Hello from Toti

2 weeks ago myself and the 'boss' decided it time for our 4 years old son to get a fish tank, everytime we visit friends who has fish tanks he would look at them and would get this calm feeling, which is a good thin cos he is a bit overactive. Doing some google searches we decided on a 60L tank and stuck to Tetra's as our first choice fish, mainly because they are small & produce little waste and are supposed to be 'easy' fish to keep.

I quickly fell in love with the whole idea of caring for fish, cleaning tank ect. I couldn't keep myself from always adding stuff to the tank, rocks, semi aquatic plants from my garden, moving it here moving it there. As a product of my over excitement I think i stressed the fish out and also did clean the item properly when added to the tank, hence the big I...Ich

Spend 18 hours on all the possibilities and decided to do 80% water change, bought a small intro tank to keep the fish for 5 hours. Removed the small standard gravel, washed the tank with warm water,used proper 'rever klippes', added new water,aqua chlor,Tetra Safestart,Tetra ContraSpot for the ich issues. Waited for the tank to reach 27C and added the fish including the original 7 litres from the old tank which was used for the intro tank, invested in a bigger hangon filter,aquaclear 20, added 1/2 dosage of ContraSpot for 3 days and my ich is gone...for now. Fish seem happier, some of the Tetras even started doing the mating dance routine.

Next step will be proper plants, no idea where to start, what substrate, should I even use it, what plant, then not to mention the CO2 i need to add to the tank. Any suggestion?

Sorry for the massive first post.

 

@squatty welcome sounds like you have found a new toy! haha hope you have fun and only in a few months from now youll start to grow gills:laugh:

cheers doug

 

welcome.. along with white spot , i also notived a touch of MTS ... good on you ! theres alot of threads here that you can read. past threads have alot of info on plant types etc. there are plants that do well without co2. so read away

 

Hi and welcome to TASA

Regarding the substrate and plants, i use pool filter sand you can get it at builders warehouse it looks great
and my plants grow very nice in it as it is not too compact. Just wash it over and over because its real dirty when you
buy it.

Secondly you can get low light plants like java fern from pet stores if you dont have lots of lights. If you do have
effecient light in the tank you can go for amazon sword which are beautiful plants to have. I only have 2 24W white
flourecent bulps in my 120l tank and the plants grow like crazy.

As for the CO2 i wouldnt know i never had a CO2 reactor in my tank before I only use a air pump with a nice airstone
which produces nice small bubbles. With the lights and the fish waste my plants are happy.

 

@squatty - Welcome and congrats on the rapid MTS . Good luck with your tanks. My 2 year old loves my fish and loves to be involved when I'm doing all the fishy things. Maybe start slowly with plants as they are a bit more work (harder to clean your tank, ferts, etc) IMO. What tetras are you keeping?

 

Welcome to TASA!

 

Welcome

 

Thxs all, I have 5 Neon Tetra, 3 Black an 3 Lemon. I need to get a test kid as I'm running blind here, I do 10-20% water changes every weekend. Once a week I also feed them 2 boiled peas (skinned) to get some vitamins, noticed today for the first time that the Neon Tetra prefer the TetraPro Crisps while the other ones are to happy to get something else for a change.

Pic of the tank, let call it v1.1

 

Hi squatty. I like your enthusiasm. This hobby is strangely addictive

Check the articles section for some very useful advice and replies to your questions. Here are a few to get you started...

Nitrogen Cycle for Aquariums

Zoom's Article 1- Starting your first tank

Zoom's Article 2- Water chemistry how to maintain its clarity.

 

Hi Jenn, thxs. I understand the concept of the cycle, I just can't measure anything without testing it. I've already created a chart which I will attached at the back of the tank to docuemtn my test result......eeecckkkk....I sound like a real nut, this is the first hobby that hit me this hard and fast. Thxs for the advise and links, will read them, the more I know the less mistakes I'll make, well that is the theory anyway

 

Well I got my testing kit I prepared an Excel sheet where I can docuemtn the result before every changes. the only kit that could test for Nitrite/Trate GH (Hardness) and host of other things was the Tetra 6 IN 1, pic below


After I did a 20% water change my results was as follows:

[TABLE="width: 384"]
[TR]
[TD="width: 64"]NO3=0
[/TD]
[TD="width: 64"]NO2=0
[/TD]
[TD="width: 64"]GH=10
[/TD]
[TD="width: 64"]KH=8
[/TD]
[TD="width: 64"]pH<6.4
[/TD]
[TD="width: 64"]CL2=0
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Just happy my Nitrite & Nitrate levels are 0, all of this depends on the accuracy of the test method. I also had the oppertunity to add some plants, don't ask me what they are as the LFS also didn't know:huh:

 

Hi & Welcome. Just ask away if there are things you want to know.

Amazon Sword in the left rear corner and on the rhs. Not too sure of the smaller leafed plants, try and take a close up pic and post so that we can help to identify it for you. Remember that a lot of the lfs sell plants that are not actually meant to be in fish tanks, so try and read up as much as you can about various plants before buying them. You can also ask some of the members here who can help out with a few clippings or plants for you to get going with.

HTH and look forward to seeing your progress in the hobby.

 

@squatty, if you are looking for some of the easier stem plants I will have some clippings in the next week or two.

 

Thxs, now I know the name of one of the plants. Will take some closeup of the other ones and post them tonight. GOJ, please keep in mind that I don't have any substrate, so I presume by "stem plants" they would be able to grow in normal pebble as a medium. Those orange fishies, are they Lemon Tetras or danio's?:embarrest:

 

@squatty - Those are definitely not Lemon Tetra. Take a closer pic if possible.

 

@squatty - I think the orange fish are Zebra Danios or orange platys. By the way, tetras like to be kept in schools of minimum 6 but preferably 10-12 and try to give them some surface plants for "shade". :bigsmile:

 

Thxs for the tips on the surface plants, will keep that in mind the next time I go buy new plants. I noticed that the "orange fish" behaviour was diffirent from the Neon and Black Tetra's I have. I kept the amount of fish small as I first wanted to have a stable environment. I'm going to replace the 3XDanio's with Neon Tetras and add another 5 Black Neon Tetras, so in total I will have 8XNeon's and 8XBlack Neon. I don't want to overstock my tank and this whole 1 inch per gallon thing is a topic of discussion on whole new level beyond my capacity

 

@squatty - If the Neon Tetras don't work out try Cardinal Tetras. Supposed to be easier fish to keep. Less finicky towards water quality issues and less likely to get disease.

Black Neons - Ph 6.7 ; Temp 23 - 26 degrees
Neon Tetra - Ph 6.5 ; Temp 20 - 26 degrees

Also, not important but you might like to know that Black Neons are not Neons at all but a completely different species and whilst I'm giving out useless advice, don't be surprised if your neons lose their colour overnight. It will come back when they "recharge" under light.

Hope I didn't bore you too much :alberteinstein:

 

Wow, that is so funny, here I am worring that by Neon's don't always look the same, sometime nice color sometime not, thxs for that info much appreciated. My 1900's camera's batteries died on me and the pic from the cellphone won't do anyone good, will try and post some pics tomorrow. I did increase the wtare temp from 24 to 26 and also retested the H2O quality after adding the plants.

pH increase from 6.4 to 6.8
NO3 increase from 0 to 0.5
NO3 increase from 0 to 0.5
GH Increase from 10 to 16
KH increase from 8 to 10

I will do another test in two days to keep an eye on this. You were right ragarding the "orange fish" the are gold zebra Danio's, active little buggers they are, but enjoyable to watch

 

@squatty - I got a fright the first time I saw them "fade". Thought they were sick. :laugh: