General Begginer Worries

[paleprincess]

My tank is 18" high, 12" at the sides, and 3 ft long.just wondering how many gallons does it hold?
I have an under gravel filter and 14 small fish, quite a few plants, rocks, bogwood, just wondering wether this filter would be adequate for the size and the amount of fish. I have cycled the tank for weeks prior to buying the fish, and they have been living happily in there for a week.
I did a 15% water change yesterday, and cleaned the gravel with a gravel cleaner, the water was quite cloudy for a few hours. It's crystal clear today, but I have noticed stringy things hanging off the plants, I thought maybe the UGF wasn't enough to filter all the poo.
Any advice appreciated.

 

[jjsdad]

Hey !! Welcome to the forum
Your tank is 33 US gallons.
I figured it out with a cool calculator that is pinned on the Tropical Chit Chat section. It even tells you how big a heater you need and how much light you will need to keep plants.
IME undergravel filters are only effective in small tanks with very few fish.
They don't really do a very good job of cleaning the water that's why there is so much gunk in the gravel.
I always use a hang on the tank filter and never had a problem.

 

[Dragonslair]

UGF are fine, but it should be supported with another type of filtration. If you have a cover/hood on top of your tank then I would suggest a power filter.
What does concern me is your comment about stringy stuff. If it is coming from your fish as excreta then you fish need a different diet. Long strings of excreta is unhealthy for fish to have. It is a fishes way of telling you it has constipation. Supplementing their diet with fresh/frozen live food such as bloodworm or daphnia obtainable from your lfs will work wonders.

 

[aquamanis]

Hi Paleprincess, did you cycle your tank using ammonia or fishfood? Are your water parameters good? I,m asking because a lot of newbies (myself included) think cycling a tank is just letting it sit for a while. Introducing 14 fish at the same time can cause your tank to recycle or go into a mini cycle so I would advise you keep an eye on your ammonia and nitrite levels.

 

[paleprincess]

My friend helped me set the tank up, he squeezed some gunk from his filter into the tank for me. I have taken a sample of the tank water to my local aquarium , they tested it and said the water was perfect.
I've been watching the fish pooing , and they don't seem to be constipated, i have been feeding them flakes twice a day, letting them eat as much as they can in a couple of minutes, there is no left over food, and bloodworm every other say.
The stringy things on the plants seem as thin as hair, but dusty , if you can understand that, it doesn't look like the stuff that's coming out of them when they poo.
I can afford to buy a power filter only on monday, so I am worried about the fish until then.

 

[Alien Anna]

My friend helped me set the tank up, he squeezed some gunk from his filter into the tank for me. I have taken a sample of the tank water to my local aquarium , they tested it and said the water was perfect.
I've been watching the fish pooing , and they don't seem to be constipated, i have been feeding them flakes twice a day, letting them eat as much as they can in a couple of minutes, there is no left over food, and bloodworm every other say.
The stringy things on the plants seem as thin as hair, but dusty , if you can understand that, it doesn't look like the stuff that's coming out of them when they poo.
I can afford to buy a power filter only on monday, so I am worried about the fish until then.

The lack of power filter isn't a problem but the bad news is your tank is not cycled. It takes around 2 months to cycle a tank with fish, unless you took a large amount of gravel and an entire matured filter, you can't set it up that quickly.

The LFS telling you your water was "perfect" before you added any fish was not very useful information. By now I expect your water is far from perfect as the fish will have been excreting ammonia in large amounts. It is usually ammonia, and its by-product nitrite, that kills fish in new tanks. Ammonia also causes over-growth of algae. Please follow the link in my sig and read my article on setting up a new tank.

If I were you I'd consider taking that tiger barb back to the shop, if nothing else, as he is a schooling fish and will savage everything else in your tank on his own, before dying from stress. If you're going to keep tigers you need to get at least 8-10 fish and they are best in a species tank due to their aggression. The common pleco could well grow to 20" long and needs a large tank (55 gallons, I'd say).