Hello There!

[Blax]

I moved into a flat a few months ago and decided that the living room needed some focal points, and what better to capture people's attention (including my own) than a fishtank! I had a small tank when I was much younger with most of the responsibility resting with my parents, so I was, and undoubtedly still am, a total newbie. To cut a long story short, I purchased a 72ltr (20g?) tank with an integrated light and filter system from my LFS (an expression I learnt here!). I was vaguely familiar with the 'cycling' system and that the tank should be allowed to settle for some time before the introduction of fish. That being said, patience isn't one of my strong points and after consulting one of the LFS employees, who assured me that after three days the tank would be ready for the first set of fish, I purchased 10 tetra cardinals on the premise that these were 'hardy' fish with his approval. By this time I had a sand / gravel mix base or "substrate" as I now know it to be called, three plants and some rock ornaments with caverns to add interest for the fish.

After releasing them into the tank I quickly googled the topic of adding fish for the first time, and to my horror I discovered that the cycle actually can take around 4 - 6 weeks! It quickly became apparent that Fishforums.net contained the most comprehensive information regarding all aspects of fish tank ownership and I became hooked to trawling through various posts. I was aware that my new fish were potentially in trouble, but decided to leave them in and carry out regular water changes and use chemicals to reduce ammonia / nitrate spikes as recommended on this forum. There were three casualties which left me feeling pretty awful for not doing the research first, but I couldn't help but wonder why the employee didn't mention anything about 'cycling' when I explained the circumstances to him. I'm sure the majority of employees are very competent individuals but this wouldn't be the first instance of poor support I would encounter.

After a few more weeks the cardinals appeared lively and happy which was a relief, things seemed to be getting on track! I had read about the benefit of bottom feeders on this forum and thought it was time to get a few of my own. Although I had looked at what fish were appropriate for my tank size / occupants (basically I gathered I didn't want to wake up and find a foot long plec one day!) I still was very much reliant on what the LFS had in stock at that time and the advice that was offered. I went to another FS and gave the employee my tank details etc and mentioned I had a bit of algae growing around the rock ornaments. He immediately recommended the 'sucking loach', saying it was 'an excellent algae eater' and 'would be fine in a community tank'.... I ended up walking away with four of the little buggers non the wiser about what they were actually like! I repeated the same process (thought I would of learnt by now) of releasing them into the tank and then googling what these 'cute' little guys were actually like. Fishforums.net came though again, providing me with detailed experiences about how troublesome they can be and that they are certainly not recommended for a 'friendly community tank' - great information once again from the supposed 'experts' (well, he had a badge saying 'aquarium manager'!)

After discovering how disruptive the loach can be once matured I bagged them up and took them back. The employee had little to say in response to my research and after some discussion I swapped the loaches for some Pepper Corys (which are brilliant in my opinion).

This is getting quite long winded (but it is my first post I suppose! ha), but what I'm trying to say is that FirshForums.net have saved me twice already, and I wanted to thank the community for the great advice offered - and even the ridiculous thread where a guy keeps wanting to know whether you can keep other fish with piranhas and won't take a hint! This forum has proved far more reliable than any advice I've had at a FS, and I wonder whether they should just ditch the employee and have FishForums on a big screen!

Currently I have the following in my tank [72ltr / Internal filter / Tetratec 100 air pump / 3 plants (no idea what they are, but they're growing very quickly)]:

7 x Cardinal Tetra
4 x Peppered Cory

I wanted to finish off the tank with a pair of Clownfish in a few weeks or so (I gather it's important to introduce new fish slowly so as to avoid chemical imbalance).

Ammonia: 0.1
Nitrate: 20
Nitrate: 0
PH: 7.5

Now before I head off to the FS can someone PLEASE advise me as to whether it's ok to get the Clowns? I don't think my tank is over stocked ,and have read that the Clowns are very sociable, tolerant and active fish so I figured they would be fine. However, after my shaky start I'm not leaving anything to chance....

Many thanks,

Si.

 

[Keithoms]

Im sorry mate, but brilliant first post!

First of all you will need to wait until your tank is fully cycled. Keep up the water changes to keep ammonia and nitrite below 0.25 at all times until it stays at 0 on its own. At that point your tank is fully cycled.

On the point of clownfish, im sorry but those are marine fish.

It goes Freshwater (what you have) > brackish (slightly salty) > marine (the sea)

Also, i loled at fishforums on a big screen. Any chance of some pics of your tank?

 

[Eclecticoldsod]

You surely did not mean Nitrate: 20..?
Clown fish are marine (salt water) fish. I can't believe – no matter how ignorant your LFS people are – they would let you add these to a fresh-water tank..!
“Fool me once, shame on you – fool me twice, shame on me...”
Go to another LFS in future, and read, read, read before you do anything else..!

 

[Keithoms]

Yeah, there is NitrIte and NitrAte, what are the readings for you?

 

[Blax]

Thanks mate, far too easy to ramble on - owning fish has caused alot more drama than expected! haha

Ok, i've got a testing kit so I'll keep a good check on the levels until they sit nicely at 0

Well there we go! Typical I want to stick a marine fish into a freshwater tank - bet the FS employee would have let me do it aswell! Thanks for pointing that out. I wanted to get a couple of attractive middle / top dwellers to add some activity further up the tank... do you have any suggestions? I'm not really a fan of 'flat' fish but am definitely open to suggestion.

- edit -

I think the value was for NitrAte, but I may have recalled it incorrectly as it certainly wasn't high up the chart and within the 'danger' zone on the comparison card. I'll do another check this eve after work and update the values!

 

[emma12321]

a male and 2 female honey gourami or dwarf gourami would be a nice focal point you could also add a few more corys.

Emma

 

[Keithoms]

Im guessing the value was nitrate (harmless) as nitrite goes as high as 8..

I cant really help on the whole fish suggestion thing. Id wait for someone else to come along for that! Good luck with your tank.

 

[Athena]

Welcome to the forums! Enjoyed reading your post.

Hey, that is a great idea to have this forum open to public use at the local LFS. I mean, half the time the employees at those places are so busy they are only interested in making a sale and moving on to the next customer, so they don't give out as much in-depth knowledge to customers as we need. They could have a couple of PCs rigged up to the internet - with this forum on display - and anything they don't have time/expertise to answer they could say the customer is free to search the fishforums for reliable answers! Ha! Really good idea - except I doubt any of them will do it...

Oh and re the clownfish you mentioned - did you mean clownfish or a clown loach? Two different things. A clown loach is kept in a freshwater tropical aquarium - BUT you need a very large tank as they grow to over a foot in length.

Yes, some of the posts on here have me in stitches too - was reading one earlier and almost fell off my chair with a fit of giggles - something about "sucking gravel" - I know they meant vacuuming gravel but I just had this mental image of someone sitting there sucking handfuls of dirty gravel to get it clean LOL oh dear, I'm off again...

Bye for now - Athena

 

[Blax]

a male and 2 female honey gourami or dwarf gourami would be a nice focal point you could also add a few more corys.

Emma

Many thanks for the suggestion Emma! Some of the Gouramis are really colourful which is exactly what i'm looking for, I'll have a look at the store and see what they have. They don't suddenly turn into carnivores or grow to 5 feet after a certain age do they?

Im guessing the value was nitrate (harmless) as nitrite goes as high as 8..

I cant really help on the whole fish suggestion thing. Id wait for someone else to come along for that! Good luck with your tank.

Thanks alot, i'll update this post with some photos later.

Welcome to the forums! Enjoyed reading your post.

Hey, that is a great idea to have this forum open to public use at the local LFS. I mean, half the time the employees at those places are so busy they are only interested in making a sale and moving on to the next customer, so they don't give out as much in-depth knowledge to customers as we need. They could have a couple of PCs rigged up to the internet - with this forum on display - and anything they don't have time/expertise to answer they could say the customer is free to search the fishforums for reliable answers! Ha! Really good idea - except I doubt any of them will do it...

Oh and re the clownfish you mentioned - did you mean clownfish or a clown loach? Two different things. A clown loach is kept in a freshwater tropical aquarium - BUT you need a very large tank as they grow to over a foot in length.

Yes, some of the posts on here have me in stitches too - was reading one earlier and almost fell off my chair with a fit of giggles - something about "sucking gravel" - I know they meant vacuuming gravel but I just had this mental image of someone sitting there sucking handfuls of dirty gravel to get it clean LOL oh dear, I'm off again...

Bye for now - Athena

I think you're right, they'd never do it as the customer would probably pull up contradictory info every time haha It might curb their sales of inappropriate fish aswell, and who wants that?! I was doing my best to supress the laugher, but couldn't help a bit of sniggering haha sryan0609's thread http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=270513 is brilliant, it's quite clear he just wants tank carnage and he's going to get it....even if everyone is in opposition!

 

[Keithoms]

a male and 2 female honey gourami or dwarf gourami would be a nice focal point you could also add a few more corys.

Emma

Many thanks for the suggestion Emma! Some of the Gouramis are really colourful which is exactly what i'm looking for, I'll have a look at the store and see what they have. They don't suddenly turn into carnivores or grow to 5 feet after a certain age do they?

Im guessing the value was nitrate (harmless) as nitrite goes as high as 8..

I cant really help on the whole fish suggestion thing. Id wait for someone else to come along for that! Good luck with your tank.

Thanks alot, i'll update this post with some photos later.

Welcome to the forums! Enjoyed reading your post.

Hey, that is a great idea to have this forum open to public use at the local LFS. I mean, half the time the employees at those places are so busy they are only interested in making a sale and moving on to the next customer, so they don't give out as much in-depth knowledge to customers as we need. They could have a couple of PCs rigged up to the internet - with this forum on display - and anything they don't have time/expertise to answer they could say the customer is free to search the fishforums for reliable answers! Ha! Really good idea - except I doubt any of them will do it...

Oh and re the clownfish you mentioned - did you mean clownfish or a clown loach? Two different things. A clown loach is kept in a freshwater tropical aquarium - BUT you need a very large tank as they grow to over a foot in length.

Yes, some of the posts on here have me in stitches too - was reading one earlier and almost fell off my chair with a fit of giggles - something about "sucking gravel" - I know they meant vacuuming gravel but I just had this mental image of someone sitting there sucking handfuls of dirty gravel to get it clean LOL oh dear, I'm off again...

Bye for now - Athena

I think you're right, they'd never do it as the customer would probably pull up contradictory info every time haha It might curb their sales of inappropriate fish aswell, and who wants that?! I was doing my best to supress the laugher, but couldn't help a bit of sniggering haha sryan0609's thread [URL="http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=270513"]http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=270513[/URL] is brilliant, it's quite clear he just wants tank carnage and he's going to get it....even if everyone is in opposition!

Damn, reading that trolling thread just gave me a headache.