Hello from California

[Zombie_Kittie]

Hello, so I'm fairly new to the hobby despite owning an aquarium in the late 80's/early 90's.
Boy! Did I learn the hard way. My thought process - "Oh an aquarium would be easy and simple after all I successfully had one as a teenager". Pfff my poor 8yr old had to wake up every morning to dying/dead fish. I HAD NO IDEA about cycling a tank and thought I only needed to have it set up and running at least 48hrs.
We literally lost: 34 fish and 1 Mystery Snail!!
We did not lose them all at once - I kept going back and buying more because I thought for sure the shop I was going to had "bad fish".
Anyway I decided "Hmmm maybe I should actually do some research and see what may be up". THEN I seen the light.
I ended up having to do an in fish cycle since after all that I still had 1 Black Molly, 1 Panda Molly, 1 Dwarf Gourami, and 2 Bamboo Shrimp.
Boy did my Dwarf Gourami go through the worst of it - I thought for sure he was a gonner. One eye turned completely white and the other had a white spot on it, he lost his color, wouldn't eat, and stayed at the bottom of the tank only to come up once in a great while.
My Ammonia was at 4.0, Nitrites 5.0, pH 8 - I only found out once I finally bought a kit instead of relying on strips. All I can say is thank goodness for Seachem Prime, every other day 50% water changes, and adding live plants I FINALLY got everything perfect after about a month. Also thank goodness my remaining fish and shrimp endured and lived through it. My Dwarf Gourami is now the most handsome boy of the bunch - his eyes cleared up, his color brightened and now he loves to eat blood worms right from my fingers. (I'll post pics of him before and now.)
So this is my aquarium today:
40g
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 20 ppm
pH 7
Temp 81.2
AquaClear 50 Filter + Air stone bubbler
Orlushy Submersible Aquarium Heater,100W
Plants: Floating Frogbit & Duckweed, Floating Wisteria, Java Fern Planted on Driftwood, Anubias Petite On Driftwood, Java Moss on Driftwood, 3 Wendtii Green Gecko planted in gravel, and a small Bonsai Driftwood no plants.
Fish: 7 Mollies: 2 males, 5 females (Males both regular - Females: 1 regular, 3 Lyretails -1 pregnant, & 1 Sailfin)
2 Platies both female
2 Red Flame Dwarf Gouramis: 1 male, 1 female
8 Neon Tetras
1 Yellow Mystery Snail
2 Bamboo Shrimp
Also currently 3 or 4 fry who have survived hiding out in plants for about a month now.

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

A lot of us killed fish because we didn't know about the filter cycle to, so don't feel too bad about it, you are in good company

Did the shop tell you how to clean the filter?

In future, if you ever get an ammonia or nitrite reading above 0ppm, or a nitrate reading above 20ppm, reduce feeding to once every couple of days and do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day until the levels are back to 0ppm.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

 

[Zombie_Kittie]

Hi and welcome to the forum

A lot of us killed fish because we didn't know about the filter cycle to, so don't feel too bad about it, you are in good company

Did the shop tell you how to clean the filter?

In future, if you ever get an ammonia or nitrite reading above 0ppm, or a nitrate reading above 20ppm, reduce feeding to once every couple of days and do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day until the levels are back to 0ppm.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

The shop did not but what I've researched is I should rinse and clean the foam filter with my aquarium water and never change the media all at once. So the carbon filter and then the BioMax filters a month apart and then the same with the foam filter once it also needs to be changed. I do use a chlorine/chloramine remover when prepping the water for a change.
That was another HUGE mistake I made. I bought an aquarium kit or package and decided my filter was trash and bought a new one after my 1st had been running for about 2wks already... Again no research so any good bacteria that was building up at went by-by. I learned the hard way but I learned and still have more to learn. Now I'm trying to decide if I should buy a breeding box for my current pregnant Molly or just let nature take it's course and those that survive - survive. Add I've mentioned I do have 3 that have survived through the horrid water conditions and are thriving and getting big. I can already see that one is going to be a silver Molly like the mom was. (I bought the mother already pregnant not knowing she was - she gave birth then died the next day.)

 

[Colin_T]

Established filters should be cleaned at least once a month. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it because you can get rid of the good filter bacteria.

When you clean the filter, wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn.


You don't need carbon in a filter unless you have heavy metals or chemicals in the water. Carbon will remove plant fertilisers and fish medications so when you clean the filter, throw the carbon away and replace it with a sponge.

Ceramic beads/ noodles can be washed in a bucket of tank water and re-used. They will last forever and don't need replacing. Same deal with sponges except they don't last forever, only 10+ years

---------------------
Regarding the breeding trap. Don't put gravid (pregnant) livebearers in them because it usually stresses the fish out. The best thing for female livebearers like mollies is a well planted tank. The female will give birth among the plants and the babies hide in the plants too. You can scoop the babies out with a plastic container and put them in a breeding net (different from a breeding trap) in the same tank, or move them into a separate tank/ container to grow up.

One of the best plants for livebearers is Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides/ cornuta). This is a floating plant but it can also be planted in the gravel. It normally grows quite quickly when floating on the surface and has lots of branches for the babies to hide among.

 

[Zombie_Kittie]

nature

 

[Zombie_Kittie]

Great advice! Thank you so much!
My tank in planted and the current fry live in my Java Moss Driftwood as well my Java Fern. They have started coming out in the open to eat and the adults haven't paid much attention to them though the fry are very fast if one nears them. I do have floating Wisteria (which looks similar to Water Sprite - after Googling it) as well as Frogbit and Duckweed.
I think I'll look into the breeding net.
Again thank you much!

 

[Slaphppy7]

Welcome to TFF

 

[Zombie_Kittie]

Welcome to TFF

Thank you!

 

[The603]

Welcome to the forum, you'll find the answers to your questions from these knowledgeable folks here.

 

[Zombie_Kittie]

Thank you! Looking forward to it.