Maintaining stable water conditions in small aquariums

[EmJay]

How do you all manage to maintain stable water conditions in your small aquariums?

I find it easy to maintain on my 180L aquarium but my small aquarium is proving harder. I know people do say it's easier in larger aquariums.

 

[kwi]

I think smaller aquariums do need larger water changes to keep them as close to the source water as possible, how much water do you change and how often?

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I have two 60L and a 48 L tank, I think understocking, over filtering and heavy planting, along with large weekly water changes is the trick. Anytime my stocking has been heavier, I have to up the water changes to account for it, like when growing out large amounts of fry, water changes have to go to 2-3 times a week, to keep the water quality good.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

With small tanks, more frequent water changes are necessary.

I used to have a 2.5g tank up and running, and I had to do water changes 2 times a week for the water conditions to be stable. Bigger tanks like 10g - 29g (in my experience) only require once weekly water changes.

 

[Fishiemang]

When my 10 gallon was unplanted, it was damn near impossible to maintain good.params. I eventually upgraded that tank to my 38 gallon. Recently, well, 6 months maybe, ago I dug the 10 gallon out of moth balls due to needed something for my electric blue Jack.Dempsy to grow up in for a while (he got beat up pretty bad in the 75 gallon), so I filled it.with sand, planted.dwarf grass, added a.couple ferns and a few other plants, put in some roots, and I never do water changes now. I just add water whenever it is needed. Params stay perfect. Seems plants are the key. Water is crystal clear too. Ole Jack is a happy fish in there for the time being. Has recovered from his butt whoopin, fins all grown.back.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Indeed smaller tanks are harder to maintain than larger tank, larger tanks have much larger volume of water so therefore it’s the dilution of toxic elements are much easier to control, especially if one has live plants.

For smaller tanks, the water parameters are not so forgiving due to the small water volume hence less dilution of the toxic elements.

More or larger water changes nd the addition of live plants are mandatory for these small tanks imho.

That’s why it’s a real pet peeve of mine that LFS, particularly chain store LFS and online retailers sell these so called “starter tanks” which can be anything from 3 gals to 10 gals and newbies will be highly unlikely to know of these points we have all mentioned earlier so it’s almost practically doomed from the very start for these newbies and livestock with these small tanks.

Sorry, that’s my little rant over about LFS and ‘starter tanks’!

 

[hansgruber7]

Beautiful tank. I've always wanted a Jack Dempsey, but I figured I need a bigger tank. I assume eventually he would have to go in a bigger tank, right?

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Awesome tank man, beautiful.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Beautiful tank. I've always wanted a Jack Dempsey, but I figured I need a bigger tank. I assume eventually he would have to go in a bigger tank, right?

Most definitely, Jack Dempsey’s can get up to 10 inches long. A 55g tank is the minimum tank size for JD’s, along with a fine sanded bottom.

 

[hansgruber7]

Is it best to keep them alone, or ok to add tank mates?

 

[Fishiemang]

Yea. He will be going back into my 75 gallon once I get that tank sorted out. I bought him when he was just a baby, put him in there, and he was doing good. Lots of hiding places. But I had water wisteria in that tank very heavy, and he got beat up pretty bad. His fins were all but nipped away by african cichlids that were in the tank. They were all juveniles, but, he got beat, and I found him tucked into the top, by the surface of the water, barely alive. So, I put him in a 5 gallon hospital tank for a bit, and once he recovered enough, I set the 10 gallon up and tossed him in there. He has been living in that for a while now, but he will get pretty big, so, he will need to go back into the 75. All the african cichlids I had in there died off for some reason. Only 2 left are my Jewel Cichlid and my Kribensis. Oh, and the peacock. These 3 are pretty timid in there, and keep to themselves so, once I get the tank planted and stabile, he will be moved back.

Then the 10 gallon is going to be a shrimp tank. Gonna get some cherrys, some ghost, and a few amanos.....think that would be good for that tank...

 

[itiwhetu]

I can't say it enough, plant is the key to a stable aquarium, most of your problems will go away when you get to the 30 - 50% to volume mark of live plant.

 

[hansgruber7]

Yea. He will be going back into my 75 gallon once I get that tank sorted out. I bought him when he was just a baby, put him in there, and he was doing good. Lots of hiding places. But I had water wisteria in that tank very heavy, and he got beat up pretty bad. His fins were all but nipped away by african cichlids that were in the tank. They were all juveniles, but, he got beat, and I found him tucked into the top, by the surface of the water, barely alive. So, I put him in a 5 gallon hospital tank for a bit, and once he recovered enough, I set the 10 gallon up and tossed him in there. He has been living in that for a while now, but he will get pretty big, so, he will need to go back into the 75. All the african cichlids I had in there died off for some reason. Only 2 left are my Jewel Cichlid and my Kribensis. Oh, and the peacock. These 3 are pretty timid in there, and keep to themselves so, once I get the tank planted and stabile, he will be moved back.

Then the 10 gallon is going to be a shrimp tank. Gonna get some cherrys, some ghost, and a few amanos.....think that would be good for that tank...

What else will you have in the 75 gallon with him? I'm thinking about what I can do someday when I get a bigger tank and an EBJD.

 

[Fishiemang]

There is a Jewel Cichlid in there, a Kribensis, a Peacock Cichlid, a Convict Cichlid, a Common Pleco and a Rainbow Shark. I dunno if they will all get along, but, the dempsy is small enough that he will "grow up" with these other fish. They won't have a choice. There are plenty of hiding places in there for the other fish so...it should be ok. We will see some day.

Everything I have read about them seems it should be ok. In reality, they got their name for a reason. Plus, fish like that, if they can get it in their mouth, they'll eat it. So far, this one has had mollie fry around him and he shows no interest in eating them. Just chasing them.

 

[StevenF]

Am I the only one with a 5 gallon tank?

My tank uses RO water and it is stable. PH always 7 (+/-0.2) GH is whatever I set it to with my Gh Booster, KH is basically zero. Gets a 50% water change once a week and it is fertilized once aduring the water change. I have gone 2 weeks without a water change and lighting is medium but I do on occasion run the lights for 10 to 12 hours on the weekend. Normally the timer runs the lights for 7 hours.

These are some suggestions I have:
Us a sand substrate: originally I had a corse gravel. over time a lot of organics built up between the stones and it couldn't be removed due to the carpet of plants . Eventually black beard algae took over and. I did a reset by removing the substrate and several water changes to insure it was clean. The remaining BBA on the filter glass and plants died off. Then after a couple of weeks I put in Black Diamond medium blasting sand and replanted the plants I recovered. I did not steriliae my filter and pump. There is very little BBA in the tank a year later. and the snails can keep up ww with it. There isn't enough space between the grains of sand for any significant organic buildup. It can build up in the filter but that can easily be cleaned.

While My RO water is only slightly acidic (which is normal for RO) the PH of the tank would drop even further during the week and then when up at the next water change. I put a sample of fertilized water in empty container and PH stayed stable. However when i put a plant in the container the PH would drop. Lowest I saw was4.7. I have determined it was caused by plant consumption of calcium and magnesium GH boosters in addition to Ca and Mg also have CL and or S since sulfide and chloride salts of Mg and Ca. Plant need a lot of Ca and Mg but need very little S and CL for growth. SoExcess S and CL would build up and push the PH down. I Put a snail shell in my filter. I purchase a $2 bag of shells at the pet store (enough to last years). The shells are mainly CaCO3 with a little MgCO3. These react with the excess S and CL crating PH neutral Ca and Mg salts. PH always stays very close to 7.. For a tank with tap water rich in carbonatesI suspect could plants might convert the Ca and Mg carbonates in the tank to hydroxides which would PH up. Possible solutions would be to add CO2 or reduce the lighting and plant growth rate to insure CO2 and carbonate levels would stay stable. I have a CO2 system on my tank.

But the biggest issue of all was my fertilizer. If I was deficient in something Algae would grow out of control. All fertilizer manufactures assume you do get some nutrients from your tap water or your substrate. Unfortunately RO is pure and sand is inert and won't have any nutrients. I had the same issues with Flourish comprehensive, CSM+B and Aqueon Fertilizer. I eventually made my own Macro fertilizer, GH booster, and micro fertilizer. The macro was easy 10ppm NO3 using Potassium nitrate, KNO3) and 1ppm PO4 using potassium Phosphate (KH2PO4). My GH booster is 3 parts Calcium Chloride and One part Magnesium sulfate. This insured I had enough Ca, MG, S, and Cl. That was the easy. The rest was harder. I have to make my own macro using iIron DTPA, Manganese sulfate, Boric acid, Zinc sulfate,, Copper sulfate, sodium molybdate, and nickel sulfate. to reach the following concentrations of Fe 0.1ppm. Mn0.05ppm, B 0.025ppm, Zn 0.030ppm, Cu 0.01ppm, Mo 0.01ppm, and Ni at 0.004ppm. All the fertilizers I tried had insufficient Zn, Cu, and Mo for my tank. Basically all had only enough for about 1 day of plant growth.

With this fertilizer mix I have minimal algae. My 2 Nerite snails keep the glass clean and small pond snails and shrimp work on the plants and places the Nerites cannot reach.

Maintenance once a week ia 50% water change, Refertilize the water, Remove excess floating plants. About once a month clean the filter. Stiring the water also lifts any material sitting on the substrate which then gets filtered out by the filter.