Advice Needed! New Fish Keeper... Help! Lol

fishypps · Feb 15, 2012

Hiya! Well... we inherited a tank from our neighbour at the beginning of december, i believe it is a 50litre one, it is quite small, at present we have 4 neon tetras, 4 guppies and one algae eater (which i am unsure of what it is!) The tank has been set up fpr about a year but i'm unsure what she did in the way of cleaning/treating the tank. It had a 50% water change first off as we needed to empty it to carry it.

A few questions-

The back wall has LOTS of algae on it, we have tried scrubbing it with a clean (brand new) tooth brush but it isn't shifting, anything i can do?

Where's the best place to get a water testing kit from?

We recently (less than 1 month ago) swapped the old, plastic plants for live plants, i came home today to find a small snail on one of the ornaments, i have searched advice on how to get rid of the snails and basically all i can find is to have a clown loach but i know that they are school fish and grow way too big for our tiny tank, what else can we do?

We also do a partial (20ish%) water change and gravel vacuum every couple of weeks but there always seems to be bits floating around the tank.

Any other advice about keeping the aquarium would be much appreciated

x

SaTiVa1984 · Feb 15, 2012

The back wall has LOTS of algae on it, we have tried scrubbing it with a clean (brand new) tooth brush but it isn't shifting, anything i can do?

If it is really stubborn to shift you could try a razor blade, Just be careful not to scratch the glass and use a new blade.

Where's the best place to get a water testing kit from?

Pet shops, or your local fish store should stock them, i recommend you buy liquid test kits as test strips can be inaccurate, API, Tetra, and nutrafin liquid test kits are all worth the money.

We recently (less than 1 month ago) swapped the old, plastic plants for live plants, i came home today to find a small snail on one of the ornaments, i have searched advice on how to get rid of the snails and basically all i can find is to have a clown loach but i know that they are school fish and grow way too big for our tiny tank, what else can we do?

You could try assassin snails to help with controlling them, some people use a lettuce leaf overnight and remove it in the morning when its covered with snails, also if you feed less and keep the gravel clean it will also help, also remove the snails if and when you see them.

We also do a partial (20ish%) water change and gravel vacuum every couple of weeks but there always seems to be bits floating around the tank.

I guess this is just waste and matter floating about, i would recommend upping your maintenance to weekly, with maybe 50% water change.

Also welcome to the TFF

Akasha72 · Feb 15, 2012

Hi fishypps,

I'll try to answer you as best I can but I've only been in the hobby around a year so still class myself as a learner!

The algae - not sure, if it's not coming off. I use a pan scourer - one of those sponge ones with the rough green side. That's pretty good for scrubbing algae.

Test kits - ebay or amazon is the cheapest. Make sure you buy a liquid drop type as the strips are really inaccurate.

Snails - just squash it between finger and thumb. The guppies will love you for it as they love a crushed snail. If you can't bear to do that you can put a lettuce leaf in over night and take it out in the morning - the snails should be on it. You might have to repeat this if you don't get them all in one go.

20% water change once a week is better. If you have a syphon it's easier and you can clean the gravel at the same time. As for bit floating round, just fish them out of it annoys you. My fish nibble my plants and there's always bits floating round. I just open the lid and pick them out.

If there's anything else you want to know let us know. Someone will be along to help

Oh, almost forgot - the algae eater ... have a search on line and see if you can identify it. Either that or try and get a picture, post it on here and someone may be able to identify it for you.

Good luck

Flubberlump · Feb 15, 2012

Algae can be hard to remove. Depending on what type of algae it is, scourers and razor blades are the best options in my experience. Once you've got it off, try getting a magnet for cleaning the sides of your tank. You should be able to get one from your local pet shop, and they're not expensive. Although they're better for maintaining clean glass than shifting a lot of algae.

Definitely get a liquid water testing kit, not the strips. I use nutrafin. Again, they'll be available from your local pet shop. Some of them are a bit pricey but they're well worth the money as they're so accurate, and last ages.

Is there just the one snail? If so, it should be harmless. Even hermaphroditic species need two snails to breed. It depends on what species of snail it is really. Some of them can be quite good for the tank. Otherwise the lettuce leaf trick is a handy one to know, rather than adding chemicals to your tank.

20% water changes once weekly are ideal. I assume by 'vacuum' you mean that you use a syphon? Try to move it around in the substrate as much as you can to get as much of the waste as possible.

As Akasha said, if you have live plants in your tank you'll probably gets bits floating round that your fish pull off. My filter collects most of the plant bits in my tank.

If you can upload a photo of the algae eater, someone should be able to identify it for you.

Hope that helps

fishypps · Feb 15, 2012

Thanks for all of your responses! Forgot to mention that tbe back of the fish tank is black plastic as it has the filter and pump etc etc built into the back.

Is it okay to do all of the scrubbing/scouring etc with the fish in the tank? I do worry about stressing them.

I have what i can only describe as a tank vacuum, it sucks up the dirt into a mesh bag type thing, there is also a tube attachment so that i can syphon water off. I always find after doing a clean with the vacuum that the water becomes very cloudy for hours after until it settles, is this normal? I don't think the lady that had the tank before did much/any maintenance as i had to buy the gravel vacuum myself. We have a magnet to clean the algae off of the glass and manage to keep that at bay. Will try and get a pic of our (named by my daughter) "jelly" the algae eater fish uploaded, i was just going to go back to the shop that the fish came from and ask lol

It would be good to know a little more about him because I worry about him more than the guppies and neons as they seem pretty hardy!

Flubberlump · Feb 15, 2012

Haha, Jelly is a great name!

It's totally normal for the water to be a bit cloudy after cleaning. As long as it settles down after an hour or two don't worry, and as long as you can still see your fish through it, otherwise there's too much excess waste in there. Sounds like you've got the right equipment for cleaning it.

As long as you're careful when cleaning the back of the tank, the fish should be fine. They should just move out of your way. Just try not to be too vigorous so that you start sloshing water around, and make sure you don't trap any fish in the corners of the tank etc.

I eagerly await photos of Jelly, got my brain ticking over now thinking about what he could be