Hi TFF!

[Aquadaisy]

Hey everyone!
I’m new to the fishkeeping hobby (if you don’t count a little tank I had when I was like 13...), and I have too many questions to do this by myself. So I’m looking to get some online support.

I am allowed a 20 gallon tank in my current living situation, and I think that will be enough for me for a good while. It’s a 20g long, planted, and I’m just starting to add fish (after cycling).

I have loved researching all about fishkeeping; I studied biology in college and it’s reminded me why. The fish are cool, the inverts are cool, the bacteria/nitrogen cycle is cool, I’m already hooked.

Thanks in advance for the future advice. I hope to be able to pay it forward one day!

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

You don't need it now but the following link has information about what to do if your fish get sick. It's long and boring but worth a read when you have some spare time.

What to do if your fish gets sick

If your fish ever looks sick or unwell, then the following steps might help. Test the Water and Clean the Tank. Test the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH and write the results down in numbers. Check it for general hardness (GH) and carbonate hardness (KH) too if you can, but...

www.fishforums.net

And since you have an interest in biology, the link below has information about culturing food for fish. Have a read if you like.

Back to Basics when Breeding Fish

STARTING OUT Make sure you have a pair, (1 male + 1 female). There is nothing worse than spending your hard-earned dollars buying a couple of fish to try and breed and ending up with a pair of fish of the same sex. Let's face it, to reproduce fish you need a male and a female. Two males won't do...

www.fishforums.net

 

[Aquadaisy]

Hi and welcome to the forum

You don't need it now but the following link has information about what to do if your fish get sick. It's long and boring but worth a read when you have some spare time.

What to do if your fish gets sick

If your fish ever looks sick or unwell, then the following steps might help. Test the Water and Clean the Tank. Test the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH and write the results down in numbers. Check it for general hardness (GH) and carbonate hardness (KH) too if you can, but...

www.fishforums.net

And since you have an interest in biology, the link below has information about culturing food for fish. Have a read if you like.

Back to Basics when Breeding Fish

STARTING OUT Make sure you have a pair, (1 male + 1 female). There is nothing worse than spending your hard-earned dollars buying a couple of fish to try and breed and ending up with a pair of fish of the same sex. Let's face it, to reproduce fish you need a male and a female. Two males won't do...

www.fishforums.net

Thank you! I appreciate the links.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Hello a welcome to the forum!

 

[ClownLurch]

Hello hello hellllooo.
Welcome to here. They’re good this lot. Here and seriously fish.com will keep you and your fish as right as possible. Plus remember to enjoy it. Have fun have fins.

 

[mcordelia]

Hi! Welcome!

I had a 20 long when I was younger, and I remember it being one of my favorite sized tanks. It's not too big, but it's got a great aspect ratio which allows you to get in a nice scape as well as provide good swimming area for the fish

What kind of fish are you planning on keeping? I assume you have already run into the GH/KH stuff as far as picking fish that fit the hardness of your water?

 

[Aquadaisy]

Hi! Welcome!

I had a 20 long when I was younger, and I remember it being one of my favorite sized tanks. It's not too big, but it's got a great aspect ratio which allows you to get in a nice scape as well as provide good swimming area for the fish

What kind of fish are you planning on keeping? I assume you have already run into the GH/KH stuff as far as picking fish that fit the hardness of your water?

Thanks!

Yeah I like the 20 long too! But I don’t have experience with other tank sizes yet to be fair

I’ve got 5 rusty cory cats and 5 neon tetras right now. My plan was to have 6 cories, 9 tetras, and a honey gourami but I have lost half the tetras, the gourami, and I had one cory jump.
My bad for assuming bottom feeders wouldn’t be able to jettison themselves out; the lid wasn’t fully on.

Funny you should mention the water parameters, clearly I didn’t do quite enough research on that. I thought I had pretty stable neutral/slightly acidic water with a low KH, and GH I had a hard time reading but it looked to be between the 75-150ppm readings, so between soft and hard. I definitely thought at one point that those seemed...fishy...but I sort of ignored it and forgot. I have been using the tetra 6-in-1 test strips to measure and I just found out that I’ve been reading it wrong (might be why those fish didn’t do well?). I thought they were just sick because I got them from a chain pet store, but when I had the store test my water (they use the same strips I use) they told me my pH is actually quite high. And they struggled with GH read for a minute too but ended up calling it hard.

Hard water, high pH (around 8 maybe? I’m going to try to get a better test), doesn’t seem so good for cories and neons or most of the other potential fish I was looking at. So yep, might end up rethinking my setup now if my further testing confirms this. I feel kinda silly

Is this a good time to mention that my tap water also reads ammonia/ammonium at 1ppm? Hehehe. I’m having lots of fun

 

[Retired Viking]

Where I live we have hard water also but I use RO water to reduce the hardness so I can keep tetras, I have lost a few neon tetras to. They are not as hardy as they use to be. Too much in breeding. Also with a new tank it is best to wait 6 months until it is fully stabilized before adding fish like neons since they are sensitive. I have glow light tetras which I have had for well over a year and not lost one. I currently have ember, neon and glow light tetras in my 55 gallon tetra tank.

 

[mcordelia]

@Aquadaisy sounds like your water parameters are giving you a hard time sorry to hear that! No day like the present to move towards the next best aquarium practices!

A lot of folks recommend using the API master test kit coupled with the API GH/KH test (it doesn't come bundled). Sometimes test strips can be inaccurate, especially depending on how they are stored. Not that the liquid kits are infallible, I've heard a few stories of folks adding fish or making changes based on their readings only to discover that the test kit had a problem instead, oof!

However, it sounds like you're on the right track moving forward, feel free to post questions and I'm sure a lot of folks will be willing to help you out!

 

[Aquadaisy]

Where I live we have hard water also but I use RO water to reduce the hardness so I can keep tetras, I have lost a few neon tetras to. They are not as hardy as they use to be. Too much in breeding. Also with a new tank it is best to wait 6 months until it is fully stabilized before adding fish like neons since they are sensitive. I have glow light tetras which I have had for well over a year and not lost one. I currently have ember, neon and glow light tetras in my 55 gallon tetra tan

Cool tank! I bet it’s super fun to watch all those tetras. And thanks for the response. An RO unit would be nice... just not something I was hoping to invest in yet. But maybe I’ll change my mind after looking into it more

 

[Aquadaisy]

@mcordelia I was looking at that kit actually, I think API liquid tests will be my next step.
Thanks for the guidance/sympathy! I really appreciate it

 

[Retired Viking]

I use test pens for hardness and PH. They are not expensive and easy to use espically the TDS-3 which is very accurate.

 

[Aquadaisy]

That’s interesting. I haven’t heard much about those but it sounds very convenient to use a pen. And better than relying on color comparison which has already failed me