I Am Beginner With Few Questions

[bennett418]

Alight all had my tank now 30x15x12 for about 2 months very happy, have only lost one fish in first week.

In tank i currently have

5 neon tetras
4 green tiger barbs
4 serpae tetra (did have 5 but lost one)
4 sunset platies
2 neon dwarf gouramis
1 pleco
2 loches

my water has a brown colour to it, i think it is the bogwood is that right?

how often do i do a water change? and how much? last one i did i did about a 1/3

there diet is flake, daphnia (freeze dried), brine shrimp (freeze dried) and for the pleco algae wafers every now and then as a treat

i also give them no food on sundays (give brine shrimp saturdays which i find messy so they have a good clear up!

 

[Underwurlde]

my water has a brown colour to it, i think it is the bogwood is that right?

Yes, that will be the tanin leaking out. It is fine. Over time it should reduce. Aid this by using carbon in the filter, replacing it weekly or every other week.

how often do i do a water change? and how much? last one i did i did about a 1/3

I do 1/2 weekly. 1/3 weekly is up to you, this is fine as well

Andy

PS
I don't like mentioning this as you are probably aware, but you are overstocked IMHO.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

hiya and welcome to TFF

it could be the bogwood staining your water brown with tannine's, did you do anything to the wood before adding it to your tank? it's not dangerous though so don't worry.

you should change about 30% of the water every week.

feeding routine sounds good, plenty of variety and a starve day each week is good.

do you know how many gallons your tank is?

what sort of loaches and plec do you have, some of them grow very large

 

[bennett418]

Thanks very much for fast replies,

QUOTE
my water has a brown colour to it, i think it is the bogwood is that right?

Yes, that will be the tanin leaking out. It is fine. Over time it should reduce. Aid this by using carbon in the filter, replacing it weekly or every other week.


yeah i bought one for my second filter on saturday so will change it this weekend. i did totally scrub everything before putting it in tank but the wood didnt float so i didnt soak it, think i should of now.



not sure of gallons though is there a way to work it out?

as for the loaches think it is this Gyrinocheilus aymonieri one is colour below one is golden, i bought them very small as i new they can grow, over time i will end up buying bigger tank but wanted to start off sensible.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah, you can always take it out and soak it now, carbon will remove the tannine already in the water but it won't stop it leaching more out.

take the wood out, then do a water change and add carbon to the filter this will clear up the water, then soak the wood before putting it back in.

cute loach, not familiar with the species though!

there's loads of websites with calculators on, just do a quick search in google you'll find one.


what about the plec? if it's a common your heading for trouble!

 

[bennett418]

yeah, you can always take it out and soak it now, carbon will remove the tannine already in the water but it won't stop it leaching more out.

take the wood out, then do a water change and add carbon to the filter this will clear up the water, then soak the wood before putting it back in.

cute loach, not familiar with the species though!

there's loads of websites with calculators on, just do a quick search in google you'll find one.


what about the plec? if it's a common your heading for trouble!

Yeah was thinking about taking it out, just makes the tank look dirty even though its doing no harm.

its a nice loach, constantly cleaning and nice natured.

ok il have a look on google in a minute tank size came up at 19.47 uk gallons

oh yeah forgot to write that, i forgot the proper name but photo is below, do they grow that large?

while looking for the photo i found this.....oh dear

Name: Hypostomus, Liposarcus spp.
Size pH GH Temp
Origin: Amazon
60 cm 7.2 12 25°C

that is upto 2 foot!! what do i do? sell it? move it? sell back to retailer?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yup, see why i asked now!!

take it back to the shop you ought it from and complain. you may not get your money back but it'll save you killing the plec keeping it in a small tank.



you do have too many fish in your tank though. the basic rule for stocking is 1" of fish per gallon.

so look up the adult sizes of all your fish, add them together, if it come to more than 19 (which it does) you've too many fish.

i'd recommend also taking back the barbs and one other groups of fish (tetra's, platies or dwarf gourami's)

 

[bennett418]

yup, see why i asked now!!

take it back to the shop you ought it from and complain. you may not get your money back but it'll save you killing the plec keeping it in a small tank.



you do have too many fish in your tank though. the basic rule for stocking is 1" of fish per gallon.

so look up the adult sizes of all your fish, add them together, if it come to more than 19 (which it does) you've too many fish.

i'd recommend also taking back the barbs and one other groups of fish (tetra's, platies or dwarf gourami's)

blimey i def dont wanna kill it, was gutted enough when i lost one of the tetra.

ok at least i no rule for stocking,

 

[Miss Wiggle]

it's only a guideline, there's plenty of exception, but it's pretty good to get a rough idea

 

[Underwurlde]

Beginner rule #1. There are 2 types of Gallons for measuring volume, UK Gallons & US Gallons. Both can be considered 'Imperial Gallons'.

The 1 inch per gallon rule applies to US Gallons, not UK Gallons. From your tank dimentions, your tank is 88.5Litres (always convert to litres, saves SO much confusion): 88.5 Litres = 19.5UK Gallons = 23.4 US Gallons.

Applying the General 1" / US Gallon rule means that you can actually get a maximum combined mature fish length of about 23 inches, not 19 inches.

There is another rule based on the surface area of the tank which I use - for your setup you could probably get a bit more than 23 inches in there. Overstocking will lead to a multitude of problems, the beginings of which (maturity length) you are already experiencing!

Andy

 

[bennett418]

Beginner rule #1. There are 2 types of Gallons for measuring volume, UK Gallons & US Gallons. Both can be considered 'Imperial Gallons'.

The 1 inch per gallon rule applies to US Gallons, not UK Gallons. From your tank dimentions, your tank is 88.5Litres (always convert to litres, saves SO much confusion): 88.5 Litres = 19.5UK Gallons = 23.4 US Gallons.

Applying the General 1" / US Gallon rule means that you can actually get a maximum combined mature fish length of about 23 inches, not 19 inches.

There is another rule based on the surface area of the tank which I use - for your setup you could probably get a bit more than 23 inches in there. Overstocking will lead to a multitude of problems, the beginings of which (maturity length) you are already experiencing!

Andy

Ok thanks, one other question, which may sound silly but i dont no.......do fish grow to there surroundings?

also how big do green barbs grow to?

sorry for all the questions, i am new to this and dont wanna kill my fish.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Beginner rule #1. There are 2 types of Gallons for measuring volume, UK Gallons & US Gallons. Both can be considered 'Imperial Gallons'.

The 1 inch per gallon rule applies to US Gallons, not UK Gallons. From your tank dimentions, your tank is 88.5Litres (always convert to litres, saves SO much confusion): 88.5 Litres = 19.5UK Gallons = 23.4 US Gallons.

Applying the General 1" / US Gallon rule means that you can actually get a maximum combined mature fish length of about 23 inches, not 19 inches.

There is another rule based on the surface area of the tank which I use - for your setup you could probably get a bit more than 23 inches in there. Overstocking will lead to a multitude of problems, the beginings of which (maturity length) you are already experiencing!

Andy

Ok thanks, one other question, which may sound silly but i dont no.......do fish grow to there surroundings?

also how big do green barbs grow to?

sorry for all the questions, i am new to this and dont wanna kill my fish.

no unfortunately that's a common myth. fish don't just adapt to the size tank they're in all that will happen if they are kept in a tank too small is they will become stunted they may become deformed or ill just from this, it will make them susceptible to disease and eventually will kill them. so if you get a fish that's gonna get bigger than your tank no it's probably not just gonna keep growing until it's all squashed up or anythign like that, however it will die a horrible painfull death far too young

i think tiger barbs get 2/3"..... they like a lot of swimming room too so they're gonna need a bigger tank.

there's a really good fish index on this site with basic info such as size etc, or just put the name of the fish into google and you'll find loads of pages with info on them. there may be some contradictions though so it's best to look at as much info as possible and go with the majority say! if your not sure of anything post it here and we'll try and help you.

 

[bennett418]

Beginner rule #1. There are 2 types of Gallons for measuring volume, UK Gallons & US Gallons. Both can be considered 'Imperial Gallons'.

The 1 inch per gallon rule applies to US Gallons, not UK Gallons. From your tank dimentions, your tank is 88.5Litres (always convert to litres, saves SO much confusion): 88.5 Litres = 19.5UK Gallons = 23.4 US Gallons.

Applying the General 1" / US Gallon rule means that you can actually get a maximum combined mature fish length of about 23 inches, not 19 inches.

There is another rule based on the surface area of the tank which I use - for your setup you could probably get a bit more than 23 inches in there. Overstocking will lead to a multitude of problems, the beginings of which (maturity length) you are already experiencing!

Andy

Ok thanks, one other question, which may sound silly but i dont no.......do fish grow to there surroundings?

also how big do green barbs grow to?

sorry for all the questions, i am new to this and dont wanna kill my fish.

no unfortunately that's a common myth. fish don't just adapt to the size tank they're in all that will happen if they are kept in a tank too small is they will become stunted they may become deformed or ill just from this, it will make them susceptible to disease and eventually will kill them. so if you get a fish that's gonna get bigger than your tank no it's probably not just gonna keep growing until it's all squashed up or anythign like that, however it will die a horrible painfull death far too young

i think tiger barbs get 2/3"..... they like a lot of swimming room too so they're gonna need a bigger tank.

there's a really good fish index on this site with basic info such as size etc, or just put the name of the fish into google and you'll find loads of pages with info on them. there may be some contradictions though so it's best to look at as much info as possible and go with the majority say! if your not sure of anything post it here and we'll try and help you.

Magic cheers, what really annoys me is that the retailer didnt mention any of this.....all they want is the money, how wrong is this?!

I am seriously tempted to buy a second tank now, so i can at least put the barbs in there.

Time for a think!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yup, it's terrible the advice people get from fish shops sometimes

this is why you should always do your research before buying anything and not just rely on the advice in the fish shop. they just want your money.

ha ha that's the mts (multiple tank syndrome) setting in.

you always see something else you want and just can't keep in your current set up..... that's how we ended up with 8 tanks at one point! been good now and reduced it to 5 though.

 

[bennett418]

yup, it's terrible the advice people get from fish shops sometimes

this is why you should always do your research before buying anything and not just rely on the advice in the fish shop. they just want your money.

ha ha that's the mts (multiple tank syndrome) setting in.

you always see something else you want and just can't keep in your current set up..... that's how we ended up with 8 tanks at one point! been good now and reduced it to 5 though.

Yep will def ask on here before i do anything now...

mts there is a name for it then!