More Questions!

[matthewgardner]

Hi all

I got a cople of questions again....this is such a good site, its saving me no end of bother as well as giving me a good comparason to what im told at my local pet store...thanks again

1. i have a lot of plants for my 55l and they seem to be doing well, do i still need to clean the gravel? am concerned that this might up set the roots.

2. i also have a tetra substrate under the gravel...again i dont want to mix this up with the graval? how should i go about cleaning

3. i have a jbl test kit that tests for N03, N02, FE, PH, and KH. am i right in thinking that N02 is ammonia?

4. Do snails control algie well and if sohow many and what type.

The more i read on this site the more questions i get! My wife says im obsessed, lol.
( i keep finding her staring at the fish tank though )

my stats are;

ph - 7.2
kh - 10 ( i think)
fe - 0.3
N02 - 0
N0 3 - 15/20

i have 7 Harlequins i at mo. will be adding 5 corys in mounth or two as advised earlier.

ta

Matt.

 

[LauraFrog]

1/2. What sort of filtration do you have? If you've got a tetra substrate underneath I'm assuming you don't have undergravel. If the tank is heavily planted and lightly stocked (like yours will be) then the plants are often enough to keep the gravel clean, absorbing the nutrients as soon as the rotting gunk in the gravel releases them. It's still a good idea to clean the part of the gravel with no plants as they only remove nutrients that are immediately around their roots. So stay far enough away with the gravel cleaner to avoid uprooting your plants, and only clean over the topmost layer of gravel - just dip the gravel cleaner into the gravel bed by about a centimetre or so. This removes the gunk which tends to settle in the top layer of gravel, without disturbing the bacteria and the plant substrate further down. Excessive gravel cleaning is not a good idea because some of your good bacteria live in the gravel. Once every month or two is enough.

3. NO2 is nitrite. NO3 is nitrate. Fe is iron. I recommend you get a separate ammonia test, especially since your tank is new. Ammonia tests check for NH3 or NH4+ (they are different, but it's complicated and for some reason they will just write either on the test... don't worry, they all work) Your water stats are fine. Nitrite should be zero (yours is) and your nitrate reading is normal. It will go up during the week before a water change and then drop when you change the water. It is not harmful to fish except in very large doses (like 400ppm).

4. What sort of algae are you having problems with? Snails are fairly good at removing that green or brown slime you get on your glass. Two or three big snails like apple snails or mystery snails should do a fair bit towards shifting it because they move faster and eat more than small snails. They will, however, leave ugly trails on your front glass, so you should clean it every few days with a piece of filter floss or with some pantyhose stretched over your hand.
The small, dark, hard dots that grow on the glass cannot be removed by anything except elbow grease. They are diatoms and are a total pain. There's nothing you can do except scrub them off. Always use filter floss for this, never a scourer or anything like that because it will scratch the glass. Then you get algae in the scratches - not a good look.
The bluish stuff that drapes itself over everything like a veil is blue-green algae. That stuff is hell and there are specific ways of dealing with it, there's not much you can add to a tank that will kill it.
Green or blue algae that grows in filaments or looks like a brush can often be removed by otos (otocinclus catfish). They delight in eating all manner of hair algae and are very good at removing it. Note however that although small they are schooling - you could swap three otos for one cory though with your stocking list. They will also need supplementary feeding when they have depleted the algae supply - feed them on scalded lettuce, peas, or specially formulated algae wafers (get the good ones, not the cheap ones which are basically compressed flakes dyed green.) They will not thrive on flake food.

 

[matthewgardner]

Thanks a Lot LauraFrog :

Great and very helpfull detailed advice.

i will go for those catfish you mentioned as well. do you think i should wait about a mounth before adding?

I have a JBL external 120 filter with the outlet 2cms under the water.

Here is a pic of my tank before i added fish

 

[LauraFrog]

That is very well planted (great tank btw, love it!) so if you just vacuum the top of the gravel at the front you should be okay.

I'd wait a few more weeks before adding otos as they can be a little sensitive and are often on the expensive side considering their size; they are worth it though and they aren't ridiculously priced. Get at least three because they don't like to be on their own. If you are never getting an ammonia reading you should be alright to add the otos. You might want to add them one at a time, two or three days apart, to avoid spiking your tank since it's fairly new.

 

[waterdrop]

Hi there Matt,

You've got enough interest that I think you'd benefit from reading as much as you can find about the nitrogen cycle in the pinned articles in our New to the Hobby section. There are quite a few good threads that have been collected and you can benefit from reading our working article on fishless cycling by rdd1952, regardless of your tank situation currently. Its all just good info to know about the core things of the hobby.

Regarding your questions about substrates and plants I'd like to comment that you will find many good comments here in the New to the Hobby section and most of them will be fairly consistent. However it might be a good idea to understand that there may be a number of approaches to raising plants that are effective. There are both low-tech low-cost approaches and high-tech higher effort approaches and you may ultimately find that either path can lead to satisfaction but the details of the recommendations are quite different from each other.

So the this is just to say that the additional topic of planted tanks is out there and quite interesting and you can begin to learn quite a bit about it over in the planted section.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[matthewgardner]

Hi there Matt,

You've got enough interest that I think you'd benefit from reading as much as you can find about the nitrogen cycle in the pinned articles in our New to the Hobby section. There are quite a few good threads that have been collected and you can benefit from reading our working article on fishless cycling by rdd1952, regardless of your tank situation currently. Its all just good info to know about the core things of the hobby.

Regarding your questions about substrates and plants I'd like to comment that you will find many good comments here in the New to the Hobby section and most of them will be fairly consistent. However it might be a good idea to understand that there may be a number of approaches to raising plants that are effective. There are both low-tech low-cost approaches and high-tech higher effort approaches and you may ultimately find that either path can lead to satisfaction but the details of the recommendations are quite different from each other.

So the this is just to say that the additional topic of planted tanks is out there and quite interesting and you can begin to learn quite a bit about it over in the planted section.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[matthewgardner]

Thanks a lot

I have made slight changes to the plant set up since that pic but not much.... was very please with your kind compliment, .
Will def go fot the ottos.... and will get reading asap. find myself fasinated with my plants at mo. so no rush for fish.

Many thanks

 

[vinylman]

Hi Matthew,

There's no problem adding Otos now, just so long as you can get ones that are nice and plump; that means they've started eating again after their long journey; first to this country, then to the LFS. If you look at a tank with Otos in at the LFS, you'll be able to tell which ones are eating and which are still recovering from the trip. Just ask for the fatter ones and when you get them home, acclimatise them slowly, in a bucket if possible, rather than floating the bag in the tank.

 

[waterdrop]

Hi Matthew,

There's no problem adding Otos now, just so long as you can get ones that are nice and plump; that means they've started eating again after their long journey; first to this country, then to the LFS. If you look at a tank with Otos in at the LFS, you'll be able to tell which ones are eating and which are still recovering from the trip. Just ask for the fatter ones and when you get them home, acclimatise them slowly, in a bucket if possible, rather than floating the bag in the tank.

Hey vinyl, is there a certain type of sinking tablet or other food you've found to be particularly good for otos? WD

 

[Keithoms]

I use hikari for my catfish

 

[matthewgardner]

Hi Matthew,

There's no problem adding Otos now, just so long as you can get ones that are nice and plump; that means they've started eating again after their long journey; first to this country, then to the LFS. If you look at a tank with Otos in at the LFS, you'll be able to tell which ones are eating and which are still recovering from the trip. Just ask for the fatter ones and when you get them home, acclimatise them slowly, in a bucket if possible, rather than floating the bag in the tank.

Hey vinyl, is there a certain type of sinking tablet or other food you've found to be particularly good for otos? WD

Thanks

I will hold off getting them for a bit as i need a Ammonia test kit., just a quick one on acclimatising them in the bucket before hand.
i take it that means in thier bag, could you tell me how long for?

ta

 

[vinylman]

Matthew,

No, I empty the new fish and bag water into a bucket (either a new one, or one you use for water changes), that way I can take as long as I want adding half a cupful of tankwater at a time to the bucket. I usually do it every ten minutes for about an hour (maybe more, depending on the fish) then net them out and into the tank. I know some people may think I'm being over-cautious, but I've yet to lose a fish after acclimatising them this way.


Waterdrop,

I use the Tetra Tabimin sinking tablets (I also have Corys), one and a half broken in two - half at each end of the tank, the other in the centre, about ten minutes after lights out; not sure if you have those over there. I used to use the Hikari wafers, but they seldom seemed to be interested in them and they used to make a bit of a mess of the substrate. TBH, I seldom see them anywhere but on the leaves of the plants and the back glass of the tank (which I never clean, specifically with the Otos in mind, and they've never been less than plump). The five new Otos I bought last week can't keep off the front glass, Vallis at the front of the tank and the Echinodorus toward the back - they haven't been anywhere near the back glass yet, but they're VERY active and not the least bit skittish.

 

[matthewgardner]

Matthew,

No, I empty the new fish and bag water into a bucket (either a new one, or one you use for water changes), that way I can take as long as I want adding half a cupful of tankwater at a time to the bucket. I usually do it every ten minutes for about an hour (maybe more, depending on the fish) then net them out and into the tank. I know some people may think I'm being over-cautious, but I've yet to lose a fish after acclimatising them this way.


Waterdrop,

I use the Tetra Tabimin sinking tablets (I also have Corys), one and a half broken in two - half at each end of the tank, the other in the centre, about ten minutes after lights out; not sure if you have those over there. I used to use the Hikari wafers, but they seldom seemed to be interested in them and they used to make a bit of a mess of the susbstrate. TBH, I seldom see them anywhere but on the leaves of the plants and the back glass of the tank (which I never clean, specifically with the Otos in mind, and they've never been less than plump). The five new Otos I bought last week can't keep off the front glass, Vallis at the front of the tank and the Echinodorus toward the back - they haven't been anywhere near the back glass yet, but they're VERY active and not the least bit skittish.

Hi,

Im lookingforward to getting them in my tank and have found a shop that sell some nice fat ones. They also donated some mature filter medium as well which i thought was nice off them

Should i hold of longer as Im getting:

N02 - 0.025
Ammonia - 0

Still cahanging approx 25% water ever2 days at mo.

 

[waterdrop]

Yeah, if you're getting any NO2 then you're not there yet, unfortunately.

Sounds like an especially nice shop!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[matthewgardner]

Thought so thanks

if i understand correctly 25 - 50% changes are in order to keep this down. My only question is.. If i remove most of the N02 from water changes ( i dont want t expose my fish to it) will this slow down the formation of the bacteria that process it out to N03.

Im hoping that it wont to much after adding that old filter medium. My new shop wont sell fish to me untill they run tests on my water. They have one me over. Wish id known about fishless cycling and this site before i started on this tank. Would'nt mind buying you lot a beer. thanks again.

good news is i now have practically no algie ( down to the plants i think)
bad news tons of snails ( thinking of getting some sort of snail eating snail! lol)

God i wish id been this interested at school.

tonights readings are
N02 0.5
NH4 0

Not tested N03 as im doing so many water changes.

ta