I'm a little dissapointed. I went to my LFS today and they were no help at all, and they didn't really seem like they wanted to help me in the first place. oh well. I'll try another one tomorrow. what do you guys think of the dwarf gouramis? cool fish to have in a 10g?
After I Purchase My Tank...
- Thread starter megalodon82
- Start date
ONE in a 10 would be nice. I have to stress ONE. I have one in my tank and LOVE the the way he swims and he has some real personality. You could have one with some small fish in a 10 with maybe a cory cat and 2-3 small tetras or white clouds. A 10 gallon can't hold alot mind you. I'd expect to have very little help from a local shop or any store really. We talk about alot of newwer ideas online. Many store owners aren't up to our pace yet and most likely won't know what fishless cycling is! Keep your chin up though once you get the bio filter set you will be doing fine. I think a gouramis would be a great fish to start out with. Even if you have to cycle with it. Try a fishless cycle if you can't do it, go with a fishy cycle it's the way it was done for years. It may not be the best for the fish but it does work. Again look into Bio Spira. If it's with in your means try it. If it's setup get practice with water changes every day learn how your test kit works and decide if it's within your ability. I know starting out is the hardest part of this hobby, but once you get going and learn the ropes it's well worth it. I feel for you because I went through the same thing. Just be patient and go with the flow. It can be alot of work at first but in the end I think you'll enjoy it.
So first of all have tryed doing a water change yet? Do you have a test kit? What kind? Do you know what you need to watch for? Important stuff there. If you can answer those questions there will always be somebody here that can help you. Personally I'd like you to suceed and I expect you will since you have asked so much already. It's all little steps.
I have to ask. What kind of gouramis are you looking at? Beutiful fish. I personally prefer the powder blue's. I'd imagine they are forgiving fish but always watch the ammonia and nitrites once you have nothing but nitrates you can add more fish. in a ten it literally is 2-3 more SMALL fish with a gouramis and a weekly water change of say 1/3 to 1/2. Not to demanding. However those first weeks that the tank is up you will need daily or every other day water changes to keep it healthy. What kind of filter do you have? Do you have a heater? Let us know because WE WANT YOU TO MAKE IT! Again good luck don't give up and keep us in the loop we can help
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-Neo Sithlord
So first of all have tryed doing a water change yet? Do you have a test kit? What kind? Do you know what you need to watch for? Important stuff there. If you can answer those questions there will always be somebody here that can help you. Personally I'd like you to suceed and I expect you will since you have asked so much already. It's all little steps.
I have to ask. What kind of gouramis are you looking at? Beutiful fish. I personally prefer the powder blue's. I'd imagine they are forgiving fish but always watch the ammonia and nitrites once you have nothing but nitrates you can add more fish. in a ten it literally is 2-3 more SMALL fish with a gouramis and a weekly water change of say 1/3 to 1/2. Not to demanding. However those first weeks that the tank is up you will need daily or every other day water changes to keep it healthy. What kind of filter do you have? Do you have a heater? Let us know because WE WANT YOU TO MAKE IT! Again good luck don't give up and keep us in the loop we can help
. -Neo Sithlord
Thanks for all the info. I am currently fishless cycling and am putting 4-5 drops of pure ammonium in the tank each night. I don't have a bacterail accelerant in the filter so I'm expecting it to take 4-6 weeks, but thats okay because im a patient person. I'll use that time to research. Tomorrow I will test for nitrites but I expect I won't find any for a while. It was my understanding that I am supposed to do at least a 25% water change when the ammonia drops to zero. Will an early water change impede the cycle? And should I use conditioner each time i do a water change? I have a test kit, it's a freshwater master test kit. It can test the pH and high range pH and ammonia and nitrite and nitrate. It uses the test vials instead of the strips. When I finally put fish in there i was going to test the water every week and watch for ammonia spikes. I understand that Gourami's like a nuetral pH so i'll watch the pH levels as well. I was looking at the neon blue dwarfs. They look neat. I forget the name of the orange ones but they look nice as well. You said you had just one in the tank so I'm assuming that they'll do alright by themselves and dont' require any company sorta speak. Along with the Gourami, I was thinking of putting a few small tetra's in there with it. On a side note, I asked three fish stores if they had a black florescent hood for a 10g tank and none of them did and only one was willing to order it for me. Finally I got one, and when I opened the box and looked at the instructions I read that a glass top was needed for the hood or else the moisture might cause a short. It's a generic brand. I was wondering if the light will be okay even with no glass top, or if it'll really cause a short. If so, is there a florescent light hood out there that can operate without a glass top. Thanks for being so helpful
I used one of the hoods you are talking about over a 29g for years without any problems. I think the manufacturer does this to protect themselves should a one in a million chance of it happening. You might want to look into getting a ground fault outlet, GFI, and a surge protector for your electrical equipment. These 2 items are great for electrical protection.
For fish information go to LiveAquaria.com, http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/categ.cfm?siteid=21&pCatId=830&TopCatId=864
For fish information go to LiveAquaria.com, http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/categ.cfm?siteid=21&pCatId=830&TopCatId=864
That's a lot of questions, hoss. In the future, please separate individual questions into paragraphs, makes it easier not to miss any.
An early water change won't impede the cycle as long as you remember to dechlorinate the new water and to re-dose ammonia right away. The bacterial colonies will continue to grow as long as there is an excess of ammonia. It won't necessarily help either, unless your pH is dropping, then it will help to replenish your buffer. This can also be done by adding a little bag of crushed coral to the filter while cycling.
If by conditioner, you mean dechlorinator, then, yes.
Liquid test kits are more reliable than test strips.
When you're done fishless cycling, stock the tank to its full, final stocking level, or as close as you can. At the end of the cycle you should have nitrifier colonies far bigger than necessary to handle a full fish load, but they'll die off the meet the available waste produced, so if you try stocking like a fishy cycle, the first addition will be fine, but after that you'll basically be mini-cycling with each new addition.
Don't worry about the pH in terms of a specific value. While you're cycling watch out for a drop because nitrification acidifies water and if you have weakly buffered water, then you can get a pH crash which will set you back. After you're done cycling and do your giant water change, whatever pH you have will be fine as long as it's stable. Just acclimate the fish slowly.
Incandecent lights are more at risk of shorts than fluo's because both + and -connections are in the same fixture, so a drop of water can short it. In fluo fixtures the + is at one end and the - at the other, so to short it you'd need two streams of water to simultaneously strike both connections, no likely, but all the fluo fixtures I've seen have a glass cover anyway.
An early water change won't impede the cycle as long as you remember to dechlorinate the new water and to re-dose ammonia right away. The bacterial colonies will continue to grow as long as there is an excess of ammonia. It won't necessarily help either, unless your pH is dropping, then it will help to replenish your buffer. This can also be done by adding a little bag of crushed coral to the filter while cycling.
If by conditioner, you mean dechlorinator, then, yes.
Liquid test kits are more reliable than test strips.
When you're done fishless cycling, stock the tank to its full, final stocking level, or as close as you can. At the end of the cycle you should have nitrifier colonies far bigger than necessary to handle a full fish load, but they'll die off the meet the available waste produced, so if you try stocking like a fishy cycle, the first addition will be fine, but after that you'll basically be mini-cycling with each new addition.
Don't worry about the pH in terms of a specific value. While you're cycling watch out for a drop because nitrification acidifies water and if you have weakly buffered water, then you can get a pH crash which will set you back. After you're done cycling and do your giant water change, whatever pH you have will be fine as long as it's stable. Just acclimate the fish slowly.
Incandecent lights are more at risk of shorts than fluo's because both + and -connections are in the same fixture, so a drop of water can short it. In fluo fixtures the + is at one end and the - at the other, so to short it you'd need two streams of water to simultaneously strike both connections, no likely, but all the fluo fixtures I've seen have a glass cover anyway.
