Looking At Changing My Tank Around

[spamalamadingdong]

Hi

I got bought a tank about 2 years ago and all has been running fine
I'm just trying to get more into it and looking at upgrading certain elements of my tank

I have a Juwel rekord 70 (tank below) with a Fluval 1 Plus and a 50w heater.
Stock is:
1 x clown loach
4 x guppies
1 x platy
1 x phantom tetra
3 x neon tetra
4 x cardinal tetra
1 x small pleco

I bought some test kits and last night I did a test on the water and the following results were:
ph: 7.5
NO2: <0.3mg/l
NO3: 12.5mg/l
NH3/NH4 (Ammonia): 0mg/l

Currently I have all silk plants in there but I'm wanting to change my tank around, as over the years the cleaning of the silk plants of algae has just made them look horrible & they still have the algae embedded in them.
I occasionally replace them but I was looking at getting rid of everything and putting in some kind of wood feature, maybe like the Mopani Wood and some live plants.

So the question is, is it bad to do this? Will it upset the balance of my tank?
If it's OK what type of plants would people suggest?
I have just bought a couple of books and am just currently reading up about different plants but was just wondering if anyone had any advice

Also I was wondering if could I put any more (small) fish in or should I leave it as is


Cheers
Andy

 

[Wills]

Hi welcome to the forum! Its great that your tank has been up and running for so long

With your decor, no problem at all as most of the bacteria lives in the filter so thats not going to be an issue if you swap to real plants and wood, just remember to soak the wood before you put it in the tank to make it sink and remove all tanins.

Now the worrying parts from your post, you say you have an N02 aka nitrite reading of 0.3 this needs to be 0 and it can often be bad for the fish in the tank. The reasons you could have this high reading in the tank is down to a few reasons, one is that you have some fish that are inappropriate for your tank like the plec which will be producing quite a lot of poo which sends your readings off (but more on your stock in a sec) the other could be your filter being too dirty, how often do you clean the sponges etc? Also that one in the pic dsnt look like the standard juwel one what make and model is it? Do you know how many liters per hour it does?

Now then your stock, you have a few fish on there that are a bit of an issue in the long term both size wise and in numbers. So these are my thoughts,
1 x clown loach - needs a much bigger tank they eventually grow to over a foot long and need to be in groups of about 5. An alternative for your tank would be the dwarf chain loach which again needs to be in groups but stays around 2 inches and is quite similar to the clown loach.
4 x guppies - I see in the pic you have all males which is a good idea to prevent babies
1 x platy
1 x phantom tetra - Needs to be in groups of at least 6 but otherwise okay
3 x neon tetra - Same as phantoms
4 x cardinal tetra - Same as phantoms
1 x small pleco - is this a small common pleco? Or is it one of the smaller species of pleco do you have any pictures? If its a small common pleco again these grow to over a foot and they grow very fast and can easily grow at a rate of 1 inch per month.

hope thats helped a bit
Wills

 

[spamalamadingdong]

Hi Wills

Thanks for the welcome and swift reply

Now the worrying parts from your post, you say you have an N02 aka nitrite reading of 0.3 this needs to be 0 and it can often be bad for the fish in the tank.

I did the test last night and the reading was the bottom of the scale on the chart, the colour was in the the "<0.3" bracket, so I presumed this could be anywhere between 0 to 0.3 as there was no marker for 0
It is this kit. If you rollover the picture you can see the top colour on the chart is a yellowy colour and this was marked as <0.3mg/l

Also that one in the pic dsnt look like the standard juwel one what make and model is it

The filter is a Fluval 1, it says 200 litres per hr. I usually clean this every time I change the water (usually about every 7-12 days in tank water)

1 x clown loach - needs a much bigger tank they eventually grow to over a foot long and need to be in groups of about 5

I've had him about 2 years and he doesn't seem to have grown any more than this, will he still grow bigger?

1 x phantom tetra - Needs to be in groups of at least 6 but otherwise okay

I did have 2 but one of them died last week, which prompted me to get some test kits and check the water

is this a small common pleco?

I think it's an Otocinclus like this one, couple of cm long and had this one since the beginning, so about 2 years

So if I was to put more fish in you would recommend doubling up on things like the clown loach & phantoms?


Thanks again for all your help
Cheers
Andy

 

[Wills]

The clown loach will keep growing but it does take a long long time like literally years, he looks about right at the moment for a 2 year clown a bit on the small side but that might be the tank size thats limiting it. Filter is fine And the test kit the strips are pretty innacurate at times, im a bit suprised that the boundries are that wide really as .25 ppm is quite important thing to note sometimes. If you can get a liquid test just to be sure but I think on reflection now it will be okay And again the oto is perfect for the tank

As for your stocking options IMO I would do something like
1 x platty
4 x guppies
6 x phantom tetra
6 x neon tetra
6 x cardinal tetra
4 x ottos

With the tank only being 60 liters I wouldnt have the loaches in there but obviously I understand the attachment to a 2 year pet so its upto you really. Is a bigger tank an option at all?

Wills

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, good advice there from Wills. I suspect the <.3 reading may just be Tetratecs way of saying zero and it sounds like your maintenance is good.

Growing tired of cleaning algae from silk plants strikes me as a very natural spur to transition into some wood and live plant features! Wood should be fine, you can do searches and read about it all over the forum.

The place to start thinking about plants is with the lighting. Review your specs with the members: What is the water volume of your Juwel, what type of light bulbs, total wattage, diameter of bulbs if fluorescent, how many hours you are currently keeping them on.

Light is the "driver" of the whole plant system the aquarist needs to think about. The more intense and the longer the light is on, the more nutrients the plants will demand from their environment and the more quickly they may run out of one or more nutrients.

In practice, a tank and situation like yours will most likely work well with an approach we term "low-light" technique. Knowing this term, you can (cautiously, lol, there's a lot of stuff over there to confuse you!) begin reading some of the articles in the "PARC" (resource center at the top of planted tank subforum.) The plan would be to verify that your light intensity is in range and to perhaps assume your fish load is providing enough of most of the nutrients and then begin learning about slow growth low-light species of plants and working up a plant stocking list of those, with an eye toward ones you like.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[spamalamadingdong]

Is a bigger tank an option at all?

We moved into a new house in the past yr or 2 and are looking at doing the lounge up this summer.
When we do this I'm looking at upgrading to a tank of about 120 -150 litres

But basically I'm trying to learn as much as I can before that, as I don't want to upgrade until I feel I can properly look after my fish and understand more about fish keeping

What is the water volume of your Juwel, what type of light bulbs, total wattage, diameter of bulbs if fluorescent, how many hours you are currently keeping them on.

The volume is 60l, I'm looking to put a new bulb in as it's about a yr old now & I read that for a planted tank I need to change this on a yearly basis
this is something I'm looking into, as I said I've just bought some books & am feverishly reading through these trying to understand a bit more about the planted aspect of the tank before I take the plunge
Currently I have the tank on for about 10hrs a day

begin reading some of the articles in the "PARC"

thanks for pointing me to this, I'll have a good look through this, looks some good stuff


Thanks again for all your help & advice it's been invaluable
Cheers
Andy

 

[byrnezee]

Thanks to this thread I can put a name to a group of fish in my tank
(Otocinclus) lol

 

[waterdrop]

Algae is a result of ammonia and light (even trace amounts of ammonia that are too small for our test kit to pick up on at all.) While there may be an aspect of the balance between your bioload (the fish) and the capacity and effectiveness of your filter (ie. it may not be filtering out the ammonia quite as well as possible,) the really likely culprit for your algae is probably that you are leaving your light on for 10 hours. If you don't have live plants then you only need light when viewing the tank. While its nice for the fish to have a little light in the day, they don't really need a tank-top light being on. Even though you haven't told us your light type, tube diameter or wattage yet, the fact that you're keeping it on that long is enough to safely say this is probably a main cause of your algae.

~~waterdrop~~
ps. byrnezee, we call 'em "Otos" for short

 

[spamalamadingdong]

Hi Waterdrop

you haven't told us your light type, tube diameter or wattage yet

Sorry forgot to tell you that
I currently have a Arcadia Original Tropical Lamp 18" - 450mm long 1" diam 15 watt
But like i say I've had this over a year so will probably look at replacing it when I get some plants

So when I get some plants the leaving it on for 10-12hrs will be fine? AS this will obviously help the plants grow


Cheers
Andy

 

[Assaye]

Is a bigger tank an option at all?

We moved into a new house in the past yr or 2 and are looking at doing the lounge up this summer.
When we do this I'm looking at upgrading to a tank of about 120 -150 litres

The others are helping out with all the planted tank stuff and wills has already mentioned where it would be a good idea to change your stocking.

I just want to add that 12-150 litres would be great for all the fish you have at the moment except for the clown loach. It will be a good stop-gap measure for in and might last for a year or so, but if you can't commit to giving him a very large tank in the future I would strongly consider remoing him

He's a lovely fish and I can understand the attatchment but he will keep growing and should really have some friends.

Also, don't be scared of a bigger tank! If you keep the same filter and same fish then it's really no different to the smaller tank. In fact, it could be easier as the water could stay in better balance! I would add a second filter, maybe a Fluval U3 for the larger tank, but keep the old one running or move the media across to the new one. You could slowly add some new fish to the new tank - maybe increae the groups of the tetras and otos to 8 each and get some small loaches as Wills mentioned.

Good luck and I look forward to seeing pictures of the tank when it has plants and wood!

 

[waterdrop]

Well, most of us end up using lamp timers with our lights. At 15w T8(1-inch-diameter is T8) over 16 US gallons, you are just under 1 watt/gallon, putting you solidly in the right territory for "low-light" technique. We just had a discussion over in planted about the fact that probably you don't really need to pay attention to that older thing of replacing your tubes every year. Members there are reporting nice success doing low-light with .7 and .8 w/g and it going just fine.

More light is not "better." Intensity and duration of light are an important balancing tool in planted aquariums. While its true that too little light can result in poor growth, the much, much more common problem is having algae outbreaks from too much light. I would be thinking more about one 4-hour photoperiod (period when light is on) and then if algae is not breaking out, jumping up to two 4-hour periods (possibly morning and evening as we usually use this lighted times for when we are home to view the tank.) Many people carry out "low-light" technique with slow-growth plants (anubias, java fern, java moss, many others) liquid carbon dosing and fertilizers either coming just from the fish or doing reduced EI dosing (Estimative Index - explained in planted subforum resource center) with 50% weekly water changes to "reset" the ferts.

If that's too much detail, just don't worry about it as you'll slowly begin to pick it up.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[spamalamadingdong]

Just wanted to say thanks for everyones help & advice
I took the plunge this weekend after a lot of reading and a lot of helpful advice from the guys at Maidenhead aquatics in Cambridge

So I spent the weekend planting up, installing an airstone & lots of vigorous scrubbing of stones!

I would be thinking more about one 4-hour photoperiod (period when light is on)

I've set the timer to 4hrs in the evening so just going to keep monitoring the situation & take it form there


I'm very happy with the new look, so thanks again and thought I would share my end result with you
It definitely looks a lot happier tank!


Cheers
Andy

 

[waterdrop]

Wow! Doesn't that look great! Nice transformation there!

I don't know what the planted guys would think of the individual plants (its hard for us beginners to be experts on all the different plants) but hopefully all or most will like your tank conditions and will survive and do well. Keep a close eye out for ones that begin to die however, as I sure you're aware that when they turn and begin to break down they can add a lot of ammonia to the tank.

~~waterdrop~~