Newbie Hello! Pics Included!

[mrvillicus]

Hi everyone,

Names Ben 27 from oldbury, west mids. After going to the sea life centre in Birmingham I decided that I would get myself a tropical setup. After much research and time trolling the net to find a bargain I finally found a tank that my friend had, £30 for the full setup INCLUDING fish, heater, light and filter!!

Today I have completely emptied the tank and placed some fine gravel on the bottom for my plants (due to be delivered soon) and placed some black gravel on top. I have replaced probably 80% of the water and treated it with some chlorine treatment, cleaned the filter which was terrible and scrubbed the hideous ornament.

My first mistake today was that I didnt rinse off the gravel first so once i put the water back in it was black but my filter seems to have worked its magic thankfully Now im really happy with the change as the waters very clear and the fish like their new floor!

Iam not familiar with the species in my tank, I know there is 1 Pleco, 1 shrimp and about 20 other fish of mixed species oh and a lurcher?? My first question is...do I have too many fish in the tank?

I plan to change the species completely to be honest so I will do some research on tropical species, anyway Ill put some pictures below so you can see my current setup and my plans are to

Add a nice piece of bogwood
Change species and add some fire shrimp
Put my Plants in

 

[fluttermoth]

to the forum.

Jumping straight in; how did you clean the filter, exactly?

 

[mrvillicus]

to the forum.

Jumping straight in; how did you clean the filter, exactly?

Hi fluttermoth thanks for the reply, Well all I did was rinse it down thoroughly with water and cleaned all the pipes out with a brush and the filter element wa given a soaking and scrub

 

[fluttermoth]

In tap water, or old tank/dechlorinated water?

 

[mrvillicus]

In tap water, or old tank/dechlorinated water?

It was in tap water

 

[fluttermoth]

Ah...oh dear...

In fishkeeping, we rely very much on bacteria and the nitrogen cycle.

Fish produce ammonia, which is very toxic to them, but there are bacteria that live in the filter and eat the ammonia and turn it first to nitrite, and then to nitrate, which is only toxic at very high levels (and which we keep as low as possible through regular, partial water changes).

Unfortunately, the chlorine in tap water will kill off those good bacteria, so you may well have wiped them out by doing that We can only keep out fingers crossed that some have survived.

I'd suggest you go and get test kits (a liquid or tablet based one, with test tubes, not the paper dip strips; they're far too inaccurate) for both ammonia and nitrite so you can monitor the levels of both those toxins over the next few days.

 

[mrvillicus]

ahhhhhhhhhh i knew id miss something, when I bought the tank I was given some "filter start" would you recommend using that as I would think that not much if any of the bacteria survived as I gave it quite a thorough clean

 

[fluttermoth]

It can't hurt, but most of us have very little faith in any kind of 'instant cycling' product.

Test kits and plenty of water changes (with warmed, dechlorinated water) will be your best friends right now.

 

[mrvillicus]

ok really appreciate your help fluttermouth

 

[fluttermoth]

No problem, it's why I come here

Any other questions, just ask

 

[crunch7]

go flutter !! helping newbies like always. She helped me too when i started with a "betta in a bowl"

Entering the Tank of the month and the fish of the month for May 2012. Dedicating the entry to You Flutter.

 

[ZoddyZod]

I spy with my little eye something beginning with C

....and it's certainly not going to help with your water quality in that size tank.

Have you guessed it yet? No.....then it's Common Pleco. He/she could grow to the length of that tank and is a poop machine.

 

[fluttermoth]

I spy with my little eye something beginning with C

....and it's certainly not going to help with your water quality in that size tank.

Have you guessed it yet? No.....then it's Common Pleco. He/she could grow to the length of that tank and is a poop machine.

Oh, well spotted...

except, now you've pointed it out, it looks more like a gibbi to me; even worse

 

[mrvillicus]

I spy with my little eye something beginning with C

....and it's certainly not going to help with your water quality in that size tank.

Have you guessed it yet? No.....then it's Common Pleco. He/she could grow to the length of that tank and is a poop machine.

this is strange I was literally just about to say "does anyone want a free pleco"..!! How do you guys dispose of unwanted fish? Id feel bad about "trying" to flush this monster down the toilet

 

[fluttermoth]

No, do not even think about trying to flush live (or dead, for that matter) fish!

You could ask around your LFS (local fish shops) as some of them will take in unwanted fish; many have big display tanks for that purpose. Or advertise it as 'free to good home' on Gumtree/Freecycle/Craiglist/whatever's active in your area; or on Aquarist Classified.