Suggestions for starting over, 30 tall, planted, tetras

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doreenjoy

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Jun 25, 2007
538
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I had a 30 tall (hate the shape, but it's what fits my space) for several years. To make a long story short, I had a massive die off due to mysterious intestinal parasites. I got discouraged and have let it sit for a year or so. Now I'm ready to get it going again, and I have some questions.

1. FISHLESS CYCLING
I'd like to try fishless cycling for the first time ever, but I'm nervous about all the testing required. Is it as difficult as it sounds, or am I just being paranoid? I don't like putting fish through the suffering of a "fishy" cycle, but fishless cycling sounds complicated.

2. AMMONIA
Any idea where I can get pure ammonia? I live in San Francisco.

PLANTS, CO2
3. In the past I had horrible problems with algae, I think because my plants weren't growing fast. Should a CO2 injector and better lighting take care of that?

4. STOCKING PLAN
* 1 dwarf gourami
* 20 cardinal tetras
* 3-4 otocynclus (if I can manage to transition them to eating blanched veggies)

Comments, anyone? I'd appreciate any advice or suggestions, or first-hand reports of fishless cycling.
 
I assume by 30 tall you mean 30 show 24" L x 24" H correct?

The mysterious intestinal parasites you couldn't cure was probably not parasites at all. It was probably a virus and even the most experienced aquarist can't cure that, so don't feel bad about it. It's happened to me before too.

While I bite my lip, tongue, cheek, etc. on commenting the way I want about Mellows vivarium suggestion, yet again, it does give me an idea for a completely FULL tank. *Poke* mellow Hehe.

Let's start with the Otos though. From what I've read, a piece of cucumber or squash or zuchinni doesn't need to be blanched to feed to your Otos. I'm going to try this with mine as soon as the diatom bloom is gone. I've seen pics of them eating off of a quartered cucumber that wasn't blanched.

Fishless cycling isn't that hard. It's actually pretty easy since you don't have fish to worry about killing in the process. Testing during a fishless cycle is no different than a fish cycle. It's much more important during a fish cycle anyway. This is what I suggest:

Setup the tank with Prime and get all your filtration going.
Put about 2 wpg light on your tank
Get some java moss and java fern and maybe an anubias
Plant those in there.
get a couple long pieces of driftwood, 3 wood be good, that go from the bottom to the top and lean them across each other diagonally. Kind of like the frame of a teepee that has fallen apart and landed against a wall. You can place some java moss in places on the driftwood.
buy 3 cocktail shrimp, put 2 in the freezer, put one in a nylon filter bag and set it in the tank.

FORGET about testing. Change 25-40% of the water every 3rd day. After two weeks test it and see where you are. You'll probably want to switch out your shrimp because if it isn't totally disintegrated by now, it's probably pretty nasty.

The plants will help a lot. You don't have to be all worried about testing because you're doing the water changes to keep the levels down.

I'd do three things with your stock list:
Make it a pair of dwarf gouramis
reduce cardinals to 15
add 1 ancistrus catfish
maybe even up your Otos a little to 5 or 6

In my limited understanding of planted tanks, it's not just light that makes the difference with overcoming algae, it is the number of plants, CO2, and fertilizers used. I'll let someone else answer that part.

There's lots of plants that grow very tall, like anacharis, that would work well in a tall tank. What I like about anacharis is that you can cut it and replant and end up with a thick forest from one bunch of plants.

I have a great fondness for 30 shows because that's the tank I had my octopus in. I love it for keeping angels in too.
 
Thanks, mellowvision and nolapete.

Sorry for the confusion about the tank dimensions. The tank is 36"L x 16"H x 11.5" w. It's an odd shape for a 30g.

I don't remember all the details of the fish symptoms, but it was a bummer to lose them all. I was having some health problems and wound up in the hospital for a week, and -- can you imagine? -- my DH didn't make treating the fish a priority while I was in the hospital. I forgave him, though.

Anyway, thanks for the scoop on fishless cycling. I like the idea of using an already dead shrimp

I have a great LFS that has all the scoop on growing plants in the local tap water (I'm fortunate in that it's very soft) so I plan to rely on them for advice. If I could afford it, I'd pay them to set up the whole system.

I'd love more advice and comments.
 
Well, when I bought it the LFS called it a "30 tall," so I assumed that was a typical designation. They probably called it "tall" to distinguish it from the 48" Long 30 gallon tank they also sold.

I'm nervous about the otos because I've had them die on me a couple of times before (no matter what I tried, they would NOT eat cucumber/spinach/lettuce/pellets). Maybe a nice snail that doesn't get too big instead.

Why a pair of gouramis?

My main reason for getting the tank running again is to get the cardinal school, so I'd like to maximize those.
 
Gouramis like friends and having a friend keeps them friendly. If you're wanting to maximize your cardinal school then just leave out the gouramis altogether.
 
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