Any nice footage of Lamb chop rasboras?

[rebe]

The last fish food you linked, the ingredients are like the kentucky fried chicken of fish food.

Hilarious!!
If you're up for it, I'd love to take you up on your offer. It's probably a good idea to start a conversation (instead of in posts) if we're discussing addresses/payment. I recon the two day service would be preferable because the fish could arrive earlier than the four days in the standard option. Obviously I'll pay for all costs, and no pressure. If it's too complicated or too much then no worries, I'm very grateful you even offered

 

[Byron]

Better to take Alex up on his kind offer. Not much data on the links.

 

[AlexT]

I was thinking. If you order fish this week, what are your thoughts on the QT you have set up? It would be great if either @Essjay or @Byron had an opinion to share.

There is an argument for putting the first group of fish (I think you may order a decent size group of small Rasboras) straight into main tank as it's empty and cycled. But it has lovely plants and if the new fish get an infection, I get worried about meds and plants but Essjay, Byron, or someone else might have an opinion?

Also, is your ammonia running at 0 or are you topping up still ?

 

[rebe]

I was thinking. If you order fish this week, what are your thoughts on the QT you have set up? It would be great if either @Essjay or @Byron had an opinion to share.

There is an argument for putting the first group of fish (I think you may order a decent size group of small Rasboras) straight into main tank as it's empty and cycled. But it has lovely plants and if the new fish get an infection, I get worried about meds and plants but Essjay, Byron, or someone else might have an opinion?

Also, is your ammonia running at 0 or are you topping up still ?

Honestly I'm not sure about the QT. I mean it's good apart from being properly cycled (I assume.) I did give it some bottled bacteria and some of my ammonia solution but who knows what's going on with it. Once I'm finished with this reply I'll actually test the water. I'll add some details about the QT here, in case its of any use.

I did have some hornwort cuttings in there but since I put the lid on, I popped them back into the main tank so they'd get some light. I'll add them back if I use the QT

My Quarantine tank:
- Thin layer of aquarium sand
- Plastic aquarium plants
- Aquael ASAP 300 filter with homemade prefilter
- Non-adjustable heater by Aquael (came with my tank) that heats to 25 degrees Celsius
- Semi-transparent plastic tub with lid, currently holding around 32 litres of water

Also, is your ammonia running at 0 or are you topping up still ?

It should be. I was testing some of the ammonia solution and I'll upload a picture of my notebook where I recorded the tests. (Attached)

 

[rebe]

Large "spike" of brown algae too. I wonder if that's been caused by the high nitrate levels. I've been following the instructions of my Seachem Flourish, and the light was 6 hours per day but I upped that to 7 hours after my ludwigia repens started losing it's red colour.

 

[AlexT]

The reason I was looking at the Trigonostigma espei is because I would really enjoy a school of small/nano/micro fish with tight schooling behaviour. From what I've read and seen on Youtube so far, rummy nose tetras and harlequin/lambchop rasboras seem to have the best schooling behaviour.

My ideal school of fish would be 2 cm or under (the individual fish, and the smaller the better) and would swim around together in a school. I don't want a shoal of fish that would just inhabit the same tank/general area. Before I was considering ember tetras but from what you've said before, they can be quite shy and need good surface coverage from floating plants. This is probably wishful thinking, and I doubt there are any fish of that size and behaviour that my tank could suit. I do like the colouring and size of the chilli rasbora, but I can't quite tell if these fish properly school or whether they shoal.
My reason for wanting a school of fish that are small in size is so that I can keep a bigger school together, (and still have enough room for a centrepiece fish or maybe a cleaner like the whiptail catfish you suggested) and for there be enough space for them to live comfortably without being crammed.

Do you or anybody have any suggestions or advice?

You should take a look at @GaryE Video below.

He used the term shoal a lot but i believe the principles may apply to schooling as well? Correct me if i have got that wrong please Gary

One of my videos

I don't usually publicize stuff I put on line, but I thought this video might interest people.

www.fishforums.net

 

[rebe]

You should take a look at @GaryE Video below.

He used the term shoal a lot but i believe the principles may apply to schooling as well? Correct me if i have got that wrong please Gary

One of my videos

I don't usually publicize stuff I put on line, but I thought this video might interest people.

www.fishforums.net

That's really interesting! Makes sense with the lighting as well

 

[rebe]

I did give it some bottled bacteria and some of my ammonia solution but who knows what's going on with it.

QT water (10/09/23)
Ammonia: 3ppm? see image
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 5ppm

 

[rebe]

@AlexT I guessed right.
0ppm Ammonia and Nitrite, and 20ppm Nitrate in the main tank.

 

[AlexT]

QT water (10/09/23)
Ammonia: 3ppm? see image
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 5ppm

I think the guide on here that was written by @TwoTankAmin and referenced a lot by @Essjay advises of water change at 3ppm just to ensure it doesn't go much above 3ppm. I need to read that guide proper my self to be honest.

As it's a small QT obviously water changes are fairly easy if you are good on the dechlorinator and (if required) chloramines remover. I think a 50% w/c.

 

[AlexT]

@AlexT I guessed right.
0ppm Ammonia and Nitrite, and 20ppm Nitrate in the main tank.

I was asking about the ammonia because if it was a pure fishless cycle then it's an issue if ammonia is sat at 0.0 and the fish are not in within 24hrs, but in a planted cycle I am not so sure. I don't know if anyone else can advise tonight, but you might want to consider adding a dose of ammonia, you can always play it safe and add an amount that might get to you to 0.50 or 1.00ppm, I am sure the plants will gobble most of it up, but it might be required by the bacteria. I know we don't like getting too high in ammonia if plants are in there, as although they use it for food, amounts over 3ppm can be problematic for plants I think. We can see if anyone else see's this post I am still a budding apprenticeship rebe in a lot of this, as complimentary as you are

 

[TwoTankAmin]

The guide says 3 ppm is the max to add. This is because more is not needed. However, the level at which ammonia is a problem for the cycle is actually about 6.4 ppm on most hobby test kits which use the Total Ion Scale. Scientist use a different scale, called the Nitrogen Scale and, for them, the number is 5 ppm. It is easy to convert from one scale to the other just as we can do with miles and kilometers.

One can cycle adding 5 ppm, but it will take longer and it will create more bacteria than should be need for a full load of fish in a tank. So the extra bacteria will just die back and the tank will end up with the lesser anount of bacteria it needs to stay safe.

Bear in mind that wwhen we cycle we put in a day's worth of ammonia in one shot. In a cycled tank fully stocked with fish and having ogranic waste break sdown, ammonia is produced continuously but at a much much lower level as long as it isn't allowed to build up.

 

[Byron]

Large "spike" of brown algae too. I wonder if that's been caused by the high nitrate levels. I've been following the instructions of my Seachem Flourish, and the light was 6 hours per day but I upped that to 7 hours after my ludwigia repens started losing it's red colour.

I agree, this algae is a problem. I hope you are not adding ammonia to this tank. Algae is caused by organics and light. Nitrates indicate high organics but the two are not cause and effect.

 

[AlexT]

I agree, this algae is a problem. I hope you are not adding ammonia to this tank. Algae is caused by organics and light. Nitrates indicate high organics but the two are not cause and effect.

Could you advise on post #101 please Byron? The tank is waiting for a shipment of rasbora's this week and is cycling, not the QT tank, the main tank with the plants in.

 

[Byron]

Could you advise on post #101 please Byron? The tank is waiting for a shipment of rasbora's this week and is cycling, not the QT tank, the main tank with the plants in.

I said it before, if there are live plants in the tank do not add ammonia. You cannot add fish if ammonia is above zero (or nitrite either). And do a major water change to lower the nitrate as close to zero as possible.