i hav a 25 gallon tank..it is one of those eclipse tanks, a present from my uncle. anyway, it has been almost two months since i hav started my aquarium.. i hav included a moneywart plant and other assorted plants there is also driftwood and a rock formation present in my tank. as for fish, i hav 2 tiger barbs, 3 green tiger barbs, 1 albino barb, 1 gold barb, 1 cherry barb, 2 rasboras, a black molly, a cae, a red-tailed shark, and a clown loach, i put in a julli and albino cory, but they died like nothing. is this environment ideal, the only problems i see is that the rasboras do not school, and the molly is extremely aggressive, and the clown loach is quickly catching up, in size, to my shark, but my chinese algae eater is very indolent. what should i do..can i hav any beginner advice?
Is this a good environment?
- Thread starter Larry the Fish
- Start date
Well I have an Eclipse 2 on a 20 gallon, and have no problems with the tank. As for the death of fish, what is the water quality, did the tank cycle already? Yopu ahven't mentioned the water conditions. If you have it running for 2 months but no fish or few fish and then suddenly loaded it, it could be ammonia or nitrite, with ammonia most likely becuase the bio-wheel has cultured to bio-load. Also which fish died and which lived. The driftwood will acidify your water also to some extent. Check the water quality, and how fast did fish die? Was it overnight, or one there, then another? When you first start a tank, you have to watch the water quality & how fast it changes. Water changes are needed. My 20 gallon Eclipose 2 gets a 5 gallon change every week. It consists of 6 fancy assorted goldfish, 2 Phantom tetras, 3 angelfish, 4 Zebra danios, 4 Silver spotted hatchfish, 1 rainbow shark, 1 Albino cory, & 2 otos and has just fine. It was jumped started with sponge filter supplied by a friend till bio-wheel cultured fully. *thumbsupsmiley*
Larry~
Your red tailed shark and your clown loach will quickly out grow your tank... Clown loaches can get to be about 10-12" long,a nd red tailed sharks get to be about 8-10.. Your barbs, mollys, and rasboras like to be in schools of atleast 6... and mollys prefure brackish water... Although im not really the one to judge, since I have a long molly in my freshwater tank to, but he isnt aggresive, hes just fat.. If you got rid of ur shark, loach, cherry, gold, and albino barb,a nd got ur molly a little friend.. then you'd be about right by my count... Gl
Your red tailed shark and your clown loach will quickly out grow your tank... Clown loaches can get to be about 10-12" long,a nd red tailed sharks get to be about 8-10.. Your barbs, mollys, and rasboras like to be in schools of atleast 6... and mollys prefure brackish water... Although im not really the one to judge, since I have a long molly in my freshwater tank to, but he isnt aggresive, hes just fat.. If you got rid of ur shark, loach, cherry, gold, and albino barb,a nd got ur molly a little friend.. then you'd be about right by my count... Gl
As for my fish count in the tank, I'm always getting free fish, I keep them, I find someone who usually ones them, and give them away, so my tank is usually not always that full. But, I showing that the Eclipse can keep that many fish and the equipment is not to be blamed for fish deaths. *crazysmiley*
when the red tailed shark grows to it's full length, about 6 inches, would it be ok to leave it in the same tank as the many tiger barbs and wut should i do with my molly, because it is aggresive towards all the other fish except the shark and cae and loach.
oh and the loach does seem to keep the snail population down, because i had counted over 50 snails before i had gotten my loach, and now, i cannot find any. but the wierd thing is, i never see the loach eating the snails.
there are small worms visible above the waterline, i wonder what the things are and my plants seem to be dying, due to the age of the plants, maybe, or maybe my fish are consuming the lush green plant.
if my biowheel becomes old and nasty, do i change it? should i cycle it?
oh and the loach does seem to keep the snail population down, because i had counted over 50 snails before i had gotten my loach, and now, i cannot find any. but the wierd thing is, i never see the loach eating the snails.
there are small worms visible above the waterline, i wonder what the things are and my plants seem to be dying, due to the age of the plants, maybe, or maybe my fish are consuming the lush green plant.
if my biowheel becomes old and nasty, do i change it? should i cycle it?
Never Ever Ever touch your bio-wheel... Thats where all you Nitrifying bacteria live, and you dont want to get rid of that.. You'd have to re-cycle your whole tank... Also.. Moneywort likes bright light, and an Eclipse can only handle low light plants.. With only one florescent, there isn't enough light to produce such nice, lush bright light plants.. However, there are still many low light options avaliable.. I have an Amazon Sword in my Eclipse, that isn't doin to bad, but I only planted that one a couple weeks ago.. Crypts are another good low light plant.. and there pretty easy to take care of... Java Moss and Java Fern are another good one... Theres tons more, I just can't think of them at the moment...
I have 3 amazons, red ludwigia, & Bacopa in my Eclipse 2 unit. They're growing fine, may be a little under in wattage for red ludwigia, growth is good, but nut fully red from light intensity. Eclipse unit can be retrofitted with more lighting. Custom sealife, & Jalli I think makes compact bulb units for it. Many other retrofits are also made, search around the web.
i forget which model my eclipse is, but it has two bulbs, and my loach is growing extremely fast now, and my shark and algae eater are fighting like crazy. i saw them this morning, circling around each other and attacking, the cae was losing some scales, is this natural, will it stress the other fish? out of the fish that i have, should i take out some? which ones?
You may have old bulbs in that Eclipse 2 unit. As bulbs age, there intensity drops. It may look good, when actually the lighting of the bulb is now insuffient for correct photosynthesis in the plants. Also, due you use plant fertilizer or plant food. I use just a little. Hagen Plant Gro is one of them, and "Plantabbs" by Aquarium Products is the other. Is not the plant tablet that goes into substrate, they dissolve into the water. As for the shark & cae, you may want to separate them. I gave away my cae in 20 gallon tank due to nagging goldfish, and pulling scales off them. Plus shark is territorial and is probably fighting with cae due to similar appearance. A well planted tanks keeps it down some, gives the shark some refuge. Plus the older they get, the more aggressive they get. *twirlysmiley*