Couple Question About First Tank...

[fluttermoth]

If you have live plants, you'll want between six and eight hours, less if you have plastic plants.
 
Whichever, arrange to have your lights on when you're there looking at the tank. My living room tanks are on between lunchtime and about 8pm; the tanks in my bedroom are on between eight and about 2am, 'cos that's when I'm there

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Yup.  The lights on my work tank are on from 7:30 - 3:30.  My home's lights are on from 3:00 - 10:00.  


The cycle takes some time: 4-6 weeks normally.  Plenty to learn between now and then.  It might be worthwhile to consider live plants in the meantime, nearly all fish (not African cichlids) do best with some live plants, imho.  It just makes them more secure and they behave more "naturally".

 

[Trod673]

Still have some Ammonia, have very little nitrite and some nitrate too! Kinda exciting! I'm about to get the right kind of light for the wisteria plant I have.. hopefully it holds out until them. What do I need for plants, anything you suggest? I don't plan on too many live plants, but I would like a couple.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

The least demanding plants are: java fern, anubias, and elodea.
 
 
These require no special substrate, so play sand works great.  Java fern and anubias can be tied directly to whatever is available in the tank... rocks, driftwood, anything really.  Just don't submerge the "rhizome" under the substrate.  Elodea can be left to float or planted in the substrate.

 

[Trod673]

I have like general decorative gravel in my tank.. Does wisteria need anything special since I have that at the moment? And for lighting will a floramax light work?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

That should be fine.  Wisteria shouldn't need much special stuff in terms of gravel.  It can draw nutrients directly from the water column.

 

[Trod673]

Alright, so I went to a store called water world! They have freshwater and saltwater fish and supplies, and seem to treat their fish a lot nicer than say petland or petsmart. Anyway, they were kind enough to give me some stuff from their tanks that are already established, so that should help the cycling process, yes?
 
Also while at the store I checked out some fish.. Do any of these look possible to add to the mix? Glass catfish, pink kisser, congo tetras, lyretail molly's, mickey mouse platy, snook cichlids, and black moore goldfish. 

 

[TallTree01]

Alright, so I went to a store called water world! They have freshwater and saltwater fish and supplies, and seem to treat their fish a lot nicer than say petland or petsmart. Anyway, they were kind enough to give me some stuff from their tanks that are already established, so that should help the cycling process, yes?
 
Also while at the store I checked out some fish.. Do any of these look possible to add to the mix? Glass catfish, pink kisser, congo tetras, lyretail molly's, mickey mouse platy, snook cichlids, and black moore goldfish. 

I have not thoroughly read the entire of this topic so I apologize if I mess something up.
At the moment you have an uncycled, heated tank with 6 neon tetras.
Established bacteria will speed up the cycling process a lot. Glass catfish could work, by pink kissers I assume you mean gouramis which grow to a foot which is too big, the Congo tetras could work, the platies could work, the snook cichlids I havent heard of them before and the black mores are a no no as they are coldwater and 2 would fully stock a 59 gallon.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

The neons were taken back to the LFS, and the cycle is being completed fishlessly.
 
 
Agreed on the fish comments above.  

 

[TallTree01]

Oh,much better!
Neons aren't good for cycling, being weak and small and all.

 

[Trod673]

Yep! That's why I returned them! I quickly learned never to trust the local fish store!

 

[Trod673]

My Ammonia is dropping very slowly, and my nitrite is dropping too... But the thing ismy nitrates are dropping slightly too... I haven't done a water change, but I think I read plants use up the nitrates? Can anyone offer insight on this? Thanks !

 

[fluttermoth]

It could be your plants; they certainly can cause small drops in nitrate. Do bear in mind though, that nitrate is probably the most inaccurate of our home tests.

 

[Trod673]

Gotchya! Okie dokie! Thanks for that! Also, could you shed some insight on the watts per gallon rule. I have a wisteria plant, it is floating. And these lights are probably ancient, so I am going to get new ones. Probably floramax, or whatever was available that says live plants... but the two light structures are max 19 watts each and the tank is 50 gallons, so should I be buying a whole new light structure you think?

 

[CoryLover95]

Hi Trod673,
Great job with all of this!  I too fell into the LFS trap and I can vouch that it is frustrating!  I'm not quite clear on the light issue but it seems like you could leave that light structure for a while (if the wisteria seems to be dying, up the wattage).  I'm sorry that's such a general answer...probably someone on here can answer you better.