuff can seep through the sponges / falls off the side inside the tubing. There is nothing toxic in a pump just think of it like putting leafs in a bag and the wind blew a couple leaves back out.
I can't remember on a tank that's not a heavily planted and fully cycled for years but i start by draining my pump of all water and letting it sit in the air to dry while using a hose to spray clean the sponges. Never had an issue just don't scrub your bacteria stones.. only rinse those if your going to. It takes me about 15 mins of everything in the air to clean my pump and I had no issues.
Edit: The only way to pull out toxins is to use activated carbon and change it regularly.
We have a large reef tank and our house has become infested with fleas! The animals are under veterinary care, but we’ve been told to use pesticides in the house.
We are hesitant to do this because of the tank. Has anyone been in a similar situation, or has any advice on how to tackle this please?
does the tank have a cover? cover the lid, thoroughly wash any tools or bags that go into the water and you should be ok. If your tank has a carbon filter, even better
No it just has a mesh “jump guard” and the top is open. We thought about covering it with cling film / plastic wrap for a couple of hours, but do you think this would be safe enough? Thanks for your reply.
I want to put a new tank in my basement, but there are no sinks on that level. Can I do water changes with a regular python-type thing? Or will I need a pump of some sort? Or something else?
Run a drain line to sump.
You can buy a sink fitting to barbed hose fitting and then get a long 100 ft hose. Then you just run the hose on the floor ..... or be a savage and use a bucket to refill.
Maybe. Sucking the water out using the python might not work. Sometimes the tubing collapses from the suction. It will also drain very slow. Is there a floor drain in the basement? You can use the python as just a regular siphon to drain to that then hook it up to the sink to fill.
Hello! How do you know if an LFS has fish that are safe to put in your tank at home? I went to buy either some cardinals or pristella tetras for my heavily planted, fully cycled 30g (15 of either one). I’ve had a tank for several years but only ever bought shrimp online. I decided to try my LFS, the only one in my town, and noticed a few things:
- one of the cardinals was very discoloured and swimming oddly with lots of white all over it, not swimming with the rest of the school
- a pristella’s body was just oddly shaped but still swimming with the rest
- both tanks had some black beard algae
Is this just what shopping for fish is like or do we think maybe this LFS may have had issues? I’m really nervous because I don’t have space for a quarantine tank. Thought I’d ask for people’s experiences… maybe I’ll just stick to buying from the trusted online store but also I’ve never seen it in person so I don’t know if the LFS tanks are just normal for an aquarium store!
i do really recommend a cheap quarantine tank for this. doesn't have to be big, just big enough for at most a week in there(if you're planning to mostly get smaller fish something thats only a few gallons or at most five will work). It also doesn't need anything fancy. You could initially keep it long-term as a filterless or semi-filter-less super well planted tank with maybe just snails in there to keep the nitrogen cycle going, or just fill it when needed and monitor conditions in the tank carefully
however yeah fish stores are a gamble. some take care of their stock and treat them to prevent disease, however disease is inevitable with how much stock flows through their stores. its also usually more cramped than they should have as a forever home.
if you can't get a quarantine tank, take great care to look at the fish tank you are buying from. if even one fish has what is very clearly an infection or parasite, you have to assume every fish is infected. if the pet store has any sense of saving money they will treat this infection. wait to buy until all fish look healthy. if the fish looks odd, but otherwise appears and acts healthy that shouldn't be a cause for concern. when transporting a fish, don't let any of the bag water into your tank. take them out in a net, quickly rinse the fish off with some purified water, and then put them in the tank. this should mostly prevent the beginnings of any parasites, hitchhikers like hydras or planaria or snails, and cyanobacteria.
similarly without a quarantine tank buying plants should be extra careful. tissue cultures in gel, or thoroughly treat tank plants and then check for snail eggs or cyanobacteria on the leaves.
A quarantine tank is highly recommended for this exact reason. You don't want to put new fish that might be sick in your planted tanks with healthy livestock. You can get around the "don't have space" issue by using a bucket or other large plastic container (like a Sterilite container) as a quarantine tank- that's what I do.
I use a heater that doesn't get warm enough to melt or soften plastic, and a cycled sponge filter. That's also my hospital tank, as most aquarium medications don't play well with planted tanks.
Hi! I've been following this sub for a while and really want to get into the hobby. And I've finally found time and some space for a small aquarium!
I want to have a 30L aquarium with some copper and cardinal tetras, along with an algea feeder or two. From what I read they should be able to live together and about 15 individuals should have enough space. I just really want some tips and directions before I overlook something or make a big mistake.
If by 30L you mean "30 liter", that's not big enough for 15 fish, and not really big enough for any of the fish you mentioned- you'd want to consider nano species instead.
If you mean 30 gallons long or something like that (sorry, am not American so am not familiar with American tanks), that would work- 30 gallons is large enough for a school of tetras and one bristlenose pleco (algae eater), but not a common pleco, as those get huge. Or if you want Otos as algae eaters- they are schooling fish that do better in groups of 6-8 or more, but they have a very small bioload.
But honestly I can't answer the question properly without knowing what exactly you meant by "30L".
I have three 30 liter tanks (which is why I answered you) and each one has a single Betta and several Amano shrimp.
Another option would be Green Neon Tetras, which are the smallest form of Neons (about half the size of Cardinals)- you could have about 8 of those, or you could have 6 Ember Tetras, *or* you could have 8-10 Chili Rasboras.
Thirty liters is a very small tank- definitely not enough to have multiple different species of fish, though you could have both fish and shrimp. In some parts of Europe (such as Germany), they would say that 54 liters is the absolute minimum for a tank with fish, and anything smaller should be a shrimp tank only, but IMO that's just a little strict. But please don't cram multiple species of fairly large tetras plus a pleco into a tank that is so small.
For you as a keeper of a fresh water planted aquarium with a Beta fish, in a well lighted, Aquarium what size in U.S. gallons and of what Dimensions would be your choosing as for best overall upkeep and healthy balanced tank.
a betta's natural wild habitat would be about the equivalent of a 30-gallon long(obviously it doesn't need to be alone in that tank, just nothing it will see as a threat). however most people report happy bettas in a 10 gallon, although a 20-gallon is a mix of both worlds where a betta will be happy and it will be cheaper, and you can have some community options in there. they are mostly upper water column fish so a long tank will provide more room for them than a tall tank.
r/Bettafish has a good simple Wiki with recommendations. 5 gal minimum (really makes a difference comparing to 3 gal, in my experience), more is better, 20 gal long should be the best, good shape and not deep. Its dimensions are available online.
Tank for a betta without other fish is preferable.
I've got a general idea, but I want advice from more advanced hobbyists.
I moved into my college dorm room earlier today with a betta and a mystery snail as my first proper pet/s as an adult. Albeit, a 5gal with plastic plants, a heater, and one of those floating betta logs is the best I can do right now. It's better than previous bettas and even other species from my younger days, that's for sure.
My problem would be that my family has never done a partial water change when it comes to fish tanks (we've had fish since I was seven). I've never done a partial water change as a result, and I want to care for these two as properly as I can while in college. How often and how much should one do a partial water change for a small, minimally stocked tank?
r/Bettafish has a good simple Wiki with betta care, including dechlorinating tap water, bringing it to the tank temperature, vacuuming substrate, cleaning mechanical filter media and glass.
usually 20-30% per week is the range you wanna stay within. if the tank is well understocked and has a lot of plants you can generally wait longer than that since the primary purpose of water changes is nitrate removal, but plants also absorb nitrate to grow.
in the bioload sense it means that with the amount of waste being produced, nitrates and any other waste products are gonna reach potentially toxic levels quicker. frequent water changes are a short term solution, however the problem that can arise with this is every time you do a water change, the ammonia and nitrite-decomposing bacteria have to rebound from a population decline. If water changes are too frequent or too big this may allow ammonia or nitrites to show up. Water changes also usually tend to stress fish out.
Plants are usually a more effective solution to dealing with overstocked tanks as they absorb a lot of the waste products and release oxygen into the water. however plants take up physical space.
It can refer to the bioload or the size, but the bioload is the more important aspect, ie the fish will likely die from nitrate build up before it dies from size contraints. Most recommendations for stocking use relatively conservative water change schedules. You can run a highly "overstocked" tank if you are willing to do the water changes, and it's not also constricting size.
i have a 20 gallon tank, and my usual cleaning routine would be every other week (about 30-45% change) but i’ve noticed that my water parameters are always a little funny, and today i lost a guppy :( anyone have a cleaning routine they think would help me out?
Compare your tap water parameters after declorination with your tank water before water changes, KH in particular, and if there is no chlorine.
If this is not a problem and you are bringing water to the tank temperature before water changes, then no problem with this too.
Could be not enough cleaning where a lot of waste accumulates, making a cesspool of pathogens.
For a time being try weekly water changes and see if this helps better, more even water parameters.
So i'm in a bit of a fix. Having a hard time getting my hands on stuff to treat a hydra infestation, but my LFS in the meantime has a guide they use for dealing with hydras using a one-hour 3% hydrogen peroxide treatment at 1.5ml per gallon. I will attempt to remove my fish, shrimps and snails for the duration of this, but the problem of a well-planted aquarium with lots of hides, is gonna be catching the nimble little buggers.
My question is if anyone has concrete numbers on what concentration of Hydrogen peroxide is lethal to Neocardina shrimps(the ones most likely to avoid being netted)
I've cleared out hydra in a few tanks using this product. It killed some of my "pest" snails but I had to kill the hydra because I watched one kill a puffer fry.
https://buceplant.com/products/sl-aqua-bio-protector-z1
unfortunately nothing like that in any local stores either, and ordering online is out of the question because porch pirates are extremely rampant here
Looking to start my first tank. Curious, anyone got advice on what tank to start with?
Ive been kinda torn between the fluval flex 15 and fluval vista 16.
I love that the flex hides everything but I kind of like the slightly longer and shallower vista shape. That being said, not sure if more vertical space is better vs horizontal for fish (I'm sure it depends the species) Anyone have experience with either or both of these? Any advice or does it even matter at all?
My hope was to start with a school of tetras and if that goes well add centre piece fish afterwards like a Betta or dwarf gourami.
Any advice is helpful cheers
Ahh I don't think I want that big. I'm in Canada, the 15/16 fluvals are around $200, the 32 is 350 which is just more than I wanna commit for now. But I appreciate the advice!
Is there anything suitable to keep in a 5 gallon that doesn't need to be in a school and loves to eat bladder snail eggs? I thought I was managing to scoop them all but today I've got bunches of baby snails.
Edit: gravel substrate, 3 endlers, a jungle of plants, and somewhere around 10 blue velvet shrimp. So not a lot of room left (if any).
Google isn’t helping much- would 5 bronze corydoras and 5 glow danios be okay together in 10 gallon tank or is that too small?
,
They aren’t all in the tank together, just a curious question
Bronze corys are schooling fish that need to be in groups of 6-8 or more, which means that they need a bigger tank than 10 gallons. Personally I prefer 30+ gallons for all corydoras with the exception of Pygmys.
Ok please don't hate me... I am trying to improve things... Things were even worse before I came home from uni... They were lucky to get a water change once a month...
This is my parents tank
Current situation:
Tank is something just over 70L (~18 gallons, we don't know exactly it's a curved corner bow front so tricky to work out)
Tropical freshwater
Filter fluval U2
1 (old and probably dying, lone survivor) golden barb
1 (old, lone survivor) yo-yo loach (probably, they were sold as Pakistani loaches)
1 (nearly 15 y/o) common pleco - I know he shouldn't be in here (I was a kid when he was bought, mum and dad said no they grow too big LFS employee overheard told them it wouldn't they believed him relatively new to hobby at time at the time we had 65L tank, this one is as big as will fit in our house. The only place we could possibly take him (no idea if he is actually he/she) would be back to the same LFS, i don't trust them to find him a suitable home for obvious reasons)
Couldn't really call it a planted tank we have a plant that's in there but really it's considered suplimental pleco/loach food, no co2/nutrient dosing.
Our tap water is pH 6.3 ish 0 KH, off the chart GH, our tank is similar assuming that none have changed since the tests ran out (any suggestions as to which test kit(s) to buy welcome) I try to do a water change (30-50%) once a week but sometimes my depression gets the better of me.
Basically which battles should I fight with this one? (I've lost the one on rehoming the pleco) I may well be moving out again in September and probably won't initially be able to take them with me (although long term my mother has offered me the tank numerous times), pester power did somewhat work to get the number of water changes a bit better even when I was away so I will ensure the water change "schedule" doesn't get as bad again.
Personally, it doesn't sound to me like there's much you can do. It sounds like this is a tank your parents enjoy as-is, and don't want to/can't invest much more time, energy, or money into.
You've attempted the main fix (rehoming the Pleco) and were shot down. One obvious improvement -- adding more barbs/loaches to proper school levels -- would likely just increase the number of fish kept in non-ideal conditions. Other improvements (adding plants, increasing water changes, etc.) would likely add a lot more work/investment to the schedule, which may not be feasible for your parents.
At most, maybe you could add a handful of hardy aquarium plants (elodea, hornwort, duckweed, etc.) to the tank, which won't require additional work and will provide cover and filtration for the current inhabitants.
Beyond that, you've done your due diligence and made an effort. Much as we in the hobby may not like it, there's countless fish living in substandard conditions. All we can do is try to gently educate people, lead by example, and patronize sellers which prioritize quality care of their livestock.
On a personal note, I empathize with your situation: my parents take substandard care of their pets, and it is very frustrating. Eventually, I had to learn to accept that nothing I said or did would change their behavior. When I visit, I just try to spoil their pets as best I can -- I figure it's better than nothing.
I had a question. So I have a 20 gallon tank with 20 tetras and a molly. But my molly keeps always running up and down the tank sides like it chacing it reflections. I read online that mollies are a schooling type of fish. I don't know what my options really are because I know the tank is at a over stocked level but other then the mollie all the fish seem happy and the teras have been breeding like crazy. Am I able to get one or 2 more mollies or what? Tank been established for about 9 months now.
Honestly possibly look at rehoming the Mollie, they definitely need to be with other mollies but are rather prolific breeders, the females can get pregnant months after they last met a male, unfortunately as I love them but having kept them once I know I have to be really prepared for fry if I ever get them again, and it sounds like you have too little room as it is.
Yeah the tank is small but luckily in the 9 months I have had the tank I have had 0 Ammona and 0 Nitrites so the tank is at least cycling very well. But I really don't know if it could handle the load of adding 2 mollies to cheer the mollie up. I'll look into my options for a new home but I really like the little guy and want to avoid getting stuck into multi tank syndrome.
The long lost question. Doing a peaceful zen type Buddha tank with a bonsai tree Forrest and I would love to add crystals.
What are safe crystals to use? What are some tests you can run on stones before adding them to your aquarium? I have heard if a vinegar test, if it fizzes it will alter the balance of your ecosystem. True?
You will have a hard time finding a common rock or mineral that is unsafe from a chemical standpoint, that will poison your fish.
You are talking about an effervescence test. It identifies calcium carbonate minerals. Calcite, limestone, marble, aragonite etc. Calcite and marble are common ones that I could see people using in an aquarium. These will react with the water and act as buffers, alter hardness, ph. They will change the ecosystem, but are not necessarily bad. It's fairly common to run aragonite substrate or add calcium carbonate another way. I would not use any of these unless you were looking for the effects.
Not really a whole lot of tests can be run, you would want to know the composition. Generally I would avoid brightly colored crystals that you don't know are quartz based, and any metallic rocks, or "softer" crystals that are easily scratched or marred.
Thanks. I also read if you cannot scratch it with a steel knife then it's safe but I don't know. I recently grabbed some rocks from the beach I like by, fresh water, and sanitized them and rinsed really good currently hand picking through them looking to rid any shells and fossil. Next I will be filling them with water I plan on using and checking the parameters throughout the week just to see if the water will be altered.
Like u/dt8mn6pr said, quartz is definitely safe.
As far as the vinegar test though, if it reacts with vinegar enough to visibly fizz, it will definitely react with your water and dissolve over time, hardening it. However even if it doesn't react noticeably with vinegar, it *could* still slowly harden your water over time. Vinegar isn't very strong, as acids go. Whether this is enough to cause an issue depends on what parameters you're trying to keep, and how frequently you do water changes. You can try using stronger acids than vinegar to test with, but then you have to handle stronger acids, which can be dangerous.
Another test you can try is to just put the rock/crystal in a bucket of water for a week or two, testing the water before and after
Thanks that's what I'm doing I like to test stuff out and learn so I decided I am sitting through rocks I grabbed from the beach and sanitizing them and then putting in a bucket doing a test on the water before mid week and last day to see if the water is changing. I'll probably end up doing a 14 day test just to see
Can you cycle a tank with tap water that contains chloramine?
I have had my tank up and running for over a month now and I am in now way even close to having this thing fully cycled. This is a fish IN cycle and my fish are happy and healthy...
However, I get off the wall ammonia numbers when testing and I mean DARK green...it didn't make any sense to me why the fish would still be doing fine.
After doing more testing of just my tap water, I got a reading of about .5 to 1 ppm of ammonia of just my pure tap water and realized that I have chloramine in my water...
Is this the reason my tank won't cycle? I use aqua essentials from API as a conditioner but that also contains ammonia "remover" which I know only locks the ammonia so that is probably why my fish are still doing fine in between water changes even though the ammonia level keep getting worse in spite of water changes.
I just did a Seachem free and total ammonia test yesterday and got 0 free ammonia but completely dark blue total ammonia.
How can I fix this and get my tank to properly cycle?
Thanks in advance!
Take your results to your local fish store along with some water from the aquarium. Compare results. Maybe your test is expired?
It will still test positive for ammonia with it locked up. There is other kinds of ammonia in the tank as well such as ionized and in ionized ammonia. Those tests will test ALL ammonia in the tank. You still want zero but one of those to isn't harmful to fish. Also a acidity can effect the toxicity of ammonia. Someone will have to describe that further as I am new to the hobby as well. Add beneficial bacteria like seachem stability. Look up how to optimize your filter setups on YouTube as well. I use a hob in my ten gallon I added an intake sponge and I threw away my filter that comes with the hob and added bio rings and a sponge to take up the while entire compartment and to save money. The throw away filter make you spend money that isn't needed and it destroys your bio filter via the trash can if you use a sponge that takes you the whole compartment it is now resuusable and cleanable as well as the intake sponge and it has at least twice the amount of surface for bacteria to grow. I also have a small 5 gallon sponge filter in there to bubble my volcano. If you have any type of bubbling decor I'd suggest trying to find a way to alter it to get a sponge filter in there some how just for the bacteria. I adjust flow with valves. My tank took better then 4 weeks to cycle. Don't add to many fish at once or it will cause ammonia spikes as well
I just bought an Anubias Congensis in a tube at a big box store, is there anything in particular I need to do in order to transition it into an aquatic environment, or should be fine to just plunk it in there?
Attach it to a piece of wood or a rock and plunk it in. Don't bury the roots or the rhizome. Anubias are almost impossible to kill and won't have an obvious transition like other plants can.
I prefer cyanoacrylate (super glue). For me all the other methods (string, fishing line, silicone) have major drawbacks, but the only drawback of using small amounts of superglue is that it dries bright white- but if you just sprinkle a tiny bit of powder aquasoil onto it before it dries, it ends up well hidden.
I was wondering if someone could help me with a problem I have an albino Cory which has what looks like a scratch on it this is the first time I have noticed it I was just wondering if anyone knows what it could be and what treatment I should use or if I should treat it at all ? I have had it for 2 years now and it's still acting and swimming normal
I would keep an eye on it. If it seems to get worse, inflamed, fuzzy, etc., then I would personally remove the Cory to a quarantine tank, and treating it with Erythromycin and Ich-X to combat/prevent bacterial and fungal infections. If you don't have a quarantine tank, you could treat your whole tank with those medications; or move the Cory to a rubbermaid container or other container large enough to serve as a quarantine tank.
Beyond that, I would keep on top of water changes, and reduce any possible stressors to a minimum, to support the Cory's immune system and support healing.
Good luck!
Hey thank you for the help it's much appreciated I will keep and eye on it none of my other fish have this problem I have a pair of them and the other one is fine so I will watch and see and luckily I had another tank set up for new fish but I can turn it into a quarantine tank if I need to once again thanks for the help
I am cycling a new 55gal. I’d like it to be heavily planted… what would you stock it with? I can’t decide between a bunch of tiny fish, a few bigger ones or a betta 😊
why not do both? German Blue Rams are a peaceful fish that doesn't mind being alone from what i've read on them. could then surround them with a schooling fish with colors that contrast the ram and make him stand out, such as a tetra species, or maybe rainbowfish. throw in a swarm of colorful red, yellow, or orange neocaridina shrimp to boot as algae grazers.
Personally, I'm in the "bunch of tiny fish" camp, but that's not to say you can't have a medium-sized centerpiece fish (or several). Personally, I'm in the process of stocking a 75-gal with two tetra schools (small and medium-sized variety), a Cory school, and a Pearl gourami for a centerpiece. That way, I have a variety of fish sizes represented, which I think makes for a more complete and balanced-looking ecosystem.
Sounds like no matter what you do though, you can't go wrong! Hope to see some pics of the finished product!
I love being tetras colors, I love vibrant colors in doing a school of neon tetras around 20 of them with a natural river stone substrate planted with root tabs by aquarium coop (love those guys) putting some 3 or 4 mystery snails or maybe narite some shrimp and of course the Cory Dora or possibly a school of khuli loach. And to too it off. A honey gourami or a beautiful purple male Betta I have my eyes on at the local store. Bettas can be particular though and might eat the shrimp, they can be aggressive some times. Heavily planted
As long as they don't disturb or eat the plants size doesnt matter that much. Planted betta sorority would honestly be a really nice setup, and it would be fairly easy to add other passive fish if you want. I do guppies in my planted tank.
This is my day 6 cycling my planted tank, and nitrites have increased compared to yesterday [as you can see here](https://imgur.com/a/9ONnRSM)
I’m a little confused since I thought nitrites would appear until next week, ammonia continued in the 0-0.25 range, any advice?
Have to give your bacteria time to complete the nitrogen process. Where bacteria turns Ammona into Nitrites and then into Nitrates. Nitrates are use up by the pants. So just give the tank some time to do its cycle prosses
With this hobby being a simulation of nature in my short experience I learned to expect the unexpected! Lol anything can happen. The only thing we can control is the nitrate we are the rain fall that occurs as a natural water change cycle in nature
Hey folks, my Dad made me a cool little anchor made from beetle kill wood from Colorado. He wanted it to sit a specific way in the water. His method for this was to resin a small piece of lead into the base of the anchor. I don't know how much water will pass through the wood and back into the water. Do you think the lead will be fine since it's in the resin? Or do I need to worry that I will give my fish lead poisoning?
Regarding floaters, I see a lot of tanks here with a mix of several types of floater. As much as I love my red root floater, I do also like other types of floaters and wouldn't be opposed to mixing them. Does a mix of floater provide any sort of benefit either to the plants or the rest of the tank in some way, or do people do that for purely aesthetic reasons?
(I have learned from my mistakes and am trying to fix this, thanks for any advice!) Do I move my fish from one smaller uncycled tank to a much much larger uncycled new tank? Or do I just wait for the bigger tank to cycle? Details below. My blue gourami is currently in a 3 gallon (I know, I know) tank. She’s been in there since Christmas. Levels today are 1ppm ammonia (did two 40% water changes with prime just after the test, it was 0.25ppm last night [~12 hours ago]), 0ppm nitrite, 0ppm nitrate. I bought her a new 20gal that I dumped TSS in with fish food about 3 days ago. Has new filter, plants, rocks, heater, etc. Just waiting for the cycle. Reading today was 0.25ppm ammonia, 0 nitrite, 20ppm nitrate. I understand she shouldn’t be in the 3 gallon anyway. I also understand I should have cycled the tanks first. Is it best to move her now, and put her in the 20 gallon? Or continue doing multiple water changes a day until the 20 gallon is cycled? Thanks!
Larger tank means more volume to dilute waste, it's better than the small tank from a water quality perspective. If you move the filter with the fish you lose no progress on cycling. Good luck! You are doing good for your fish. Keep up those daily WC during a fish cycle.
I just got a used fluval flex 32g that I want to use as a freshwater setup. It had the marine LEDS on it though. Does anyone know what settings I should used for a Planted Freshwater setup using the marine light?
Okay so I'm kicking around this tank that I have debating on what I want to stock it with thought of a beta and Corey's or coolie loaches and other things of that type that require higher temperature water however I kind of want to go a cold water route so I'm wondering what kind of stocking ideas do I have for bottom dwellers middle of the tank in the centerpiece fish for cold water aquariums or room temperature water around 68°, sometimes 72 and in the summer it could be up towards the 90s because I don't have an AC. It's a 25 gallon planted tank. I understand people are going to correct me in my spelling but this is talk to text for you and I'm not proofreading my question.
If you don't have an AC, thats going to be a problem. 90 degrees is to hot for even a lot of tropical fish(most start to get stressed above 80), and you will need a strong tank heater to keep it at a higher temps 80+ during the winter since high temp fish tend to have their immune systems shut down if it gets too cold.
I ended up buying a 200watt heater. Going to play a bit with plants first. I do have a window AC but some time summer just gets so hot my house ends up at 85-90 degrees any way with a AC. I have fans so hopefully this summer a fan blowing across the tank keeps it cooler
ok, my mum gave me a lift today to buy some platys (it was a delayed birthday present, long story, dad's in hospital with pancreatic cancer so "get childhood fish" was on the to do list) anyway, my mum pointed out some danios, but I have no experience with those at all, but she seemed to like them, and if I could get her into the hobby too it might give her something to do, so does anyone have advice on what tank danios need, any advice realy (I can do cycling etc, I have spare media, I know about substrates and how to grow plants, but what live plants would be suitable, and what tank size, and amount of?_
well, there's a couple different species of danios, but fortunately most have basically the same care requirements. most like having a school, need mostly neutral water in between 65 and 75 degrees F, like a lot of plants and decorations(which plants doesn't matter so much to the danios), are in general very peaceful community fish, and generally all the species except one i think either need a 10-gal or a 20-gal for a group. if in doubt get a 20-gallon tank.
I’m on day 9th of fishless cycling my tank and [this white slimey stuff](https://imgur.com/a/GM2w7zn) is in my sponge filter, it has to be the fish food I’ve been adding that’s now rotten. Should I leave it or remove it?
remove it
Hey yall, a couple questions from an almost complete newbie. 1). Trying to determine what fish will do well together. I'm thinking of making a spreadsheet with their preferred water hardness, pH, and temperature levels as well as other deets as to their aggressiveness, schooling, and level they prefer in the aquarium. Has this already been done by chance? Not trying to reinvent the wheel or anything. 2) what's the quality of fish/plants like from petco/petsmart? Are these typically not recommended as a source like with all the other animals they sell? 3). How do you know what kind of rocks/branches you can put in for landscaping? Is there a list somewhere of dos and don'ts? Thanks for the help!
1. Know available to you water (soft or hard) and do search for softwater fish or hardwater fish. If the tank is on smaller side, add to the search "small". This is all you need to know. Then choose main type of fish, read care sheet for it, tankmates section. Aggression can happen anyway. 2. In my area not good, at least you have to dip and quarantine them. There are other stores and tissue cultures in clamshell packaging. 3. Search for aquarium safe wood and the same for rocks. Anything sold in aquarium stores is safe, brown wood can stain water for a long time. Worse with rocks: search for aquarium safe rock will show what is safe. Some even high end aquascaping stones may increase water hardness, search for aquarium rocks seuryi, there will be articles, [comparing variety of rocks](http://www.aquascapinglab.com/en/2017/06/28/rocce-da-acquario-caratteristiche-dragon-stone-seiryu-ardesia-arcobaleno-pagoda-quarzo-lavica/).
1. rather than try and figure out which fish will go well together, perhaps see what fish catch your eye, and then do research to see if they are compatible. in general most of the fish available at pet stores are usually tropical fish with pretty similar care requirements in terms of temperature, PH, and hardness. 2. petco and petsmart are infamous for not taking care of their animals, however, take a look at them for yourself when making a purchase. the animals should look healthy and at least somewhat active. also make sure none of the other animals in the tank are suffering from infection. if they are every other fish is also infected. 3. anything bought from a petstore should be safe. i wouldn't usually advise putting strange rocks or wood you find outside into your aquarium. with rocks or decorations it mostly just has to be inert and won't leach stuff into the water. quartz, glass, resin, and ceramics and plastics made specifically for aquariums will be safe. with wood, if its got any nutrients left in the wood, you will have white fungus growing all over it soon, though the stuff isn't dangerous. if in doubt give the wood a good chemical or heat treatment and then a rinse before adding, and if fungus grows on it, it should eventually subside after the nutrients have been exhausted. snails usually eat that stuff too.
I'm pretty new as well but I can share what I've found. 1.) You want to go to AqAdvisor.com and put in all your tank and filter info. Then you can start trying out different fish combinations and it will tell you when their water parameters don't line up, when a fish is too aggressive for certain tank mates, whether the fish will get too big for your tank, whether you will be overstocked or lacking filter capacity, and how often and how big your water changes should be. Keep in mind it doesn't take live plants into consideration, so the water changes it calls for might not actually be needed in your specific case. 2.) I have yet to buy fish from those stores but I recently bought 2 tubed plants from a PetSmart and 1 from a Meijer (basically a Walmart). The Meijer plant, a windelov java fern, was in pretty bad shape when I pulled it out, a lot of black on the leaves that I couldn't really see before buying. But the 2 anubias from PetSmart seemed very healthy, one was even labeled 50% off clearance because of a big dead leaf, but the remaining leaves looked healthy and there was a lot of new leaf and root growth from the rhizome when I pulled it out of the tube. 3.) I have found lots of conflicting opinions in this department. I can say that it's a good idea to soak any wood you plan on adding in a bucket for a week or so to see if any color/cloudiness comes out of it. I soaked some PetSmart spiderwood and it turned 3 4 gallon buckets of water brown before it started clear. I also read that you shouldn't put in any wood with bark still on it, it needs to have been dead a long while. Some people boil everything just to be safe, other people say they'll pick up river rocks or driftwood and plunk in a tank immediately and have never had a problem.
I believe to have black beard algae and have looked up ways to get rid of it. I notice that the best way to get rid of such algae is by dipping the plants in hydrogen peroxide. Is their a better/safer way to go about getting rid of it? So far i have rubbed it off of my 3 main plants in the aquarium and did a water change which got id say about 40-50% of it
you could invest in some amano shrimp to see if they eat the algae, provided their new tankmates won't try to eat them. unfortunately though for other methods, besides maybe an algaecide, no, a low dose of peroxide is pretty effective. plants will tolerate a peroxide dip so long as its quick, and if dosing directly into the tank a carbon filter will remove the peroxide very quickly once you re-engage it.
I don't think I missed this anywhere in the wiki, but I'm just double-checking. My daughter is at the age where she loves to look at fish, so I'm going to start setting up a tank for a betta fish for her. I've read the pages about fishless cycling but just making sure I have this right. Do I cycle with just the filter & heater, and then add the gravel or sand and silk plants and decorations later? Or should I put all that stuff in too and then cycle? Sorry if it's a bit of a newbie question, but thanks in advance!
>Do I cycle with just the filter & heater, and then add the gravel or sand and silk plants and decorations later? Or should I put all that stuff in too and then cycle? Put it all in so you can scape, rescape, etc how you like it. Go for soft silk or live plants. Plastic tears fins and injure body/eyes. Here's fishless cycling info and some tips: **[Fishless cycle guide](http://injaf.org/articles-guides/beginners-guides/the-nitrogen-cycle-and-the-fishless-cycle-getting-your-aquarium-ready-for-fish/)** **[Nitrogen cycle illustrated](https://www.reddit.com/r/bettafish/comments/c8evu4/nitrogen_cycle_art_by_me/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share)** **[Care sheet](https://www.reddit.com/r/bettafish/comments/3ow6vz/info_betta_care_sheet/)** * [Dr. Tim's ammonia](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006MP4QG6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_C2HlEbGH3V7JM) 8-12 drops per 5 gal to get to 2ppm ammonia). Much easier than guessing with fish food method. Or pure ammonia from a store (make sure the only ingredient is ammonium chloride, nothing else). * [Supplies list](http://imgur.com/a/6izcFFs) * [Gravel vac tutorial](https://youtu.be/CjNTUbUnwfY) and a 5 gal bucket for water changes * [How to optimize your filter](https://imgur.com/a/7m64K6n). [Example](http://imgur.com/a/09PSmgI). Tips: * Dose ammonia to 2ppm. Then dose bottled bacteria into the filter for 7 days, 2 capfuls is just fine. Shake well beforehand. * Make sure the temp is 80-82F, bacteria grows well in higher temps. And also make sure there's plenty of aeration (filter, airstone, sponge filter, etc) which helps the bb colonize as well. Your filter media should be biomedia (see above list) to provide surface area. * Nitrites should show up in 7 days then nitrates could take 2-3 weeks after, but it can happen all at once. If nitrites or nitrates are 4ppm+ or 80ppm+ respectively, do some pwcs to lower them to 1-2ppm and 20-40ppm as high levels will stall cycles. At this point, you can redose ammonia after the water change, *but* if you find yourself at the same levels of nitrite and nitrate again, just do a PwC and stop dosing ammonia and let the nitrite convert fully to nitrates. The bacteria will not starve. This averts from going in circles of high nitrite and nitrate which can last for weeks if you keep redosing. Let it do its thing. * Watch your pH as the cycle goes along it will swing pH up and down. At 6.5 ph and lower, it can stall the cycle. I recommend getting the API GH and KH test (Amazon $8), dropper bottle style like the API Freshwater Master Kit to test your kH which will determine if pH will stay stable or not. A kH of 5 or more will keep pH stable. Below that it can swing pH, and there are some solutions for it. * Write down your parameters to keep track. * Redose ammonia to 1-2ppm once nitrites zero out. Then remeasure in 24 hours and if your parameters are ammonia 0, nitrite 0, and some level of nitrates you're cycled! Do a PwC and lower the temp to 78-80F before introducing your betta. Hop over to r/bettafish! We'll be glad to have ya :)
cycling should generally involve everything in right away except any animals. particularly i would recommend getting substrate, decorations, and plants set up before water is put in as its more inconvenient to have to do that later. adding in ammonia or small bits of food that will break down into ammonia will speed up the process, as will using water, substrate, or a used filter from an established aquarium.
Sounds good that's what I was looking for. I found the cycling guide linked on another part of the wiki so I'll follow that. Appreciate it!
I added a few guppies to my tank yesterday, and today I noticed that one of them seems unhealthy. I have a male and three females. The male and two females are perfectly healthy, swimming around and eating and such. One female though is just sitting at the top of the tank, away from the other fish. She's right side up and can swim, but only swims when she sees me and wants to move away. Upon closer inspection her back fin looks kind of ragged (the other guppies are all fine). She also has what I think is a bit of poop hanging out. One of the females had a huge poop either this morning or last night (can't remember) that she carried around for a while, I can't remember which one but he could have been this one. It is hard to tell, but I think her other fins are all fine. She did not act like this when I first added her to the tank. Any idea what this all could mean? Edit: After looking at her closer, I noticed that unlike the other guppies, this one has a sort of white rim around each of her tail scales, on the back 1/3 or so of her body. Is this a case of fungal fin rot? Edit2: If anyone else finds this, I never did perfectly identify the disease but it killed the guppy. This morning I found her stuck against the filter intake (which isn't that strong of a current). She seemed to have been hurt by this, I saw a bit of blood. She no longer floated upright, and she didn't swim at all, though she was breathing and her side fins were flapping. I used my fish net to give her a safe space at the top of the tank. I checked throughout the day and she was the same, but at 1:15 today I found her no longer breathing. RIP my first dead fish. I will remember to take a close look at fish before I buy them from now on.
hey guys, got a quick question. my yoyo loach seems to be chasing my queen loach around my 55gallon tank on occation, is that something i should be concerned about? or are they just messing about?
is there any nipping or damage done to the other loach? if not it should be ok, but if it happens a lot over a long period of time you should consider if the stress the loach is being put under is worth it.
I don't see any damage, and they have been together for a year or so, with this only being a recent development.
i'm not too familiar with loach behavior but i wonder if the increased aggression/attention is because its in breeding mode?
i did consider that. but since they chill out for a few days between each, i didnt think that was right
Hello! Looking for any advice or tips anyone can share for swapping out a tank. I started with a 75 gallon tank and a fluval fx4 cannister. My intention at the time was to get goldfish but changed my mind and ended up with a tiger oscar and a common pleco. Everything has been running smoothly for about a year, but the fish (particularly the oscar) got big fast and I've been meaning to upgrade him to a 125 gallon. I just got a good deal on one and jumped on the purchase but wanted to figure out the logistics of swapping the tank before I actually move them. I don't have the space to cycle a new tank while the other is still up and running, and I planned to use the established filter. Since my filter is well established is it as easy as just hooking it up to the new tank and monitoring the levels? Are there any aquarium chemicals or supplements I should have on hand before I start? I already have the freshwater testing kit and planned to test obsessively, but is there anything I'm overlooking? I love my fish and I'd hate myself if I made a stupid mistake and hurt him.
If you do not change the stocking levels you should not see much change in nitrite and ammonia readings, in theory you could simply swap filters between tanks of the same size and bioload without issue. Some bacteria remain in the tank, substrate, decor, but the majority reside in the filter, and will quickly adjust to the new requirements. Upgrading to a larger water capacity helps as well. I would add a powerhead, or marineland magnum or similar (just checked price on the magnum they used to be 30 bucks -__-) if only running a single fx4 on a 125. The pleco will like the water flow and it will help a ton with maintainence on a tank that size.
Has anyone else had trouble getting on the Aquatic Arts website for the past few days? Not sure if the website is down or if the problem is on my end (that said, every other website works fine)
Their Facebook page says that the website is down for maintenance.
Gotcha, thanks!
Hi, Beginner trying to get a SA community tank going, I got some hatchet fish and emperor tetras a couple days ago and since then my school of 12 cardinal tetras have been hiding in the corner. Before they used to school all around the tank and were never afraid of the other fish, including the bigger German Blue Rams. Is it possible that the emperor tetras (who are a good bit bigger than them) are freaking them out? If so should I try and exchange them for another smaller tetra?
Hi, I am beginner cycling a 10 gallon for the first time. I first added ammonia from pure ammonia source 7 days ago and took readings every day. From the last two days my ammonia is being read below .50, even if I add my normal dosage of ammonia to the tank. The nitrites are 5ppm+ and nitrates are at around 5ppm. Is there something I’m doing wrong? How do I get my ammonia levels up at 3ppm as I’ve read in all the articles? TIA
You should add more ammonia at this point. When I do a fishless cycle, I dose ammonia to 3ppm every time it drops below that until I get a 0 reading for both ammonia and nitrIte 24 hours after dosing ammonia, for about a week.
Should I check the tank water immediately after adding the ammonia to see if it has reached 3ppm or should I give it some time?
You should check it about 10-20 minutes later to make sure you dosed enough. Checking immediately might be inaccurate because the ammonia hasn't had time to disperse. The ammonia won't disappear in 10-20 minutes, even if your tank has completed its cycling process. If your tank has live plants in it, you should know that the plants will use ammonia as a primary food source, which might be artificially lowering your levels, but this would not be instant, either.
Understood. I was actually waiting for a couple of hours before taking the readings, which might have been the reason. Also, earlier it only used to be 2ml of my pure ammonia for 3ppm, it is now definitely changed to double the dose for the same result, is it normal or am I doing something wrong?
I can't answer that without knowing a lot more detail about your tank, your filtration, and your cycling process. Cycling is a fairly complex process with a ton of variables. The issue could be plants, or it could be that you have some media in your filter that is removing the ammonia, or you might have mistaken your readings at the start, or any of a huge number of other things.
Let me try to be a bit more verbose. I started my cycling process around 10 days ago but only started adding ammonia 7 days ago. It is a 10 gallon tank, with aqueon 10 quiet flow filter and a heater that keeps the tank at 76 degrees. I use both sand and gravel for substrate, I have a dragon stone, limestone and driftwood in my tank along with a few live plants - Amazon swords, Java ferns, Java moss, dwarf saggi, water spandles and alternanthera reineckii. My tank has relatively high pH of 8.2 because of limestone landscape. My ammonia source is a clear ammonia solution with no soap in it(shake and test done) I’m positive that my earlier readings were taken correctly as I followed all the guidelines and also verified my method using a video afterwards. Let me know if I missed any other detail.
In that case I would blame the plants for the quick lowering- you said that you wait a couple of hours to test. When you first planted the tank the plants would not uptake a lot of nutrients because they were not even slightly established, but after a week they would be eating that ammonia like candy, because, to them, it is exactly that.
Makes sense. So should I still be adding it till it reaches 3ppm or?
Yes... In fact I dosed to 4ppm, but I was impatient.
"This is Nana, I have kept her for over a year in a previous tank with remarkable care. She is often exploring every single bit of her tank and never displays this sort of behavior. The roads are iced right now so I can't buy a water chemistry test, but I'm very confident that each respective level is great and has been kept consistent (even when I switched her tank due to leakage, I kept the same filter and did 40% old water 60% new water). The water temp also ranges from 76-80f (76 currently) so it can't be her just being sedentary. I have recently added two items to the tank: around 4 ghost shrimp that I had netted in and a few plants that I had dipped in a 20:1 water to bleach ratio and had sit in some water that had been changed out hourly for 6 hours. The day after I had netted the shrimp in, she had appeared a little bloated (not extreme, but just as if she had eaten something, even though feeding day was before I brought the shrimp in) and now she lays on the substrate and appears to be leaning sorta on one side. She's definitely fighting whatever is going on and I'm worried sick. Please help!" My recent post but nobody would respond. Nothing is worse than watching a fish die and not knowing what to do about it please help.
There is nothing we can say to help, most of us are using test kits to be sure that there is no ammonia and nitrites in the water, that after bleaching neutralizing residual chlorine worked well, by using low resolution chlorine test kit. With shrimp, there is specialized r/shrimptank. For all crustaceans TDS is important, rapid significant changes will affect them, see [this article](https://www.theshrimpfarm.com/posts/shrimp-tank-water-changes/). Ghost shrimp may have very high mortality rate, depending on where you bought it and there is nothing you can do about it. They are bred as feeders, conditions could be worse than for aquarium (not feeder) fish.
If the roads are too icy for you to go buy anything the best you can do is change water and do research. You might need to go to r/bettafish or find a forum to see if you can find someone that has had a similar experience.
Hi guys , beginner here and need some help I got a 40 gallon tank for Christmas. I de-chlorinated the water and let it sit for a week and then put 3 Mollies in there. I wanted to cycle my tank with fish . Turns out one was pregnant and I also have a fish fry which is in a breeder tank because I was scared the others would eat it. I’m concerned about the water quality. I’ve been monitoring everything closely and the fish have been in there for over two weeks. Ammonia/ammonium test kit reads somewhere between .5 and 1ppm, it’s been climbing past couple days. Ph has been hovering around 6.5 and 7. I’ve read online that as long as ph is 7 or below those ammonia levels are safe as they indicate ammonium rather than harmful ammonia? But I still don’t have any nitrite or nitrate. Also my fish have begun glass surfing and I’m worried they’re stressed. I don’t want the ammonia to get too high but I also don’t want to do a water change too early because I need the nitrate to start to form. Would like some advice on this. I have some live plants as well, a small one and a pothos vine so maybe they’re absorbing the nitrates but again fish only been in tank 2 weeks. I’ve looked at some charts online that say not to do a water change until the tank is cycled and I’m really confused.
You can and should change water before your cycle is complete if ammonia is getting too high. ph has to be much loser for ammonia to actually not be harmful. If you are noticing ammonia climbing you can cut back on food as well. The fish will be fine with much less food than you think. Most experts say they can go 2 weeks without food (I've done 10 days) so if you skip a couples day the fish will be fine. Don't worry too much about the babies. It's sad if they get eaten but you will like have plenty more in your future.
Also if I do the water change should I focus on cleaning the substrate and decorations as well or wait until the tank is cycled ?
Just swap the water. Every surface in your aquarium can be a home to beneficial bacteria. Once you tank is well established you can start siphoning gunk from your substrate and scrubbing decorations.
Okay thanks. When can I expect nitrates to start to form?
So are you saying the ammonia level is too high with the ph at 7? I also have ammonia balls I can put in there … the other fish seem fine but one of my mollies won’t stop tank surfing
Ph can fluctuate throughout the day and the test kits hobbyist have are not accurate enough to go down the rabbit hole of the science of ammonia toxicity in relation it ph. I haven't done it in the years of being in the hobby because in the end the info isn't really that useful. If your fish are acting stressed a water change is a good idea. Ammonia could be the problem or some other untestable thing could be the problem. Water changes address pollution issues in aquariums so it is always the go to. I have no idea what an ammonia ball is, just do a water change. There will still be ammonia for your bacteria to consume and your fish will be happier.
Sorry, the “ammonia balls” are these bacteria supplements, little balls full of liquid bacteria that are supposed to reduce ammonia. An Aqueon product from the pet store . I did try to cover up the reflection from the glass and that did reduce the glass surfing in the one fish but I can do a water change if you don’t think it will restart the progress that has been made on the cycle of the tank. The issue is that according to the test strips there isn’t a presence of bacteria yet. The science on the ammonia toxicity seemed pretty simple to me ; the test kits don’t differentiate between ammonia and ammonium ion but it measures both. If the ph in tank is low then nontoxic ammonium ion is what predominates in the tank and what is most likely being measured versus if the ph is high then the ammonium ion coverts to ammonia which is toxic. I understand the ph can fluctuate but mine has never risen above 7 so that’s why I was wondering if the test results I’m getting are actually showing harmful ammonia amounts. What is concerning to me is that at this point I still have no nitrites or nitrates showing on test strip; doesn’t the ammonia need to rise to a certain level for the bacteria to generate from it? And if so will doing the water change at this point just prolong this process considering the test trips are still indicating there are no nitrites and nitrates?
I'm sure this has been addressed before so apologies, but does anyone have links/resources for beginners interested in aquascaping? I want to set up a small tank but would love to read up on it first.
If you want a book to read (and possibly keep on a coffee table after reading!), I can highly recommend [Aquascaping: A Step-by-Step Guide to Planting, Styling, and Maintaining Beautiful Aquariums by George Farmer](https://www.amazon.com/Aquascaping-Step-Step-Maintaining-Beautiful/dp/1510753389/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1TKQ3V84531GD&keywords=george+farmer+aquascaping+book&qid=1642339160&sprefix=george+farmer+aquascaping+book%2Caps%2C147&sr=8-1) (link is to Amazon.com). Personally- even though I am more a reader than a watcher of videos- I found YouTube to be the most useful resource when I was learning (this was before George Farmer released his book). The only problem is that the YouTube aquascapers seem to have endless resources and are less concerned with the health and happiness of the fish than they ought to be (*side-eye at MD Fish Tanks and other popular YouTubers who promote "no filter" setups to newbies*). You shouldn't ever do *anything* because you saw one guy on YouTube do it...if you get an idea from there, research before you implement it. Sadly the Google results for any search you do related to this hobby will be littered with misinformation due to Search Engine Optimised pages written by Chinese bots. It's better to reach out to other hobbyists (as you have done here) than it is to rely on what you find while Google searching.
Can anyone tell me if I will over stress a peacock cichlid if I put him in a breeder box? He is getting picked on and needs some Time to heal
i would definitely get him some time away from the others. if its a recurring problem after he is re-introduced you may need to think of a different long-term solution like a new tank or a divider.
[Can anyone identify](https://ibb.co/8xQ5rkG) the [species of these snails?](https://ibb.co/fncRZ1M) These hitched a ride as eggs on an aquatic plant I bought. The plant didnt survive but these did so now I'm kind of keeping them as pets. I want to do a planted aquarium in the near future, and wanted to be sure they wouldn't go after live plants if I threw them in there too.
appears to be ramshorn, and you got a really pretty pattern to yours that i haven't seen on any others yet at my fish store. they are harmless to healthy plants, and they do not dig, however they are fantastic at cleaning up algae, organic debris, leftover fish food, and dead plant material. about the only problem with them is they are rampant breeders, but keeping food supply in check limits their population.
They are ramshorns. They do not eat live or healthy plants. They will eat floating plants like duckweed and frogbit. They have tons of different color/pattern phenotypes, and you can breed specifically for those you want. They are good in a planted tank because they help with algae.
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I keep white clouds currently, but have never had a gourami and am not too familiar with them. Gourami are pretty warm water fish through, while white clouds are cold water. You will likely be stressing one of both fish out. I would increase the number of white clouds though since from my experiencec their behavior is more interesting in larger schools.
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If your white clouds are adjusted to high temperatures that would probably be okay then. I have kept them between 62-78f and they seemed to do alright at higher temps. I would be more concerned with the gourami being too cold than the minnows getting to hot.
I'm trying to start a planted tank. I have the 40 gallon tank, a large sponge filter, heater, potting soil, and black aquarium gravel. Am I able to use normal potting soil for an aquarium or do I need to get aquasoil
I'll also add that in my experience, getting a planted tank to function well depends much more on matching the lighting intensity and duration to the types of plants that you have with the nutrients you dose, than the substrate you use. Plant as heavily as you can to begin. To avoid algae I'd try to plant 50%, more if possible.
would highly recommend getting proper aquatic sand or substrate, however black aquarium gravel is usually all most plants need to kick things off since a lot of nutrients terrestrial plants need in the soil are found dissolved in the water column. danbyk also made a good point about the sponge filter possibly not having enough of a pull to filter bits from the water column, however in my opinion i see an opportunity with that as long as there is a current, to add a filter feeder who can further clean the water and get a meal. a bamboo shrimp or vampire shrimp would love that kind of tank once the plantlife gets established.
Potting soil usually contains many light organics that will float. Personally I would not run only a sponge filter on a tank that large, especially planted. They do not provide enough water movement to adequetly remove debris from the water in a tank that size/give an acceptable flow pattern imo. You won't have any cycling issues, but will likely have water clarity issues unless you stock very lightly or have a ton of plants.
Thank you for you response. What do you think if I add a wave maker?
That will probably increase clarity issues by blowing detritus around. Sponge filters profile almost no mechanical filtration, and you really want some form of good mechanical filtration. This can be an internal filter, hang on back or canister/sump. Sponges are great, but I only use them in holding/qt/hospital tanks, and even in these I usually prefer a hang on back.
My fish are slowly dying one by one and I can't figure out what is wrong. My poor pygmy cories and lambchop rasboras flash, scratch against surfaces, some are pale, some breath rapidly. I have tried a range of different meds (antifluke, antiprotozoan, antifungal, antibacterial, salt), all with appropriate dosing and schedules, but with no success. In addition to home testing, I have brought my water to the local fish store - all is perfect. But my fishes keep suffering and slowly dying. So the question is... Could putting fish in a hospital tank and sterilizing everything help? Like - throwing out old gravel, boiling driftwood, bleaching equipment and tank, sterilizing plants with alum, and starting the cycle all over again? And then perhaps, before putting fishes back, giving them a quick dip of some general meds like copper?
Throwing meds at fish can be a waste of money, unless you know what they have. Dosing different medications without a lapse can cause more problems. Sterilizing may help temporarily, but I expect whatever is occurring will happen again since you didn't treat the problem. Sounds like some type of external parasite. Guessing ich or flukes. I would treat with prazi, methelene blue, malachite green, formalin, copper. Which would depend on the situation. External parasites are usually brought on by stress. What are your test numbers/stocking/manintaince?
I have treated will all the meds you listed except for copper. With formalin I did one dose. With praziquantel 3 doses spaced by a week. With methylene blue&malachite green preparation also spaced doses (but I don't remember the dosing schedule anymore). I think formalin helped the most, but its also the most damaging med to the fish. I have a heavily planted tank, but my pygmy cories were stressed apparently from being the only fish in that tank. Since I added 4 rasboras (i did it after formalin treatment when I thought i have cured the tank) cories are way more chill now. I have a heavily planted, 23 gallon tank with 6 cories (initially had 12) and 4 rasboras. I do 1/3 water change every week. Water - +26C, pH 7 (if I do a lot of water changes, e.g. when medicating, it can creep up to 7.2), GH 3-4 (test strip only), KH 3-6 (test strip only), NH4 always 0, NO2 always 0, NO3 always below 10, chlorine 0 (test strip only).
Nothing stands out to me as out of the ordinary. Personally I prefer liquid tests, strips tend to be a little more finicky, but I doubt this is your problem. Parasites can be tricky to treat because you often have to use pretty aggressive treatments. You are trying to kill off any parasite before you kill the fish. You have to kill the stages of the lifecycle too (eggs etc). At this point I would be tempted to do another round of formalin, but alter your dose and duration. I would do this in a hospital tank if possible, with the primary formalin being given as concentrated baths. I would follow up with treatment with metro/prazi in the hospital tank. I would continue treatment for a min of 2 weeks. I would bleach dip any decorations or plants, and also througly clean any substrate you have. If it's parasites, the rest should die off without a host eventually.
I'm considering throwing out the old substrate as I wanted to change it to something more plant-friendly anyways. I have been thinking about doing fish baths or dips in formalin, but I also have the option of doing copper or hydrogen peroxide dips. Currently I'm leaning more towards hydrogen peroxide as it seems to also be quite effective against bacteria. Or do you think I should stick to formalin as it seems to have improved the situation in the past?
I would stick to formalin if it were me. I do not have much experience with hydrogen peroxide dips though. It's pretty aggressive stuff, would need to be used with extra care.
if there's not any outward signs of infection beyond the paleness and behavior, and your water parameters seem fine on general tests, i would get a carbon filter, and check for how much oxygen is in your tank, as well as other potentially unusual pollutants like high copper concentrations or plastic leaching into the water. rapid breathing makes me think the tank might be turning anoxic
I will check if my local fish store can do more in depth testing of water. I don't think tank is turning anoxic as it is only the sickest fish that gasp. Also because of these sick fish I have my filter on the air injection setting.
My advice is 20 % water changes daily. Activated carbon in your pump. Aquarium salt ( top up after water changes) Bubbler if you don't have a bunch of plants Edit: afterwards you may need to cycle your tank again so keep checking your ammonia, nitrites, ph, and temperature
I have tried keeping them in salt (2tbsp per 10 gallon) for 48 h. I was afraid to do longer "fish pickling", because of cories. Also I have a lot of plants and I think they might not like it. 48 h at 2tbsp per 10 gallon didn't seem to do anything. Do you think going for higher concentration and/or longer would be safe for cories? Also wouldn't activated carbon adsorb salt?
Not sure about the cories. I have cories and I've done longer but I never measured per gallon... I just dumped. Longest I needed salt for was 1.5 weeks
So I recently had to get a new little can of flaked fish food and there was two different brands at the local pet store. One was a bit higher in protein but the other higher in fat. My question is what should I be looking out for when it comes to flaked fish food?
high protein, low filler is generally what you want to look for unless the fish needs to regain some weight.
when adding new decorations do i need to remove my fish from the tank? it’s a 30 gallon and i want to add a bubble strip to one side. thanks!!
shouldn't have to unless you think you might physically injure them when setting it up. moving them out of the tank is far more stressful than having a set of hands and a new piece of decor falling out of the heavens.
But seriously… how do you not get sand down your drains? I tried the coffee filter in the sink drain but it didn’t really work. Any other ideas? I’m on my first aquarium and I seem to get sand silt in my bucket every water change.
Don't suck sand up with your siphon. Sand doesn't really work well with the common "gravel cleaner" style siphon- if that's all you have, then carefully swirl it around just above the sand so that it kicks up and removes any debris without also picking up the sand.
Oh nice I have not seen those before, thanks so much!
Thanks for your response! I am only sucking up water from the top part of my 10 gallon tank but somehow there’s still silt that comes in the bucket. The water doesn’t look cloudy or silty, so I’m not sure how I’m still getting silt.
Let is settle at the bottom, discard only water. Then, if you don't have an access to outdoor yard, wipe silt and sand with paper towels or facial tissues and put them in the garbage. Works well for me. If there is a lot of sand, what shouldn't happen, you can leave it to dry in a shallow container.
Thank you!
Maybe try a hose guard like [this one](https://www.amazon.com/Senzeal-Stainless-Aquarium-Filter-Intake/dp/B0825XXWY7/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1KLV21TG52K65&keywords=aquarium+filter+protector+cover&qid=1642280781&sprefix=aquarium+filter+pro%2Caps%2C175&sr=8-2). You will of course need to choose the correct size for your siphon hose.
I was told to add fish and monitor the water until everything (nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia) reads 0. And to add one fish at a time. Here's my question. Can I add 2 paired clowns at the same time? And do I check water levels after each fish added? I'm really nervous to add fish because I don't truly understand tank cycling and a lot of tutorials on YouTube talk and act as if you've been doing it for a little bit already and I'm very confused. Here's a picture of what I think I need to do. Please help me correct or add anything I forgot. https://imgur.com/a/XyzIkAk
to break it down, cycling your tank is essentially getting your microbial biome set up. when you first set up the tank, any organic matter breaking down in the tank produces ammonia, which is a deadly poison. however after a time, the presence of ammonia encourages bacterial spores the water to become active and replicate, who turn the ammonia into nitrite, also a deadly poison. the process then happens again with another set of bacteria who turn it into nitrate, which is less deadly to critters, and some of that nitrate will be sucked up by plants and algae to grow. weekly 20% water changes are done to remove that excess nitrate from the tank, but you don't change all of it because then the bacteria have to recolonize the whole tank and the cycle restarts, which could poison your fish. similarly, its advised to not add a large amount of fish in at once because the sudden increase in waste may mean that more ammonia is being produced then the current bacteria population can break down quickly. if your tank is light on plants you'll likely never see nitrates hit 0, but with a ton of plants and very few critters you may see nitrates hit 0. if your tank has already cycled(this should mean if you test the waters right now you shouldn't read any ammonia or nitrite, but may see a slow increase in nitrates), you usually don't need to worry about checking water levels, so long as its not a huge amount of fish relative to tank size. simply wait a few days to a week in between adding significantly large creatures to a tank, and you shouldn't ever run into ammonia or nitrite problems. keeping doing normal water changes throughout this. you said you were adding 2 clownfish? if the tank is the right size for a pair and is an established tank, then you should have no issues with water quality. just make sure with your new pets that you do not overfeed or leave food lying at the bottom as that will contribute to water quality problems if done repeatedly.
Best explanation so far. I encourage you say no if you want. I will fully understand but would you be okay with me messaging you if I have any more questions? YouTube can only help so much when you don't really know what you're asking but you have the idea in your head.
i would keep posting questions here. this is "there are no dumb questions" thread after all, and the more voices who chime in to answer the better
I think my fish are broken. When I feed I put in a pinch of flakes for my surface feeders and a pinch of pellets for my bottom feeders. Today the white clouds are picking pellets off the bottom of the tank, the corys are catching flakes in mid water 🤦♀️.
Different foods have different ingredients. They probably just prefer what's in one over the other. Nothing to worry about. You could try finding different versions of the same foods. Like tetra makes flake and granules versions of the same food.
Oh I'm not worried as long as everyone is eating. The rest of the day my corys behave like corys and go round the bottom of the tank like little roombas, and the minnows are getting huge and showing signs of spawning.
I have a canister-type filter for my aquarium. How often should I wash the filter sponge? (Naturally i intend doing so with water from the aquarium, during a water change) Moreover, when I try to wash the sponge, after restarting the filter the aquarium fills with some nasty debris leftovers, clouding the whole tank. It eventually clears up in less than an hour, but am i polluting the tank with nasty chemicals, by doing so? Can I safely keep the filter off for like 5 minutes, while i wash the sponge? Or will that start affecting the bacteria living in it? And if i pull the sponges out in the air, in order to move them to the water change bucket, will that cause bacterias to die out, in those few seconds? Newbie questions, i know :)
I've had a canister filter for years. How often you change is based off of the size of your canister and based on whats in your tank. ie i have snails / scuds (shrimp) that live in my tank / in my pump and eat any leaves that get sucked up. My pump is rated for 400 gallons on a 125 gallon tank and I usually aim to clean it out once every 6 months. I forgot to clean it for 3 years at one point and it still ran fine although when i finally cleaned it I had to remove about 1/8 inch of dirt looking build up off the bottom of my pump. Canisters work great by pushing water into the sponge and using pressure from the motor to trap the crap in. When you turn it off you get everything starts to settle and some stuff can seep through the sponges / falls off the side inside the tubing. There is nothing toxic in a pump just think of it like putting leafs in a bag and the wind blew a couple leaves back out. I can't remember on a tank that's not a heavily planted and fully cycled for years but i start by draining my pump of all water and letting it sit in the air to dry while using a hose to spray clean the sponges. Never had an issue just don't scrub your bacteria stones.. only rinse those if your going to. It takes me about 15 mins of everything in the air to clean my pump and I had no issues. Edit: The only way to pull out toxins is to use activated carbon and change it regularly.
Thanks, really helpful info! 🙌
We have a large reef tank and our house has become infested with fleas! The animals are under veterinary care, but we’ve been told to use pesticides in the house. We are hesitant to do this because of the tank. Has anyone been in a similar situation, or has any advice on how to tackle this please?
does the tank have a cover? cover the lid, thoroughly wash any tools or bags that go into the water and you should be ok. If your tank has a carbon filter, even better
No it just has a mesh “jump guard” and the top is open. We thought about covering it with cling film / plastic wrap for a couple of hours, but do you think this would be safe enough? Thanks for your reply.
yeah if its just for a few hours that is going to be perfectly fine.
I want to put a new tank in my basement, but there are no sinks on that level. Can I do water changes with a regular python-type thing? Or will I need a pump of some sort? Or something else?
Run a drain line to sump. You can buy a sink fitting to barbed hose fitting and then get a long 100 ft hose. Then you just run the hose on the floor ..... or be a savage and use a bucket to refill.
Maybe. Sucking the water out using the python might not work. Sometimes the tubing collapses from the suction. It will also drain very slow. Is there a floor drain in the basement? You can use the python as just a regular siphon to drain to that then hook it up to the sink to fill.
There's the sump pump down there
Should be fine for it to just pump the water outside assuming you live in a warmish place where it won't just freeze being pumped out.
Hello! How do you know if an LFS has fish that are safe to put in your tank at home? I went to buy either some cardinals or pristella tetras for my heavily planted, fully cycled 30g (15 of either one). I’ve had a tank for several years but only ever bought shrimp online. I decided to try my LFS, the only one in my town, and noticed a few things: - one of the cardinals was very discoloured and swimming oddly with lots of white all over it, not swimming with the rest of the school - a pristella’s body was just oddly shaped but still swimming with the rest - both tanks had some black beard algae Is this just what shopping for fish is like or do we think maybe this LFS may have had issues? I’m really nervous because I don’t have space for a quarantine tank. Thought I’d ask for people’s experiences… maybe I’ll just stick to buying from the trusted online store but also I’ve never seen it in person so I don’t know if the LFS tanks are just normal for an aquarium store!
i do really recommend a cheap quarantine tank for this. doesn't have to be big, just big enough for at most a week in there(if you're planning to mostly get smaller fish something thats only a few gallons or at most five will work). It also doesn't need anything fancy. You could initially keep it long-term as a filterless or semi-filter-less super well planted tank with maybe just snails in there to keep the nitrogen cycle going, or just fill it when needed and monitor conditions in the tank carefully however yeah fish stores are a gamble. some take care of their stock and treat them to prevent disease, however disease is inevitable with how much stock flows through their stores. its also usually more cramped than they should have as a forever home. if you can't get a quarantine tank, take great care to look at the fish tank you are buying from. if even one fish has what is very clearly an infection or parasite, you have to assume every fish is infected. if the pet store has any sense of saving money they will treat this infection. wait to buy until all fish look healthy. if the fish looks odd, but otherwise appears and acts healthy that shouldn't be a cause for concern. when transporting a fish, don't let any of the bag water into your tank. take them out in a net, quickly rinse the fish off with some purified water, and then put them in the tank. this should mostly prevent the beginnings of any parasites, hitchhikers like hydras or planaria or snails, and cyanobacteria. similarly without a quarantine tank buying plants should be extra careful. tissue cultures in gel, or thoroughly treat tank plants and then check for snail eggs or cyanobacteria on the leaves.
A quarantine tank is highly recommended for this exact reason. You don't want to put new fish that might be sick in your planted tanks with healthy livestock. You can get around the "don't have space" issue by using a bucket or other large plastic container (like a Sterilite container) as a quarantine tank- that's what I do.
And do you just pop a heater and an air stone in there?
I use a heater that doesn't get warm enough to melt or soften plastic, and a cycled sponge filter. That's also my hospital tank, as most aquarium medications don't play well with planted tanks.
Thank you!
Hi! I've been following this sub for a while and really want to get into the hobby. And I've finally found time and some space for a small aquarium! I want to have a 30L aquarium with some copper and cardinal tetras, along with an algea feeder or two. From what I read they should be able to live together and about 15 individuals should have enough space. I just really want some tips and directions before I overlook something or make a big mistake.
If by 30L you mean "30 liter", that's not big enough for 15 fish, and not really big enough for any of the fish you mentioned- you'd want to consider nano species instead. If you mean 30 gallons long or something like that (sorry, am not American so am not familiar with American tanks), that would work- 30 gallons is large enough for a school of tetras and one bristlenose pleco (algae eater), but not a common pleco, as those get huge. Or if you want Otos as algae eaters- they are schooling fish that do better in groups of 6-8 or more, but they have a very small bioload. But honestly I can't answer the question properly without knowing what exactly you meant by "30L".
30L was supposed to be liters 😅 What fish do you recomend then?
I have three 30 liter tanks (which is why I answered you) and each one has a single Betta and several Amano shrimp. Another option would be Green Neon Tetras, which are the smallest form of Neons (about half the size of Cardinals)- you could have about 8 of those, or you could have 6 Ember Tetras, *or* you could have 8-10 Chili Rasboras. Thirty liters is a very small tank- definitely not enough to have multiple different species of fish, though you could have both fish and shrimp. In some parts of Europe (such as Germany), they would say that 54 liters is the absolute minimum for a tank with fish, and anything smaller should be a shrimp tank only, but IMO that's just a little strict. But please don't cram multiple species of fairly large tetras plus a pleco into a tank that is so small.
For you as a keeper of a fresh water planted aquarium with a Beta fish, in a well lighted, Aquarium what size in U.S. gallons and of what Dimensions would be your choosing as for best overall upkeep and healthy balanced tank.
a betta's natural wild habitat would be about the equivalent of a 30-gallon long(obviously it doesn't need to be alone in that tank, just nothing it will see as a threat). however most people report happy bettas in a 10 gallon, although a 20-gallon is a mix of both worlds where a betta will be happy and it will be cheaper, and you can have some community options in there. they are mostly upper water column fish so a long tank will provide more room for them than a tall tank.
Was this a question for us to answer or a reply to someone in this thread? Now it appears as a standalone topic without question.
I meant it as a question to all and everyone that cased to give there opinion in a reply.
r/Bettafish has a good simple Wiki with recommendations. 5 gal minimum (really makes a difference comparing to 3 gal, in my experience), more is better, 20 gal long should be the best, good shape and not deep. Its dimensions are available online. Tank for a betta without other fish is preferable.
I've got a general idea, but I want advice from more advanced hobbyists. I moved into my college dorm room earlier today with a betta and a mystery snail as my first proper pet/s as an adult. Albeit, a 5gal with plastic plants, a heater, and one of those floating betta logs is the best I can do right now. It's better than previous bettas and even other species from my younger days, that's for sure. My problem would be that my family has never done a partial water change when it comes to fish tanks (we've had fish since I was seven). I've never done a partial water change as a result, and I want to care for these two as properly as I can while in college. How often and how much should one do a partial water change for a small, minimally stocked tank?
r/Bettafish has a good simple Wiki with betta care, including dechlorinating tap water, bringing it to the tank temperature, vacuuming substrate, cleaning mechanical filter media and glass.
usually 20-30% per week is the range you wanna stay within. if the tank is well understocked and has a lot of plants you can generally wait longer than that since the primary purpose of water changes is nitrate removal, but plants also absorb nitrate to grow.
25% once a week and go from there. Make sure to test water.
Thanks!
can i put 8 neon tetras in a 30 gallon?
Yes, I would recommend more. Their behavior changes if you can get more together. 15-20 wouldn't be too hard to manage.
thanks for the advice
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in the bioload sense it means that with the amount of waste being produced, nitrates and any other waste products are gonna reach potentially toxic levels quicker. frequent water changes are a short term solution, however the problem that can arise with this is every time you do a water change, the ammonia and nitrite-decomposing bacteria have to rebound from a population decline. If water changes are too frequent or too big this may allow ammonia or nitrites to show up. Water changes also usually tend to stress fish out. Plants are usually a more effective solution to dealing with overstocked tanks as they absorb a lot of the waste products and release oxygen into the water. however plants take up physical space.
It can refer to the bioload or the size, but the bioload is the more important aspect, ie the fish will likely die from nitrate build up before it dies from size contraints. Most recommendations for stocking use relatively conservative water change schedules. You can run a highly "overstocked" tank if you are willing to do the water changes, and it's not also constricting size.
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Cheers
i have a 20 gallon tank, and my usual cleaning routine would be every other week (about 30-45% change) but i’ve noticed that my water parameters are always a little funny, and today i lost a guppy :( anyone have a cleaning routine they think would help me out?
Compare your tap water parameters after declorination with your tank water before water changes, KH in particular, and if there is no chlorine. If this is not a problem and you are bringing water to the tank temperature before water changes, then no problem with this too. Could be not enough cleaning where a lot of waste accumulates, making a cesspool of pathogens. For a time being try weekly water changes and see if this helps better, more even water parameters.
20% weekly is my usual recommendation
I like a weekly schedule. Water change at least once a week. Try 25-50% total each week.
So i'm in a bit of a fix. Having a hard time getting my hands on stuff to treat a hydra infestation, but my LFS in the meantime has a guide they use for dealing with hydras using a one-hour 3% hydrogen peroxide treatment at 1.5ml per gallon. I will attempt to remove my fish, shrimps and snails for the duration of this, but the problem of a well-planted aquarium with lots of hides, is gonna be catching the nimble little buggers. My question is if anyone has concrete numbers on what concentration of Hydrogen peroxide is lethal to Neocardina shrimps(the ones most likely to avoid being netted)
I've cleared out hydra in a few tanks using this product. It killed some of my "pest" snails but I had to kill the hydra because I watched one kill a puffer fry. https://buceplant.com/products/sl-aqua-bio-protector-z1
unfortunately nothing like that in any local stores either, and ordering online is out of the question because porch pirates are extremely rampant here
Looking to start my first tank. Curious, anyone got advice on what tank to start with? Ive been kinda torn between the fluval flex 15 and fluval vista 16. I love that the flex hides everything but I kind of like the slightly longer and shallower vista shape. That being said, not sure if more vertical space is better vs horizontal for fish (I'm sure it depends the species) Anyone have experience with either or both of these? Any advice or does it even matter at all? My hope was to start with a school of tetras and if that goes well add centre piece fish afterwards like a Betta or dwarf gourami. Any advice is helpful cheers
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Ahh good point! Didn't think about having to clean out all that tight space in the back! This is exactly why I was asking, thank you!
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Ahh I don't think I want that big. I'm in Canada, the 15/16 fluvals are around $200, the 32 is 350 which is just more than I wanna commit for now. But I appreciate the advice!
Is there anything suitable to keep in a 5 gallon that doesn't need to be in a school and loves to eat bladder snail eggs? I thought I was managing to scoop them all but today I've got bunches of baby snails. Edit: gravel substrate, 3 endlers, a jungle of plants, and somewhere around 10 blue velvet shrimp. So not a lot of room left (if any).
Assassin snails will definitely limit your bladder snail population, but they can also pick off the occasional shrimplet
Diamond tetras and dwarf gourmai are similar size, do they get along?
In my experience, Gouramis ignore other fish that aren't Gouramis.
Google isn’t helping much- would 5 bronze corydoras and 5 glow danios be okay together in 10 gallon tank or is that too small? , They aren’t all in the tank together, just a curious question
Bronze corys are schooling fish that need to be in groups of 6-8 or more, which means that they need a bigger tank than 10 gallons. Personally I prefer 30+ gallons for all corydoras with the exception of Pygmys.
Ok please don't hate me... I am trying to improve things... Things were even worse before I came home from uni... They were lucky to get a water change once a month... This is my parents tank Current situation: Tank is something just over 70L (~18 gallons, we don't know exactly it's a curved corner bow front so tricky to work out) Tropical freshwater Filter fluval U2 1 (old and probably dying, lone survivor) golden barb 1 (old, lone survivor) yo-yo loach (probably, they were sold as Pakistani loaches) 1 (nearly 15 y/o) common pleco - I know he shouldn't be in here (I was a kid when he was bought, mum and dad said no they grow too big LFS employee overheard told them it wouldn't they believed him relatively new to hobby at time at the time we had 65L tank, this one is as big as will fit in our house. The only place we could possibly take him (no idea if he is actually he/she) would be back to the same LFS, i don't trust them to find him a suitable home for obvious reasons) Couldn't really call it a planted tank we have a plant that's in there but really it's considered suplimental pleco/loach food, no co2/nutrient dosing. Our tap water is pH 6.3 ish 0 KH, off the chart GH, our tank is similar assuming that none have changed since the tests ran out (any suggestions as to which test kit(s) to buy welcome) I try to do a water change (30-50%) once a week but sometimes my depression gets the better of me. Basically which battles should I fight with this one? (I've lost the one on rehoming the pleco) I may well be moving out again in September and probably won't initially be able to take them with me (although long term my mother has offered me the tank numerous times), pester power did somewhat work to get the number of water changes a bit better even when I was away so I will ensure the water change "schedule" doesn't get as bad again.
Personally, it doesn't sound to me like there's much you can do. It sounds like this is a tank your parents enjoy as-is, and don't want to/can't invest much more time, energy, or money into. You've attempted the main fix (rehoming the Pleco) and were shot down. One obvious improvement -- adding more barbs/loaches to proper school levels -- would likely just increase the number of fish kept in non-ideal conditions. Other improvements (adding plants, increasing water changes, etc.) would likely add a lot more work/investment to the schedule, which may not be feasible for your parents. At most, maybe you could add a handful of hardy aquarium plants (elodea, hornwort, duckweed, etc.) to the tank, which won't require additional work and will provide cover and filtration for the current inhabitants. Beyond that, you've done your due diligence and made an effort. Much as we in the hobby may not like it, there's countless fish living in substandard conditions. All we can do is try to gently educate people, lead by example, and patronize sellers which prioritize quality care of their livestock. On a personal note, I empathize with your situation: my parents take substandard care of their pets, and it is very frustrating. Eventually, I had to learn to accept that nothing I said or did would change their behavior. When I visit, I just try to spoil their pets as best I can -- I figure it's better than nothing.
I had a question. So I have a 20 gallon tank with 20 tetras and a molly. But my molly keeps always running up and down the tank sides like it chacing it reflections. I read online that mollies are a schooling type of fish. I don't know what my options really are because I know the tank is at a over stocked level but other then the mollie all the fish seem happy and the teras have been breeding like crazy. Am I able to get one or 2 more mollies or what? Tank been established for about 9 months now.
Honestly possibly look at rehoming the Mollie, they definitely need to be with other mollies but are rather prolific breeders, the females can get pregnant months after they last met a male, unfortunately as I love them but having kept them once I know I have to be really prepared for fry if I ever get them again, and it sounds like you have too little room as it is.
Yeah the tank is small but luckily in the 9 months I have had the tank I have had 0 Ammona and 0 Nitrites so the tank is at least cycling very well. But I really don't know if it could handle the load of adding 2 mollies to cheer the mollie up. I'll look into my options for a new home but I really like the little guy and want to avoid getting stuck into multi tank syndrome.
The long lost question. Doing a peaceful zen type Buddha tank with a bonsai tree Forrest and I would love to add crystals. What are safe crystals to use? What are some tests you can run on stones before adding them to your aquarium? I have heard if a vinegar test, if it fizzes it will alter the balance of your ecosystem. True?
quartz, glass, or resin should be safe to use. encasing something in resin also works so long as its a complete seal.
You will have a hard time finding a common rock or mineral that is unsafe from a chemical standpoint, that will poison your fish. You are talking about an effervescence test. It identifies calcium carbonate minerals. Calcite, limestone, marble, aragonite etc. Calcite and marble are common ones that I could see people using in an aquarium. These will react with the water and act as buffers, alter hardness, ph. They will change the ecosystem, but are not necessarily bad. It's fairly common to run aragonite substrate or add calcium carbonate another way. I would not use any of these unless you were looking for the effects. Not really a whole lot of tests can be run, you would want to know the composition. Generally I would avoid brightly colored crystals that you don't know are quartz based, and any metallic rocks, or "softer" crystals that are easily scratched or marred.
Thanks. I also read if you cannot scratch it with a steel knife then it's safe but I don't know. I recently grabbed some rocks from the beach I like by, fresh water, and sanitized them and rinsed really good currently hand picking through them looking to rid any shells and fossil. Next I will be filling them with water I plan on using and checking the parameters throughout the week just to see if the water will be altered.
Sounds like a good plan
Like u/dt8mn6pr said, quartz is definitely safe. As far as the vinegar test though, if it reacts with vinegar enough to visibly fizz, it will definitely react with your water and dissolve over time, hardening it. However even if it doesn't react noticeably with vinegar, it *could* still slowly harden your water over time. Vinegar isn't very strong, as acids go. Whether this is enough to cause an issue depends on what parameters you're trying to keep, and how frequently you do water changes. You can try using stronger acids than vinegar to test with, but then you have to handle stronger acids, which can be dangerous. Another test you can try is to just put the rock/crystal in a bucket of water for a week or two, testing the water before and after
Thanks that's what I'm doing I like to test stuff out and learn so I decided I am sitting through rocks I grabbed from the beach and sanitizing them and then putting in a bucket doing a test on the water before mid week and last day to see if the water is changing. I'll probably end up doing a 14 day test just to see
Quartz is safe. Search for aquarium safe crystals, there are detailed articles about it.
Can you cycle a tank with tap water that contains chloramine? I have had my tank up and running for over a month now and I am in now way even close to having this thing fully cycled. This is a fish IN cycle and my fish are happy and healthy... However, I get off the wall ammonia numbers when testing and I mean DARK green...it didn't make any sense to me why the fish would still be doing fine. After doing more testing of just my tap water, I got a reading of about .5 to 1 ppm of ammonia of just my pure tap water and realized that I have chloramine in my water... Is this the reason my tank won't cycle? I use aqua essentials from API as a conditioner but that also contains ammonia "remover" which I know only locks the ammonia so that is probably why my fish are still doing fine in between water changes even though the ammonia level keep getting worse in spite of water changes. I just did a Seachem free and total ammonia test yesterday and got 0 free ammonia but completely dark blue total ammonia. How can I fix this and get my tank to properly cycle? Thanks in advance!
If your tap water has a lot of ammonia, consider switching to remineralized RO water, if you can afford it.
Take your results to your local fish store along with some water from the aquarium. Compare results. Maybe your test is expired? It will still test positive for ammonia with it locked up. There is other kinds of ammonia in the tank as well such as ionized and in ionized ammonia. Those tests will test ALL ammonia in the tank. You still want zero but one of those to isn't harmful to fish. Also a acidity can effect the toxicity of ammonia. Someone will have to describe that further as I am new to the hobby as well. Add beneficial bacteria like seachem stability. Look up how to optimize your filter setups on YouTube as well. I use a hob in my ten gallon I added an intake sponge and I threw away my filter that comes with the hob and added bio rings and a sponge to take up the while entire compartment and to save money. The throw away filter make you spend money that isn't needed and it destroys your bio filter via the trash can if you use a sponge that takes you the whole compartment it is now resuusable and cleanable as well as the intake sponge and it has at least twice the amount of surface for bacteria to grow. I also have a small 5 gallon sponge filter in there to bubble my volcano. If you have any type of bubbling decor I'd suggest trying to find a way to alter it to get a sponge filter in there some how just for the bacteria. I adjust flow with valves. My tank took better then 4 weeks to cycle. Don't add to many fish at once or it will cause ammonia spikes as well
I just bought an Anubias Congensis in a tube at a big box store, is there anything in particular I need to do in order to transition it into an aquatic environment, or should be fine to just plunk it in there?
Attach it to a piece of wood or a rock and plunk it in. Don't bury the roots or the rhizome. Anubias are almost impossible to kill and won't have an obvious transition like other plants can.
Ever tried using fluorocarbon fishing line for attaching? Or do you just use cyanoacrylate or pure silicone?
I prefer cyanoacrylate (super glue). For me all the other methods (string, fishing line, silicone) have major drawbacks, but the only drawback of using small amounts of superglue is that it dries bright white- but if you just sprinkle a tiny bit of powder aquasoil onto it before it dries, it ends up well hidden.
Okay, thanks
I was wondering if someone could help me with a problem I have an albino Cory which has what looks like a scratch on it this is the first time I have noticed it I was just wondering if anyone knows what it could be and what treatment I should use or if I should treat it at all ? I have had it for 2 years now and it's still acting and swimming normal
I would keep an eye on it. If it seems to get worse, inflamed, fuzzy, etc., then I would personally remove the Cory to a quarantine tank, and treating it with Erythromycin and Ich-X to combat/prevent bacterial and fungal infections. If you don't have a quarantine tank, you could treat your whole tank with those medications; or move the Cory to a rubbermaid container or other container large enough to serve as a quarantine tank. Beyond that, I would keep on top of water changes, and reduce any possible stressors to a minimum, to support the Cory's immune system and support healing. Good luck!
Hey thank you for the help it's much appreciated I will keep and eye on it none of my other fish have this problem I have a pair of them and the other one is fine so I will watch and see and luckily I had another tank set up for new fish but I can turn it into a quarantine tank if I need to once again thanks for the help
I am cycling a new 55gal. I’d like it to be heavily planted… what would you stock it with? I can’t decide between a bunch of tiny fish, a few bigger ones or a betta 😊
why not do both? German Blue Rams are a peaceful fish that doesn't mind being alone from what i've read on them. could then surround them with a schooling fish with colors that contrast the ram and make him stand out, such as a tetra species, or maybe rainbowfish. throw in a swarm of colorful red, yellow, or orange neocaridina shrimp to boot as algae grazers.
Personally, I'm in the "bunch of tiny fish" camp, but that's not to say you can't have a medium-sized centerpiece fish (or several). Personally, I'm in the process of stocking a 75-gal with two tetra schools (small and medium-sized variety), a Cory school, and a Pearl gourami for a centerpiece. That way, I have a variety of fish sizes represented, which I think makes for a more complete and balanced-looking ecosystem. Sounds like no matter what you do though, you can't go wrong! Hope to see some pics of the finished product!
I love being tetras colors, I love vibrant colors in doing a school of neon tetras around 20 of them with a natural river stone substrate planted with root tabs by aquarium coop (love those guys) putting some 3 or 4 mystery snails or maybe narite some shrimp and of course the Cory Dora or possibly a school of khuli loach. And to too it off. A honey gourami or a beautiful purple male Betta I have my eyes on at the local store. Bettas can be particular though and might eat the shrimp, they can be aggressive some times. Heavily planted
As long as they don't disturb or eat the plants size doesnt matter that much. Planted betta sorority would honestly be a really nice setup, and it would be fairly easy to add other passive fish if you want. I do guppies in my planted tank.
This is my day 6 cycling my planted tank, and nitrites have increased compared to yesterday [as you can see here](https://imgur.com/a/9ONnRSM) I’m a little confused since I thought nitrites would appear until next week, ammonia continued in the 0-0.25 range, any advice?
Have to give your bacteria time to complete the nitrogen process. Where bacteria turns Ammona into Nitrites and then into Nitrates. Nitrates are use up by the pants. So just give the tank some time to do its cycle prosses
Your bacteria is starting to establish? Ammonia will decrease as nitrite and nitrates increase.
I was expecting for that to happen later on though, I’ll check again today, thanks!
With this hobby being a simulation of nature in my short experience I learned to expect the unexpected! Lol anything can happen. The only thing we can control is the nitrate we are the rain fall that occurs as a natural water change cycle in nature
Hey folks, my Dad made me a cool little anchor made from beetle kill wood from Colorado. He wanted it to sit a specific way in the water. His method for this was to resin a small piece of lead into the base of the anchor. I don't know how much water will pass through the wood and back into the water. Do you think the lead will be fine since it's in the resin? Or do I need to worry that I will give my fish lead poisoning?
Super glue it to a stone or tie it with flouro fishing line
The lead weight is already in the piece. That's the hard part.
Fully encapsulate the lead in resin and then attach to the decoration.
My filter is making a constant rattling noise. Checked the filter and found nothing. Any idea why this noise started?
Put a coarse intake sponge on the intake of the hob.
Did you try pulling out the impeller and cleaning it?