Update On My New Tank

[Lizzie71]

OK, so on Saturday we acquired our first 3 fish, 3 female platys.

At that stage the tank was set up for a week, and the filter had some mature media from another members tank to help it along with the cycling. I had put a bit of fish food in each day to 'feed' the filter, even though there were no fish at that stage.

The platys went in and within a few hours were swimming around happily. We are now feeding them twice a day, in the morning they get flakes, in the afternoon/evening (after school!) they get either freeze dried bloodworms or tubifex. I also have freeze dried mysis shrimp on order as an alternative food for them.

They eat everything in about 5 minutes - do you think I'm giving them enough?

Since they went in, I have been doing daily water changes and testing the water. Changes are 25 to 50% each time. Ammonia has been constantly nil, which makes me think it is being processed OK by the filter (or maybe 3 tiny fish aren't enough to give off much ammonia?). Nitrites started off about 1 now down to 0.5 due to water changes. Nitrates are 10-20 each time.

I'm think that the tank isn't quite fully cycled as I still get a nitrite reading, albeit low. I intend to keep going with daily water changes until I can get it to zero - is that OK?

I also intend holding off on more fish until I have zero nitrite and ammonia consistently for a week. The next lot to go in are likely to be cardinal or neon tetras, that's what my son fancies at the moment.

Last question - I moved my filter up so that the surface of the water is moving, to try and get more air in. This has created tiny air bubbles in the tank. My little fishies spend all the time chasing the air bubbles around I am assuming this is normal behaviour and not a problem?

 

[kinmad4it]

Some fish love to chase/play in the bubbles. That shouldn't be a concern at all. I'd definitely keep up with the daily water changes, but lessen the amount you change down to say 20%
So long as you keep monitoring the water quality you should be fine, any spikes can be quickly rectified with a water change.
You're feeding them enough, don't worry about starving them. The normal rule of thumb is feed them as much as they can eat in 4 to 5 minutes, so you're doing the perfect job. You don't want little Weebles wobbling about your tank
How big is the tank? Just out of curiosity. Not gonna start harping on about overstocking, especially as unless it's a Betta tank you've got 3 Platys couldn't possibly cause overstocking.

 

[Lizzie71]

Some fish love to chase/play in the bubbles. That shouldn't be a concern at all. I'd definitely keep up with the daily water changes, but lessen the amount you change down to say 20%
So long as you keep monitoring the water quality you should be fine, any spikes can be quickly rectified with a water change.
You're feeding them enough, don't worry about starving them. The normal rule of thumb is feed them as much as they can eat in 4 to 5 minutes, so you're doing the perfect job. You don't want little Weebles wobbling about your tank
How big is the tank? Just out of curiosity. Not gonna start harping on about overstocking, especially as unless it's a Betta tank you've got 3 Platys couldn't possibly cause overstocking.

Thanks for the advice! The tank is 34 litres, very small. The plan is for 3 platys and 6 tiny schooling fish such as neon tetra. Maybe one or two ottos in a few months if all is well.

I'm certainly not overstocked with just the 3 platys, it still looks pretty empty. They're only young I think, and pretty tiny right now.

Glad I'm doing stuff right generally. I just have one problem left which I forgot to add earlier, and that's temperature. If I set the thermostat to 24 degrees on my heater, the temperature in the tank is consistently 27 to 28 degrees which I think is a little warm. If I turn it down even half a degree, the temperature drops to around 23-24 degrees. I can't seem to keep a happy medium, and I'm worried that the fluctuations in temperature aren't very healthy. I think it might be that the temperature rises when the heating comes on, but is there a way to control this?

 

[Will91]

What wattage heater are you using?

I'm using a 100W Hydor Theo submersible with my 26US gallon tank and it holds the temperature rock solid at just under 80F. I am very happy with this heater.

I know if the heater wattage is not properly matched to the tank volume, the temperature can overshoot the setpoint and other problems. You want 3-5 watts per gallon.

Here is site I found useful. It talks about saltwater tanks but the ratings should hold for fresh water too. A lot of folks like the MarineLand Visitherm Stealth heater. I just posted in another thread that Marineland is really a great company so I can see why they like this heater. My tank came with the Hydor heater otherwise I would have purchased the Stealth.


http/saltaquarium.about.com/od/toppicks/tp/TPheaters.htm

 

[Lizzie71]

The heater is 25 watt which should be fine for my small tank. Thanks for the info!

 

[kinmad4it]

I think it might be that the temperature rises when the heating comes on, but is there a way to control this?

Am I right in thinking that by saying that you don't leave the heater on 24/7?

 

[Lizzie71]

The heater is on in the fishtank 24/7 but the central heating goes on and off, that's what I meant.

 

[kinmad4it]

I'd say keep it at the setting that keeps the temp at 27 - 28 Those temps aren't dangerous and if they're stable it's better than constant fluctuation

 

[vinylman]

If it's that small a tank I wouldn't have Neons; despite their size, they're very active and need a lot of swimming space. Although you've only got female Platies, chances are that (unless they were kept in a single sex tank in the shop - highly unlikely) they'll already be in the club. Just get two or three Otos for now and see what happens with the Platies. Some Platies can get fairly large, so they might need the space. Of course, you could always get another, bigger tank...................