Good Mix ? / Overstocked? / Potenial Problems?

[iroc]

I have begun to doubt almost every desion I have made ( mainly becuase they were for a great lack of proper research) but after a month and a half my tank seems to finally worked itself out, now I am thinking maybe I overstocked it, or bought plants that could kill my fish, or created some sort of other problem that has yet to have shown itself, so I am asking the ppl of this forum to alreat me to any or all of these below is what is in the tank and my stats:

20 gal tank, heater, Whisper 20 filter, bubble maker, 15 watt aqua ray light
1 mickey mouse platy (girl)
1 red wag tail platy (boy)
3 sunburst platies ( 3 girls)
5 neon tetras ( I don't know what they are)
3 silver Mollys (2 girls and a boy)
3 ghost shrimp

live plants
Sagittaria subulata
Hygrophila difformis
anubias afzeli

Blue gravel (mix of dark and light)

ph 7.0
ammonia - .15ppm
nitrite - .05 ppm
nitrate - .20 ppm
2 lava rocks
seascape background around back and 1 side


most of the plants are in one corner to allow the fish to hide out


any other questions?

Sorry the levels are

ph - 7.0
ammonia - .05 ppm
Nitrite - .05 ppm
Nitrate - .20 ppm

temp is about 78 degrees

 

[sussexgirl]

I have begun to doubt almost every desion I have made ( mainly becuase they were for a great lack of proper research) but after a month and a half my tank seems to finally worked itself out, now I am thinking maybe I overstocked it, or bought plants that could kill my fish, or created some sort of other problem that has yet to have shown itself, so I am asking the ppl of this forum to alreat me to any or all of these below is what is in the tank and my stats:

20 gal tank, heater, Whisper 20 filter, bubble maker, 15 watt aqua ray light
1 mickey mouse platy (girl)
1 red wag tail platy (boy)
3 sunburst platies ( 3 girls)
5 neon tetras ( I don't know what they are)
3 silver Mollys (2 girls and a boy)
3 ghost shrimp

live plants
Sagittaria subulata
Hygrophila difformis
anubias afzeli

Blue gravel (mix of dark and light)

ph 7.0
ammonia - .15ppm
nitrite - .05 ppm
nitrate - .20 ppm
2 lava rocks
seascape background around back and 1 side


most of the plants are in one corner to allow the fish to hide out


any other questions?

Sorry the levels are

ph - 7.0
ammonia - .05 ppm
Nitrite - .05 ppm
Nitrate - .20 ppm

temp is about 78 degrees

so the tank has been up and running for approximately 6 weeks? If so then your stats look like you could nearly be coming to end of cycling your tank. Have they been these levels for a long time or have you only seen the nitrITE spike in the last few days? It does sound like you have a lot of fish in there to be honest but someone else here on the board can better direct you with stocking rules than I can. It would have been preferable to cycle your tank with just two or three platys (although fishless cycling is always preferable in terms of limiting fish stress). You've fully (over?)stocked your tank way too soon. Personally I would consider returning a few of the fish back to the shop or buying an additional /bigger tank.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Yes the tank is cycling, although cycling with fish often takes much longer than fishless cycling- ammonia and nitrites are harmful stats so you need to do water changes to lower these stats back to 0 (do a 20-60% water change with dechlorinator, but don't take out more than 60% of water per day unless the stats are really bad i.e. 5 or above because that would be super lethal to the fish and would need drastic actions).

Rehoming some of the fish would help in controlling your water quality problems a lot; if the tank was fully cycled and mature, that stocking would be fine, but its too much right now for a cycling tank, especially one so young.

 

[iroc]

Yes the tank is cycling, although cycling with fish often takes much longer than fishless cycling- ammonia and nitrites are harmful stats so you need to do water changes to lower these stats back to 0 (do a 20-60% water change with dechlorinator, but don't take out more than 60% of water per day unless the stats are really bad i.e. 5 or above because that would be super lethal to the fish and would need drastic actions).

Rehoming some of the fish would help in controlling your water quality problems a lot; if the tank was fully cycled and mature, that stocking would be fine, but its too much right now for a cycling tank, especially one so young.

So your saying my levels are bad, they have been about the same for a lil over a week, and I thought I was good becuase the levels read as safe on my testing kit, I will do a change tonight though if you think it's wise and I guess I will just hope my fish don't feel all curshed up, I mean returning the fish is not an opition, so it's ether live together in harmony or give some away which I don't want to do unless it is really harming the fish.

 

[voo]

Ideally you want ammonia and nitrite to both be 0, which it should be in an established tank. The nitrate is fine and the plants will use that up anyway.

Platies are hardy fish so are a good choice to begin with, although you dont want to add too many fish all at once as you need to let the bacteria build up.

The neons were a bad idea unfortunately. I think you may have stocked the tank too quickly - you need to build up the fish numbers slowly so the bacteria can build up without too much of an ammonia increase when you add the new fish. Also neons should be put in a mature tank, one that's been set up for 3-4 months to give them the best chance of survival. I think you'll find you might have a few of them die. If they do, wait a while till you replace them at least.

 

[iroc]

Ideally you want ammonia and nitrite to both be 0, which it should be in an established tank. The nitrate is fine and the plants will use that up anyway.

Platies are hardy fish so are a good choice to begin with, although you dont want to add too many fish all at once as you need to let the bacteria build up.

The neons were a bad idea unfortunately. I think you may have stocked the tank too quickly - you need to build up the fish numbers slowly so the bacteria can build up without too much of an ammonia increase when you add the new fish. Also neons should be put in a mature tank, one that's been set up for 3-4 months to give them the best chance of survival. I think you'll find you might have a few of them die. If they do, wait a while till you replace them at least.

thank you, yea inI think the guy at the lfs was an ass cuz he told me neons were GREAT 1st fish maybe he just wan threadted em to die so I would come back and buy more ( wouldn't suprise me since he also told me to add sa alt to the neons tank, which I understand now would kill them)

On a side note my heater broke in my tank last night and I am worried that maybe ALL the fish are gonna die

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

You got it out right away didn't you?

Are they acting strange in any way?

SLC

 

[Underwurlde]

I would just see how it goes, once you've fixed your heater (ASAP)!

 

[iroc]

I got it right away meaning as soon as I woke up and noticed it was broken, and I did get a new heater, the only strange thing they are doing is one of the mollies and one of the platies are swimming just at the bottom of the tank, they come up for food and stuff but moatly they hang out at the bottom.?/