Thought My Tank Looked Good Until I Joined This Forum

[strttndrrn]

hi my names is darren iam new to the forum.

i have a 4 foot tank which has been set up for around 1 year. iam currently changing all my fish as ive just found out that 90% of them dont suit my tank size and will soon outgrow the tank. my tank is filled with plastic plants ,fake rock and fake wood. ive been looking at the pics on these forums and have decided to go for real rock , bog wood and real plants as soom of the tanks ive seen are outstanding. about 6 months ago i ordered a load of real plants online which did not have any roots i filled the tank and it didnt look good over the next few days aload of my fish started to die so i decided to take all the plants out witch solved tghe dying fish problem any ideas why a lot of fish died as i dont want and cant afford to make the same mistakes. would i plant in one plant at a time or is it safe to plant a tank when ur fish are still in it. i would also like to no the price range of different rocks bog wood and plants if any one could help me it would be great.

cheers

 

[SchottayB]

Welcome to the forums

It's a very easy mistake to make, expecialy if you don't research the fish your going to buy... or in most cases the LFS say "Yeah sure! This fish is fine"

 

[strttndrrn]

can any one help me

 

[raptorrex]

can any one help me

unless you, already, have. try a post in the "planted" section. that's where the experts, in this, live. lol, don't worry, they don't bite. one or two may growl though.

 

[forby3]

im not a fan of live plants i like the plastic ones myself but if you hunt around the classified section on here you are sure to find something that you like also there are a few people selling bogwood on here hope this helps you oot

 

[Wills]

If the plants were killing your fish there could have been something on the leaves, like pesticides. I know your tank is heavy stocked but at the sizes the fish were at it wasnt overstocked at that point the fish were not adults so I dont think it would have been water quality issues. What is your water change routine?

The other thing that could have happened, if the plants have died and started rotting they will give off ammonia which will kill the fish but it should not have been over night.

Wood and rock prices vary quite greatly depending on each shop. The best cheap rocks is slate which you can get from garden centers and you can work quite a good set up just out of slate. With wood, the price has gone up over recent years, small bogwood lumps start around £5 each and go upto £40 but the branchy stuff like in my sig starts at £15 for small pieces and goes upwards into the hundreds I got lucky and bought mine second hand from someone closing down a tank and got more than enough for my tank for £40 for everything.

Where abouts are you from people might be able to recommend you some good local places

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

I'd like to add that this site is really good for researching fish.

I joined months ago and became severly addicted .

 

[strttndrrn]

thanks i do about a 30% water change and clean my filter every two weeks. if i do buy plants should i buy a few at a time or buy all that i need at once. iam from belfast if any one nos of any good shops. my local pet shop dont have a clue about anything. also the plants i bought were from the internet and the didnt have roots do the ones in pet shops have grown roots when u buy them

 

[Wills]

I believe there are a few members that are from Belfast on the forum but not sure how active they are any more. The plants you got with no roots seems a bit strange sometimes people cut the roots when they add them to a tank to encourage growth but not right off to me it sounds like they were total duds. Ive had some plants off the net recently and some of them were totaly useless and you could just tell they were dead.

Just buy plants that look healthy from shops, nice and green and a good root section.

 

[NinjaSmurf]

How big is your tank and what fish do you have in it? What kind of lighting do you have? When you clean your filter how do you do it?

 

[GuppyGoddess]

im not a fan of live plants i like the plastic ones myself but if you hunt around the classified section on here you are sure to find something that you like also there are a few people selling bogwood on here hope this helps you oot

Neither am I fan of live plants. Only one of my tank has them. The other four have silk plants. FWIW, after I added new plants to my guppy tank, a bunch of my fish died. I think it was due to over stocking, however, I'll neve know for 100%.

If you buy more plants, be sure to wash them thoroughly in hot water! Also check for snails and remove those.

 

[strttndrrn]

i have a 4 foot 48by15by12 iam not sure about the lighting its a 4foot tube bulb. i bought every part of the tank seperate started with the glass then the lid the cabinet the lights and the pump and so on ive been on a tight budget and it took me a long time to build up what i have. the pump is a fluvel 3+ when i clean it i just wash the sponges in water i took from the tank and put it back in the tank.
these are the fish ive got ive been told to get rid of most of them as they will out grow the tank
2 dollers medium
1 angel small
1 honey gurami
5 black widow tetras
2 neons
1 bala shark
1 red tail
1 albino orange tail shark
1 platy
1 large sucker
2 small sucking loach
1 clown loach
2 cat fish
1 hatchet fish

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, you are correct that its time to be re-homing fish so that you can move down to a reasonable stocking for a 37G/142L (I think that's the right size?)

It would be nice for the members to analyze whether the Fluval 3+ is likely to be doing a good job for this size tank and stocking. I'm not sure. From your description am I understanding that only at the two week point do you clean the filter and perform the 30% water change?

If I'm understanding that correctly then I recommend that you make a maintenance change: Its fine to continue doing your filter clean on the 2-week schedule but you should gravel-clean-water-change on a weekly basis whenever possible (everyone slips and has to go two weeks occasionally probably) and I recommend that you make sure the gravel-cleaning is deep and thorough and that possibly more than 30% gets changed, maybe even 50%.

We'll need to analyze your light tube too, what wattage does it say on it and what is the diameter of the tube?

What do we think members?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[raptorrex]

i have a 4 foot 48by15by12 iam not sure about the lighting its a 4foot tube bulb. i bought every part of the tank seperate started with the glass then the lid the cabinet the lights and the pump and so on ive been on a tight budget and it took me a long time to build up what i have. the pump is a fluvel 3+ when i clean it i just wash the sponges in water i took from the tank and put it back in the tank.
these are the fish ive got ive been told to get rid of most of them as they will out grow the tank
2 dollers medium
1 angel small
1 honey gurami
5 black widow tetras
2 neons
1 bala shark
1 red tail
1 albino orange tail shark
1 platy
1 large sucker
2 small sucking loach
1 clown loach
2 cat fish
1 hatchet fish

to me, even with half that stock. the filter is a bit, err, out of its depth. perhaps 2 with half the stock?
I strongly agree with WD, on the cleaning regime though. gravel cleaning should be done with the water changes. and at a minimum of, once a week. however in this case, given the vein hope the filter is keeping up. you will need, in my view, 25% twice a week. whilst your filter, may, be turning ammonia into nitrates, there will be a lot of them. for most of us, the only way to remove nitrates, is by water changes.

 

[Wills]

Just in defense of Darren, Ive gone through his stocking with him in an other thread and he understands what he needs to do now. Also the U3 filter has about 600 lph or just above which is okay, most of these fish are still juvis and he is in the process of working out what to do with them.

Right now its impossible to gauge how effective the filter will be in the long run as the "catfish" on his list are panasiguis, he has been mis sold them and trying to work out what to do with them. So I think Im right in saying that this stock at present is only temporary.

Wills