# Freshwater Amateur on the scene, need some advice :).



## Sanctum38 (Oct 2, 2011)

Hello there!

Seemed the right idea to stop on by, considering my recent interest in the freshwater aquarium hobby.

A little about my situation:

I was offered a 20 gal. tank just over 4 weeks ago for free. Having had a fish tank (just a 5 gal.) when I was younger (15), I thought hey, this is a wonderful idea, and tanks can be a bit pricey, so I took it. It came with a filter, water heater, lid, lightbulb, and 2 decorations (castle and an artificial broken pot.) All used of course.

I was excited, and instantly went out to my LFS, and bought substrate, a few little stones, and a piece of wood (Mopane I believe).

Set it all up, filled it with water, and turned it on, and let it run for about 3 days.

I then went back to the LFS because I heard that sometimes a fish cycle can be beneficial if you use a cheap, hardy fish, like Zebra Danios. So I picked up 6 of em.

Had them in there for about 4 days, and did the newbie thing (which I read about today), and bought 4 gold fish (2 different species).
and they had been in there until 3 days ago when I was informed I should take them out if I can.

I had bought a chinese algae eater, brought it home, and it bit the dust within 18 hours. (heartbreaking, because I thought my tank was going along fine). Thats when I brought it back to the LFS, and they tested my water. They told me my Nitrites were skyrocketing, althought ammonia and pH were great. I mentioned the goldfish, they said it was the cause. Recommended I go home, remove them if possible, do a 40% water change, and treat the water with Cycle. So ive done that, and here I am.

What Im wondering now is what is my next step? and what are some good tips?

So far it seems like, after the few bumps, the tank will be fine, the danios are still lively as can be, and growing well.

The goldfish have gone to a friends 10 gal.

One of my goals, is to start using real plants, and acquire a few more fish.

And I also question how LFSs usually have about 50 of the smaller schooling fish in a tank, that seems to be only 15-20 gal, but I have read that there's a 1inch of fish per gallon rule. Im wondering if I will be able to step over that rule a little bit with the right care, because I love the schooling look of some of the colorful fish out there, such as Cardinal Tetras.

Thanks fellow members.

PS. I hope to greatly expand my knowledge base and be a wonderful hobbyist in the art of Fishkeeping.

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_ATTATCHED_ | picture taken tonight, note the yellow tint, thats from the Mopane wood. I did what I was told and boiled the wood, and actually the tint has gone down more than two fold since I placed the wood. (through WCs)


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## Ebonbolt (Aug 12, 2011)

Hi, welcome to BCA! For starters, take that one inch per gallon rule, and chuck it out the door; it's absolutely useless. The dealers tanks are probably very old, and may be connected to other tanks via a sump, so its probably able to handle more fish than your tank. Also, I'd consider fish less cycling; it doesn't damage your fish, and you don't have to spend time catching unwanted fish after the cycling is done. Also, if done properly, fishless cycling allows you to add the entire stock at once, instead of adding, then waiting a few weeks, then adding more. And if you're impatient like me, you could find someone with a mature, disease free tank, and just buy his filter and add it to your tank. Also I'd take that castle and pot out: it's not natural and seems out of place amongst the plants and wood. As for your next step, I'd say it would be: one: wait, and let the bacteria establish; two: start looking at what kinds of fish you like that will stay small enough to live happily in your tank, don't get too aggressive, and appeal to you; three: start searching for easy plants like cryptocoryne, anubias, java fern, water sprite, etc. Last of all, and most important of all, would be to ENJOY this wonderful hobby! 

PS: hope that wasn't tl;dr


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## crazy72 (Apr 22, 2010)

It seems from your post that you don't have a test kit? If that is the case, I'd recommend to get one asap (ammonia-nitrite-nitrates-pH) and test your water daily or twice daily for a few days. If the ammonia or nitrite (or nitrates, actually) reading goes up at any time, do a 50%+ water change. And use water conditioner or aged water. Good luck!


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## Sanctum38 (Oct 2, 2011)

BelieveInBlue said:


> Hi, welcome to BCA! For starters, take that one inch per gallon rule, and chuck it out the door; it's absolutely useless. The dealers tanks are probably very old, and may be connected to other tanks via a sump, so its probably able to handle more fish than your tank. Also, I'd consider fish less cycling; it doesn't damage your fish, and you don't have to spend time catching unwanted fish after the cycling is done. Also, if done properly, fishless cycling allows you to add the entire stock at once, instead of adding, then waiting a few weeks, then adding more. And if you're impatient like me, you could find someone with a mature, disease free tank, and just buy his filter and add it to your tank. Also I'd take that castle and pot out: it's not natural and seems out of place amongst the plants and wood. As for your next step, I'd say it would be: one: wait, and let the bacteria establish; two: start looking at what kinds of fish you like that will stay small enough to live happily in your tank, don't get too aggressive, and appeal to you; three: start searching for easy plants like cryptocoryne, anubias, java fern, water sprite, etc. Last of all, and most important of all, would be to ENJOY this wonderful hobby!
> 
> PS: hope that wasn't tl;dr


Thanks for the reply.
yeah I plan on removing the fake deco for venturing into the more natural look, and i forgot to mention, the plant at the back left side, a buddy whos had his tank running for a year now, let me take that, and pour 2 bags of his water into my tank. Not sure if thats similar to using a filter or filter media from a well established tank, but its the best I could do. And for now I dont really mind the zebra danios. They are quite playful and fun to watch!
As far as waiting, (of course I will), just curious how long I might have to wait?
And of course I am enjoying the hobby, I get super excited when I think about it, and Im always thinking about things I want to do. I keep searching local ads for a bigger tank, and actually start it the proper way, fishless as well. 
It a wonderful learning journey I have been on.
Will plants be alright with a gravel type substrate? And Ive heard stuff about Co2, I wont need to worry about that with easier plants will i?


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## Sanctum38 (Oct 2, 2011)

crazy72 said:


> It seems from your post that you don't have a test kit? If that is the case, I'd recommend to get one asap (ammonia-nitrite-nitrates-pH) and test your water daily or twice daily for a few days. If the ammonia or nitrite (or nitrates, actually) reading goes up at any time, do a 50%+ water change. And use water conditioner or aged water. Good luck!


No I havent got my hands on one just yet. the LFS is just down the road, I bring water there and they test it for free. Im going in for one tomorrow, I shall gather the results and post them.


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## PaulCheung (Apr 18, 2011)

Water from an established tank won't help too much. I heard a lot of good comments on Seachem's Stability when cycling a new tank. You may want to consider that. The idea is to build a good colony of BB in the filter media.

Monitor the water parameters closely in the first few weeks to make sure they are good before adding more fish. On the other hand, you don't have to wait in adding water plants. They will help the cycling in taking up the Nitrates.

Have fun!


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## Captured Moments (Apr 22, 2010)

A test kit to test water can be handy at the beginning when you are setting up or cycling a new tank or if you are inexperienced but after a while you will start to develop a feel for things and you probably wouldn't test the water anymore.. Don't let me teach you my bad habit..haha.
If you are looking for a bigger tank, you are in the right place because people here sell tanks and equipment all the time. Pretty soon you will suffer from the MTS (Multiple tank syndrome) as most of us are.
You can do quite a bit with that current 20 gallon you have and make it into a beautiful planted tank. A small school of cardinals will look good among the plants. Maybe go low tech and use easy low light plants to start with. That way you get to use the existing gravel and not have to buy ADA Aquasoil which cost a fortune or some of the other ones such as Eco Complete, Florabase, Fluorite, etc., and in the process cross into the realm of high tech planted with more light, having to add fertilizers in the water, having to add a carbon source for the plants so that they can build tissue by adding Flourish Excel or Metricide or injecting Co2. Maybe you will like to learn the fun part of Co2 later. Haha.


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## Sanctum38 (Oct 2, 2011)

@Paul

yes, I will probably pick up a test kit after the free test tomorrow, to do it myself, and keep a log book, and of course this is true, I can grab plants as well.

@Captured Moments

Oh I am excited to aquire some MTS!, the thing about this forum is, its BC based. Im from ontario, not sure how well the buy and sell forum would be for me.

I couldnt find a good local forum, but found this site, and it seems to prosper well.


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## Ebonbolt (Aug 12, 2011)

Water wont do that much; bacteria require surfaces to live, so rocks, decor, filters, etc will help, but water wont do all that much. It takes a tank anywhere from 3-5 weeks to fully cycle IME, although I've not cycled a tank in ages (I prefer seeding ). Most plants will do fine in small-medium gravel and sand, except in the case of java fern and anubias, which prefer to be tied to drift wood. It's great that you love the danios; they make for very good dither fish, usually; I'm more of a SA person though . And as a final note, if you're looking to buy a test kit, get the liquid dropper style instead of the test strips. The liquids are much more accurate, and though they may cost a bit more, the increase in accuracy becomes infinitely more valuable, especially when you're cycling. Also I find that the liquids last me much longer than the strips. Ok before this turns into an essay, I will just add one last thought: the fresh water master test kit by API (aquarium pharmaceuticals) works great and doesn't cost a ton.


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## bigfry (Apr 21, 2010)

You could ask your buddy to give you a few squeeze juices of his filter sponges. The dirty water from the sponges will help jump start your tank cycle.


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## qyrus (Apr 21, 2010)

Have you been to www.gtaaquaria.com/forum ? Its an Ontario based forum.


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## Sanctum38 (Oct 2, 2011)

qyrus said:


> Have you been to GTA Aquaria Forum - Aquarium Fish & Plants serving the Greater Toronto Area. - Powered by vBulletin ? Its an Ontario based forum.


Well then! Looks like I will not be staying here. Nothing against you BC guys and gals, ive been around and alot of you have beatiful tanks, and great knowledge, but I should probably head over to gtaaquaria, to get a more local feel, especially for buy and sell purposes.
Thanks for this. Not sure why it never came up in my google searches.


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## Ebonbolt (Aug 12, 2011)

Just because you're joing another forum doesn't mean you have to leave this one. Stick around, who knows, you might find some cool stuff on here


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## Sanctum38 (Oct 2, 2011)

Yes, I have registered to the gtaaquaria.com forum, but I will be staying here as well.
 I like the people here so far.


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