Newbie Tank 35l Help

[welshfish]

Hey,

Recently got a 2nd hand fish tank. Its a 35l glass tank.
It currently has an angel fish and a 1"ish suckerfish (catfish?)

Unsure of the heater model or anthing, but its gotten water inside and isnt functioning properly so i need to get a new one, what sort of wattage will i need? also is brand etc important, i guess i heater is a heater at the end of the day?

The filter is a fluval 2 plus, which i think should be more than suitable for the tank?

Im looking to into some good starter fish to try out in the tank, the previous owner has said the angel fish has eaten a few of the previous fish so what sort of fish do you think would be safest?

Does anyone have any recommended shops in cardiff, Im living just off queens street and have no car, so any nearer the city centre would be great!
preferably a larger shop?

cheers in advance

 

[Nick16]

some catfish get massive so post a pic on here and get it ID'd. a tip: run your airline into the top of the fluval outlet pipe, the bit sticking up and it will pump the air around the tank for you!

 

[waterdrop]

Welcome toTFF welshfish!

About a 50w heater would probably be recommended for the 8 gallons of water you'll have after gravel in a 35L tank. This should be more than enough to take care of a 10 degree difference between room and tank. If the room is unusually cold, it could be that you'd need more. Its not always good to go way oversized on heater power as if the thermostat gets stuck in the on position it would cook the fish faster. You should also get a separate thermometer to judge the tank and adjust the heater knob by that, not by any markings on the heater except for a rough beginning point.

The rough guideline we like to recommend to beginners for fish stocking is 1 inch of fish body (fins don't count) per US gallon of water. An angel will eventually grow very large and is counted as 4 inches of fish, so you have used up half your stocking just with the angel. As already mentioned, any kind of sucker fish could be a type of "plec" that could grow to enormous size, so you really need to ID this fish carefully and make a decision about what to do. It will have to be "re-homed" if its one of the ones that grows really large.

Unless you received the 2nd hand tank with the media (floss, carbon, rings, pebbles, bioballs, whatever's inside the filter) in the filter box still wet and not out of operation for too long, then the beneficial bacteria in the filter will have died and you will be in what we call a "Fish-In Cycle" situation, where you need to perform frequent water changes to manually clean the water for the two fish until the filter has re-cycled and can perform this function for you. Let us know your situation with the filter (unless I've already missed it!)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[welshfish]

oh yeah, sorry forgot to say, the tank was running up until i bought it, quickly unplugged, carried (really heavy!) and driven for about 20mins, then plugged straight back in.
So tank was hardly even off.

Will try and get some pictures of the sucker tomorrow

I am unsure whether i should try and take the 2 existing fish to the local fish shop and get a credit note.
Then start the tank from scratch with the fish i want?
I guess i should not change the filters or gravel etc as it should be in a nice balance etc?
will need to get some tester kits?
all i have at the minute is, fish flakes and some small algae waffers, what sort of feeding should be giving?

thank you

 

[OldMan47]

Feed very sparingly. The 2 fish will not eat much at all. More fish are killed by overfeeding than by most other things. Have a hard look at your fish and figure they have a belly about as big as an eye. That should get you close enough at first. One time a day is enough except with very young fish. Once you feed the fish, keep an eye on them. If there is any food left after about a minute, you need to reduce the amount the next day. Soon you will be able to judge how little to feed them to keep the fish healthy.
There are a number of posts at the top of this forum to give you the basics of looking after fish. You will need to get a siphon tube to help with water changes and a dechlorinator to use when you add new water into the tank. A bucket that never gets used for anything but your fish is a very good idea, that way you need not worry about stray chemicals or soap and such getting into the water. A test kit that can measure ammonia, nitrites and nitrates is an important tool when you are starting out but you can get by letting the fish shop test for you if you write down the results so you will know what is working and what is not.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

I would suggest starting from scratch on the basis that the angel will definately outgrow the tank and is also likely to eat any small fish that you add, because the tank is small all the fish suitable to you are small so the angel is likely to eat pretty much anything else that you add.

if you've not kept fish before you should make sure you do a bit of research, there's a couple of links in my sig which will help with this, firstly read the one 'whats cycling' hopefully your tank isn't cycling now but you need to understand the process. It explains the basic water chemistry, what you should test for, what the results should be and what to do if they're not right!

if you do return the fish to the shop then get new fish straight away otherwise the tank will need to be cycled before adding fish, so hold onto them for the time being, do your research and decide what to do, then take the fish to teh shop and swap them for something more suitable making sure you get fish within around 24hrs of getting rid of the old ones.

 

[Chris5787]

Yeah, you should definately rehome current fish.

Unfortunately on the shop front, cardiff isnt that good for aquatics shops. MA at radyr is probably the best but is obviously out of your range without a car.

Most other shops are in the suburbs, but the ones that i have visited are not brilliant.

 

[Ian H]

oooo another welsh person

Personally i would re-home the fish as its more than likely you have either a common plec or a CAE (normally sold as sucking loach) both of which will grow too big for your tank (especially the plec, looking at around 18" min )

As for good shops in cardiff the only 2 i can suggest are Maidenhead aquatics in Radyr (its in pughs garden centre) or The big blue in Caerphilly (in Caerphilly garden centre) both of which you would need a car for though

I'm pretty sure some one mentioned 2 decent stores in cardiff in my tank journal, think it was million. I know he said one was in Cathays but can't remember the other, although again i would image a car would be needed. Or maybe theres a bus near?

 

[waterdrop]

Unless of course you find a decent shop that will give you credit for the two fish, I would drop that desire and consider it more important to simply find somewhere they can be re-homed, whatever it takes. The others are right - this tank is way too small for an angel and the overwhelming likelihood is that the sucker may be even more out of place in this size. Often tanks that have some sort of un-workable situation are the ones most readily passed along and this appears to be the case here. Angels and sucker-types are certainly tropicals to be enjoyed, but not in this tank size range. You are extremely lucky to have come across a forum of members who can readily transition you to putting together a great 9-gallon with the equipment start you have and the interactions can be fun and interesting in the process.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[welshfish]

These are the fish currently, any help in finding out what sort of sucker fish it is?

also what sorta temperature should i be looking at?



cheers

 

[stang1]

Your Plec is a Bristlenose Catfish. It will only grow to 4"-6" but will still need rehoming as the tank is far too small.
As other members have suggested, rehome the fish and start again from scratch. You'll gain a lot more pleasure from choosing your own fish.

 

[welshfish]

Hi,

Taken the 2 fish to the lfs got a credit note for them.

Ive left the tank running with the heater and filter still on, is this a good idea?

I plan on starting from scratch to gain some experience.
The tank has been setup for a few month previously so i guess theres a load of bacteria built up in the filter?
the tank is looking a bit dirty around the top and the gravel is very dirty.
Should i empty the tank entirely and give the sides a good wash and put new gravel in and fill with fresh dechlorinated water?
would i then only need to do a fishless cycle for a few days?

Im not really sure what to do any advice would be great.

cheers

 

[Miss Wiggle]

start your fishless cycle asap, like within 24 hrs. the bacteria start to diee off if left with no food so to make the most of it scrub out the tank totally today, you can remove or replace anything you like except for the filter media. so long as you keep that wet and in tank water then you can change whatever else you like with the tank.

so do that, then add ammonia this evening or tomorrow to start the fishless cycle, you may find it drops to 0 in 12 hrs on the first day, it make take up to a week or two, shouldn't be much longer that that though. just keep the ammonia topped up each day until you decide what fish you're going to get.

 

[waterdrop]

Well this is great news! You not only were able to re-home the fish but got credit too, that's great.

Your plan sounds really good too. (note that now that the fish are gone you will need correct ammonia right away to keep the bacteria alive and a proper test kit as mentioned later below) The most important thing to remember though will be to keep the mature media wet, preferably submerged during your cleaning. Just saying that because you might get distracted in the midst of cleaning the tank and doing the new gravel and let the media dry out, which would kill the bacteria. I know from experience that bacteria can go for a good 5 hours without any die-off (and perhaps much longer) if they are kept wet in their tank water (either by keeping the filter filled or setting the filter or media in a tank water filled bucket or such.)

It might be helpful to use some vinegar if there are white deposits on the tank glass from water lines, but be sure everything gets a complete water rinse so there are no stray chemicals in the tank when re-started (and yes, new water should be dechlored you can set the heater all the way up to 30C initially while you are just fishless and checking on bacteria growth.

You can consider Eco-Complete, or Flourite or Laterite for substrate if you will be trying for live plants or just new normal natural gravel or sand -- lots here can talk about sand and things if that is of interest. Note that plants are a difficult topic and sometimes, when the beginner is still learning fish and water chem, learning the plant stuff is overload, but its a very individual thing.

You will now want to read the pinned beginner topics of this forum in earnest, as you will greatly benefit from understanding the nitrogen cycle behind all this water chem. You will want to consider your testing kit as a first thing, so put up any questions about that for the members. You will hopefully be able to test and find that the filter is indeed mature and cycled, but its important to really know the truth and only a liquid-reagent based kit will tell you that, not strips.

You will be in great shape if you put on this mature filter and put in fresh dechlored water and then begin proper testing --- you will need to be actually -doing- a fishless cycle and adding the proper amount of pure clear household ammonia (as the articles say) (members can help with welsh/UK brands if you need help) in order to keep the bacteria from dying off. You will also need the test kit very, very soon in order to determine the state of the cycling. Articles are "Beginners Resource Center" and rdd1952's fishless cycling article with the add&wait method.

Good luck!
~~waterdrop~~

 

[welshfish]

Looks like I have a slight problem then,
going to order a tester kit in later on today off the internet. (any recommended brands and good cheap sites?)

my problem is i have no ammonia, and will be going away later on today and wont be back until Wednesday.
So looks like i will have to start a whole new cycle when i get back?