General Guppy Maintenance

I started my tank just over a year ago and have learned a lot as I went but some things are hard to know since everyone seems to say something different on the internet. So I thought I would try asking you guys.Biggest thing is knowing how often to feed fish and how much, how often to clean tank and about algae and nitrates. I have 3 albino cories, 6 female guppies and one male guppy in my 20 gallon tank.

I have always gotten quite a bit of algae on glass and ornaments and had to clean it off, is that normal or? On April 26 two of my guppies died I think because the nitrate level was high (80 ppm). I immediately changed some water with a gravel cleaner thereby cleaning the gravel too which got the nitrates down to 40 the next day when I checked again. I fed them only once a day then and have been changing the water more frequently but my nitrates are still kinda high being 20-30 ppm when I checked on May 10. I went back to feeding them twice a day once in morning and once in evening but started skipping feeding altogether on sunday in hopes of not over feeding. I probably feed them too much since I try to make sure the cories actually eat. When I bought them the pet store told me they ate algae but the internet told me they eat leftover food. I know my tank is probably a little over crowded but know someone with a LOT more fish in her tank so didn't think mine was so bad. I attached a picture I just took of my tank, I also have two java ferns, one on right I just got on April 29 to help with the high nitrates. Feel free to ask for more info if needed to give me some advice. Thanks in advance.

Oh I also get bad algae in my filter and have to clean it out at least once a month. If its not obvious the two middle plants are fake.

Hi and welcome to the forum

You can feed adult fish once or twice a day. However, if you are preparing fish for breeding, then feed them more often. Guppies are always breeding and feeding them 2-3 times a day is fine.

A lot of people will fast their fish one day a week and it is fine as well. The only fish you cannot fast for one day a week is baby fish. Baby fish should be fed 3-5 times per day so they have a steady supply of food and nutrients.

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Check your tap water for nitrates.

You want the nitrates as low as possible and you try to keep them below 20ppm.

I recommend doing a 75% water change and gravel cleaning the substrate once a week. If the nitrates in the tank remain high, then do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate 2 or 3 (or more) times a week. You can also reduce feeding to help reduce nitrates. Growing live plants in the tank (especially floating plants) will help to lower nitrates.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

You do water changes for 2 main reasons.
1) to reduce nutrients like ammonia, nitrite & nitrate.
2) to dilute disease organisms in the water.

Fish live in a soup of microscopic organisms including bacteria, fungus, viruses, protozoans, worms, flukes and various other things that make your skin crawl. Doing a big water change and gravel cleaning the substrate on a regular basis will dilute these organisms and reduce their numbers in the water, thus making it a safer and healthier environment for the fish.

If you do a 25% water change each week you leave behind 75% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 50% water change each week you leave behind 50% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 75% water change each week you leave behind 25% of the bad stuff in the water.

Fish live in their own waste. Their tank and filter is full of fish poop. The water they breath is filtered through fish poop. Cleaning filters, gravel and doing big regular water changes, removes a lot of this poop and makes the environment cleaner and healthier for the fish.

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Corydoras catfish do not graze on algae. They eat fish food that sinks to the bottom. You can buy fish pellets that sink and frozen fish foods that can be offered to them.

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You need a picture on the back of the tank. You can buy aquarium backings from pet shops, or use coloured card, newspaper, plastic bin liner, basically anything. Just sticky tape it to the outside of the back of the tank.

Dark coloured backings are better and the fish feel more secure with a backing.

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You can buy round/ cylindrical sponges for some brands of internal power filter. These sponges have a hole through the centre, and they fit over the intake strainer of most external power filters. They help stop baby fish and sick fish from being sucked into the filter.

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If you post a picture of the algae it can help us identify it.

Algae is a simple plant that grows from excess light and nutrients and not enough plants to use the light and nutrients. The easiest way to reduce algae is to reduce light or add more live plants like Water Sprite, which is an ideal plant for guppies.

If you get lots of green algae then reduce the light by an hour a day and monitor the algae over the next 2 weeks.
If you don't get any green algae on the glass then increase the lighting period by an hour and monitor it.
If you get a small amount of algae then the lighting time is about right.

Some plants will close their leaves up when they have had sufficient light. Ambulia, Hygrophilas and a few others close their top set of leaves first, then the next set and so on down the stem. When you see this happening, wait an hour after the leaves have closed up against the stem and then turn lights off.

Some good plants to try include Ambulia, Hygrophila polysperma, H. ruba/ rubra, Elodia (during summer, but don't buy it in winter because it falls apart), Hydrilla, common Amazon sword plant, narrow Vallis, Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides/ cornuta).

The Water Sprite normally floats on the surface but can also be planted in the substrate. The other plants should be planted in the gravel.

Rinse all plants before adding them to your tank, to wash off any snails and diseases that might be on them.

Thanks! Especially like your poop word picture sounds like an excellent way to think of it. That is good to know I had skipped feeding the fry I have twice now, was a little uneasy not feeding them. I keep them in a ten gallon tank and then sell them when they are about month old. I did test the tap water for nitrates and the test strip read zero nitrates. I just cleaned my tank since posting this and I think a lot of food has been slipping between the rocks where the cories can't get it and it just rots. Ok so once a week and change 75% of water, sounds good. I happen to have a picture thing from a friend who was getting rid of fish stuff but I thought it was just to make the tank look fancier didn't know it helped the fish. The one I have is double sided I have attached a picture, will it work? I have one of those sponges to put on the filter (got it when I tried having snails) but I find that a lot of stuff gets stuck on the sponge rather than in the filter and so when I take the sponge off it all goes back in the water. So I stopped using it. Is it that important? There isn't much algae at the moment usually just green sometimes kinda like hair or stringy in filter. There is also some that I would guess is calcified or just hard to get off glass. A while ago I did see some redish algae but extra cleaning and haven't seen it since. As to having the light on less I worry about the java ferns not getting enough light. Also is pretty hard to keep track/lessen time of light when I don't have a set sleeping routine so I turn on the light at different times each day. Good tip on rinsing plants off first I always just plunked them in. How do floating plants work? Like I know in general plants don't like being touched to much but if they float aimlessly how can you not touch them when cleaning or changing water? I wonder the same about getting more plants don't want to lose what room I have to clean the gravel without disturbing the plants.

Thanks for reading my long post and responding with a novel of advice I truly appreciate all the tips.

Double sided pictures are fine. They have a different picture on each side so you have more choice as to what you want on the back. If you want plants on the back you can have plants, or you can have a rocky back ground.

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The sponge on the intake strainer of the filter helps prevent larger items going through the impellor in the motor, and it helps stop baby fish and sick fish being drawn into the filter. They are not essential and you don't have to use it, but they can help keep the impellor/ motor cleaner and it will last longer when kept clean.

If you wash the sponge every week it should not get too bad and most of the gunk should stay in it.

You can put a plastic container under the sponge when you do a water change and slide the sponge off the intake into the container so it doesn't drop in the water and release all the gunk it has collected.

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Floating plants simply float on the surface of the tank. They move around with the currents and can be drawn into power filters. You can extend the intake strainer so it is lower in the tank and less likely to suck up floating plants if it becomes an issue.

You can make a loop out of clear plastic tubing or airline and a joiner. You stick a suction cup on the glass about half way up the side of the tank. Tie the plastic loop to the suction cup with a length of string. The plastic loop should float on the surface.

The floating plants are put inside the loop and are contained in it so they don't get washed around the tank. The string and suction cup stop the looping floating away and the string allows the loop to go up and down as the water level changes.

You can also get breeding nets and put floating plants in them to stop them being washed around and sucked into the filter.

Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides/ cornuta) is the best floating plant for guppies, and it can be planted in the gravel too. It grows rapidly in most tanks and if you buy one plant, it will quickly multiply and you should have heaps in a month.

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If you have plants growing in the substrate, you leave them where they are and gravel clean around them.

You can grow plants in pots and pick the pot up, gravel clean under it and put it back down.
I use 1 or 2 litre plastic icecream containers for this purpose.
I put an inch of gravel in the bucket.
I sprinkle a thin layer of granulated garden fertiliser over the gravel in the bucket.
I put a 6mm (1/4 inch) layer of powdered red or orange clay over the fertiliser.
I fill the rest of the container up with gravel and plant the plant in it. The plant roots grow down and when they get to the clay and fertiliser, they take off. The clay stops the fertiliser leaching into the tank water.

Java Fern should be tied to an ornament, rock or driftwood because its roots can rot if buried in the gravel. Then you can pick up the ornament and gravel clean under it, then put it back down.

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Fish need a regular sleep pattern and so do people. If you don't get regular sleep you will be more prone to health issues including heart problems. Fish are the same, they need a normal day time and a normal night time.

Get a couple of timers and use one for the tank light and one for a low wattage room light. Have the room light come on first and after a while the tank light can come on.

Stress from tank lights coming on when the room is dark can be an issue. Fish don't have eyelids and don't tolerate going from complete dark to bright light (or vice versa) instantly.

In the morning open the curtains or turn the room light on at least 30 minutes (or more) before turning the tank light on. This will reduce the stress on the fish and they won't go from a dark tank to a bright tank instantly.

At night turn the room light on and then turn the tank light off. Wait at least 30 minutes (or more) before turning the room light out. This allows the fish to settle down for the night instead of going from a brightly lit tank to complete darkness instantly.

Ok I was showing you both sides since you said the fish need a non bright image behind them to help them feel secure. So I wanted to know if either were too brightly colored. I am understanding you to say either is fine right? Beautiful idea about the container under the sponge so the gunk doesn't fall off. Oh ok I did tie my java fern to an ornament and I didn't bury its roots for that reason but thought I would bother the plant or potentially break fragile roots or leaves by moving it to clean. So it is ok to move it to clean occasionally and carefully? Ya I know I need a regular sleep schedule for health reasons but when your work schedule is always different early morning one day and later evening the next it isn't possible to have a set schedule. I had wondered about the shock of the light switching especially for the poor albino cories who apparently are almost blind. I have definitely considered getting a timer for the fish tank light but money may be an issue and I really have no idea what is a good brand and what is cheap. Any suggestions? Would need to be ok with potentially frequent blackouts as we seem to get them at least a few times a year and I wouldn't want it to be wrecked because of a power surge. Good to know about the water sprite did not know about it. Tried my best to navigate the mess we call the internet and decided upon java fern.

My apologies if I am asking to many questions. I was having trouble uploading the pictures I took earlier so here they are. I used some red arrows and circles to point out what I am showing in each picture. The first two depict the algae that is still in my tank even though I used my algae remover sponge on it earlier today. The third picture is what I guess to be calcium, when I had snails one would just sit on the glass for a few hours and then those white spots I can't rub off would be there. I don't know what to do about those but they are an eyesore. Don't want to pull aparat entire tank to use chemicals on it to be rid of it. Fourth picture I was wondering about my newest java fern the way the pet store has the elastic totally binding the plant up. should I have taken it off or will it branch out on its own anyways and be alright? The last picture is just to show you the algae in my 10 gallon tank (hence the 10 G) since you mentioned identifying algae.

vio88 said:

Ok I was showing you both sides since you said the fish need a non bright image behind them to help them feel secure. So I wanted to know if either were too brightly colored. I am understanding you to say either is fine right?

Click to expand...

By bright image I meant white or yellow coloured backings. Basically any dull or dark coloured backing is fine. Green, blue and black are the most commonly used but any colour is fine as long as it's not bright and glary (like white or yellow).

Yes, the backing you have is fine to use on either side.

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The algae is nothing much to worry about. Just wipe it off when it gets too bad.

The white stuff looks like calcium and you might be able to scrape it off with a single sided razorblade. These have a sharp edge on one side and a rounded edge on the other where you hold it.

The rubber band on the Java Fern should be removed.

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I use a mechanical timer not a digital one. I always have problems with the digital ones. The ones I had used red and black pins to trigger the timer and turn it on or off. They were pretty cheap and lasted 20 years. I don't even know if you can still get them but I prefer them to the newer digital ones that need a college education just to program.

Java fern should not be planted in the gravel. To be accurate, the rhizome should not be buried. The rhizome is the thick root like thing that the leaves grow from, and it should be above the gravel. The thin hair like roots can be under the gravel. The most common way to use java fern is to attach it to wood, rocks, plastic decor etc. You can use a rubber band or thread to hold in in place till it attaches itself.
The same applies to anubias.

To Colin_T

Won't using a razor blade damage the glass if I do it wrong? I tried removing the elastic band on the java fern but it all fell apart wasn't one plant it was like 3 small ones or three small rhizomes. So I tied it back together with a new elastic and then tied it to the ornament I have. I think the leaves that fell off when I did so where already broken part way through from when the lady at the pet store whipped it out of the tank. I attached a picture of the leaves and roots that fell off, what was left of the plant, and my tank now with the background and filter sponge on.

Seriously though some digital things now days you really do need a degree to program. How does this one look to you? It seems simple enough to me but the cost almost seems too good to be true.

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00366JSNU/?tag=

essjay said:

Java fern should not be planted in the gravel. To be accurate, the rhizome should not be buried. The rhizome is the thick root like thing that the leaves grow from, and it should be above the gravel. The thin hair like roots can be under the gravel. The most common way to use java fern is to attach it to wood, rocks, plastic decor etc. You can use a rubber band or thread to hold in in place till it attaches itself.
The same applies to anubias.

Click to expand...

Ah ok I didn't know the roots could be under gravel. I noticed some under the gravel but didn't understand why the plant was growing like that since I thought the roots too would melt not just the rhizome. Till it attaches itself, do you mean that once it is attached I should cut out the elastic? The one I think is attached is so big and flourishing that idk how to get to the elastic even without hurting the plant. Do you think it is ok to move said plant to clean gravel underneath? Or will that just be disturbing and thereby hurting the plant? Is there a point to cleaning under the plant or will it just use that nutrients for itself?

Oh and one more question so if the thick root thing is the rhizome then how do people know when there is a second rhizome? Or does the rhizome just get long enough that you can gently cut it and make two plants? Also where do people get those tiny scissors?

The rubber band was used to hold 3 smaller plants together so it looked like a bigger bunch. This is common practice with some smaller plants. You should separate the 3 plants and give each one its own spot. You can attach them to the ornaments or wherever you want.

The rhizome is the thick black, green or brown stem like thing and has leaves growing out of the top of the rhizome, and roots growing out the bottom of it. Think of the rhizome as the trunk of a tree that has fallen down and is laying on the ground, roots will come out of the bottom and leaves come out the top.

If you let the plant grow for a while, the rhizome will grow longer and sometimes branch off. It's easy to see when the plant has been growing for 6 months.

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A single sided razor blade should not damage glass. You simply hold the blade on the smooth round side and have it on a20-30 degree angle to the glass and gently scrape it over the stuff you want to remove. When the blade goes over clean glass it will slide across easily, but when it hits calcium or salt, it will feel hard and gritty. Do a scrape and rinse the blade to remove the grit and then scrape again. The grit coming off the calcium buildup will do more damage to the glass than the actual razorblade if the grit is not removed from the blade between scrapes.

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You need some taller plants at the back of the tank behind the ornaments, and some floating plants for the guppies. Move the plants from the front to the sides so the ornaments are visible and the plants are along the sides of the tank. This leaves an open section in the middle and make it easier to see everything.

Hygrophila polysperma, and narrow Vallis would work well along the back of the tank.

Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides/ cornuta) would be good on the top. The Water Sprite normally floats on the surface but can also be planted in the substrate.

ok thanks Colin_T

I grow Java fern attached to wood. In the past I've had it attached to fake plastic logs and even ceramic 'tubes'.

Elastic band usually degrade in water and they start to fall apart eventually. Once they do start to break down, remove them from the tank. By this time the plants will have attached itself to the wood, or whatever.

ah ok cool. I did find a piece of old elastic the other day when I cleaned my tank. Was guessing thats what happened but wasn't sure.