Advise Needed For Freshwater Tank

[Platyluver]

Hello, I recently set up a 26 gallon tank. I have multiple plants in the tank, a nice ornament for my fish to hide in, an ornament that aerates the water, 2 platies, and 2 mollies. I have been taking advise from my dad on setting up the tank because he was big into the hobby when he was younger but after reading a lot about keeping fish from the internet, I realize some of his advise is outdated. I did not know about fish-less cycling before I set up the tank and added fish so its a little late for that. I have been taking the water to be tested at petsmart often and the water last time had nitrites and ammonia but not deathly harmful amounts (really not that high at all) and my fish are very healthy and active(even social with me during feeding time. It is very cute! They will eat right out of my fingers). I am going to take it in again tomorrow to be tested and I have a good feeling the water will be healthy. Surprisingly, the water has not been cloudy yet. I have set up small tanks before and they tended to become cloudy and clear up in a few days or after a water change. This tank has been running with fish for about 2-3 weeks now.

My question is, what is a good amount and timing to change the water. My dad is telling me I should not have to do a water change for a while but I just don't feel like that is right. I think I should be doing at least small changes often.

I also have a concern about my mollies. Both are females and one of them looks pregnant. She is aggressive with the other molly, chasing her away when she notices her. She is fine with the platies, nipping at them occasionally when it is feeding time, but nothing serious. Should I try and exchange her for a less aggressive fish or add another female so her attention is not centered at the one female? The only problem with adding another fish is that it is a new tank and I already have to many fish for how new the tank is. Luckily, the other molly has a lot of places to hide so she is not too stressed but she can not come to the top for food because the other fish will chase her away.

I was wondering how long it usually takes for algae to grow and what the problem might be if it has not started growing already. I do have a very good amount of plants in the tank so could it be that those plants are too much competition for the algae and is that a good thing or a bad sign?

I noticed that one of my platies is pregnant and I bought a breeding trap for the fry but I was wondering if putting her in the trap to have her babies when she gets really close would be to stressful. My concern is not so much that the fry will get eaten, I have a large amount of places for them to hide, but if they are not in a breeding trap then how will I feed them? The tank is very deep instead of being wide and the molly bully mentioned above is very greedy about food. I was thinking about putting her in another tank but I don't have one established and figured that would be even more stressful on her then if I was to put her in the box.

Petsmart has a product to add CO2 to the water. It is called Hagen Plant Grow Natural System with CO2 and I am thinking about getting this because I want my plants to be full and healthy. Is it to early to do this? Do any of you know if it is a good product? I have heard that there is no off switch so I would need to do something about it being on at night. Are there any other inexpensive ways to help add co2 to the water to help my plants?

In other posts I have read, people have said to take their fish to a local pet store and have them hold them while you get the tank set up properly. I would love to do that so I can do this right but in the area I live in, I am not sure they do that (at least not without a charge), and I do not trust them to properly take care of them (or that they would sell them!). I really do feel that they are safer and healthier with me then at the pet stores in the area around me. If anyone wants to open a quality aquarium then Maryland (nearer to the metropolitan area) is a good place because we have very few that are actually good.

I almost forgot to ask this one. Because I have so many plants, some of the leaves and such get stuck in the thing that dips into the water to suck it up into the filter (I don't know names of parts). Is there a way to fix this or should I just clean it out regularly?

I am sorry for all the questions but I would rather learn all that I can by asking questions then by the death of my fish.

Thank you for any advise you have. I really appreciate any replies I get and I can't wait until I hear from you guys! Bye !

 

[Gr44]

I can't help with all your questions, but in terms of your water you should buy a good liquid water test kit asap.

Test for Ammonia and Nitrite primairly, if either of these are present, in any amount, perform a water change large enough to bring it as close to 0ppm as possible. Any amount of Ammonia or NitrIte (ITE) causes harm to fish.

Obviously ensure you use a de-chlorine product on any new water and match the temperture as close as you can before you put the new water in the tank!

Other things to look out for in the future are pH and Nitrate (ATE) but I imagine you'll be changing the water almost daily for a few weeks to keep ammonia and Nitrite down as much as possible so it should hold the pH and Nitrate okay.

Waterdrop or OM47 will no doubt be on here soon and clarify what I've just said, they both helped me massively during my fishless cycle. (I have fish now btw!!)

Best of luck!

Sean

EDIT: Have a good read of the Nitrogen Cycle and Fish-In cycling pages, both are available in the sticky post at the top of the 'New to the hobby' forum - they will probably help you answer some of the questions regarding Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate and why we need to remove them from the water

 

[OldMan47]

As Gr44 has suggested, it would be best if you had your own test kit. Ammonia and nitrites can build rather quickly and could suddenly become too high. The age of your tank suggests that the ammonia will soon become self limiting and the nitrites will start climbing. If your plants are growing vigorously, you may possibly have safe ammonia and nitrites after all this time. If they are not, chances are the nitrites are getting to dangerous levels. In the old way of doing things, we seldom ever changed any water, which it sounds like your dad is used to doing. These days we have learned that it is safer to do frequent water changes with appropriate dechlorinator than to leave the water in the tanks as we once did.
You are presently in a fish-in cycle so you should become familiar with the steps involved. There is a link in my signature area to a thread on a fish-in cycle that might help you understand what is going on. A general caution when you do not havce adequate test equipment is to do a daily 50% water change but you may not need that with your heavy planting. With no test results numbers, it is hard to say. Next time you get a water test, ask for the actual numbers, not just a statement that everything is still OK. It will help a lot to be able to guide you properly.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, I think its true that both OM47 and I have experienced the old and the new!

There's some good experience to be had from the old days but for the most part the new understandings in the hobby make many chnages for the better and chief among them are good water changing with good technique, good and frequent maintenance habits better understanding of many of the underlying processes.

You are in what we refer to as a fish-in cycling situation, as the others have said, and it would therefor be a good idea to make it a top priority to get a good liquid-reagent based test kit. Many of us like and use the API Freshwater Master Test Kit although there is also the Nutrafin Mini-Master Kit and there are individual Salifert tests that are even better than either of these. While test kits are not essential for experienced keepers, they are absolutely wonderful for teaching the basics to beginners and I'd not try to learn it without one. As OM47 has said, without the insurance of your own measurements, you'll need to be in the ballpark of 50% changes daily, so that's another reason to get the kit.

Its important to use good technique when water changing. For a new starting tank I'd recommend you treat the incoming tap water with 1.5x or 2x the recommended conditioner. Seachem Prime is probably the best conditioner out there for new tanks in their first year and is very concentrated, allowing it to last you a long time. If you already have another conditioner that's fine though. You also need to roughly temperature match (your hand is good enough) the replacement water along with the conditioner (dechlor) treatment. You'll need a thing known as a gravel siphon (assuming you have gravel) or just a hose if you have sand to perform the water removals.

The reason we're focusing on the water chemistry is that cycling (growing the biofilter) is just more important than anything else at this early stage and you want to know you're doing it right. I'm sure everyone will get around to the plant topic eventually.

~~waterdrop~~