Questions about temperature, heater location and feeding...

danielb · Oct 26, 2005

First off some background info, I've had the tank about 10 days now. Its a 75 litre tank with 10 Tetras, 4 Black Widows, 2 Leopard Dinos and a Golden Loach. I got the tank from a friend who had had it for over a year but no longer wanted it, so far its been running alright although I've had to replace the heater as it did not seem to be holding a constant temperature and replace the filter media and add the Golden Loach to try and get the algae back under control.

What temperature should I be aiming to keep my tank at? My heater is currently set to maintain 25 C (77 F), the book I have says 24 C (75F) but my neon tetras seem to lose colouration and become quite lethargic at that temperature.

My other query is about heater placement, I've currently got my new 100w heater located horizontally in the middle of the rear wall of the thank about 2-3 inches from the gravel. I did this to try and get the heater as low as possible to that its thermostat gets a more accurate reading of the actual water temperature as locating the heater in a vertical orientation would place the sensor above the heat source and would surely give a less accurate reading? Is my reasoning correct? I live in Scotland so I'm using a 100w heater as it can get cool in our living room at night and so far the heater seems to be doing a great job keeping the tank at the set temperature. Although I've noticed that the neon tetras in particular seem to lose some of there colouration overnight, I can't decide if this is to do with the lights being off or the temperature dropping to 24 C (75F) can anyone tell me?

My last question is about feeding I have bought some tropical fish food (flakes) it says feed 2-3 times a day and the amount is 1-2 flakes per fish. Does this sound like the correct amount? I can't decide if its too much or not , should the fish react to the food in the water when its added? I get a burst of activity for about 30 seconds when I add food in the morning and then they seem to ignore it but by the time I come back in the evening to feed them the old flakes are gone...

Sorry for the huge post!

Cheers,

Daniel

anonapersona · Oct 26, 2005

answers

The neons lose color when they are alseep. Not due to temperature.

Most place the heater on the back glass on a diagonal, some do horizontal near the gravel to keep it out of sight.

If you need to moderate temperature swings, try to add soem insulation to the back and bottom of the tank if you can. I added 1/2" thick foam boards to the back of my discus tanks that run at higher temps.

As for tank temp, I can't be sure, my tanks all stay near 80 degrees F which is room temp here in Texas, in winter I keep the tropicals near 25 degrees C.

As for feeding, there should be NO food left after 2 minutes. Vacuum the gravel to remove all leftovers now and feed lightly after that so that no flake ever hits the bottom of the tank. Feed an amount equal to one fish eyeball per fish, so that one single flake may be way more than one fish needs. And, it is good to skip a day of feeding once a week.

As for algae, you may need to run the tank lights less. If the tank gets sunlight, lower the shades or add paper to cover that side of the tank to get less light there. Algae grows on ammonia and nitrates. Buy a test kit for those. If you read ANY ammonia, do more tank cleaning and feed less and change water more often (if the tap water is low in nitrates). Try to keep nitrates under 20 to 40 ppm, change water to lower nitrates. If the tank nitrates are very high, like 100 ppm, do small water changes, 20%, daily until the nitrates are at 20 ppm, then change water to keep the level between 20 and 40 ppm.

abnscout82 · Oct 26, 2005

I know I will probably get blasted for this one but here goes:

I normally feed my fish Bio-Blend Tropical food, it comes in little pellets. When I feed (twice a day) my fish they are coming right to the "feeding spot" anxiously awaiting the food. When I feed I always make sure that there is some food that makes it to the bottom. Over half of my fish will eat from the bottom after I am done feeding and all of my cories as well as my loach eats what has hit the bottom. Even when I change food for a day, like freeze dried brine shrimp, flakes or blood worms, I follow up with some of the pellets for the bottom eaters. I have also never vacuumed the gravel after I have fed. Now the concensus will say that this is going to raise the toxins in my water, namely ammonia, but is has not, the water levels are great.

If your fish are not coming to you when you feed, then I would suggest you feed just a tiny bit when they do not greet you for food. This will let them know that it is supposed to be a feeding time. After a a little while of this they will be very anxious when you come to the tank to feed them. Once they realize that an open lid porbably means food they will swarm whenever you open the lid.

I know that my fish are probably spoiled, fat and happy, but they are worth it. Nah, maybe not fat, but surely not starved...

anonapersona · Oct 26, 2005

Good point

Good point, that is that if you have bottom feeders, they need food that goes to the bottom. Pellets are best, some are specially formulated for bottom feeders. In my main tank I add floating food for the tetras and bottom feeder pellets for the loaches and cories.

But, really, there ought to be no food left on the bottom later on.

abnscout82 · Oct 27, 2005

Oh, exactly, I agree totally about them eating all of the food. It does not take too long for them to "clean" the bottom of food. It takes them a little longer than 2 minutes, but they clean it up.

wataugachicken · Oct 27, 2005

i recommend that you read the thread on cycling in this forum. also, replacing the filter media is more harmful than good, and won't affect the algae. actually it will make it even worse, as the algae will happily feed on the ammonia and nitrites in your tank. beneficial bacteria grows on the filter media, and that bacteria converts the toxic ammonia and nitrites into the mostly harmless nitrates. without it, your tank becomes dangerous for the fish quite quickly.

danielb · Oct 27, 2005

I've only changed one of the pads in the filter, there are two pads. The filter is a Hagen Fluval 2 Plus Internal Filter which has a built in clogging indicator, which was fully down (its now about half up) when I replaced one of the foam pads with a new one. Since replacing one of the pads the throughput from the filter has risen from hardly any detectable water movement to a moderate amount of water movement so I think I did the correct thing.

Does anyone else have experience with the Fluval Plus range of filters and know how long after replacing the first filter pad you should wait before replacing the second pad? I take it that it takes a time for the new pad to get colonised by the bacteria from the 2nd pad?

I will read the cycling thread, though as I'm still new and have allot to learn.

wataugachicken · Oct 27, 2005

you may be able to rinse the old filter pads in old tank water after you do a water change and replace them. if it's really gunky, scrub it with a toothbrush. it might fool the clogging indicator. if it doesn't, alternate changing the pads every 2-3 weeks. since you have two in there, you should be fine.

anonapersona · Oct 27, 2005

Just clean those pads, don't replace

Those foam pads look like they will last for years. Don't throw any away.

As you change some tank water, collect some of that old water in a bucket that you use for only fish things (that is, no soaps or anything else in it ever). Squeeze the foam and get it as clean as possible, it will still be brown, but not gunky. Replace. Next week, during the regular water change, clean the other pad. Use that nasty water on house plants, they love it.

Now, do this each week, so that neither gets terribly gunky. The algae you were seeing may have been due to the reduced flow through the filter. Keep that flow rate very high.

danielb · Oct 27, 2005

anonapersona said:
Those foam pads look like they will last for years. Don't throw any away.

As you change some tank water, collect some of that old water in a bucket that you use for only fish things (that is, no soaps or anything else in it ever). Squeeze the foam and get it as clean as possible, it will still be brown, but not gunky. Replace. Next week, during the regular water change, clean the other pad. Use that nasty water on house plants, they love it.

Now, do this each week, so that neither gets terribly gunky. The algae you were seeing may have been due to the reduced flow through the filter. Keep that flow rate very high.

I'm not sure the last old foam pad can be saved, I suspect its been in the tank and uncleaned for a year or more and is so gunky and heavy. Although i will give it a go cleaning it in tank water and see what happens!


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Questions about temperature, heater location and feeding...

danielb

AC Members

anonapersona

Reads a lot, knows a little

abnscout82

AC Members

anonapersona

Reads a lot, knows a little

abnscout82

AC Members

wataugachicken

The Dancing Banana

danielb

AC Members

wataugachicken

The Dancing Banana

anonapersona

Reads a lot, knows a little

danielb

AC Members