New Hobbyist....think I Have A Nano Tank....and Other Questions....

[Koiboyjapan]

Hello,

This is my first post...

I got a small tank from a family member over the weekend, and have gone in at the deep end, and bought a bunch of stuff to turn it into a Tropical Fish Tank.

Is is tiny! 3.4 gallons / 12.8 litres

I have bought the following items:

14 watt hood lamp
Tetra Auto Power Filter AX-30 http/www.tetra-jp.com/products/filter/filter02/
Water Heater, (Auto set to 26 celcius)
Aeration Pump, (small non-brand one)
Thermometer (guy in shop said I needed one, not sure why, as heater only heats to 26C!)
Gex "Pure Black" Gravel.
Tetra pH test kit (cheapo dipstick one).
Two "strong" plants (I think the guy at the store mean't "hardy" and not "strong"....

Have added water, stirred, and now letting the dust settle.

After adding de-chlorinizing solution, had white cloudy bloom come up, that was 3 or 4 hours ago, and is already getting better.

Test kit show water from tap is just under 7...so acceptable.

Will an ammonia, nitrite and nitrate test kit tomorrow, (have been reading the forums, and seen this needs monitoring as well...

I am planning on stocking the tank with Tetra, as they are cheap, colourful, and most of all small, so go well with my tank.

Some questions:

1) I would like to add some stone from our local river to the aquarium, do these need boiled first, and what kind of stone should I add...pourous, none pourous?

2) Can I add quartz rocks to the aquarium, do these need boiling? (plenty of quartz in our local river...nice and sparkly!)

3) What is the ideal hardness water should be for tetra? What will adding oyster shells to my aquarium do to the hardness level? Will this affect pH, aren't hardness and pH linked?

4) Any idea about how long it will take to do a fishless cycle on a 3.4 gallon tank?

5) Do I need to run the air pump while fishlessly cycling the tank?

6) Has anyone heard of Eco Bio Block? Should I use it in the tank?

7) How many tetra's can I fit in this thing?

Sorry for all the questions...

 

[Wills]

3.4 is a really small tank but it sounds like you are on the right path with this so far!

Ill start with the accessories first, rule one with rocks never boil them as they can explode at times. If you use found rocks drop some vinegar on them - if it fizzes its not safe as it will raise your ph if it just sits there it will be okay.

Fishless cycle - it should take as long as most of them do. Can you get any mature media off anyone?

With regards the fish you put in, tetras might be okay like the small ones like Green Neon Tetras but ideally the fish you want in there are things like micro rasbora like chilli and sparrow rasbora or male endler fish

Wills

 

[Koiboyjapan]

Nice tip on the Micro Raspora....I like the "Galaxy" Raspora, (in Japan this is nicknamed "Hanabi", meaning firework...

Also like the one which is in the bottom left hand corner of the photo attached to this reply, what would this be? So pretty...

 

[Wills]

its not letting me see the attachment - but yeah galaxy rasboras would be okay as well - blue eye rasbora are nice too

Wills

 

[Koiboyjapan]

Can anyone help with questions 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7? Pretty please...

 

[drobbyb]

3) What is the ideal hardness water should be for tetra? What will adding oyster shells to my aquarium do to the hardness level? Will this affect pH, aren't hardness and pH linked?

4) Any idea about how long it will take to do a fishless cycle on a 3.4 gallon tank?

5) Do I need to run the air pump while fishlessly cycling the tank?

6) Has anyone heard of Eco Bio Block? Should I use it in the tank?

7) How many tetra's can I fit in this thing?

3. Tetras like soft water, and ideal conditions vary with species. With your pH at less than 7 you will be fine. Oyster shells will certainly raise your pH and hardness. KH and pH are basically linked. As your KH goes up so will your pH.

4. Fishless cycles take as long as they take, tank size does not matter.

5. As long as you have good surface movement you don't need an air pump.

6. Never heard of it, and no you don't need to add anything other than water conditioner.

7. Tetras need to be kept in schools of at least 6. Your tank is too small to support a school of tetras.

 

[cowboy507]

Hello,


4) Any idea about how long it will take to do a fishless cycle on a 3.4 gallon tank?

5) Do I need to run the air pump while fishlessly cycling the tank?

6) Has anyone heard of Eco Bio Block? Should I use it in the tank?

7) How many tetra's can I fit in this thing?

Sorry for all the questions...

4. it can always vary

5. airpump is probably unnecessary, as long as you have a filter running

6. never heard of it

7. according to the stocking rule you can only have 3, but for tetras to be happy, you need 6, usually you can overstock with tetras, but i would be careful.

 

[Koiboyjapan]

Thanks for the advice everyone....this really is the most helpful forum out there for Tropical Fish...

Have added some wood to the tank, and some live filter material (already has bacteria growing in it) into my external filter, bought from my local aquarium shop.

The filter I have is the smallest external filter they had, but is good for a 30 litre tank, I have only 13 litres, so does this mean I can safely stock more fish than the recommended, 1" per gallon isn't it?

 

[spectrum]

Yes, you probably can get a BIT more in there because of that filter, don't go crazy though. You would have to be a bit more vigilant with the water changes though if you did get more than would normally be considered suitable. Another thing, the 1"/Gallon rule is obsolete in this day and age.

 

[Koiboyjapan]

Yes, you probably can get a BIT more in there because of that filter, don't go crazy though. You would have to be a bit more vigilant with the water changes though if you did get more than would normally be considered suitable. Another thing, the 1"/Gallon rule is obsolete in this day and age.

Please do tell me more 'spectrum'...what do you mean obsolete? Is there a different rule of thumb then?

 

[spectrum]

There isn't really a rule that is 100 percent accurate. The amount of fish you can stock in a set size of tank varies depending on things like filter capacity, frequency of water changes and the type of fish.
For example, a 3 inch Bristlenose will produce far more waste than for example a 3 inches worth of neon tetra, thus making the rule incorrect.

 

[waterdrop]

I'd like to agree that spectrum is having an intelligent discussion of the stocking capacity topic here. Its a good deal more complicated than beginners generally realize. I like to say that the "one inch rule" is dead but the "one inch guideline" is alive and well, at least for beginners (who, for this topic I define as people within the first 1.5 years of keeping a tank.) The problem for "advanced" aquarists may be that the one-inch idea can't convey the complexity, but the problem for beginners is that they very much need *something* to serve as a starting point for getting the capacity thing figured out, I feel.

And if I'm reading correctly, that is what spectrum is trying to describe. Its important for beginners to know that you start by searching this and other fish info sites for the maximum adult size of the specific species in question. All further work is based on those max type numbers. And spectrum is right, really small fish (like neons for instance) could be an actual inch but not count as an inch because they are so thin and don't produce much waste whereas the Bristlenose would have to count more as mentioned. You have to "fudge" it back and forth like that.

I would count filtration capacity as less of a factor than gravel-clean-water-changing as far as allowing for overstocking. Overstocking is really a lot of work, whereas understocking reduces work and helps a tank to run more automatically with greater safety.

~~waterdrop~~