waterdrop
Enthusiastic "Re-Beginner"
Yes, hi there and welcome to TFF jmiller,
The AC20 is an excellent choice, better than the others you listed I suspect. We like the Aquaclears because the media box is just a simple rectangular open space allowing lots of flexibility with media. Custom choosing and use of media is much more common than beginners usually think with they come in. In your case though, the provided AC sponge with some type of ceramic on top (perhaps a jar of seachem matrix (though it would be way more quantity than you'd need for years on the little 10g) would be better than the plain lumps that AC give you) would be fine. Carbon is not needed (but is good to have on the storage shelf if you already have some.) I'm running an ancient AC20 (was originally called the AC "mini") on my Q-Tank and its not even excessively noisy even after all these years (though much noisier than the Eheim on the main tank of course.)
If you took your tap readings without dechlor then the 0.25ppm NH3 seen in the tap water would explain a bit of the reading in the tank, although I agree with you that most of it may be a poor filter in the sense of not enough biomedia volume (which is the usual problem with cheap filters!) If you had indeed put Prime into the tap water prior to the ammonia test then the 0.25ppm might just be the ammonia that separates if your tap water is treated with chloramines (you can usually find out if the local people use chloramines or chlorine with a phone call.)
In your new larger tank planning I'd consider carefully whether you really want the bowfront design. The glass combines with the water to create quite an effective lens, causing the fish to look larger or smaller than real life as they change distance from the viewer. It also makes the aquascape look shallower than real life, considerably shallower front to back than a plain old rectangular tank would. I'd always been attacted to the idea and jumped at the chance when I started my son's tank but have found it mildly disappointing, though not a big deal either way really. By the way, one of the pleasures of being grandfather age in my opinion is that one finally is comfortable taking ones time with the planning and it really pays off in this particular hobby.
Agree with above discussions of shoaling tetras. Amazing difference in the behaviors as you reach effective shoaling numbers, suggesting that it would be a true improvement to decide on re-homing/up-moving one of the species and enlarging the numbers of the other in the 10g. Oh, and I forgot, if it turns out there really is some ammonia in the tap then its quite effectively handled by realizing you just mentally adjust to slightly smaller but more frequent water changes as compared to suggestions people make. This lets it be more dilute at addition time but still has you changing an effective amount of water weekly, which is quite a basic tenet of good maintenance (among other things it rids the tank of hundreds of trace and organic things we don't have the time or money to test for and that would build to toxic level otherwise.)
~~waterdrop~~
The AC20 is an excellent choice, better than the others you listed I suspect. We like the Aquaclears because the media box is just a simple rectangular open space allowing lots of flexibility with media. Custom choosing and use of media is much more common than beginners usually think with they come in. In your case though, the provided AC sponge with some type of ceramic on top (perhaps a jar of seachem matrix (though it would be way more quantity than you'd need for years on the little 10g) would be better than the plain lumps that AC give you) would be fine. Carbon is not needed (but is good to have on the storage shelf if you already have some.) I'm running an ancient AC20 (was originally called the AC "mini") on my Q-Tank and its not even excessively noisy even after all these years (though much noisier than the Eheim on the main tank of course.)
If you took your tap readings without dechlor then the 0.25ppm NH3 seen in the tap water would explain a bit of the reading in the tank, although I agree with you that most of it may be a poor filter in the sense of not enough biomedia volume (which is the usual problem with cheap filters!) If you had indeed put Prime into the tap water prior to the ammonia test then the 0.25ppm might just be the ammonia that separates if your tap water is treated with chloramines (you can usually find out if the local people use chloramines or chlorine with a phone call.)
In your new larger tank planning I'd consider carefully whether you really want the bowfront design. The glass combines with the water to create quite an effective lens, causing the fish to look larger or smaller than real life as they change distance from the viewer. It also makes the aquascape look shallower than real life, considerably shallower front to back than a plain old rectangular tank would. I'd always been attacted to the idea and jumped at the chance when I started my son's tank but have found it mildly disappointing, though not a big deal either way really. By the way, one of the pleasures of being grandfather age in my opinion is that one finally is comfortable taking ones time with the planning and it really pays off in this particular hobby.
Agree with above discussions of shoaling tetras. Amazing difference in the behaviors as you reach effective shoaling numbers, suggesting that it would be a true improvement to decide on re-homing/up-moving one of the species and enlarging the numbers of the other in the 10g. Oh, and I forgot, if it turns out there really is some ammonia in the tap then its quite effectively handled by realizing you just mentally adjust to slightly smaller but more frequent water changes as compared to suggestions people make. This lets it be more dilute at addition time but still has you changing an effective amount of water weekly, which is quite a basic tenet of good maintenance (among other things it rids the tank of hundreds of trace and organic things we don't have the time or money to test for and that would build to toxic level otherwise.)
~~waterdrop~~
/www.drsfostersmith.com/ sometime tomorrow. Since I've never had on of these before do I need to buy anything else to have on hand? The plan was to temporarily use the filter from the Aqua Tech 5-15 in the AC20 when I first make the switch to help everything along.
