westside
New Member
< I am adding this disclaimer after i typed this, this rambles and you may find it pointless or not, either way I feel I have sufficiently warned you 
>
I found this forum after setting up my tank as prescribed by my lfs.
Set up tank (decorations, gravel silk plants), put in dechlorinated water, heater & filter let run for a week.
Add live plants (rinse them out, dunk em in poison, scrub them, return them... anything to get rid of all the flippin' snail eggs), run for a couple days (we left it planted for probably 5) then you can add fish.
No commments from them about fishless cycling, checking ammonia/nitrate levels... oh well.
So what did we do, we put in 2 neons and 2 fancy guppies.
Learned real quick, okay maybe not real quick that guppies are not the sturdy breed, first one died about a week into residency
Took back to LFS they werent concerned, it was in the exchange date but they had 0 guppies and werent getting a shipment for a couple days, so my daughter fauned over the dalmation mollies so we upgraded to one of those.
At this point we have a guppy, 2 neons and a molly.
This is about the time i find this forum and realise i have done everything wrong
A few days later the second guppy dies, and I dont replace.
Get a Major Chemistry lab testing kit.
My ammonia turns the kit so dark it is off the charts, chart only went to 6ppm
Post a quick note here on desposal and decide not to use any other chemicals from the "lab"
I took the lab back and got strips, A LOT more expensive, but I dont have to worry about collecting harardous waste products (I am waiting for hazmat day at the dump to drop off my only testing residue)
Tested ammonia, turned the stick way over top and nitrites were mid range.
At least I know the sticks work.....
Test daily and watched the ammonia start to drop and then nitrites followed and hit 0 about a day after the ammonia, maybe it was two. (Note here, we did cycle with neons. Read a bunch on them not being the best for it... They made it, I dont think i would suggest guppies though, ,the mollies look like they could be hardy enough to have made it from day one)
I am not advocating for cycling with fish, actually I am thinking of doing another tank with semi or agressive and I will do a fishless cycle to start it.
Started noticing snails, not one, or two but a couple dozen, scraped 'em out, yeah right I think in a week and half maybe two i get over a half dozen to dozen a night.
I tried floating a romaine leaf, I guess they are picky someone said not iceberg, but all i had in the morning was soggy lettuce.
We have debated yanking out the grass sine that is where you can see most of the ity bity babies.
I dont mid them really i am just afraid of what they will do to the tank, I cant believe people actually buy them.
Do you count snails against your " per gallon? if so how they are like ... big.
I have no algea growth though, maybe because of the snail qty, and the mollys pick at the gravel.
The grass appears to be dieing, starting to brown at the end inch or so.
From the snails?
the molly was acting up and buzzing the neons during feeding time.
So on the way home from dance my daughter picked out another dalmation to give pongo someone bigger to fight/play with.
two days later after grocery shopping i tried talking daughter two into buying 3 more neones to at least get us a small pack, but like any 4 year old she was determined to get her way and wanted to get a bleeding heart tetra.
So... I guess the next two trips to the pet store will be daddies turn and i will even out the neons then the next week the bleeding hearts....
The question i have is time between fish additions, I tried searching on the forum, but I cant come up with a query that gets me anything close to what I ask.
I saw the one about leaving the light off for the day after introducing new fish, wow, I had thrown food in and left the light on, kind of a welcome to the neighborhood party type thing.
But I dont see anything about adding fish, lfs said 3-4 at a time is fine, and that we should wait a week between. So if you want 6 fish it will take two weeks.
But, does size matter, I mean come on, if I put in 4 neons they cant possibly produce the waste if i stuck in 3 mollies, so would i be able to buy the neon and bleeding hearts on the same trip, of course now that i type it i am second guessing myself and feel it may be pushing it to add 8 fish of any size at once.
Well thanks a lot, I feel better now that I have gotten it all off my chest
I felt really bad when I first got here about the whole fishless thing and I am sure many of the other truly nebies feel the same.
As long as we are willing to learn from our mistakes it makes the mistakes not hurt so bad.
My wife thinks I am obsessed since all i do is worry about the tank and making sure the renters are happy.
Wait til I teell her I want another, its her fault now I need a tank i can put a puffer in so I have something to do with all those snails.
> I found this forum after setting up my tank as prescribed by my lfs.
Set up tank (decorations, gravel silk plants), put in dechlorinated water, heater & filter let run for a week.
Add live plants (rinse them out, dunk em in poison, scrub them, return them... anything to get rid of all the flippin' snail eggs), run for a couple days (we left it planted for probably 5) then you can add fish.
No commments from them about fishless cycling, checking ammonia/nitrate levels... oh well.
So what did we do, we put in 2 neons and 2 fancy guppies.
Learned real quick, okay maybe not real quick that guppies are not the sturdy breed, first one died about a week into residency
Took back to LFS they werent concerned, it was in the exchange date but they had 0 guppies and werent getting a shipment for a couple days, so my daughter fauned over the dalmation mollies so we upgraded to one of those.
At this point we have a guppy, 2 neons and a molly.
This is about the time i find this forum and realise i have done everything wrong
A few days later the second guppy dies, and I dont replace.
Get a Major Chemistry lab testing kit.
My ammonia turns the kit so dark it is off the charts, chart only went to 6ppm
Post a quick note here on desposal and decide not to use any other chemicals from the "lab"
I took the lab back and got strips, A LOT more expensive, but I dont have to worry about collecting harardous waste products (I am waiting for hazmat day at the dump to drop off my only testing residue)
Tested ammonia, turned the stick way over top and nitrites were mid range.
At least I know the sticks work.....
Test daily and watched the ammonia start to drop and then nitrites followed and hit 0 about a day after the ammonia, maybe it was two. (Note here, we did cycle with neons. Read a bunch on them not being the best for it... They made it, I dont think i would suggest guppies though, ,the mollies look like they could be hardy enough to have made it from day one)
I am not advocating for cycling with fish, actually I am thinking of doing another tank with semi or agressive and I will do a fishless cycle to start it.
Started noticing snails, not one, or two but a couple dozen, scraped 'em out, yeah right I think in a week and half maybe two i get over a half dozen to dozen a night.
I tried floating a romaine leaf, I guess they are picky someone said not iceberg, but all i had in the morning was soggy lettuce.
We have debated yanking out the grass sine that is where you can see most of the ity bity babies.
I dont mid them really i am just afraid of what they will do to the tank, I cant believe people actually buy them.
Do you count snails against your " per gallon? if so how they are like ... big.
I have no algea growth though, maybe because of the snail qty, and the mollys pick at the gravel.
The grass appears to be dieing, starting to brown at the end inch or so.
From the snails?
the molly was acting up and buzzing the neons during feeding time.
So on the way home from dance my daughter picked out another dalmation to give pongo someone bigger to fight/play with.
two days later after grocery shopping i tried talking daughter two into buying 3 more neones to at least get us a small pack, but like any 4 year old she was determined to get her way and wanted to get a bleeding heart tetra.
So... I guess the next two trips to the pet store will be daddies turn and i will even out the neons then the next week the bleeding hearts....
The question i have is time between fish additions, I tried searching on the forum, but I cant come up with a query that gets me anything close to what I ask.
I saw the one about leaving the light off for the day after introducing new fish, wow, I had thrown food in and left the light on, kind of a welcome to the neighborhood party type thing.
But I dont see anything about adding fish, lfs said 3-4 at a time is fine, and that we should wait a week between. So if you want 6 fish it will take two weeks.
But, does size matter, I mean come on, if I put in 4 neons they cant possibly produce the waste if i stuck in 3 mollies, so would i be able to buy the neon and bleeding hearts on the same trip, of course now that i type it i am second guessing myself and feel it may be pushing it to add 8 fish of any size at once.
Well thanks a lot, I feel better now that I have gotten it all off my chest
I felt really bad when I first got here about the whole fishless thing and I am sure many of the other truly nebies feel the same.
As long as we are willing to learn from our mistakes it makes the mistakes not hurt so bad.
My wife thinks I am obsessed since all i do is worry about the tank and making sure the renters are happy.
Wait til I teell her I want another, its her fault now I need a tank i can put a puffer in so I have something to do with all those snails.
)
