What now? Newbie with 10 gal.

M

masser

AC Members
Apr 6, 2009
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Hi all,

Great forum. I'm learning a lot! I had a 29 gal tank a few years ago that I had inherited from a moving friend. In retrospect, I pity the fish I kept then. I was so ignorant and just took the advice of the chain store employees. I'm learning that most of that advice was terrible.

Here is my current status; I'm looking for suggestions for my tank. I have cycled (fishless) my 10 gallon tank, added some duckweed, java moss and one java fern plant. I have also added a colorful plastic plant (with lots of surface area - hopefully inhabited with good bacteria) at my 2yo son's suggestion and some gravel as per my wife's suggestion. I want to keep the tank fairly low maintenance and low cost. I have NOT purchased a cover, any lighting or a heater. Just a tank with an HOB filter from Wal-mart. A week ago we added our first fish: 4 white cloud mountain minnows. Everything seems to be going smoothly; keeping fingers crossed.

So, now what? What else could I put in the tank? I am planning on adding at least two more white clouds to have the recommended minimum for a school. But I'm kind of stumped after that. Will it be safe to have more than 6 white clouds? Could I add an invert? Or perhaps another school of (very) small fish?

Thanks for reading - I look forward to hearing suggestions.
 
I have a 10 gallon with the stock hood that I removed the standard bulb and added 2 13 watt CFLs. It grows plants very well. Since I have lots of plant growth I am comfortable stocking it a little heavy (or perhaps a lot :evil_lol:). I have to prune enough plant matter to fill a cofee cup every couple of days to make room for the fish.

I have:

24 Chili Rasboras
2 Zebra Nerite Snails
5 Amano Shrimp
5 Pygmy Cories

If I did not have all of the plant growth I would cut that load in half. White clouds are monsters compared to Chili Rasboras. I would bet that all 24 of mine don't weigh as much as a single Pygmy Cory. I think it is safe to move up to 6 White Clouds. You then have a little room. My two year old loves the Zebra Nerites. I got them for housekeeping but everytime she walks by the tank she plays "find the snails".

Don't stock too quickly. You don't really get many chances to buy fish unless you end up with rooms full of tanks. I have two and I am looking for one more on Craigs list but, three is as much as I have time to maintain.

A heater will be required in most places. You don't really want the tank to drop below 72F.
 
Get a light,
Get a heater,
Yes you could definately get more White Cloud Mountain Minnows in there, but below is what i would stock it with:

12 White Clouds, 5 cherry barbs, 1 dwarf gourami, 6 pygmy corys, and 6 amano shrimp.

OK so many would think that the above stocking is too much of a bioload, but with good filtration it could be easily done. I did a similar stocking in my 10 gallon and it was great.

Remember to stock slowly :)
 
Thanks for replies.

Thanks for the suggestions. I am looking into appropriate lighting for my tank. The Nerite snail and Amano shrimp suggestions really caught my attention - for some reason I didn't think inverts would work in a cooler tank.

After I install some lighting and complete my white cloud school, I think I will add some inverts - in the meantime I'll keep researching the various snails and shrimp that are available.

Thanks again!
 
petluvr said:
If you have plants that are live I would suggest first purchasing lighting. You can use the hoods they sell at walmart with some of the spiral cfls.
Click to expand...

I would use the CFL's (not spiral) also sold in Wal-Marts fish section. - JMO

colinsk said:
I have a 10 gallon with the stock hood that I removed the standard bulb and added 2 13 watt CFLs. It grows plants very well...

...Don't stock too quickly. You don't really get many chances to buy fish unless you end up with rooms full of tanks. I have two and I am looking for one more on Craigs list but, three is as much as I have time to maintain.

A heater will be required in most places. You don't really want the tank to drop below 72F.
Click to expand...

Great advice!

Fish-Addict said:
Get a light,
Get a heater,
Yes you could definately get more White Cloud Mountain Minnows in there, but below is what i would stock it with:

12 White Clouds, 5 cherry barbs, 1 dwarf gourami, 6 pygmy corys, and 6 amano shrimp.

OK so many would think that the above stocking is too much of a bioload, but with good filtration it could be easily done. I did a similar stocking in my 10 gallon and it was great.

Remember to stock slowly :)
Click to expand...

How big is the walmart HOB (I would take out the carbon and just leave the mechanical filter - assuming you do routine water changes) - JMO's good luck!
 
BoCoMo said:
How big is the walmart HOB (I would take out the carbon and just leave the mechanical filter - assuming you do routine water changes) - JMO's good luck!
Click to expand...

The HOB is an Aqua-Tech 5-15 gallon filter. What would be the rationale behind taking out the carbon? I do regular water changes - 10-15% every other day or so.

For stocking, I am now thinking:

6-8 White Clouds
Some Malaysian Trumpet Snails
Some Red Cherry Shrimp

I could use some suggestions for numbers of MTS and RCS.
 
:welcome: to AC!

It will not take long before you wind up with hundreds of both the trumpet snails and cherry shrimps.;) Control your feeding schedule as the trumpet snails proliferate rather quickly depending on the abundance of the food supply although you get the benefit by their habit of consuming leftover foods and burrowing the substrate thus preventing anaerobic spots from forming which when disturbed can release toxins that will cause acute respiratory problems to both the owner and the fish.

As far as carbon is concerned, it is not necessary. Put it in your cabinet until necessary on a later date. It is usable for about four weeks only and is used to remove tannins, medicines and other chemicals.
 
I'm also curious about carbon in filters, I've used the ones that come with carbon already in them. And the ones that you put the carbon in yourself you recommend to just leave it out?
 
Hi!

I have loved having pet snails since I was a kid. They are very unusual and interesting to watch. As said above, their reproduction rate is pretty much controlled by their access to food. Snails will 'clean' your tank - they get most of their food from doing this, so you don't have to 'feed' the snails in an established tank. If you don't mind them breeding, you CAN feed them tab food like algae sinking discs, and they love anacharis. If you've never had snails or seen their eggs/babies, it's worth it :)

But I would only get 2 or 3. If you have more snails than your tank can naturally support with its algae, plants, and crap they eat on the bottom, then they won't do well. If your tank is pretty new, I'd just start out with one. I've read you're not supposed to get snails until your tank is at least 6 weeks old so there is enough food for them - not sure if this is 'true' but maybe helpful.

I dunno if also you should take into consideration what the shrimp eat? I've never had them, but IF they also eat stuff off the bottom then you don't want too many animals that need to eat bottom junk.
 
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