New here & questions about fish per tank!

[Sgooosh]

The water change regime we usually recommended at is at least 50% a week. This removes a lot of the nitrate made by the good bacteria, and all the other things excreted by the fish that we can't measure.25% one a month leaves most of this stuff to build up in the water.

if you get more live plants it will help bring nitrate lebels down

 

[Essjay]

But not the other things that build up.

Regular (=weekly) water changes are important. This article was written by Byron, one of the most knowledgable members of this forum (currently on sick leave)

Contact Support

 

[Sgooosh]

hope he gets better

 

[Lookimafish]

Whoa! Lots of information. I’ll be sure to make time to take some water to the pet store and get it tested.
I do believe I misspoke on my tank size for sure! It was something I got for free and refurbished, so I wasn’t ever told the size of the tank (gallon wise) I wasn’t aware substrate was an issue until recently. Thank you for letting me know about sand at Home Depot. Within the next week or so I think I’m going to change it up. I was afraid of moving the fish to something smaller while I worked.

as for my pleco, I’m assuming he’s a common pleco. He’s only about 4 inches, and I will upgrade my tank when I need to for him. But, it won’t be for awhile ??‍

I do just rinse out my filter, I change the filters every few months though.

I do have a siphoner, to clean my tank, but it’s a pretty simple one, and I would love to upgrade.

but noted that I need to change the water more!

 

[Fish4dawin]

Whoa! Lots of information. I’ll be sure to make time to take some water to the pet store and get it tested.
I do believe I misspoke on my tank size for sure! It was something I got for free and refurbished, so I wasn’t ever told the size of the tank (gallon wise) I wasn’t aware substrate was an issue until recently. Thank you for letting me know about sand at Home Depot. Within the next week or so I think I’m going to change it up. I was afraid of moving the fish to something smaller while I worked.

as for my pleco, I’m assuming he’s a common pleco. He’s only about 4 inches, and I will upgrade my tank when I need to for him. But, it won’t be for awhile ??‍

I do just rinse out my filter, I change the filters every few months though.

I do have a siphoner, to clean my tank, but it’s a pretty simple one, and I would love to upgrade.

but noted that I need to change the water more!

Are you able to give us a rough estimate on the tank dimensions?

 

[Lookimafish]

Listed above.

 

[Essjay]

tank dimensions are : 36Lx18Hx12W (inches)

Post #5

 

[Fish4dawin]

So your tank is 34 gallons. The calculator on the right side can help you as well. Your tank will be around 30 gallons when filled up and I think @WhistlingBadger mentioned that in post 6. If you have soft water, adding more corys would be the best to add. You won't need any more tetras, they are already in a good shoal. As said above if it is a common pleco you will need to upgrade to a 90-100 gallon tank. You can also move the two angels there as well as 50 and 30 gallon tank are too small unless you are planning to go with a breeder tank in which it can only be the too angels.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

So your tank is 34 gallons. The calculator on the right side can help you as well. Your tank will be around 30 gallons when filled up and I think @WhistlingBadger mentioned that in post 6. If you have soft water, adding more corys would be the best to add. You won't need any more tetras, they are already in a good shoal. As said above if it is a common pleco you will need to upgrade to a 90-100 gallon tank. You can also move the two angels there as well as 50 and 30 gallon tank are too small unless you are planning to go with a breeder tank in which it can only be the too angels.

No, I never chimed in on this thread. Glad @Lookimafish asked, though. You're getting some very good advice here.

 

[Fish4dawin]

Sorry it was @Naterjm.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Sorry it was @Naterjm.

It's OK; we're twins. Only our mom can tell us apart.

 

[Sgooosh]

Whoa! Lots of information. I’ll be sure to make time to take some water to the pet store and get it tested.
I do believe I misspoke on my tank size for sure! It was something I got for free and refurbished, so I wasn’t ever told the size of the tank (gallon wise) I wasn’t aware substrate was an issue until recently. Thank you for letting me know about sand at Home Depot. Within the next week or so I think I’m going to change it up. I was afraid of moving the fish to something smaller while I worked.

as for my pleco, I’m assuming he’s a common pleco. He’s only about 4 inches, and I will upgrade my tank when I need to for him. But, it won’t be for awhile ??‍

I do just rinse out my filter, I change the filters every few months though.

I do have a siphoner, to clean my tank, but it’s a pretty simple one, and I would love to upgrade.

but noted that I need to change the water more!

hes not so big now you might want to put him for adpotion at lfs if you dont want to upgrade later.

 

[mcordelia]

Looks like you are getting some great advice, and I hope you find a social home here on the forum as well! None of my friends are into the fish thing either, so this is where I get my outlet on fish things plus, great learning as well!

I do want to caution you on changing up a bunch of stuff in your tank all at once - if you get rid of both the fake plants and ALL of the sand in one fell swoop, you are at risk of taking too many of the "good" bacteria out of the tank (they live on all surfaces), and might cause an ammonia spike which will be bad for your fish. I would recommend changing out the substrate and plants in three separate events, separated by maybe 2 weeks each. maybe on week 1 you change out half the gravel for sand and "re-plant" the fake plants on that side of the tank, then on week 4 you do the other half of the substrate keeping the fake plants in the tank, and then on week 6 you get rid of the fake plants for good. You can of course add live plants during any time above, but floaters and tie-down plants are probably going to be less of a hassle before you change out at least part of the substrate

Also one additional thing - if you get sand from a hardware store (hello fellow Michigander! I got mine from Menards, I got "tube sand" since I liked how it was not all uniform in size), be prepared to rinse the crap out of it. 'tis totally not the season to be washing sand outside, but assuming you have a day when it's at least 32f, I'd hook up the garden hose and put on some mittens and git 'er done. I washed all my sand for my 125 gallon in November, and while it wasn't awesome, I also didn't get my hands (very) wet so it was tolerable. My style was to get a brand new home depot 5gal bucket, put a few sour cream container scoops worth of sand in at a time, blast the crap out of it with the hose (I set the nozzle on the "jet" setting) so that it gets really agitated, and then dumped the brown water in the garden. It took 4-5 rinses per bucket for the water to come out reasonably clear, and I did end up having to wash out my filter a week after I put the sand in since it still accumulated a bunch of little silt, but don't try what happens if you don't wash your sand. Your tank will be cloudy for months and you will lose faith in humanity lol.

Anyway, a belated welcome to the forums, and I'm looking forward to seeing how this project evolves!