Restarting Our Fish Tank

[dealshanna]

Despite my efforts, we have lost our last few fish to ich

I am still fairly new to keeping a tropical fish aquarium. I want to start over with our tank & hopefully have better success! I appologize in advance for the newbie questions!

Our tank is a Marineland Bio-Wheel LED Aquarium Kit 20. It is 20 gallons, 24" x 12" x 16" and has a Penguin 150 filter with Penguin BIO-Wheel.

I have the API Freshwater Master Test Kit so I can test the water myself.

Knowing that the tank has ich in it, I definitely want to be sure I get rid of that. What steps should I take to restart my tank before I start adding fish?

Here are my thoughts:

Remove everything from the tank & clean it out. Replace filter cartridge, but leave bio-wheel untouched? Should I use hot water? Should I use bleach on anything?
If I used bleach I would let everything air out - how long?
Then setup the tank & let it run for a week? Two weeks?
Perhaps change out the water completely at this point and let tank run another week or two before adding fish.


Then comes the time to add fish. My daughter is interested in GloFish. Our previous fish were a mix of mollies, mickey mouse platy, red wag platy, & plecostomus. We had some neon tetras in the beginning but I had a hard time keeping them alive so I gave up.

What is a good process for introducing these type of fish? How many/which kind to start with? How many/when/what kind to add as we go? Any suggestions of other fish that would be interesting to a 5 year old?

Thanks in advance for any help! And again, I appologize for newbie questions! I really want to learn more. I am trying to find a local pet store that would be a good source of info (rather than PetSmart).

Sandy

 

[Rynofasho]

Sorry to hear that. Ich and other issues like that can really take their toll. I'm dealing with it right now on some recently purchased fish and I already lost the weakest one. Here are my suggestions, and I'm sure others will add where I missed or correct where I'm wrong.

First of all, Ich will die in a few days without any host. That said, just leaving the tank sit would be sufficient to kill it. If you are not happy with just doing that, then you can create a very mild bleach solution to rub the tank down with. And I mean VERY mild. And when you're finished, rinse the tank like you've never rinsed anything before until you can't even smell the faintest hint of bleach. Another choice would be to just rub it down with very hot water, but do what you will there.

Chances are that you're going to lose all your good bacteria in the biowheel if the tank is down, so it'd be best to rinse it in very hot water and let it sit for 3-5 days after that while you're getting everything else ready so that anything in there bacteria wise will starve if the hot water didn't kill it. Definitely do NOT bleach any filter components, and if you want to change the filter cartridge that would be fine as well.

When you set the tank back up, you'll want to perform a fishless cycle. It takes time and that will suck, but it will also put you in the best possible spot to succeed with your new batch and make it worth it in the end. Letting the tank sit idle doesn't do anything to cycle it -- you need a source of ammonia to begin the cycle. So read up in the beginner's section about the Daily dosing method of ammonia. It's simple really.

Another thing I will mention that others may not agree with is opt for sand as a substrate rather than gravel. I've had Ich twice, and both times were in tanks with gravel substrates -- no matter how much you vacuum, some detritus will always remain and over time, it gets funky and bacteria can grow down there. To make matters worse, most gravel substrate is not porous, so no beneficial bacteria that could help eliminate that waste will grow in there so eventually the mess just builds up. You can use regular old play sand from Home Depot (if you're stateside) and a 50lb bag is only like $3. Get a 5 gallon bucket, fill it about 20% with sand, and rinse it out really well, stirring frequently until the water runs pretty much clear. You won't need a ton for a 20 gallon luckily (I'm rinsing about 150lbs currently for a 75 gallon -- stinks!). When you DO fill the tank up with sand in the bottom, put a small dinner plate in there to siphon water onto - it will keep from kicking sand everywhere and the water will be less murky to begin. Let the water settle for about an hour so all sand ends up back on the bottom and then start up the filter -- I say that because you don't want to be sucking sand into the filter as it can cause issues.

If you do elect to use gravel anyways, please use a VERY thin layer - pretty much just enough to cover the bottom and nothing more. That way you can make sure it is easier to vacuum everything underneath, and in all honesty the gravel is more for you as an aesthetic pleaser of sorts than it is for the fish. If you use sand, even better in my opinion.

Another tip -- as a newbie, it is REALLY hard not to overfeed. Your fish are tiny (assuming you get Glofish) and their stomachs are about the size of their eyes. Overfeeding with a deep gravel substrate definitely promotes a nasty tank bottom, especially with no carnivorous bottom dwellers to clean up the mess. If you use sand it is less of an issue because the excess food stays on top and the fish may pick it up or otherwise you can vacuum it out.

Back to the fishless cycle -- if you use the method and dose your tank up to 4ppm and cycle that way, it can handle your entire fishload immediately, meaning you can fully stock it. The fish you picked are fine, however I will say that all those livebearers (Mollies, Platies) tend to be baby factories, so if you don't want fry I'd stay away from them. Glofish would be ok, but if you want a different type of brightly colored fish that stays small, look at Green Rasboras like these: http/www.petfishtalk.com/images/neon_green_rasbora_091107a1_w1005.jpg They will be more healthy than most Glofish and still give you a pop of color. Would want to get 6 of them at the least. Also, you may want some bottom dwellers and there are many species of Corys that will also stay small. Not so sure you need a plec in there unless you just really like them, but they are rather messy (even the small ones). If you do get one, get a Bristlenose or another that stays pretty small but you may just want to steer clear unless your heart is set on them.

Maybe give Neons or Cardinals a shot again, but do it after you have your other fish in the tank and it has been running 4-6 weeks -- they are delicate in new tank settings and sometimes they have a tough time getting used to a new environment, but typically once they settle in and if you keep clean water, they thrive. You could get away with 6 green rasbora, 6 neons, and 6 small Corys in that tank and call it a day!

 

[dealshanna]

Awesome reply, thank you so much for all of the info!!

I have heard about having sand instead of gravel. I think I might prefer that too! Can you vacuum it ok? Or will it suck up a lot of the sand? I will have to ask my husband if I can change to sand hehe Otherwise I will put much less gravel in it. Our current gravel is something like this http/meintank.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/pebblesrainbow.jpg Not the bright colored little gravel. Hubby's choice And it is probably 2-3" deep in the tank.

I think I will rinse everything in just hot water, no bleach. And I will ponder over the types of fish we want. I found a local fish store online. We might go check it out this evening and see what they have!

And now I will head over to the beginner's forum to learn about ammonia!

Thanks again!
Sandy

 

[Whitey_144]

Awesome reply, thank you so much for all of the info!!

I have heard about having sand instead of gravel. I think I might prefer that too! Can you vacuum it ok? Or will it suck up a lot of the sand? I will have to ask my husband if I can change to sand hehe Otherwise I will put much less gravel in it. Our current gravel is something like this http/meintank.file...blesrainbow.jpg Not the bright colored little gravel. Hubby's choice And it is probably 2-3" deep in the tank.

I think I will rinse everything in just hot water, no bleach. And I will ponder over the types of fish we want. I found a local fish store online. We might go check it out this evening and see what they have!

And now I will head over to the beginner's forum to learn about ammonia!

Thanks again!
Sandy

Hi, gd luck with re-vamping it all.

I have a gravel tank, but my next one will be sand, you can vacum the sand and being careful it shouldn't suck up much of the sand ( as long as its not a fat tube and pressure is high).

I recommend Cardinals over neon tetras in regards to fragility.

 

[Rynofasho]

Yes, you can vacuum it fine -- just dont actually stick the vacuum in the sand or you'll suck a bunch up. It only really takes one or two times doing it to understand what works and what doesn't. If you see some stuff that isn't coming up when you get close, just give the vacuum a little whirl right near the sand and it will kick the poo up and the sand falls back down right away. Works well around plants / rocks / ornaments etc.

If you do elect for gravel, there's really no need to go deeper than an inch. But if you do plan on keeping Corys and the tank is already going to be empty, swapping to sand is a no brainer.

And are you in the US? If so, and if you have Dollar Trees around you anywhere (a dollar store), you can find ammonia there that is unscented and will do the trick. One jug will be enough to cycle more tanks than you'd ever need!

 

[dealshanna]

Hubby gave me the OK to switch to sand!

I am in the US, and we do have Dollar Trees. Thanks for the tip! I was wondering where I should get it haha

I'll be cleaning up the tank, getting sand & ammonia, & getting everything setup again over the next few days.

Thanks for all the help!

Sandy

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

One last thing. Make sure you clean the sand very thoroughly, put some in a bucket, run a hose to it keep the hose running and keep stirring the sand whilst the water is overflowing. You want to get rid of the sand that stays floating as this will cloud up your tank everytime you disturb it. Keep doing it until it runs clear