20gallon Journal - Updated Daily - Indir

[rabbut]

BN plecos are semi-teritorial in the case of males, so it would be best to add both at once in a smaller tank, or female then male. Adults at a sexable size tend to be moderately expencive however (at least arround my way) so people tend to get two together as juvis. Two males could caurse issues in a small tank, unless you have a lot of caves for them to choose between

Fish look best in sizeable single species shoals, so I'd surgest choosing just one Danio species to get, though final choice is of course yours

All the best
Rabbut

 

[Thommo]

With your bog wood, it may turn yellow in a bucket. IMO if it is small enough give it a boil on the stove. If it doesn't go yellow your laughing but it most probably will. Keep repeating this until you get hardly anymore colour in the water. This steralises it but also get most of the tannins out of the wood. Of coarse you could just chuck it in and have yellow water if that is your preference. A lot of people do!

I had my large piece in the bath for 6 weeks and was still leaching tannins.

P.S. Carbon can clear up alot of the tannins in the tank.


CHEERS
Thommo

 

[indir-emir]

Hmm well im only adding a small piece for the catfish to rest on lol. I dont exactly have a ton of room in my tank

I have it in water at the moment (i think it has been used before tho, by the previous owner of the tank) and they are floating in the water and the water doesnt seem yellow to me.

P.S (hope someone reads this in the next hour or 2) - Is a gravel vac supposed to suck up gravel also? or should i buy one thats smaller then my actual gravel?

Regards,
Indir

 

[Thommo]

Hmm well im only adding a small piece for the catfish to rest on lol. I dont exactly have a ton of room in my tank

I have it in water at the moment (i think it has been used before tho, by the previous owner of the tank) and they are floating in the water and the water doesnt seem yellow to me.

P.S (hope someone reads this in the next hour or 2) - Is a gravel vac supposed to suck up gravel also? or should i buy one thats smaller then my actual gravel?

Regards,
Indir

Hi Indir,

If it has been used before you should be good. If it is floating you need to wiegh it down until it gets saoked enough to stay down. otherwise it will float for a VERY long time.

A gravel vac is generally around 5cm in diameter. you can go smaller for delicate work such as in planted aquariums(for delicate plants). For general use even in a planted aquarium a standard vac is ok and will lift up some gravel. If you sitck it right in the substrat it WILL lift it up. just wave it over the top of the substrate until you are satisfied that it is clean enough. The different lenghts of the vacuums are only for people who do not want to put their arms in the tank. A standard vac will do the job for you. You can even use the hose you use to syphon the water out to vac the substrate for you, although it is alot more fidly.

CHEERS
Thommo

 

[indir-emir]

Phew thanks thommo. Thought i was gonna buy the wrong thing I understand it works now. Thanks alot hehe. Ill be sure to do it soon as i do the big water change for fish time I will post an update on water stats in a few hours.

Thank you again

Regards,
Indir

 

[rabbut]

While the method Thermo mentions will be fine for a heavily planted tank, for your "adverage" fish keeper, that method will lead to problems. Leaving a large ammount of muck in the substrate will lead to a lot of rotting going on, thus hight nitrates (not always) and a crashed pH (sooner or later, amost always). Unless you are heavily planted with root feeding plants, you want to be pushing your vac deep into the substrate to lift as much rubbish out of the substrate as possible. Keep it in untill the water in the tube is clear again, then move along a bit and repeat

 

[indir-emir]

Hmm i see. Well i will give both a go i then Im going to go buy that vac in about an hour and check out LFS for the fish i want to get and stuff like that. Ill be sure to let you guys know how i go.

How big should the bog wood be for the catfish?

EDIT: How long should i leave it in the water? It is only a tiny bit yellow in the bowl it is in at the moment.

Regards,
Indir

 

[indir-emir]

Okay bought the gravel vac, used it on my brothers tank and i think i know how to use it. I dont think it gives enough force to realy suck up the gravel though....

How long should the bogwood be soaked in water? Im using a weight to hold it down under the water, after about 8 or so hours its still floating. The water is a tiny bit of a yellowish dirt colour. and small bits of it are falling of and sinking.

Water Update:
Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrates = 40

Im urged to just stock lightly with a few Danios to give the tank some movement lol.

Oh, also i bought a 60cm air stone and plugged it into the air pump that used ot power my UGF. The small circle type air bubbler thing works fine, while the new air stone has tiny bubbles on about a quarter of the left side, quarter of the right side but the middle has no bubbles... Any ideas why it isnt flowing properly?

Regards,
Indir

 

[rabbut]

You need a bigger air pump to drive that large air stone

I would urge you to wait untill ammonia and nitrite have sat on zero for a week solid before getting any fish If the wood is leaching yellow stuff into the bowl, it is bog wood I would let it soak untill the water comming out of the bowl is mostly clear. For larger pieces, this may take many days of soaking...

All the best
Rabbut

 

[indir-emir]

Hmm, how big a pump would i need rabbut? Ill try to find a silent one lol, this one is loud as hell.

Yeah i will be waiting till sunday or monday before i buy any fish lol. And even then ill start with just the danios to make sure its all fine

Ill keep the bogwood soaking in the bowl for a while lol. Its only a slight yellow, its more dirty then yellow though.

Oh also for the BN i will be getting, would it be bad if there was 2 males or 2 females in there (instead of male and female, couldnt find any LFS that had BN of both sex) or would i be better of just getting one for my size tank?

Regards,
Indir

 

[rabbut]

I'd get a male from one shop and a female from another, or two females if you want two. They will be fine alone also

For air pumps, you will never get one that's totaly silent. Rena and Eheim air pumps seem favored by many on here, and Tetratec appear reasonable from other sites You will want one that puches at least 400lph for that sized air stone, or idealy two. That's a big stone that needs to be driven by a big pump Unusualy, Superfish air pumps are reliable IME also, but not exactly "quiet running"

All the best
Rabbut

 

[indir-emir]

Any reason why you would get them from seperate ones? I only found one LFS that had bristlenoses for sale lol.

400LPH.. hmm thats a large amount . What about if i ran 2x 30cm ones Would i still need the 400LPH pump? Im using the pump from the UGF which is split into 2 more pipes.

Regards,
Indir

 

[rabbut]

Yes, you would still need a large pump to drive two, though a 200lph pump would do one lone 6" stone

BN plecs are easy to breed, so getting them from different places widens your gene pool and gives stronger fry when you inevitably get a few This hobby inbreeds that many species, because people can't be bothered to source fish from different places, and just breed sibblings together because it's easy and then wonder why their fry are deformed/weak e.t.c. You can breed sibblinges together without issue if you line breed, or have some other breeding method going on, but this requires many tanks and breeding pairs to do properly...

All the best
Rabbut

 

[indir-emir]

Yeah, ill see if i can find it from a different place. Only found the one, but ive got a while for a few to come on hopefully. I think there will be some java moss at the LFS on sunday/monday too so it will be good for the fish

And hopefully the bogwood will be finished by the time i get the catfish lol.

Still not sure what to get for a center piece/mid-dwelling fish. I was thinking Dwarf Gouramis, but ever since i read they are highly prone to that disease that kills them and everyone in the tank if its spread, i havnt been to keen So therefore, any ideas would be appreciated

Regards.
Indir

 

[rabbut]

The issues with DG seems realated to said inbreeding of stock, they have lost their immunity due to being imbred If you can get some quality stock, you are unlikely to have any issues The key to success with these is a mature tank and a good supplier. The virus that affects them is Gourami specific I believe, and so can only spread to other Gouramis