Another Hobbyist

[dgwebster]

Hello, im a twenty something (ok 24) year old who is currently researching and making the beginnings of populating a 20 gallon tank.

No idea of its make as it did belong to my sister, but the most important parts are there, tank, the glass stuff its made from, hood with a aqua glow bulb and starter (working) fluval 2 filter (new medium though), heater, two thermometers. Siphon/gravel cleaner, algae scrubber etc I am having to purchase myself. Ah well not everything in life is free.

Have bought myself one of the Freshwater Master Test Kits (decided it would be best to start off with a fresh water system) along with the water treatment and plant food. The plan is to start the nitrogen cycle over the weekend and introduce the plants once the cycle has been established with nitrates in the tank. The following fish (roughly, open to suggestions) are to be slowly introduced:

6x Danios (zebra)
3x Dwarf Gouramis
4x Corydorus
3x Kribensis
6x glow light tetras

I may thin this down to remove 3 or 4 of them, and introduce them much later when the experience and establishment will allow for this.

Im completely inexperienced with the fishies (sorry, i will have a habit of calling them this) but hope that this will be the start to a very long and satisfying hobby. My Uncle (not really but treated as one in my opinion) breeds ish and alegedly has a mammoth number of tanks etc. I shall be visiting him shortly a number of times over the next coming weeks to establish basics etc and maybe for the supply of fishies

Oh, I should mention, anyone thinking im missing out fish food, decided to purchase that as I purchase the fish.

Hopefully with some learning, the research im putting in before plunging the fish in and with my uncles support and support on this foryum, I'll have a tank to be proud of in no time and on my way to second tanks.

 

[rdd1952]

Hello Dave and welcome to the forum.

It's good that you are doing some research first before buying fish. I would strongly suggest doing a fishless cycle before you add any fish. It will make your life a lot easier in the long run. There is a link to a thread on fishless cycling in my signature. If you choose to cycle with fish, be sure not to add more than about 3 at a time. Once you add fish, start testing the water daily. Once you go a full week with ammonia and nitrite at zero, you are savfe to add more fish. I would estimate it taking you at least 4 to 5 months to add all the fish you have listed if you cycle with fish.

As for the stock list, I'm not sure about the compatiblilty (I do know that Kribs are territorial and you would maybe need even numbers but not sure about that) but you will be pretty heavily overstocked with all those fish. The general rule of thumb is 1" of adult fish per gallon. Just a rough estimate of your list is that you have about 50 to 60 inches of fish. With overfiltration you can exceed the guidelines some but I think the Fluval 2 is only rated for 105 gallons per hour which is about the minimum for a 20 gallon tank (you need to process the water at least 5 times per hour).

 

[Ethos]

Hello and

 

[Weaver]

Hello and welcome to the forums
Good luck with your tank

 

[dgwebster]

As I've done the rounds on the websites, the "recommended" fish per tank has varied wildly. I was thinking about the filter as I had noticed that it was about the minimum.

I think I may remove the kribs and 2 of the danios for the meantime and introduce them much later in life when either a) a bigger tank or B) more established and able to sustain a good environment.

Or probably a culmination. Around summer next year I may be getting a larger tank for the new dining room being built.

And of course, a fishless cycle is a must. I purchased a pre-set cycle starter kit today from an excellent store near me that will get me into a proper cycle without fish and be able to sustain plants, I do plan on doing this as a long term cycle start, I'm not interested in speeding the process up to last about 2 weeks. around 6 weeks is perfect, followed by about another 4-6 weeks plant establishment. This is purely because if I shortened it, I would be introducing fish at the same time as going away to America for a holiday for two weeks - not a good time to leave them on their own.

Would anyone confirm the action to leave the corydorus till last (i.e. the dwarfs, danios and tetras first) in order to try and establish a suitable bottom for them? Or would it not really matter when their diet is supplmented/supported with algae wafers anyway?

 

[rdd1952]

Actually, if you do a fishless cycle with ammonia, you would want to add almost your full stock of fish at once. Otherwise, the bacteria you build up during the cycling process would begin to die off from lack of food (waste). If you want to go with that many fish, I think you definitely need to upgrade your filter (or simply add another filter to run along side the one you have).

 

[dgwebster]

What would you say to making a swap of the 6 danios and the 3 kribs to 2 guppies (1 male 1 female) instead, making a revised list of:

2x Guppies (1 male 1 female)
3x Dwarf Gouramis (1 male 2 female)
4x Corydorus
6x glow light/neon tetras

This shaves a number of inches off the fish length.

I will probably still stave away form adding the corydorus untill the system could support this. Making up approximatly 10" of fish length, it would in my opinion be a wise move although again, I am the novice starting here.

On the subject of better/more filtration, the temptation at the moment would be to go and upgrade the fluval system to something maybe like the fluval 4, purely as this is a small space than two systems. Alternatively, as im currently not running an air system (meaning any nice novelty air toys cannot be used) I was wondering about just running a sponge on an air filtration system in addition to the Fluval, as this would offer an air toy feature if I wished to as well?? I've read in a few places that these types are suitable for tanks up to 2ft (although personally I think you would have to be mad to use it in a tank that size, they dont seem to be that effective!!) My surmise of this type of filter is that it may suffice as a supplement filter system?

[EDIT: Apologies, I realise that I shouldn't really be asking this question in this thread, it is meant for introductions. All further questions will be made in other threads.]

 

[Weaver]

Hi
You would need 2/3 female guppies to each male as he will harass a single female too much.As well as that please note that if you have guppies in the tank you will probably have fry sooner rather than later.You might end up buying another tank sooner than you think
There is some excellent help available in the livebearers section.
I always overfilter my tanks.Much better than the opposite but I really know very little about the sponge filtration.You can pick up filters for a good price on e bay .The only reservation I would have is that a fluval4 might be very powerful in a small tank to the extent of stressing the slower fish.But maybe someone who has tried this can tell you better.
Cheers