Need Your Advise For my Tank.

[Colin_T]

You can grow some of your own fish food. I always take an icecream bucket and lid when I visit my mother. I go out and tap the aphids off her roses and collect them in the bucket. The fish love them.

If you live near a pond or creek, you can often see midges swarming. you can use a fine mesh net to catch these and put them in a plastic bag. Seal the bag up and pop in freezer. Feed them a couple fo times a week as a treat.

Daphnia can be collected from ponds and put into a container of green water. Green water is simply single celled algae that is blooming in the water. The daphnia eat the algae and reproduce readily. then you scoop some out and feed to the fish.

Brineshrimp can be bought from a shop or grown from eggs. They live in salt water and the newly hatched babies are an excellent food for any small fish. And if you feed the babies on yeast or algae they grow and can be given to larger fish.

Mosquitoe larvae are regularly found in containers of water that have been sitting outside for a few weeks. You scoop the mozzie larvae out, rinse under a tap then feed to the fish. Mozzie larvae are one of the best foods to bring fish into breeding condition.

Microworms can be cultured in 2 litre icecream buckets. They live on porridge and yeast, and when they swarm up the sides of the bucket you wipe them off with your finger and feed to small fish. You should be able to get starter cultures from a petshop or online.

Grindle worms are grown in peat moss and fed powdered baby cereal. You have a piece of glass on to of the peat and the worms crawl onto the glass or up the sides of the container, and you wipe them off and feed to the fish.

 

[Byron]

One caution on collecting natural (wild) foods...if these come from natural waterways you can introduce various pathogens that may harm and kill tropical fish. It is OK (usually) to culture your own in tubs or whatever, but collecting from natural waterways is not advisable.

Pathogens that local fish are able to deal with can prove fatal to tropical species. And the reverse is true, which is why we must never dump aquarium water, plants or fish in the wild where it can enter the natural ecosystem.

A general comment on all these foods...for nutrition, reliable dried foods are usually better, with a few exceptions. Some frozen foods, thinking of bloodworms and worms in general, should not be fed more than once a week. Using prepared foods like good quality flake, pellet or sinking as the basic foods will be satisfactory and sometimes better.

 

[why]

thank you very much, i have tried frozen blood worms yesterday and let them eat for 5 minutes and vacuumed the rest of the remaining form the tank.. will try some boiled peas later on and other things.

Can you please suggest a good aquarium light for the tank for growth of plants. i am using one good power floor lamp and i beleive its not enough.. wanted to try one economic one first also i am planning to move to a bigger 29 gallon or 40 gallon tank later on.. so bit of flexible one if possible. i am using Seachem tabs, Flourish and Seachem traces liquid.. some plants are not grownd and shed all their leaves.. but staying green .. i have seen fishes happy and moving around plants.. wanted to add more plants.. and since i cant add substrate now..looking for better options..planning to order some java fern and Hornwort plants.. for some reason i dont want snails in the tank and trying to take care as soon as i am seeing them..any other procedures to take care to prevent them from plants.. no matter how good is the seller i am seeing most fo the reviews..

 

[Byron]

thank you very much, i have tried frozen blood worms yesterday and let them eat for 5 minutes and vacuumed the rest of the remaining form the tank.. will try some boiled peas later on and other things.

Can you please suggest a good aquarium light for the tank for growth of plants. i am using one good power floor lamp and i beleive its not enough.. wanted to try one economic one first also i am planning to move to a bigger 29 gallon or 40 gallon tank later on.. so bit of flexible one if possible. i am using Seachem tabs, Flourish and Seachem traces liquid.. some plants are not grownd and shed all their leaves.. but staying green .. i have seen fishes happy and moving around plants.. wanted to add more plants.. and since i cant add substrate now..looking for better options..planning to order some java fern and Hornwort plants.. for some reason i dont want snails in the tank and trying to take care as soon as i am seeing them..any other procedures to take care to prevent them from plants.. no matter how good is the seller i am seeing most fo the reviews..

There is nothing wrong with the small snails. They will help maintain a healthier aquarium. They do not eat live healthy plants. They eat dead organics like fish poop to break it down faster for the bacteria to deal with.

For a light, you have a couple options. This is a 20g tank, basic (24 inches length). You might find a 2-socket incandescent fixture somewhere, and with two 9w CFL 6500K bulbs it would be ideal. I have this over my 10g and 20g tanks.

Another option is LED, much more expensive, and you need to get a good spectrum for plants. I've not had good luck with LED so will leave it to others to recommend fixtures.

A single T8 fluorescent tube fixture is another option. You might find one of these somewhere. You do not want T5, that is too bright.

 

[why]

Thank you very much, if you have some time can you please give me some links of the bulbs and fixtures.

 

[Colin_T]

go to your local hardware store and check out the LED spotlights there. They are economical to run and relatively cheap to buy. Look for one with a 6500K rating. Check out different wattages, and post your tank dimensions so we can suggest a wattage.
what size tank do you have (length x width x height)?

 

[Byron]

Thank you very much, if you have some time can you please give me some links of the bulbs and fixtures.

I don't know where you live, so I will provide links to the lighting I am talking about just so you know what it is.

For tanks as small as a 20g, a proper aquarium light is best. The fluorescent strip light is here:
https://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3733+3803&pcatid=3803

Oddly it does not say if this is T8 or T5, but I would assume T8. So don't go ordering it, I have only linking the type. These strip lights sit across the tank lengthwise, and sit on the tank frame. You need a glass cover between the light and the water, and the glass cover sets are fairly inexpensive. You may already have one, I don't know what you now have.

The incandescent fixture would look exactly the same except it would have two normal sockets instead of the fluorescent tube. These are very hard to come by as most lighting has moved on to fluorescent and now LED, but sometimes you can come across them; I got mine from a couple local fish stores that had them on clearance to get rid of them. The CFL (compact fluorescent) bulbs, the spiral screw-in bulbs, in 9w with a Kelvin rating of 6500K are ideal light. As I said, this is what I have over my 10g and 20g.

You might find a complete hood for a 20g, with one of the above fixtures.

LED is something I have had no luck with, having tried five different units, all went back as useless. Others with more direct experience may be able to suggest good fixtures in LED.

 

[why]

thank you very much both of you guys, i am mere of looking for generic light as if i took tank based, i have to invest again if i go for bigger one. I have aquarium starter kit from top 24 In Length x 12.7 In W x 16 in H.

I live in Long Island, New York. i will try to go some local hard ware stores and ask them if i can find any CFL bulbs.. amazon is also of no luck it seems for this . I really thank you guys for your replies and continuous encouragement.. my fish are looking good and i am learning new things..

 

[Colin_T]

LEDs are cheaper to run and last longer than compact fluorescent globes. And if you do go for compact fluros, do not put them in a sealed fitting because heat causes them to burn out faster and sometimes even melt.

If you get a 50 watt LED spotlight it would be ample for your current tank and you could get a second one later and put both on a bigger tank.
I have added a couple of links to the type of light I am talking about.
https://www.bunnings.com.au/deta-30w-led-slimline-flood-light_p7071700
https://www.bunnings.com.au/brilliant-lighting-50w-led-ranger-2-security-flood-light_p4371422

The 30w light has a 5000k rating and is fine. but it only has 2500 lumens. Lumens is the intensity/ brightness of the light. More lumens means more light.

The 50w light doesn't say what the kelvin rating is but most are between 5000-6000k. And it has 5000 lumens so is twice as bright as the 30w.

You can also look for companies that make LED light fittings and they can have timers and all sorts of extras.

 

[why]

after going through your suggestions and also after checking local stores.. i can only find T5 8w and the reviews are very bad and for that i need to buy enclosure and also glass top and all.. wanted to go with budget option this time and to try LED

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074Z77W14/?tag=ff0d01-20

kindly please advise if this will be fine for Neon tetras and Rasboras ..

Thanks.

 

[Colin_T]

T5 and T8 fluorescent globes are different diameter.
T8 is the old style globe and has a bigger diameter, (around 1.5inches diameter).
T5 is the newer fluorescent globes with a smaller diameter, (about 1/2 inch diameter). T5s run hotter and produce brighter light than a T8 globes.

You need different light units for the two different globes.

re: your 8 watt T5, it is not very bright and will not be sufficient to grow plants in a bigger tank.
You can use any light for viewing fish.

 

[why]

Thank you, can you please let me know your views on these ones

The first one bit expensive and still wanted to try.. this feels bit safe to the fish and plants and giving good sepctrum , the reviews are mixed and the description says its useful for plant growth.. but most of the reviews truly saying about lights ..not a bout plants

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NBAQHTE

The following have bit good reviews.. but seen people its bit of more light and it may be get hot on full intensity and we can control the intensity..

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074Z77W14

and the last choice is this one

https://www.amazon.com/Beamswork-Timer-Aquarium-Freshwwater-Extendable/dp/B019YXYO0U

 

[why]

The male red dwarf gourami keeps chasing the female one from more than a week.. at first i thought its only chasing her while feeding flakes.. both guys eat good and i am happy.. but the female one mostly hiding through out the day.. even for food i have to tap to get her out.. planning to donate Male gourami..and to get 2 female ones.. can i mix the different colors of them.. have the same problem with a bully in rasboras school and a neon tetra.. compared to them gourami is more aggressive..