New Member Hi

[knobby]

Hi everyone, been lurking fo a couple of days, great forum

I've had a Biorb 30l for about 3 years and on the whole am quite happy,
Had some losses in the 1st year ( started with 4 golden barbs, 4 zebra danios and a chinese algae eater ... not all at once of course)
all went well untill the CAE started getting massive !
Any way long story short ... I lost the CAE, 2 barbs and 3 danios.

Then i read on a forum, cant remember which one about cleaning the sponge in tank rather than changing itand added a small heater to keep it at 24 - 26 degrees.
HAVENT LOST A FISH IN 18 months ( could be coincidence I suppose)

SO i am getting brave again and feel i might try 5 or 6 neons as they are really small and shouldn't make too much of an impact on the tank.
Spoke to the LFS today and bought a water test kit and its all spot on, he thinks 5 or 6 should be ok!

What do you all think

( I really would love Ottos but you know , the rough substrate! never mind eh)

Thanks in advance, sorry to waffle

 

[waterdrop]

Hi knobby and welcome to the forum.

In the "New to the Hobby" section we usually prefer to mention water test stats numerically, not say that they are fine or good. That way we can spot any conflicts or misinformation. If a tank has been running for several years and has enough biomedia in the filter to support the fish stocking size, we expect the two beneficial bacterial colonies to be of sufficient size but its always good to see some test results over time.

What percentage of the water are you changing out during your weekly substrate-clean-water-change? You're correct, neons/cardinals are small and represent a minimal bioload per fish. A grouping of 6 or so should make them minimally happy from a shoaling standpoint and you've clearly passed the recommended 6-month waiting time prior to their introduction, so it sounds like a reasonable choice.

The filters in those Biorbs always seem a bit odd to me (probably my own lack of direct experience) so I'm not sure how quickly they can respond to stocking increases. It might be that introducing the neons/cards 3 at a time and watching the stats to see how quickly the bacteria recover from the added bioload would be a good cautious approach. Hopefully, the gap time would be quick though, as the first group won't like being only in a group of three.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[knobby]

Cheers for the reply waterdrop,
didn't get to pc before popping into LFS. Bought 6 very small Neon Tetras as the guy in the shop said they would probably be ok.
re: the test results, i havent got too technical and use the tetra sticks. Water change about 4 - 5" down approx 2 - 3 weekly.

Have lost 1 v . small neon but the other 5 looking good.
rechecked water 2 days after fish added, still the same results ... fingers crossed !
hopefully I've attached pics

Thanks again

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, I have a vial of those same test strips. Unfortunately they are worse than useless, they are misleading. When I compared them to my API Freshwater Master Test Kit (liquid-reagent based tests) results, the results were different.

Its unlikely that you've got problems with your water currently, but for the future I'd seriously consider getting a decent test kit. Its nice that you included a picture. I had quite missed that we were talking about a less than 10g tank! But the neons look right at home and its not unusual to lose a neon in transition, no matter how good the water is.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[mickspark81]

Lol..I too purchased that silly test strip kit when i first got my tank

Soon replaced with a decent liquid test kit and The difference sometimes between the two kits was staggering.

Oh...they make excellent kindling tho

 

[zoetetra]

hi and welcome,
i also had the test strips when i first go my tank now got api master kid and is very accurate.
i`m not really a fan of biorbs just because of the small opening at the top,but i really like your`s