My first tropical freshwater tank! :)

Munroco · Mar 8, 2020

Deanasue said:
I turn my on at 8:30 A.M and off at 8:30 P.M.

4 to 11 is fine. If your plants aren't doing great then maybe make it a bit longer.
Too much light is as bad as too little, then you start encouraging algae. You need to find a balance that works in your tank.
Floating plants are fine, but I'd avoid duckweed as it is very difficult to get rid of.

Neon1977 · Mar 8, 2020

hobostu said:
I had fish many years ago but had no clue what I was doing and eventually they all dies. This time around I've had 2 10 gal. tanks since around Christmas, and am trying to learn and do things right. Haven't lost any fish yet, though I'm dealing with a platy who hides and barely eats. Getting a 45 gallon tank this friday. Good luck to both of us lol

Same! With no proper advice or nothing my two platies that I started off with died within two weeks of having them! So deflating and kids were gutted and it made me slightly paranoid about the ammo levels etc! Oh no bless is he/she showing any other abnormal behaviour? What other fish have you got in there? No one decided to tell me platies were live bearers either! So you can imagine when I found that out with my small tank!! LFS staff strike again!

Neon1977 · Mar 8, 2020

Crispii said:
Other than removing floating plants out from your tank, they are low maintenance. You can supplement the plants with liquid fertilizer. For the most part, floating plants are fast growers as they take in CO2 from the air.

Thank you! Sounds easy enough do they need the liquid fertilizer though? Or can they thrive without it?

Neon1977 · Mar 8, 2020

Munroco said:
4 to 11 is fine. If your plants aren't doing great then maybe make it a bit longer.
Too much light is as bad as too little, then you start encouraging algae. You need to find a balance that works in your tank.
Floating plants are fine, but I'd avoid duckweed as it is very difficult to get rid of.

Brilliant thanks! Think I am going to stick with water sprite anyway! Getting the plants tomorrow! Will water sprite and anacharis need so many hours of lighting do you think!?

Retired Viking · Mar 8, 2020

Neon1977 said:
Brilliant thanks! Think I am going to stick with water sprite anyway! Getting the plants tomorrow! Will water sprite and anacharis need so many hours of lighting do you think!?

I run my tank lights from noon to 9pm, there is also other light scores, Like sun light coming in the windows and other lights in the room.

Neon1977 · Mar 8, 2020

Retired Viking said:
I run my tank lights from noon to 9pm, there is also other light scores, Like sun light coming in the windows and other lights in the room.

Brill thanks il aim for around the same time then! And yes I read this somewhere else about the daylight thing as well although my tank is not in direct light from the window does that make any difference? Posted a pic below of where it is, the window is opposite on the other side of the room and there’s a wall to the right of the tank obvs that blocks it from being in direct light..

FishGuest5123 · Mar 8, 2020

Most experts will say to keep your lights on 8-10 hrs a day. This all depends on your lighting too though. If you have plant lights or fluorescent lights, less time is better. If you have LED lights like I do, longer hours won’t cause algae and keeps the fish in a day/night cycle.

Retired Viking · Mar 8, 2020

You should avoid having you tank in direct sunlight because of algae. I only use direct sunlight for my shrimp tank because I am growing anacharis and moneywort for my new 30 gallon tanks so I have lots of plants in with my shrimp. So far little to no algae but I only do it for a few days at a time. Your tank should be fine.

Neon1977 · Mar 8, 2020

Deanasue said:
Most experts will say to keep your lights on 8-10 hrs a day. This all depends on your lighting too though. If you have plant lights or fluorescent lights, less time is better. If you have LED lights like I do, longer hours won’t cause algae and keeps the fish in a day/night cycle.

Brilliant thanks a lot

Neon1977 · Mar 8, 2020

Retired Viking said:
You should avoid having you tank in direct sunlight because of algae. I only use direct sunlight for my shrimp tank because I am growing anacharis and moneywort for my new 30 gallon tanks so I have lots of plants in with my shrimp. So far little to no algae but I only do it for a few days at a time. Your tank should be fine.

Fab advice again thank you!

Retired Viking · Mar 8, 2020

Here is a picture of my shrimp tank, the anacharis is on the left side and the moneywort is on the right. I had taken some out to place in my 55 gallon tank already. My anacharis is over 2 1/2 feet tall and bending over at the surface, in shorter tanks you can break it into smaller parts and plant them as separate plants if you want or just let it float :fish:

Neon1977 · Mar 8, 2020

Retired Viking said:
Here is a picture of my shrimp tank, the anacharis is on the left side and the moneywort is on the right. I had taken some out to place in my 55 gallon tank already. My anacharis is over 2 1/2 feet tall and bending over at the surface, in shorter tanks you can break it into smaller parts and plant them as separate plants if you want or just let it float

Love it looks fab! How many shrimp do you have in there?? Will water sprite be ok for a floating plant? Been looking at pics and love the floating plants!

Retired Viking · Mar 8, 2020

Neon1977 said:
Love it looks fab! How many shrimp do you have in there?? Will water sprite be ok for a floating plant? Been looking at pics and love the floating plants!

Yes you can let it float, I have 12 ghost shrimp including 3 adult females. This is my first attempt at having a shrimp tank and ghost shrimp are cheap. They are fun to watch too. I also have nerite and ramshorn snails in the tank,

Neon1977 · Mar 8, 2020

Retired Viking said:
Yes you can let it float, I have 12 ghost shrimp including 3 adult females. This is my first attempt at having a shrimp tank and ghost shrimp are cheap. They are fun to watch too. I also have nerite and ramshorn snails in the tank,

Brill thanks can’t wait to get it tomorrow now if I can get my hands on some. Looks fab! I can’t wait to start setting my shrimp tank up in a couple of month! Going to transfer whatever shrimp I have in this tank at that point over to it first when iv done the full cycle on it as well of course!

Crispii · Mar 8, 2020

Neon1977 said:
Thank you! Sounds easy enough do they need the liquid fertilizer though? Or can they thrive without it?

Depending on your stocking, you can use fish waste as fertilizer instead of liquid fertilizer.

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