How Am I Doing?

[stevietheblindfish]

Hi everyone, thought I should post on here as I've been reading up for a little while picking up pointers!

We've got an 11 month baby who seems to have developed a bit of a fascination for fish. For Christmas his grandparents decided to buy us a Fluval Edge (46l). I've not kept tropical fish before, but we've got a koi pond so I'm not a complete fish-idiot.

I was hoping to explain what I've done and get some feedback as to whether things are right and what I should expect over the coming months and years...


1. Firstly I filled the tank and treated it with Nutrafin Cycle, before leaving it running for 2 weeks. We put in some gravel and set up the filter and heater.

2. I went and got 3 plants and fish (4 male Guppies and 2 Mollies).

3. 4 weeks later (this week) I took out about 15% of the water and changed it, cleaned the algae from the inside of the tank.
-I now realise, from reading this forum, that I should have been changing the water far more often, and taking out a little more water than I did today. Would this explain why the plants look a little brown?

4. Today we bought 3 more plants, a piece of 'planted' bogwood and some more fish (6x Cardinal Tetras and 3x Dwarf Plecos)


I'm feeding the fish twice a day, but a very small amount. I'm currently using Tetra Prima, and only putting in about 6-10 tiny pieces).
I keep the lamps on around 12 hours per day, sometimes a little longer. Apart from that, I'm not doing anything else...

Anyway, I realise I need to carry out more water changes, what else should / shouldn't I be doing? What problems am I likely to face? What are my stocking levels like? etc.

Thanks in advance,
Rob

 

[littlenemo]

first of all rob hello and welcome mate.
looks to me like your doing a fish in cycle. i used that that nutrifin cycle stuff but did not work so i did a fish less cycle using ammonia. are you using plant fertz to feed your plants or any type of plant food. there is a begginers section in here about cycling and water testing but you should be doing water changes daily.

lee

first of all rob hello and welcome mate.
looks to me like your doing a fish in cycle. i used that that nutrifin cycle stuff but did not work so i did a fish less cycle using ammonia. are you using plant fertz to feed your plants or any type of plant food. there is a begginers section in here about cycling and water testing but you should be doing water changes daily.

lee

looking after tropical fish is not as easy as i thought it would be. you need to cycle your filter to be able to cope with the ammonia

 

[stevietheblindfish]

I'm not using any fertiliser with the plants yet. Is there anything which forum members recommend?

 

[fluttermoth]

I don't know; there's a lot of plants in there, and only small fish; it's possible the tank will go through a 'silent cycle' (ie; one where the plants absorb enough ammonia and nitrite to stop the levels climbing too high).

OP; the first thing you need to do is get a decent, liqud based test kit (not the dip strip type, as they're inaccurate, and often don't include a test for ammonia, which is essential). Then you can work out how much water you need to be changing.

If you can pinch a small bit of filter media from your koi's filter, and put that in the Edge's, that should ensure you have enough good bacteria to cope with your fish's wastes, but unless you can test the water, you can't be sure what's going on.

A good test kit is an essential piece of kit for all fishkepers, IMO; of course, you may have one already, for your pond; in that case test for ammonia and nitrite and see how they look; you want them to be no more than 0.25ppm at all times

 

[This Old Spouse]

That's a very attractive tank. +1 to the advice given. And can you tell me what the fern-like plant is on the right? And FYI, the variegated plants are not aquatic. You should replace them before they start to rot and foul your water. I bought the same type and they're now in a pot on my windowsill.

 

[fluttermoth]

Oh, well spotted, TOS!

Blimming dracaenas! My son has one he 'rescued' out of his dad's tank, and it's huge now; it's on the kitchen side and it's touching the ceiling; I'm going to have to find a space for it on the floor somewhere...

 

[stevietheblindfish]

Shame about the two plants - I'll fish them out tomorrow.

I do have a testing kit for my koi, but its years since I last used it (they're such stable and easily pleased creatures!) but I should be able to dig it out in the morning.

 

[TropicalJuwel]

Hi Stevie, welcome to the forum,

Get a test kit if you already havent got 1 and test the water, main two things to look for is ammona and nitrite or even post your results on here and we can help you if any problems there. Tbh by the sounds of it only doing 1 15% change since you started I would say you been very lucky not to lose any fish. Ordipending on your results will indicate wether you need to do more water changes or not but if water is fine then once weekly changes of 25-30% should be fine.

In relation to fertilisers i treat me tank with liquid carbon and tpn, I am actually in the trialling stage of tpn but wont buy again as it works out expensive (for my tank anyway) a few members make there own fertilisers so maybe they can help you more with that. Im not expert on plants as have only had planted tank for 6 months but the browning is probably the lenth of time you have lights on for with no ferts, once again hopefully if someone knows more than me they can correct if I am wrong.

Hope this helps.

 

[Three Ring Circus]

I don't have any advice, but I would like to say that is a stunning little tank.

 

[stevietheblindfish]

Just dug out my testing kit, but will endeavour to get a new one soon.

pH - 7.8
Ammonia - 0.25 mg/l
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5 mg/l

 

[IcQb]

It seems like your aquarium is at least starting to get cycled.

NH3 -> NO2 -> NO3

You should keep monitoring your values and make sure that any NO2 is immediately converted to NO3 (and preferably further so NO3 is undetectable)
If you measure ANY NO2 do a large water change immediately (its VERY toxic)

Changing the two plants to fast growing aquarium plants (at least, for now) will help you remove toxins from the water. You can change them to prettier plants when the tank is stable.

The brown stuff is pretty normal for a tank that is just getting started.
Don't worry, you'll be dealing with normal green-type algae soon enough

EDIT: That IS a very nice looking tank

 

[the_lock_man]

I don't know; there's a lot of plants in there, and only small fish; it's possible the tank will go through a 'silent cycle' (ie; one where the plants absorb enough ammonia and nitrite to stop the levels climbing too high).

This is a rarety, I have to disagree with Fluttermoth. (Sorry, FM) Whilst there are a lot of plants, there's also a lot of fish. 4 guppies, 2 mollies, 6 cardinals and 3 unknown small plecs. That's a helluva lot of ammonia being produced there, I honestly don't think a Silent Cycle is feasible.

To go along with all the advice on monitoring levels, I think your stocking is too much. I think that mollies are a bit too big for a 46l, and I'm also a little concerned about the plecs. I'm no plec expert, but as I understand it, even something relatively small like a bristlenose or a pitbull will be a bit big for a 46l. You really need to get a positive ID on the species (dwarf isn't enough).

Lights for 12 hours will be encouraging the algae, I would suggest reducing this to 7-8 hours.

Feeding twice a day is also too much, especially so given that you are fish-in cycling. I wuld suggest reducing this to once every 2 days, this will reduce the ammonia being produced. Once the filter is properly cycled, you can increase this to once a day.

If you click the link in my signature area, it will take you to an excellent article on how to safely accomplish a fish-in cycle, which is what I believe you are trying to do.

 

[fluttermoth]

You're right, I'd forgotten about the plecs; they're very likely to be producing more waste than the plants could cope with

I also agree about the mollies; at an adult size of 4" or so, they do get too big.

 

[IcQb]

Lights for 12 hours will be encouraging the algae, I would suggest reducing this to 7-8 hours.

Is that such a bad thing for now? It will look bad for now,
but more light (I'm not saying 16h) will certainly increase algae growth, but also plant growth.

Both feed on waste and excess nutrients which are the cause of ammonia (and further oxydated nitrate species) buildup.
Just saying it could help in this tank which already has (a lot of) fish in it.

When the tank is cycled, you can fiddle with the light hours to lower algae and stimulate plant growth

 

[the_lock_man]

Lights for 12 hours will be encouraging the algae, I would suggest reducing this to 7-8 hours.

Is that such a bad thing for now? It will look bad for now,
but more light (I'm not saying 16h) will certainly increase algae growth, but also plant growth.

Both feed on waste and excess nutrients which are the cause of ammonia (and further oxydated nitrate species) buildup.
Just saying it could help in this tank which already has (a lot of) fish in it.

When the tank is cycled, you can fiddle with the light hours to lower algae and stimulate plant growth

I hear what you're saying, but I wouldn't have thought that the increased plant growth would make a significant difference. And that's without considering the fact that there are 3 plecs in there.

I take that view that if Stevie sees high ammonia, high nitrate and loads of algae, it's somewhat demotivating, but if there's low algae, then at least one thing is going right, so it's easier to not give up hope on the other things - does that make sense to you?