Tank maintenance and feeding

Hi Professor. I have a 2.4m tropical tank (around 750 liters) with various community fishes and various plants as well. Struggling with the plants at the moment, but my order has been placed for my fertilizers with you. Just a question or 2. The tanks has been running for the last 2 months and the fish are happy with no problem at all.

1. How many liters of water have to be replaced and at what intervals? I use a siphon to clean the gravel every 2 weeks and to remove the water in one go. This way I usually replace around 120 liters of water. Just a hassle getting around the plants and the fish don appreciate me moving around in the tank.

2. How can I grow algae (in a different tank) to help me get some green stuff for my algae eaters? Some Ottos and Siamese foxes. I feed them algae wafers and pellets as well.

3. Last question. I treat them at least twice a week on frozen blood worms and mieces. How often can I feed them this?

Thanks for your time Professor.

 

I'm not the professor, but I can answer the questions

1. You're doing a 16% water change every 2 weeks, so as long as your water isn't in a bad condition, there's no need to worry. The plants should help maintain water quality anyway.
2. I've got both Siamese algae eaters and Otos, and they're happy with good algae wafers and the odd piece of cucumber. More lights will possibly cause more algae, but not necessarily the types you want or as much as your fish can eat.
3. You're feeding mice to your fish??!! Live and frozen foods tend to make your tank dirty, so don't feed them too much of this. A good quality all round food should be sufficient for most of their feeding needs. Dependent on what fish you keep of course

 

To be fair I also fed mice to my fish, but that was because (1) it was a catfish I was feeding it to and I thought is was funny, and (2) my snake didn't eat mice, so I had to use them in some way or form...

That's besides the point. Mice aren't really good food for fish, primarily because very few fish regularly encounter mammals in the wild and also include them as a part of their diet. I can't remember offhand exactly what the problem was, but I think it is something along the lines of the fish being unable to process the mammal tissue/fat properly. While it is okay as an occasional treat, as often as once or twice a week should be avoided.

Regards

 

Morning. i am not feeding mices to my fish. It's called mieces (not sure about the spelling) but is is suppose to be shrimps. You can buy the stuff in the same packets as frozen bloodworms. The fish go grazy about it.

Regards

Anton

 

Oh - mysids. Yeah. Those are good for your fish. That'll be fine once or twice a week.

 

hi gregorian, i have been experimenting actually with something that might just be the answer you looking for!

besides my main tank, i have a greenwater tank out in my back yard.. this tank is full of floating green algae and live bloodworm, it looks like green soup, as it is exposed to early morning sunlight for a few hours and then a bit more sun in the evening..

what i did was place a smallish / flattish piece of mopani driftwood in the tank about a month ago. that piece of mopani wood is now completely covered in a thick carpet of green algae!

it would be perfect for my algae loving fish, but i suspect it has some snail eggs nested in the crannies, so i'm afraid to put it into my main tank for fear of causing a major snail out break in the tank, of course my loaches would love the live snails, but i'd prefer to not have a snail explosion in my display tankif i can help it at all.


so what i'd recommend is that you start up a greenwater tank (dont add plants coz you will then be adding snails for sure!) put some pieces of bog wood in there and leave it in there. it takes a long while befor you start to see the green carpet forming on the wood, but it does eventually..

good luck!

 

I do something very similar to mdm, but use flat stones (easy to check for snails&eggs) in my outside pond. Fish love it!

 

Morning. Thanks for the replies guys.

I had some strange looks form friends about growing algae. I bought 4 very, very small Ottos thats in a separate tank and need some algae to feed them - still looking for 4 more Ottos. They are not that happy about the wafers yet, so maybe some green stuff will help with the feeding. The only problem I have is black bearded algae on some of my plant leaves that I am trying to get rid of. Any ideas??? Busy getting some fertilizer from the Professor and should be getting my new T5 tomorrow. Maybe my luck will change.

Thanks again.

 

Siamese Algae Eaters are about the only thing that will eat Black Beard Algae, but you might have some success using Seachem Flourish Excel fertilizer at recommended dosages. I've lost most of my algae by using Flourish

 

Thanks for the reply. Still struggling to find Siamese Algae eaters in Cpt. Every one stocks the flying foxes - have 2. Bought some very, very small ottos yesterday, but they are in a separate tank till they are a bit bigger. Maybe they will help. I bought some fertilizer from the professor. Maybe my pants just needs a boost to outgrow the algae. Will probably just trim the leaves this evening and try the docs stuff. If its not helping I will go and buy some Flourish Excel. Thanks

 

clever idea tracy!