I'm in the process of setting up a 15 gallon tank for my four year old...who is in love with fish. I've never kept fish before, so I've been doing a lot of research online.
I've been working on a "fishless cycle" for three weeks now...it's still not done, but it shouldn't be much longer. At this point, I'm adding 2ml of ammonia every day to get it to 2ppm...by the next day it's at 0ppm ammonia but nitrites are still hanging at 3-4ppm, as they've been for over a week, and there aren't alot of nitrates showing up yet. Someday soon...
Anyway, I'd like to solicit suggestions for what kind(s) of fish would do well in this tank when it's ready for them.
15 gallon standard All-Glass aquarium, gravel, some fake plants (I'm not ready to deal with the demands of real ones at this point), Aquaclear 5-20 filter, 50 watt heater.
gH 80
kH 120
pH 7.8
temp can be whatever, the heater is working fine keeping things in the mid-80s for the bacteria during the cycle, so I'll just turn it down to whatever our chosen fish would like.
Our tap water does have 5ppm of nitrates right out of the tap, so that's where they will be, even after water changes.
I'd really rather not try to mess with any of these parameters, so fish that will like this kind of water are what I'm looking for! The pH has been rock solid at 7.8 for these three weeks of cycling, so I'm assuming that that's where it's going to stay.
I've been working on a "fishless cycle" for three weeks now...it's still not done, but it shouldn't be much longer. At this point, I'm adding 2ml of ammonia every day to get it to 2ppm...by the next day it's at 0ppm ammonia but nitrites are still hanging at 3-4ppm, as they've been for over a week, and there aren't alot of nitrates showing up yet. Someday soon...
Anyway, I'd like to solicit suggestions for what kind(s) of fish would do well in this tank when it's ready for them.
15 gallon standard All-Glass aquarium, gravel, some fake plants (I'm not ready to deal with the demands of real ones at this point), Aquaclear 5-20 filter, 50 watt heater.
gH 80
kH 120
pH 7.8
temp can be whatever, the heater is working fine keeping things in the mid-80s for the bacteria during the cycle, so I'll just turn it down to whatever our chosen fish would like.
Our tap water does have 5ppm of nitrates right out of the tap, so that's where they will be, even after water changes.
I'd really rather not try to mess with any of these parameters, so fish that will like this kind of water are what I'm looking for! The pH has been rock solid at 7.8 for these three weeks of cycling, so I'm assuming that that's where it's going to stay.
. I'd take your child to the LFS and have them pick 1 group that they like. They will be tempted to get 1 of this one, 1 of that one, but you'll have to explain that these types of fish need to have alot of friends with them. Then you could get some small cories. Panda, Bandit, Pygmy, or Habrosus cories would be best, but they aren't always readily available. If you can find any of them, it will probably be Pandas. I'd get 6-8 of them. To top off the tank, I'd get a single dwarf or honey gourami.
