Fish For A New 12 Gal Tank

[NewFeesh]

This is the first tank I've ever had (since one as a kid--we won't count that), and I have determined that I only want colorful fish in my tank. I just planted it yesterday with wisteria, anubias, and Java fern. My driftwood is apparently still leaching tannins, 'cuz the water's cloudy now.

Will my filter remove the cloudiness?

I don't wanna overstock my tank with my fish, and I figure I've got a few weeks to figure out exactly the crew I wanna populate the tank with as it cycles, but I've got a pretty good filter (Aquaclear 150) that shouldn't be easily maxed with a tank this size, and the fish I want have fairly small bioloads.

I love the colors on male guppies, but I've read conflicting things about keeping only males and no females. Can I do this? I really don't want any fry. And the males are prettier. But I don't want them to fight. If there are nice plants to hide in, do you think it will be okay?

And a dwarf gourami would be lovely, but will one male be happy by himself? Two males will fight, is this true?

I need 4-5 neon tetras for them to be happy, since they're schooling fish, but I read that I need to wait a while before adding them, as they need a well-cycled tank. How long do I need to wait?

And the word is that a tank-cleaner-upper isn't really necessary if you've got a decent filter and do your weekly water changes, but some cute little bottom-dwellers would be nice anyway, I think. But I need at LEAST 3 cory cats for them to be happy, yes? Are there any other small and pretty bottom-dwelling fish that would do well in this sort of environment?

And will this assortment max out the space (12 gallons) that I have for them?

Thanks for your help, people. I appreciate it. You're keeping me and my future fish happy!

 

[ash90]

as a kid we had a 60ltr and we had neons and glowlights a male fighter and few male guppies few platies and that worked a treat but if you have a male figter with guppies keep an eye on them as iadded 1 to the tank i have jst revampt and had nothing but trouble with him and they dont live that long mine lasted about 3mounths (died yesterday infact)

 

[NewFeesh]

Okay, so male guppies should be okay together in this tank. Thanks.

So after taking a look, there's a bunch of wispy-looking white algae on my driftwood AND my plant leaves. Could the cloudiness be, in fact, algae too?

HOW DO I KILL IT?!

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

cloudiness will be a bacterial bloom. It'll either go away on it's own in a few days or do water changes to get rid of it.

Guppies should be fine in your tank.

Note: If your bog wood is releasing tanins, it turns the water a yellow colour

 

[waterdrop]

Hi NewFeesh and Welcome to TFF!

Is your tank 12 US gallons or 12 Imperial gallons?

What is your AquaClear model? I can't remember if any of the older ones carried a "150" model number and thought the current line topped out at the very large 110 model. Perhaps you have the Model 30, which is a 150 US gallon per hour flow rate?

If its the 150 flow rate, and the tank is US gallons then you'd be getting 12.5x turnover, which is a lot of churning in the tank, ok for most fish but may be a bit unsettled for some species, just depends on the fish, the circulation patterns etc.

Have you found the correct type of household ammonia yet or a good liquid-reagent based test kit? Those are usually the most basic tools our beginners are out looking for. I assume you've read the first 3 articles: the Nitrogen Cycle, the Fishless Cycle and the Fish-In Cycle in our Beginners Resource Center, as you sound like you've already worked on your cycle planning?

I always feel like learning how to do stocking plans (what you are discussing up above) is something that can be done once you are sure the fishless cycle is fully underway and you are beginning to post your daily log here. The cycling usually gives you many weeks for learning the ins and outs of stocking and the basics of water changes and filter maintenance. Also, the choices of filter media need to be made prior to starting the ammonia dosing ideally (I may have missed another thread you have somewhere.)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[NewFeesh]

Thanks for you help, guys; I appreciate it.

So I have bacteria AND algae in there? 'Cuz the white thready stuff is supposed to be algae, according to my online research. Gosh, I've got an infested tank. Bleh.

It's an AquaClear 30, yes, sorry for the confusion. Erm, and I think it's 12 US gallons? I really wanted a filter that would do the job properly, and the AquaClear 10 I got and returned 'cuz according to the literature, it wasn't going to be as efficient.

I've been adding a pinch of fish food for the ammonia of the break-down--is that bad? Yup, I've been reading up on the nitrogen cycles and fishless cycling; there's not a whole lot out there for the fishless cycling + plants, but I hear they can speed things up and eat up ammonia.

My filter came with a sponge, charcoal, and small white chalky cylinders for filter media. Oh, and my substrate is gravel and a layer of sand.

I know I've got a while before adding fish; I just can't help planning it all and re-planning 'cuz I'm so excited about them! I want them to be happy and comfortable and all that.

 

[waterdrop]

Hi NewFeesh,

The white stuff, regardless of what it is is unlikely to be of any concern. All sorts of stuff gets going in new tanks after the water is dechlorinated and they are nearly all harmless and go away. Aquarists are usually unconcerned about them. Of much more concern is the cycle.

Your AC30 sounds just fine. Usually we replace the carbon with just more ceramic gravel or some other biomedia and carbon, being a chemical media, is not as great at biological filtration and chemical filtration is an optional thing and not normally needed.

I would say its great that you've put in some pinches of fishfood to start breaking down into ammonia to encourage the first bacteria. What we find however is that beyond these first few days or a week or two, the fishfood method becomes more difficult to interpret and tends to leave most fishless cyclers frustrated. Instead, beginning to use the pure ammonia method creates an "easier to interpret" set of data so that you can know where you are within the fishless cycle and can know when you have truly built up a working biofilter and can get fish. I highly recommend you move in that direction and the members here can help you as most of them have been through this themselves.

The most important tools are a good liquid-reagent based test kit (most of us like and use the API Freshwater Master Test Kit) and of course finding the correct ammonia at Boots or Homebase or Ace Hardware. You would be surprised how easy it is for a filter to "come back on you" and have a mini-cycle after you get fish, endangering them. (Ammonia, even in tiny amounts, causes permanent gill damage or death. Likewise, Nitrite(NO2), even in tiny amounts, causes permanent nerve damage or death.) This is why we work so hard to try and help beginners learn this core aspect of the hobby early on. From there they can go on to learn many other things.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[NewFeesh]

Okay. So I shouldn't worry about the creepy stuff in the tank, yes? I need to just worry about whether I've got enough ammonia in there to get the cycle really cookin'.

Following your advice, I've gone and purchased some pure ammonia (smells pure. It doesn't say percentage or ingredients, at any rate. o-O ) and an ammonia testing kit. Am now upping the ppm to 5. And after this, I just test it daily 'til the ammonia levels drop back to zero and then up the ppm back up to 4. Is this right?

Thanks so much for your input.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, good, you've taken a 'next step.' You are correct. The way you dose ammonia is to establish a particular hour of the day (out of the full 24 hours) and decide that that will be your "add-hour." Choose that hour based on your ability (much later on in the cycling process) to also -test- (test only, not add) at the 12 hour mark. So, for example, one might choose 7pm as your "add-hour," leaving 7am as a time when one could test and record 12-hour results at 7am and then the final 24 hour results at 7pm (24 hours after adding ammonia.) Ammonia is only ever added at the 24 hour mark and only if ammonia dropped to zero ppm some time within the previous 24 hours.

The very first time you add ammonia, it may take days or even weeks for ammonia to drop all the way to zero ppm, allowing you to add your 2nd dose of ammonia. In your case, the fishfood preliminary may have already done a little bit of this work, making it shorter until the 2nd dose is called for.

The next water parameters you will need to measure and watch for are pH and nitrite(NO2) and these need to also be measured with liquid-reagent based tests. pH need only be tested for once a week at first but eventually it will be helpful to record that in your log more often. The reason we log pH is to see whether we get a sudden drop down into the 6's (showing that the water is growing more acidic) which could cause the cycling process to stop. Nitrite(NO2) on the other hand is something we are watching for as a sign that our A-Bacs (ammonia processors) are producing more nitrite than our N-Bacs (nitrite processors) can use up. Once this gets way out of balance with lots of nitrite, we are into the second phase of fishless cycling.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[NewFeesh]

Excellent. I didn't know about the 12/24 hour differentiation, so that's quite helpful as well.

My tank's already looking less cloudy, too! I'm having a hard time waiting 'til 7 tonight to measure the ammonia. *squirms impatiently*

 

[NewFeesh]

So 10 days ago I added 5 ppm of ammonia to the tank and the levels were dropping nicely--but now it's been stuck between 1-2 ppm for the past5 days.
Nitrates and Nitrites at zero.
pH is at 8.5--is that too high?

I've got a few plants in there, as mentioned earlier. But they shouldn't have anything to do with this, should they?