New 10 gal tank for the grandkids - old timer back after 50 years

[JCinPA3]

I am setting up a 10 gal new tank so my young grandkids can enjoy watching fish. I wish now I had gotten a 20 gal but I got a 10 simply because that's what I had as a teenager. My gear list is below. Cleaning it and setting it all up today, will add fish using Kave Man Aquatics fish-in process using Seachem Prime and Stability. Link below:
Add Fish to New Tank on Day 1 - (It Works Every Time)

I am planning on two male guppies and 6 black neon tetras, which I will introduce later this week. Wish me luck! Great resource here, glad I found it!

Gear:

• Marineland 10 gallon tank
• Aqueon 20" full hood with LED light
• Aquarium background
• Penn Plax undergravel filter
• Top Fin Premium Aquarium gravel, black, blue, green mix, 20 lbs
• Assortment of Top Fin plastic plants, various heights and colors
• HITOP 2W Nano Whisper Aquarium Air Pump
• Marina S10 Power Filter
• Fluval M 50-Watt Submersible Aquarium Heater
• Petbank LCD Digital Aquarium Thermometer
• Laifoo 5ft-S Aquarium Siphon Vacuum Cleaner
• Top Fin 5 gal bucket
• Seachem Prime
• Seachem Stability
• TetraMin Tropical Flakes
• Fluval Bug Bites Tropical Fish Food
• API FRESHWATER MASTER TEST KIT 800

Plan:

• Set up tank today
• Treat and run overnight or for another day
• Add fish tomorrow or the next day
• Daily treat with Prime and Stability for at least two weeks
• Test water
• Start weekly water changes when ammonia is zero and nitrates appear, not before as per Kave Man's instructions

After it runs well for 6 weeks or so, I will start to add some live plants. I never used them as a teenager, but I'd like to try live plants in this tank.

I had not planned on getting a new hobby, just create something for the grandkids to watch and enjoy. But knowing myself, I suspect within a year, I'll want a 30 gal or larger in a living area of the house, if I can talk the wife into it.

I will update this thread with photos as it progresses.

 

[Ed Pursell7 12]

Good luck! After setting a 10 up for the Grandkids, it might just inspire you to add on another for yourself, it can become addicting! Enjoy, let them learn the Hobby, I’m sure they will love it!
Ed

 

[Back in the fold1 1]

I think you should set up a twenty right away . You’ll need it sooner or later .

 

[JCinPA3]

@Back in the fold I wish I had set up a 20, but I had already purchased the tank, hood, heater, filters, etc, before joining up here and then realizing this is really a nano tank. Too late. Plus this is in a spare bedroom, The Boss™ determined that. If this works well (she's skeptical) I will likely go with a larger tank and stand in the main living area. Walk then run. This will suffice for the purpose of entertaining the toddlers. And I'll build experience.

Journal Entry 04/27/26

Set up the tank, dropped a little food in it, half a capful of Seachem Prime and a full capful of Seacrest Stability. The little Marina Slim S10 HOB is a nice little filter, I'll use the supplied cartridges, but once they are not usable, I'll just use filter pads. The charcoal is on the undergravel filter lift tubes (came with it), but I don't believe it is necessary and won't replace them. The UGF will provide substantial bio filtering capacity and the HOB will do a little water polishing and the pads will provide some bio filtering capacity, as well. Since I'm only going to have a few guppies and small tetras in this, it won't be too loaded, I hope.

Water looks clear, the gravel needed almost no washing, it must be coated. Plastic log in the center has 4 holes fish can swim in/out of if they want shelter. I may put the fish in tomorrow, I may just drop a little food in it, dose it again and put the fish in Wednesday.

 

[JCinPA3]

Journal Entry 04/28/26

Got five guppies and given how I hope they will grow, it's likely all I'll put in this tank. I've wracked my brain looking as what I could put in with them, but 5 full grown guppies are probably just about what I want for this tank, especially given the amount of space the gravel takes up. Today was the second day of Prime/Stability dosing, but Day 1 with fish. I left the light off for a couple hours, then went to check on them and turned on the light. Four of the five were clustered together near the right UG uplift tube. The fifth little guy was more adventuresome, he was all over the place, and I mean swimming everywhere, up, down, darting left, right, in front of the plastic plants, behind them. He's having a ball, the others are more cautious about their new home.

• Blue Guppy
• Cobra Endler's Guppy
• Dumbo Guppy
• Turquoise Guppy
• Yellow Guppy

Hopefully all male. All were labeled male on the receipt except the Blue, but she said they were all males. I fed them a very little bit, they were not too interested, so I won't do any more until tomorrow. Water is at 79*F. I know from experience the UFG will do a great job biological filtering, but I really love the little Marina Slim S10 for a couple reasons. The motor is in the water, so it is extremely quiet, and self-priming if the power goes off for a bit. (The setup is on a computer type UPS system which will keep it going for a while during an outage) The flow is adjustable, and I believe guppies don't like a lot of it, so I set it about 1/4 to 1/3 up from the minimum setting and it seems to be doing just fine. And the intake has an included coarse foam sleeve. Eventually I'll just have pads in there, not their cartridges, but I like the design of this filter for a small tank like this.

Here's a short video of the scaredy cats by the lift tube.

 

[JCinPA3]

Journal Entry 04/29/26

Well. Five dead guppies this morning.

Don't know what I did wrong. Maybe misunderstood Kave Man's Prime/Stability method, put too many fish in (they were tiny)? Maybe his Prime/Stability method still assumes introducing fish slowly, but makes the process easier on the fish and faster? I thought Prime would detoxify what might ail them, though? Anyway, I'll post in the cycle your tank forum for help and what to do now.

Log of activities:

04/27 1:00 p.m. EST- Finished setting up tank, undergravel filter, Marina S10 HOB filter, heater, thermometer, and did one ghost feeding.
Added one capful of Seachem Prime, one capful of Seachem Stability

04/28 1:00 p.m. EST - Dosed with 25 drops of Prime (eye dropper bottle) and half capful of stability. Added 5 small guppies, left light off for 3 hours.

04/28 6:00 p.m. EST - Very lightly fed with Fluval Bug Bites. They were not interested, so no more food that evening.

04/28 8:00 p.m. EST - Fish looked active, had started exploring the tank rather than all hanging out in one corner. Turned light off.

04/29 9:00 a.m. EST - Went to turn light on, five dead guppies

After disposing of the fish, dropped water about 20% and took the opportunity to remove some gravel, rearrange the plants and heater, topped off water, dosed with 25 drops Prime and half capful of Stability.

I figure there is some ammonia in the tank from the one ghost feeding, the fish being in there for 18 hours or so and one feeding. What to do now? After the tank clears and comes back to temperature, I am tempted to add a single guppy, and continue with the Prime/Stability and wait a week or so. My API Master Test Kit arrives Friday. If I don't kill that one, I will add guppies, maybe 1-2 at a time once nitrates show up? Is this the right approach? Open to any suggestions at all. I don't know if I can add more than one guppy, but I am disinclined to because I don't want to kill another 5 fish.

 

[JCinPA3]

Journal Entry 04/29 3:00 p.m. EST

Petsmart tested my water with test strips and did not see anything alarming. I came home with a single guppy and, having dosed with Prime and Stability for three days already (latest is this morning), I'll stop that and let this one little guy run through the cycle.

I'll add more fish when the ammonia is zero and nitrates appear and he survives it.

 

[JCinPA3]

Journal Entry 04/30/26 10:00 am EST

Well the little guy survived the night! I included him in my bedtime prayers. The water is cloudy, found the Kaveman Aquatics video on bacterial bloom and found out this is normal, and he calmed me down quite a bit. Between my ghost feeding and the fish, both expired and current resident, there is enough to trigger the heterotrophic bacteria, but I trust that will clear itself up on its own as the tank cycles. It was a little disturbing because I wasn't expecting it. Turned up the air pump and the S10 flow to max.

Today is day 4 of Prime/Stability, but I used only 16 drops, figuring I have about 8 gallons of water in there after substrate and submerged equipment parts. Hopefully that will protect my little guy. Used half a capful of Stability, as per instructions. Test kit arrives tomorrow and I can't wait to use it. I will not add any more than this one small guppy until the tank cycles completely. I don't want to use the Prime/Stability regimen to become impatient. I'm just hoping things will progress naturally and the one fish will be OK.

 

[ambrosia0425 5]

Hey! Just wondering, why did you decide against a fishless cycle? Takes too long for your plan?
And idk about this specific gravel but I've heard some colored one has toxic dyes! Just something to take into account just in case that's the culprit!

 

[JCinPA3]

Hey! Just wondering, why did you decide against a fishless cycle? Takes too long for your plan?
And idk about this specific gravel but I've heard some colored one has toxic dyes! Just something to take into account just in case that's the culprit!

I saw the Kaveman Aquatics Youtube about using Prime/Stability to do a fish-in cycle and went ahead before doing more research. Sounded easy. NOW, when I do a larger tank, I will use ammonia and do a full fishless cycle. Just chalk it up to being a noob. There are a lot of videos about fish-in cycling and I just caught them first. Now I am where I am. This tank will not get another fish until after my test kit says the cycle has completed.

 

[ambrosia0425 5]

I saw the Kaveman Aquatics Youtube about using Prim/Stability to do a fish-in cycle and went ahead before doing more research. Sounded easy. NOW, when I do a larger tank, I will use ammonia and do a full fishless cycle. Just chalk it up to being a noob. There are a lot of videos about fish-in cycling and I just caught them first. Now I am where I am. This tank will not get another fish until after my test kit says the cycle has completed.

Hahaha no worries, I studied for like a month before I got this tank (my first one too!) and made a looot of mistakes...
But you are doing great! Keep up the research and please keep us updated!

Another thing that comes to preference (and don't take my "advice" too seriously as I'm a noob lol), is that sand is better than gravel for bacteria to grow and fish can have difficulty eating with gravel, just maybe topping the gravel off? I prefer sand but as I said, up to you hahahah.
Also plants, real plants can help make a "silent" cycle because the eat the nitrates up and some even process the ammonia directly! Also some fish may injure themselves if the plastic is sharp anywhere so be mindful of that too! If you want some easy forgiving plants you could get some anubias or java ferns (these are epiphytes meaning they don't go on soil, I made this page you can see the plant page here if you want!: https://ambrosia04.github.io/FishTankCalc/Epiphytes.html)

 

[JCinPA3]

I am planning on getting some live plants as soon as this settles down. The plan is 5 male guppies and plants in it.

About gravel vs sand, I disagree about the biological bacteria they can support. There is plenty of surface area for bacteria to grow in the gravel. The UGF has become controversial since I had one back in the day, but its proponents are legion and very dedicated. That said so are its detractors, this is a religious issue, apparently. But I'm in the UGF "church" and will stay there unless and until I have a problem with it, which I don't anticipate. Like religion, I don't discuss it. And it seems to be impervious to argument so there's no point. And I've used a HOB filter in conjunction with a UGF, like I have now, for years with great success and no maintenance issues.

But the UGF coupled with some fine pads in the S10 should have this thing crystal clear after the bloom works its way out.

If you are curious about the issue, though, this might be an interesting read. But don't ask me about them, I'd have zero credibility today.

P.S. He was hiding but came out to eat a while back.

8.5.1. Under-Gravels in Depth - Aquarium Science

A Caveat Undergravel filters have not been widely tested as a filter in the aquaculture industry, The limited testing done on gravel filters for aquaculture was "all over the map" due to the very high loading of commercial operations. So one is left with common sense and anecdotal "testing" as...

aquariumscience.org

 

[JCinPA3]

Journal Entry 05/01/26 10:00 am EST

Well, the little guy is still doing fine! Two days now, and this morning he is swimming around, up, down, all over. Fins looking very pretty, he still hides a bit in the hollow log decor, but he is healthy and moving around more, seems a bit more settled in.

No doubt that if/when I get a 55 or 75 I will do a fishless cycle using ammonia. No doubt the Kave Man process works, many folks have done it, I just shouldn't have started with 5 guppies, I guess. It must still be better to go with a very light bio load. But if you are going to do that, and wait for more fish, why not do a fishless cycle? Were I to do this again (I won't) I think I would use Dr. Tim's One and Only rather than Stability.

API Test Kit arrives today. I put a TP-Link Kasa smart plug mini on for the light. Genius gear!

 

[JCinPA3]

Journal Entry 05/01/26 1:00 pm EST

Test kit arrived. The guppy looks pretty happy, he's all over the place now, and had an appetite around 1:00 p.m. Tank still cloudy but clearing a bit. I can't match the colors exactly, of course, but I can definitely put them between two choices, so these are given as ranges between two adjacent colors in the API Master Test Kit.

PH: 7.4 - 7.8
Ammonia: 0.25 - 0.50
Nitrites: 0 - 0.25
Nitrates: 0 - 5.0

 

[JCinPA3]

Journal Entry 04/27/26 11:00 a.m. EST

Well, my little Dumbo Ear guppy seems healthy and thriving. I'm in for a long slog cycling the tank with him, but I'm glad he looks good. He's very active, swimming all over the place and does not hide much now. He's more apt to zoom through the log decor rather than sit inside it. He's eating well. And I saw my first little string of fish poop, so he's digesting well, also. Tank is still cloudy, but it does not seem to bother him at all. Measurements today:

PH: 7.4
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0 - 0.5
Temp: 77.4F

Although it will take over a month, I am hopeful I can cycle the tank with this one-inch fish without harming him.