Help on a new tank

[Era101]

Hello TFF community!

New here on the site and new to having an aquarium. My son has been going crazy for the last few weeks watching everything related to fish on YouTube. So for his birthday I decided to buy him an aquarium so he too could enjoy having fish. While I saw it as a great way to ensure something we could bond over for many years to come. I do have to admit I brought the aquarium and the equipment on impulse.

We had the tank custom to the dimensions of our liking 60 cm long (24"), 35 cm wide (14") and 35 cm high (14"). As I paid the deposit and went home I started getting excited and so burried myself in articles. I then of course found out that it is not easy to have a fully functioning tank and to maintain it. I quickly started to buy the I needed such as a master test kit for the water and a range of media for my filter.

Now I still learning more and more everyday but a lot seems very situational and difficult to find answers to your specific questions and/or needs. Our tank for example can hold a max of 20 gallons but our filter is doing 265 gallons per hour... how bad is this and can I fix this without having to buy a new one? I also received a bacteria starter from the store and 4 days in I am getting readings of Ammonia and Nitrates in my tank but no Nitrites. Is this normal?

There are currently a few plants in the tank with some rocks and 2 fish that came with the impulse buy. I am planning to move the fish to a bowl when I get started with cycling the tank. I just want to make sure my equipment is all perfect before starting the cycle so I won't have to stop halway through.

Sorry for the incredibly long post but I hope you experts can help me out!

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

Have you read up on how to cycle your tank? If not, do so here.

We need to know the pH, GH, and KH of your water. You can find this information out by going to your local water providers website, or by calling them. We need actual numbers. (Ex. pmm)

Do you currently have fish? If so, what species are they? We need to know the information above, to provide you with proper stocking optons.

 

[utahfish]

The fish will fare better in the tank while cycling than a bowl unless one is changing the water in the bowl daily. Cycling a tank can take up to 6 weeks. Different products can help the process along as can live plants.
A tank is cycled when nitrites are at zero and ammonia is close to zero as well.
Nitrates need to be 20 ppm or less.
Once those numbers are achieved tank is cycled.
Read the pinned thread about cycling to get a better idea.

 

[Retired Viking]

Hello and welcome to the forum As @utahfish explained the normal cycle process, I would also suggest you buy some fast growing floating plants that will absorb the ammonia and improve your fish's chance to survive the cycling process. You can even try a planted/silent cycle if you have enough plants to absorb what your fish produce. This is what I do to cycle my tanks.

 

[Era101]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

Have you read up on how to cycle your tank? If not, do so here.

We need to know the pH, GH, and KH of your water. You can find this information out by going to your local water providers website, or by calling them. We need actual numbers. (Ex. pmm)

Do you currently have fish? If so, what species are they? We need to know the information above, to provide you with proper stocking optons.

Hi PheonixKing,

Thanks, hoping to be able to show off my tank here at some point!

I have read about cycling on a few sites and I found a prettt easy to follow guide I keep bookmarked.

I am currently using filtered drinking water on advice from the store. I live in Bali and our tap water is quite horrible.. I don't have the KB and GH measures or tests unfortunately. I actually thought that wouldn't be that big of a problem using filtered water. My PH is quite high (8,2) so I want to switch to mineral water. I already tested the water gallon we use for drinking and that is at 7,4/7,5. I you think I need a KB and GH test I can buy those as well but the shipping is quite slow nowadays with Covid.

I currently have 1 betta fish, which I will move to another mini tank, because it is constantly hunting my other fish. I don't actually know it's name in English, tanslated from Indonesian it would be broom fish, but I added a picture of it.

What about my filter? I read that too high a turnover rate could cause problems for breeding the bacteria needed and that the bacteria wouldn't be in contact with the water long enough to convert Ammonia and Nitrites. Should I be worried about this?

 

[Era101]

The fish will fare better in the tank while cycling than a bowl unless one is changing the water in the bowl daily. Cycling a tank can take up to 6 weeks. Different products can help the process along as can live plants.
A tank is cycled when nitrites are at zero and ammonia is close to zero as well.
Nitrates need to be 20 ppm or less.
Once those numbers are achieved tank is cycled.
Read the pinned thread about cycling to get a better idea.

Hi Utahfish,

Thanks for the reply and advise, if they'll do better in the tank then I'll keep them in.

Well, strangely enough I only have had the tanl for about a week and measures now are 0,25 mg/l for Ammonia, 0,05 mg/l for nitrites and 5 mg/l for nitrates. I checked my water source and that doesn't have nitrates and I haven't actually done anything expect for adding the bacteria starter kit. Am I just lucky or is there a chance my tank is out of balance?

 

[Era101]

Hello and welcome to the forum As @utahfish explained the normal cycle process, I would also suggest you buy some fast growing floating plants that will absorb the ammonia and improve your fish's chance to survive the cycling process. You can even try a planted/silent cycle if you have enough plants to absorb what your fish produce. This is what I do to cycle my tanks.

Hi retiredviking,

Thanks for the warm welcome!

I currently have 4 plants in my tank that are already developed. I managed to get the store to sell me the ones from his own tank. They've been doing pretty well, I think, but I am starting to notice some discoloration now. I'll add a picture of the plants. Are they dying because of the tank or lack of food?

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Hi retiredviking,

Thanks for the warm welcome!

I currently have 4 plants in my tank that are already developed. I managed to get the store to sell me the ones from his own tank. They've been doing pretty well, I think, but I am starting to notice some discoloration now. I'll add a picture of the plants. Are they dying because of the tank or lack of food?

They haven’t had time to establish yet. It is normal for some discoloration at first,

 

[PheonixKingZ]

What about my filter? I read that too high a turnover rate could cause problems for breeding the bacteria needed and that the bacteria wouldn't be in contact with the water long enough to convert Ammonia and Nitrites. Should I be worried about this?

I have never heard of that causing issues. What brand/model is it? I may have used it in the past.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Hi, Era. Bali is beautiful, and on my list of places to see someday. Have you looked into stocking your tank with local species of fish? Many popular aquarium fish are native to Indonesia!

You've gotten some good advice about cycling, so I won't add to that. Your filter should be fine; it's pretty big for a 20 gallon but there's nothing wrong with over-filtering. Just make sure you get fish that like some current (check out seriouslyfish.com to research fish species). Your betta will not like that much current, but many of the barbs, loaches, and catfish would enjoy it.

I believe your "broom fish" is what we would call a Chinese algae eater (Gyrinocheilus aymonieri). They are not very good aquarium fish. The get quite large, and they will be aggressive and hurt your other fish. Also, they don't eat very much algae. I would advise finding it a new home or giving it back to the pet store!

Regarding your discolored plants: What kind of light do you have? What kind of substrate? You seem to have a java fern and some cabomba or ambulia. These are both good beginner plants, but they have different needs.

 

[Era101]

I have never heard of that causing issues. What brand/model is it? I may have used it in the past.

Hi Pheonix,

My powerhead is a sakkai pro WP 1200-K that's leading to an overhead filterbox. I currently only have the standard media in there as well. See the picture below. What other media would you recommend putting in there? I need to get a bigger box anyway because this one can't reach if it is over the length of the tank. I was thinking carbon actived media to help stabilise the tank but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Era101]

Hi, Era. Bali is beautiful, and on my list of places to see someday. Have you looked into stocking your tank with local species of fish? Many popular aquarium fish are native to Indonesia!

You've gotten some good advice about cycling, so I won't add to that. Your filter should be fine; it's pretty big for a 20 gallon but there's nothing wrong with over-filtering. Just make sure you get fish that like some current (check out seriouslyfish.com to research fish species). Your betta will not like that much current, but many of the barbs, loaches, and catfish would enjoy it.

I believe your "broom fish" is what we would call a Chinese algae eater (Gyrinocheilus aymonieri). They are not very good aquarium fish. The get quite large, and they will be aggressive and hurt your other fish. Also, they don't eat very much algae. I would advise finding it a new home or giving it back to the pet store!

Regarding your discolored plants: What kind of light do you have? What kind of substrate? You seem to have a java fern and some cabomba or ambulia. These are both good beginner plants, but they have different needs.

Hi Whistling Badger,

It definitely is a great place to be, I moved here from Europe about a decade ago. I really can't see myself going back. Unfortunately going here is going to take a while, Bali will probably be closed to tourism until October at the earliest. I might look into using local fish only, but in the end it is my son's tank. I am just tasked with making sure the tank runs as it should. Although there is a big chance we'll get a bigger tank in the foreseeable future.

Yes this definitely the fish I have, only have the albino one. I didn't know they grew so big, this one also came on the recommendation of the seller... I read into the fish as well but it says it should be fine as long as the tankmates are either bigger or smaller than this one? Also excluding certain types of species of course. Maybe I'll keep it in for now and move it when we get a new and bigger tank.

I have an LED 4 color light, 2 bulbs of red light, 2 bulbs of blue light, 1 bulb of green and 16 bulbs of white. It's a 6 watt light at 10,000 Kelvin, I hope that explains the light well enough because I don't really know any other info on the lights. My substrate is just thin gravel (~1 mm), I don't have any soil or sand in there. I hope that my cabombas can survive with the light I currently have, the fern certainly should.. any recommendations on complimenting plants?

 

[Era101]

Hi guys, I actually wanted your advise on something else. I'm looking at a heater and i was wondering if there is a way for me to place the heater inside my overhead filter box rather than in the tank itself.

 

[Derekshatch]

Yes alot of people do that just make sure that it doesent touch the plastic it could melt it.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

The java fern should do fine with that light. The cabomba might not. Also look into anubias, java moss, and hornwort. All of these do quite well in lower light, and they are all water-column feeders, which means they don't need to be rooted in the substrate. Anubias and mosses are attached to objects (like your java fern), and hornwort can float.

Two websites I recommend you check out as you research what fish to buy: seriouslyfish.com has really good information on different fish and their needs. Aqadvisor.com allows you to input your tank's dimensions and filter, then try out different combinations of fish to see if they would work together.

Good luck!