Help Wanted: I've Been Bitten by the Fishkeeping Bug

[Byron Amazonas]

Byron,

I've read many of your posts since I discovered this site and your insight has been invaluable already! I'll investigate the floaters asap! Guess what though? My WPG numbers (upon realizing how small the tank ACTUALLY is...) is over 3 watts per gallon which is technically high light isn't it?? Could this be where my recent algae bloom came from??? I thought I'd dodged that bullet but much to my surprise it reared it's ugly head yesterday. I noticed the fuzz starting to grow on my plants and on a few pieces of food (i think it was uneaten flake) on the bottom. Today I manually removed it all and had a no light day today other than ambient. Have you ever used the pure hydrogen peroxide spray treatment some recommend?? Not knowing the science I'm a bit skittish to try such a thing without expert approval. Once I'm convinced that the tanks are stabilized I'm going to try my hand at DIY CO2 in the 5.5 and 10 gal tanks. How exciting!

Now to your point about tank size. I'm in the middle of a basement remodel and a 65 gallon tank will be gracing that space in approximately 6 weeks. Will I be able to get by at the current size of the fish 1" and 1.25" in the 10 gallon until then?? I swear I won't add a single fish beyond that! lol. However; once I evacuate the 5.5 gallon I'd like to stock it with appropriate fish. 6 little Neons maybe? and a few shrimp? Would that work? Thanks again for your thoughtful response!

First comment is, take it slow. I was in the hobby for a couple years before I started messing with adjusing water parameters for certain fish; this is not as simple as it sounds. And I have never messed with CO2 because it is not necessary (unless you want a plant tank, as opposed to a fish tank with plants) and this impacts your water chemistry too. Once you have a good basis, there will be time to branch out.

At this stage I would wait until the 65g is up and running before getting any fish. The small tanks are not really large enough for most of what is being considered in the way of fish. A 5 gallon for instance will not house a group of neons properly. There are suitable fish, the "dwarf" or "nano" species, that we can discuss later.

On the algae. Again, do not run off and start dumping toxic chemicals into the water. Algae is bound to be present; we aim to keep it in check when we have live plants. In new tanks it will always be there, since the biological equilibrium is not yet established and unlike plants, algae can take advantage of imbalance. As the tank matures/establishes, in 2-3 months, algae will not (or should not) be a problem. But if it is then, the answer is to solve the cause, not band-aid with peroxide or whatever. These cures may kill the algae, but they are not solving the cause, so it will simply return. And they do affect fish. Light and nutrients have to be in balance for the needs of the plant species.

If you see flakes of food on with white fuzz on the substrate, that is fungus, which is not dangerous in itself but it does mean you are feeding too much.

Byron.

 

[essence006]

First comment is, take it slow. I was in the hobby for a couple years before I started messing with adjusing water parameters for certain fish; this is not as simple as it sounds. And I have never messed with CO2 because it is not necessary (unless you want a plant tank, as opposed to a fish tank with plants) and this impacts your water chemistry too. Once you have a good basis, there will be time to branch out.

At this stage I would wait until the 65g is up and running before getting any fish. The small tanks are not really large enough for most of what is being considered in the way of fish. A 5 gallon for instance will not house a group of neons properly. There are suitable fish, the "dwarf" or "nano" species, that we can discuss later.

On the algae. Again, do not run off and start dumping toxic chemicals into the water. Algae is bound to be present; we aim to keep it in check when we have live plants. In new tanks it will always be there, since the biological equilibrium is not yet established and unlike plants, algae can take advantage of imbalance. As the tank matures/establishes, in 2-3 months, algae will not (or should not) be a problem. But if it is then, the answer is to solve the cause, not band-aid with peroxide or whatever. These cures may kill the algae, but they are not solving the cause, so it will simply return. And they do affect fish. Light and nutrients have to be in balance for the needs of the plant species.

If you see flakes of food on with white fuzz on the substrate, that is fungus, which is not dangerous in itself but it does mean you are feeding too much.

Byron.

Hey Byron,

Thanks for the tips. I'll cruise along softly and get the big tank up and ready. Until then I'll keep it simple as suggested. I was considering separating the two tetras and putting the black skirt in the 10 gallon once it's done to separate the two and give them each more space. Just curious if the isolation would be even worse than the current conditions. The other idea is to bring them both over from the 5.5 to 10 gal, until the big tank is up and ready. Please comment when you can.

Your point about the plant tank with fish is a great one. I think there is a part of me that wants that. The aquascaping aspect of the hobby definitely draws me. I'm a sucker for beauty and some of those aquascapes leave me with my mouth hanging open... But again, I'll keep these little tanks healthy and get the hang of things before I expand. As for the discussion on dwarf and nano fish I'd appreciate that as those tanks will be empty otherwise in 2 months.
Not even neons? Wow. It's definitely time for me to buy a book it seems.

And thanks for the algae tips. I'll chill out there as well and just continue to clean accordingly and avoid the urge to band-aid fix. That point is a good one. I'm glad you pointed it out.
I had a feeling i was feeding too much. I'll cut it back.
Thanks again Byron, your feedback is invaluable.

 

[Byron Amazonas]

Hey Byron,

Thanks for the tips. I'll cruise along softly and get the big tank up and ready. Until then I'll keep it simple as suggested. I was considering separating the two tetras and putting the black skirt in the 10 gallon once it's done to separate the two and give them each more space. Just curious if the isolation would be even worse than the current conditions. The other idea is to bring them both over from the 5.5 to 10 gal, until the big tank is up and ready. Please comment when you can.

Your point about the plant tank with fish is a great one. I think there is a part of me that wants that. The aquascaping aspect of the hobby definitely draws me. I'm a sucker for beauty and some of those aquascapes leave me with my mouth hanging open... But again, I'll keep these little tanks healthy and get the hang of things before I expand. As for the discussion on dwarf and nano fish I'd appreciate that as those tanks will be empty otherwise in 2 months.
Not even neons? Wow. It's definitely time for me to buy a book it seems.

And thanks for the algae tips. I'll chill out there as well and just continue to clean accordingly and avoid the urge to band-aid fix. That point is a good one. I'm glad you pointed it out.
I had a feeling i was feeding too much. I'll cut it back.
Thanks again Byron, your feedback is invaluable.

Thank you for your kind words, and you are most welcome.

I would put the two tetra into the 10g. Do you intend getting more of these? All tetra, being characins, need to be in groups, no less than six but preferably more; some species must have more or they can cause problems. And speaking of problems, be careful getting more until you have the tank planned, as not all tetra will work with all others, dor other fish. Black Widow for instance can tend to fin nip sedate fish.

My comment about numbers of fish of a species leads into your neon situation. To be at their best, I would have 8 or more neons, so you can appreciate how that starts to take up space. This species is fairly quiet, meaning not active swimming, so it can manage in less physical space than can a more active species, say the rummy nose tetra. While a group of neons can obviously work in a planted 10g, I would go with the smaller nano species because you can have more of them, and this means the small tank will have considerable interest. Kids often prefer this sort of aquarium. One with a group of fish basically remaining stationary is not as likely to interest them as much as one that has more fish that are interacting.

What I call shoaling fish, some call schooling, though that technically refers to marine fish that actively remain and feed in schools. Freshwater fish like the tetra are shoaling, meaning they live in groups of hundreds, and the more there are in the aquarium, the more relaxed and less stressed they will be, so thus healthier. Some species have distinct hierarchies within the group. Some just need the "comfort" or safety in numbers feeling. Whatever the need, we now know that when shoaling fish are in groups less than five, at least for the species studied, they almost always become aggressive. Naturally aggressive species increase their aggression, and otherwise peaceful species show signs of aggression. This is the fish's only way to react when stressed out of frustration with its environment. And numbers is a big part of the fish's environment.

Byron.

 

[essence006]

I did mean help in the sense of stopping you from buying more and more tanks..

dougall,

My wife just gave me the 'three tank max!' speech. LOL... I agreed. But I'm definitely gonna have to swap this 10gal out for a 20 based on all the comments I've read here. So one of them will have to go. I guess the little 5.5 will soon become home to a betta or something else appropriate for that size... And one of them (likely the 20) will have to be as Byron put it, a plant tank with a few fish as opposed to a fish tank with plants! We'll see.

 

[kumar420]

dougall,

My wife just gave me the 'three tank max!' speech. LOL... I agreed. But I'm definitely gonna have to swap this 10gal out for a 20 based on all the comments I've read here. So one of them will have to go. I guess the little 5.5 will soon become home to a betta or something else appropriate for that size... And one of them (likely the 20) will have to be as Byron put it, a plant tank with a few fish as opposed to a fish tank with plants! We'll see.

Sounds like a good idea. As far as the tetras go, I'd take what you are calling a phantom (its known as either the red phantom or serpae tetra) back to the store- its my personal opinion that these fish are far too boisterous unless kept in larger numbers than most of their kin. They are also notorious fin nippers, which limits the other stock you can put in the tank. They may even harass the black skirt tetras if kept together, Im not sure.

As far as the 5.5 goes does it have a light? If it does you could plant it up with small anubias and dwarf carpet plants and add a betta and some cherry shrimp for a neat little planted desk tank for your daughter (although she may prefer watching the tank to doing homework haha)

I much prefer the 20 gallon tanks over the tens- its actually staggering to see the difference when set up next to each other and at maximum bio-load. You do the math in your head and it seems obvious that you can keep twice as many fish, but until you actually see the difference its just numbers. My 20G community I had back when I was a kid made the 10G community look like a dinky nano tank. Then I got a 55... and was forever hooked.

Welcome to the hobby!

 

[Byron Amazonas]

I agree with kumar420 on returning the Serpae Tetra. And looking more carefully at your photos now, I see it is this species, not a true Phantom. In a group of 10+ on their own in a 30g, or with other fish in larger tanks, this species (Hyphessobrycon eques) is OK. A real risk otherwise, and it limits options.