Questions

[Cas]

Hey,

My dad and I got my mum a fish tank for christmas and we've got it up and running. Here's what we did so far -

After we had set it up and put the plants in, 2 days later we got 3 platies and put them in. One died because it was weak to start off with but the other two were fine, so after leaving them for two weeks with a feeding block we came back and they were still fine. So after checking the ph and ammonia levels were right, we got 12 more fish today, 2 dwraf gouramis, two pristella tetras, 4 neons (although i think we're getting a few more) and 4 harlequins.

So my questions are - How many more fish can I put in. It's a 135L, or about 35 gallons i think. If so, what are good types, we were thinking of putting some bigger ones.

Also, when feeding them how much should I put in. and when i do a couple of the fish are realy greedy and eat heaps whereas others eat hardly any. does this matter, will the fish starve/ die from overeating, etc, and what can I do about it.

And lastly, we wanted some silver dollars (the bright silver ones) but thew fish lady said they eat and shred your plants up. We have two real plants and two fake at the moment and are getting one or two real ones from my mum's friend who has too much in her tank. Can I ever get silver dollars and if so how can i stop them eating my plants, any infdo about them etc.

Thanks, any info will help.

Cas

 

[MissFishy]

First of all, how did you cycle this tank? Are you sure the ammonia levels are good? By adding 20 fish at once (*a HUGE NO NO!!!*) you probably threw the whole cycle out of whack. Time to start monitoring those water parameters, you are going to be looking at a HUGE ammonia spike. You'll have to do water changes every other day or even more often to keep the levels safe for the fish, you may even lose some in the process.

 

[jumpfreak26]

a good rule of thumb for stocking fish is an 1 inch of fish per gallon. Take the adult size of course. So for you, try not to have more than 35 inches of fish.
um for fish, i cant think of any big ones with the current stocking level, maybe an angel, but it may eat the tetras.

For feeding, it is individual for every tank, so see how much it takes them to eat in five minutes, and that should be fine.

I don tknow much about silver dollars.
Now that you have so much fish in there, you will need to moniter all three parameters(ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite) DAILY! ammonia should stay low, around 1-2 ppm(correct me if wrong) along with nitrites, and nitrates should below 20. If ammonia gets close to 5 ppm, do a 50% water change.

 

[Cas]

Well I put the couple platies in and that started the cycle didnt it? I am pretty sure it worked because I tested it and everything was good.

So since i put the dozen or so fish in at once, how do I fix the ammonia spike you said woulkd happen? How do you clean the tank out? We haven't done that yet and don't know how!

Cas

 

[S-kate]

It takes a month to cycle a tank. The platies may have started it but the job probably wasn't done yet. Do regular 10-15% water changes using a gravel vacuum (siphon).

 

[Cas]

Could you take me through the process?

 

[jumpfreak26]

to fix the ammonia spike, you simply do waterchanges till the numbers are low.
and what do you mean by your ammonia tests coming out good?

 

[S-kate]

Do you have a gravel vacuum? Its just a plastic hose that is wider on one end. You have the smaller end in a bucket and you fill the tube with water by filling the larger end and scooping the water until you start a siphon. Then you move it around in the gravel and it sucks out the mucky water from the bottom and leaves the good clean water at the top. Only do 10-15% at a time, so about 4 gallons. Add new water that has been dechlorinated using stress coat or a similar product.

 

[jumpfreak26]

ok for help on cycling your tank, read the stickys in the beginners forum, great help

 

[Cas]

So is it necessary to have a gravel vacuum and if not how else do I clean the tank? and how do i do a waterchange?

well my ammonia levels were... let me go check..... well it was a yellow so around 0 ppm

Cas

P.S. Thanks for being so patient I'm still really new at this

 

[S-kate]

I suppose you could use a length of garden hose, but I'm sure if you went to any LFS you could find one for quite cheap. I got mine for 2 dollars. Its really the only way to get the uneaten fish food and poop out from the bottom of the tank

 

[Cas]

Oh cool! I'll ask the people at my LFS (lol that is such a funny abbreviation) how much theirs cost when I get my neons. You wouldn't happen to know anything about those silver dollars?

Oh yeah and also how many is a good school of neons we've got 4 but we want some more they are so pretty how about 8?

Cas

 

[jumpfreak26]

8 is a good number, they feel more comfortable in schools of 6 or more, so your group will be active.
If you didnt know what a waterchange is yet, you syphon the water out of the tank into a buck et, take about 25% of the tank water out, and replace it with fresh tap water, treated with dechlorinator(you will need some if you dont have any) and fill er back up, make sure the replacement water temp is fairly close to the tank temp. If you got a chance, would you mind testing your nitrites and nitrates and lettin gus know what the parameters are?

 

[Big Vine]

I'd just not worry about getting more fish until your tank has been up and running at its current stocking level---with proper water parameters---for at least a good month.

I'd also avoid silver dollars altogether, as I don't think that a 35 gal. tank is enough space for them to really thrive...not in my opinion, anyway.

Let's just get the tank cycled without any fish losses, then take it from there.

Big Vine

 

[jumpfreak26]

good advice bigvine,

cas-if your nitrites and nitrates come out like at zero for both, that means your cycle has not started, so you need to start watching your ammonia again

 

[Cas]

Cool thanks for the advice. Yeah we are going to get 4 more neons but no more after that that until we are sure the tank is fully up and running and stuff. Mum said she asked the pet shop man and he said you don't need a nitrite or nitrate test kit, what do you think? Should I get them anyway and test them?

We were thinking of getting some discus too but I think the tank might be a bit little.... I'll try to get some pics up when I can. Anything you can think of that woudl help?

Cas

 

[jumpfreak26]

first off, never listen to the pet shop dude, the man, or wutever they call themselves, they are wrong. of course you need a test kit, how else would you know what your tank is like? all the bad stuff is "invisible".
I personally would hold off on the neons for now, wait till the cycle is finished, you dont want them to die, one important thing in this hobby is to be patient, almost more important the the water.;-)
And for discus, absolutely not, they require fairly large tanks, and the utmost highest of water quality, just top notch, i have been in this hobby for a year and have 4 tanks, and i couldn thandle one discus.
A little checklist of things you need:
Dechlorinator
test kits
syphon(or a python if you dont know wut it is just ask)
(anybody feel free to continue this cuz i can type im so dang tired, just add wut you feel is right)

 

[Cas]

Yep I've got the dechlorinator, well it's like a water conditioner/ager thingamjig but I read what it does and it like takes out the chlorine and the heavy metals and such stuff, we've got the test kits for ph and ammonia I'll ask mum to get the nitrite and nitarte test kits, and lol once again I am ignorant what the heck is a python is that the gravel vacuumy thing?

Cas

 

[jessey]

make sure you read the stickies on tank cycling and everything. they are really clear in explaining what you need to do.

a python is a syphoning system that you hook up to your sink to do water changes. it costs $25-ish at petsmart if you print out the online price and bring it to the store (otherwise, it's more expensive). i really really recommend buying it because it's sooo much easier than any other method of tank cleaning.

 

[MissFishy]

NO MORE FISH UNTIL THIS TANK IS CYCLED. If this tank is completely uncycled, it is extremely likely that some of the fish you have already and probably all of the neons will die during the cycle. IMO, you should kindly return most of these fish. If you don't know how to properly cycle with fish, you will just be sentencing them to a slow and painful death. No silver dollars, no more neons, and definitely no more discus. You need to do some massive reading on this site to learn how to properly care for the fish you already have.