Newbie onboard

[webjunkie]

Hey everyone, finally registered for the message board. I've been frequenting it for information for about five to six weeks now.
Ever since I was small my family has had a ten gallon tank. We never had much luck, as the live plants would die, and the tank would be over run by snails, so two years ago my parents finally gave up. Well recently I wanted to try my hand at it so I got the equipment down from the attic, cleaned it out, sterilized it (no soap, just warm water, for the tank anyway, the equipment such as the filter was soaked in a 2% bleach solution for thirty minutes, and then in frequently changed cold water for about three hours, then finally rinsed and air dryed). So far it has been coming together slowly, and now my live plants are doing nicely (after a very long hunt for a lfs that stocked them) and my eight neon tetras have been swimming strong for about two weeks now (I added them in groups of four with about four days in between). In a few more days I may be adding more fish, and since I don't feel confident at this yet, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Velvet AciD]

Welcome aboard!

Any pics of your resurrected tank?

 

[FroggyFox]

Welcome to the board

Sounds like you're off to a good start!

 

[webjunkie]

Thanks guys. Alas, the pictures I took came out too fuzzy, all you can really see are green blurs and some dots of color where the neon tetras are. I have a bad track record with photography, but I'll see what I can do once I get more film.

 

[mike the zealot]

hey welcome =)

sounds like you're off to a good start. You might have some trouble with those neons as you cycle the tank, but if you add some Cycle, I've found that it really does work and reduces the time it takes to get your ecosystem running. Neons are somewhat fragile, and might not respond too well to ammonia and nitrite spikes, so for the next month or so, you'd do well to change 25% of the water once (even twice) a week.

Good tankmates I could suggest would be small growing cory catfish, about 4 of them. They're not as colorful as neons of course, but they have the coolest personalities, and will eat any food that the neons miss, as neons wont eat off the bottom.

You could also try a couple dwarf gouramis, they're as colorful as neons, and only grow about 2", perfect for a 10 gallon.

that would be a stocked tank, and again, you should really do water changes at least once a week, as a tank that small is prone to getting dirty quickly.

What type of filtration are you using?

 

[webjunkie]

Thanks for the advice Mike. I do plan on adding some Corys in a few more weeks. I plan on doing weekly water changes. For my first couple I replaced about two gallons of water each time. The main problem is that I live outside of the town proper, so I don't have the benefit of getting the nice soft town water, I get well water. So I mooch off my friends by appearing at their door with very large water jugs (which reminds me, I'm out of water, time to go to town). For filtration the tank uses a AquaClear Mini that has been running ever since the water level was high enough. I added the gravel, rocks, and half of the water and then let the filter run for about two weeks while I searched for a source of live plants. Finally found them at PetSmart one town over. Added the plants and let the filter run for about another week before I added the first batch of four neons, and then added the rest about three or four days later. So far the water seems to be very clear, but I am determined to stick to a weekly water changing regimine.

 

[CoNMaN]

welcome newbie

 

[jaws2]

welcome welcome you seem well educated LOL i started with no information LOL

 

[webjunkie]

Thanks, I just felt that if I wanted to start up a tank then I should know how to take care of it so that my fish would survive instead of following the fate of almost every fish my parents ever tried to keep. Well, I take that back, there were a couple swordtails and a minnow that was rescued from being bait that survived for a really long time, but the was more through luck than anything else. Not that's bad, but I want to try to keep all my fish as healthy as they can be for as long as possible.

 

[420Loach]

right on for wanting to learn! welcome to the tank!

-loach

 

[valdok]

welcome...

 

[Somonas]

Hey welcome to the board!

 

[webjunkie]

Thanks for the welcome guys. Okay, today I added three Green Cory Catfish, and I love them. They've already been in there for a few hours and they spent the whole time exploring every nook and cranny of the tank. They've schooled together a few times, and the neons don't seem to mind them at all. I so love this tank, lol, to bad I can't take a larger one with me to college.

 

[beaver8888]

velcome green cory catfish um never seen a green one you should get a pic

 

[mike the zealot]

Green corys - theres the "emerald" variety (pretty common), and then theres these mutant "green laser corys" I saw once in an LFS 2 hours away, they were awesome. I would have bought em but the plan was to get some shell dwellers and the wife only authorized $15 fundage =(

btw beaver... are you german or swedish?

 

[webjunkie]

I think the corys are the emerald variety. They are definately not the green laser ones. I will try to get some pictures, but my skills with a camera are infamous among my friends, so all the pictures I've taken so far are too blury to post. I'll keep at it and see what happens. Also, I guess being single (girlfriend and I broke up a couple days ago) can have its advantages. Well, thanks for the welcome.