Resetting up a tank

[MikeO]

I am going to post this question to the newbie section since I have not been keeping an aquarium for about 2 years now. I have decided to restart up my aquarium. I have a few questions. 1) Any advice on priming the tank. Right now I have set up the tank and put some food in it so that I can cultivate the bacteria that will be needed when the fish are put in. I have been putting a bit more food in each day to prime it.

The tank is a 20L tank (13” wide x 13” tall x 30” long). I am thinking of having 7 Red Eyed tetras, a cat fish and some type of small algae eater (I do not what a Plecostomus, since I don’t like big fish does any one have any suggestion for a good fish for this job). That should fill out the capacity of the tank. I have an under gravel filter. The gravel is new; I have a few rocks that were in my tank before. I am thinking of doing a rock scape this time. How important is it to have plant life in the tank? Am I going to over stocking the tank (I figure that the fish I am planning on should grow to about 18in max)?

Other information: The air pump for the UG filter is made for a 50G tank (I rather pump more air then needed then too little) and I have an overflow filter in the back made for a 20G tank.

I am thinking I should change the tank water about once a week, and each change should be about 10% of the tanks water. With my last tank I would let the water sit out for a week to off gas any thing that might be in it, I did one week because I was having nitrogen problems during the winters, for some reason the cold seamed to cause the water to take on to much nitrogen and caused the pH to plummet. I think it was nitrogen, but I am not sure, but I do know when I would age the water about a week I did not have the problem with pH during the winter.

Thanks for any information that is provided.

 

[OrionGirl]

Are you testing the water for ammonia/nitrites? Adding fish food will work, but you'll still want to test to know when the bacteria colonies are large enough to consume the available waste, and it will be hard to control the ammonia level with just fish food since there's a time delay between adding the food and it decaying to ammonia.

What kind of catfish? Some are not suitable for keeping with small fish--general rule is long whiskers = more predatory. Many of the available cats will make a night time snack out of most tetras. For an algae cleaner, bristlenose are good--stay relatively small, and actually eat algae as adults (though they will need to be fed in addition to cleaning). A lower bio-load would be better--predators like cats are heavy waste producers, as are any large herbivores.

Plants are helpful, but not always required. Without plants, you can use nitrate levels to guide water change schedules--at a guess, 10% would be a bare minimum.

As long as you have chlorine, not chloramines, leaving the water in a tub for a while will work. Adding some agitation will help out and shorten the time needed to 'age'. It's possible that nitrogen is dissolving easier into the water in the pipes in the winter--or it could be CO2 levels raising (more likely, since CO2 will impact pH) as the water is under pressure in the pipes, and since water usage is often lower in the winter, it sits long enough to supersaturate. Either way, agitation will help.

 

[Blinky]

Hi, welcome back to the hobby!
You're doing a 'fishless cycle' (providing ammonia with something other than live fish to cycle the tank) right now, good stuff You'll need to keep tabs on the ammonia (NH3/4) and nitrite (NO2) and, eventually, nitrate (NO3) levels to know how it's progressing, so you're going to need some test kits. It's a good idea to get a 'master kit' that gives you NH3, NO2, NO3, pH and KH. The KH is a good idea, since it sounds like you may have very soft water (if your pH is crashing, it's likely from CO2 and this happens more easily in very soft water).
Personally, I'm not partial to UGFs, especially if you want plants. I used them for years and I'm MUCH happier without. With a UGF you're going to want to vacuum the gravel with each water change to remove all the gunk trapped beneath the filter plate.
Weekly water changes can be much larger than 10% - honestly, 10% won't do much at all. Many of us change 40-50%. I find this amount works well for me - if you've got no live plants, you can use your NO3 readings as a guage; just change however much you need to, to keep NO3 levels below 20ppm. If you have a place to age your water, that's a great idea - unless your water supply contains chloramine, letting the water sit will allow chlorine to evaporate and you won't need to add chemicals to accomplish this. (If there are chloramines in the water, AFAIK you're going to need a water conditioner to make it safe for fish even if you let it sit).
Live plants are great, but not essential by any means. Fish don't really care if the plants are plastic/silk. If you've got enough light for plants (fluorescent light, 1.5W per gallon or more) and you're willing to fertilize them if needed, I'd encourage you to try it out. Most people who've made the switch from plastic to live plants say they'll never go back - they're a bit of work, but they're beautiful and much more natural looking.
For a small tank I'd recommend otocinclus affinis - oto cats - in place of a pleco. They keep tanks very clean and stay under 1.5" long. You'll want a few, they like company.
HTH

[edit] Looks like OG beat me to it - sorry for the repeated info [/edit]

 

[MikeO]

Blinky, I was thinking of going with no plants, live or plastic.
Thanks both OG and blinky.
OG, I was thinking for a cat fish a Emerald Green Cory I have never had one of get too big or aggressive, all I have had them do that I thought was odd, was that they will jump out of the water some times (I have a lid so I never have losted one in the past)

 

[OrionGirl]

Cories are a good choice--they won't eat your fish. Get more than one though--cories are social fish and will behave better (more interestingly) in a group. In a 20, you'll only want to go with 3, but they will appreciate having some buds around.

 

[MikeO]

Question if I were to do 7 Red Eyes, would not adding 3 Cories be over stocking the tank? Should I go down to 5 Red Eys, from what I read, Red Eyes do well in schools of 7 or more.

I just fear over stocking the tank.

 

[OrionGirl]

3 cories will put it close--you'll need to be careful sticking with your cleaning routine. Go with a smaller algae eater, like a pair of otos, or skip them entirely (algae can be controlled much better through good tank maintenance) and you'll be fine. For what it's worth, the advice on going with 7 tetras is usually sort of a myth. They do better in a group--the bigger the group, the happier they are. But, there's nothing magical about 7. Often, people will advise going with odd numbers because odd numbered groups 'look' better to us humans. The fish just know they have some buds and feel safer that way.