Questions from a newbie to the hobby

[ogelthorpe]

Good afternoon,

I am new to the hobby and just set up a Fluval Flex 9 last night. Planted tank with fluorite black substrate, some spiderwood and blue seriyu stone (pic below). Added water conditioner to remove the chlorine from tap water as well and have just been letting it run the past 24hrs. I have a few questions and if anyone can help it would be much appreciated:

1. I've read many different articles regarding the cycling process and I'm not sure which one to follow? I have purchased Fritzyme 700 bacteria - should I be dosing the tank with this now and do I need to add fish food or something to get the cycle started? Or am I ok to add a few fish after dosing with the fritzyme? Should I wait a while until the plants have time to grow a bit? Any advice is appreciated!
2. Thinking about making this a betta tank with either some otos or pygmy cories. Any stocking suggestions based on the way the tank is setup (pic below).
3. Been reading that I should reduce the flow of the Fluval Flex by placing filter media in the rear, on the water nozzle and angling the nozzle upwards. Is this all necessary regardless of fish chosen?
4. Once fish are in, I assume a 25% water change each week and a cleaning will likely be good? Of course I will test the water parameters as well.
5. Is my tank too full of plants, wood and stone based on pic below?
6. I read that I should only keep the light on for plant growth about 6hrs per day for first few weeks. Is this accurate? Do I need to fertilize or dose plants with anything to help growth before fish go in?
7. Is there a special small gravel cleaner I can use on substrate? Substrate is very small and fine - should I just hover it over the top and not dig into the substrate with vacuum? How often should I clean substrate?

Sorry for all the questions and thanks for any help provided!

 

[ember04]

1: ill let the plants grow but for a different reason than cycling, ive found that some times newly planted tanks cant have all the plants pulled up by a fish simply swimming past. I'd let the roots develope.
To answer the question I would recommend adding some fish food and testing the anomia after a week, you should be ok just dosing depending on stocking but just to be safe.
2: Depends if you have the 9 or 15 gallon tank with 9 I'd say, a betta and some snails and proberbly nothing else to keep bio load low, If its the 15 gallon you could add a group of either.
3: Yeah bettas cant deal with high flow (especially the long fined fish) i would try and reduce it with either method you talk about.
4: depends on plant growth, I would test your water regually and change water only when the nitrites, nitates and ammonia is too high, the plant growth my mean you only need to change twice a mouth (this depends on stocking and is just my oppion) ofc weekly water changes are great though.
5: no i think your good, trim teh plants when you get over grown but i think it looks good.
6: yeah i do 6 hours for the first few weeks normally 2-3 weeks after that I increase light length by 30 minites each week after that, but no more than 8 hours a day. I normally do dose my tanks a little bit before fish. I tend to does a small amount a few days after I plant the tank to give plants a chance to settle before fertiflising the tanks (this helps in my experiacne to stop lots of initally algea growth)
7: i would uses a nano syphine to clean substrate, how to uses hover over substrate around plants, some of that waste in the substate will help plant growth but if it gets too much i would sphen it out in a way that minimises plant root damage.

hope this helps, with everything its just what i do and have found work and im sure others would do differtly
ember

 

[Essjay]

1. I've read many different articles regarding the cycling process and I'm not sure which one to follow? I have purchased Fritzyme 700 bacteria - should I be dosing the tank with this now and do I need to add fish food or something to get the cycle started? Or am I ok to add a few fish after dosing with the fritzyme? Should I wait a while until the plants have time to grow a bit? Any advice is appreciated!

No bacterial starter cycles a tank instantly. The best ones speed up a cycle, the rest do nothing. If you want to do a fishless cycle with ammonia, a good bacterial starter will speed up the cycle.
Plants take up ammonia faster than bacteria and if there are enough fast growing plants you don't need to grow bacteria just wait until you are sure the plants are actively growing - this will also allow them to grow more roots as mentioned by ember04.
Your photo does show a number of fast growing plants, just wait till they are bigger.

2. Thinking about making this a betta tank with either some otos or pygmy cories. Any stocking suggestions based on the way the tank is setup

The tank is perfect for a betta. But not otos or pygmy cories. A 9 gallon tank can't grow enough algae for a shoal of otos, and many otos will eat nothing else. The tank has a footprint of just 12 x 13 inches and even pygmy cories need more floor space than that.
There are very few fish suitable for a tank of this volume and dimensions, and those which are will be very small - small enough to trigger a betta's predator instincts. He may not be able to catch them but trying to will stress the small fish. Shrimps might be an option, but many bettas see shrimps as a tasty snack.
All ever kept with a betta was a nerite snail.

4. Once fish are in, I assume a 25% water change each week and a cleaning will likely be good? Of course I will test the water parameters as well.

Assuming the tank is cycled (with ammonia or plants) before adding fish, 50% water changes a week is better than 25%. If the tank is not cycled, water changes should be done whenever ammonia and/or nitrite are above zero.

5. Is my tank too full of plants, wood and stone based on pic below?

For my personal taste I would have less stone but if there's only a betta it's OK as it is.

7. Is there a special small gravel cleaner I can use on substrate? Substrate is very small and fine - should I just hover it over the top and not dig into the substrate with vacuum? How often should I clean substrate?

If the substrate is very fine, just vacuum up what lies on top of it. I have sand and I find it easiest to use just a length of tubing. I fill it with tap water then thumb over each end, one end in the tank the other in the bucket then remove my thumbs.

 

[ogelthorpe]

Good afternoon,

I am new to the hobby and just set up a Fluval Flex 9 last night. Planted tank with fluorite black substrate, some spiderwood and blue seriyu stone (pic below). Added water conditioner to remove the chlorine from tap water as well and have just been letting it run the past 24hrs. I have a few questions and if anyone can help it would be much appreciated:

1. I've read many different articles regarding the cycling process and I'm not sure which one to follow? I have purchased Fritzyme 700 bacteria - should I be dosing the tank with this now and do I need to add fish food or something to get the cycle started? Or am I ok to add a few fish after dosing with the fritzyme? Should I wait a while until the plants have time to grow a bit? Any advice is appreciated!
2. Thinking about making this a betta tank with either some otos or pygmy cories. Any stocking suggestions based on the way the tank is setup (pic below).
3. Been reading that I should reduce the flow of the Fluval Flex by placing filter media in the rear, on the water nozzle and angling the nozzle upwards. Is this all necessary regardless of fish chosen?
4. Once fish are in, I assume a 25% water change each week and a cleaning will likely be good? Of course I will test the water parameters as well.
5. Is my tank too full of plants, wood and stone based on pic below?
6. I read that I should only keep the light on for plant growth about 6hrs per day for first few weeks. Is this accurate? Do I need to fertilize or dose plants with anything to help growth before fish go in?
7. Is there a special small gravel cleaner I can use on substrate? Substrate is very small and fine - should I just hover it over the top and not dig into the substrate with vacuum? How often should I clean substrate?

Sorry for all the questions and thanks for any help provided!



View attachment 152493

1: ill let the plants grow but for a different reason than cycling, ive found that some times newly planted tanks cant have all the plants pulled up by a fish simply swimming past. I'd let the roots develope.
To answer the question I would recommend adding some fish food and testing the anomia after a week, you should be ok just dosing depending on stocking but just to be safe.
2: Depends if you have the 9 or 15 gallon tank with 9 I'd say, a betta and some snails and proberbly nothing else to keep bio load low, If its the 15 gallon you could add a group of either.
3: Yeah bettas cant deal with high flow (especially the long fined fish) i would try and reduce it with either method you talk about.
4: depends on plant growth, I would test your water regually and change water only when the nitrites, nitates and ammonia is too high, the plant growth my mean you only need to change twice a mouth (this depends on stocking and is just my oppion) ofc weekly water changes are great though.
5: no i think your good, trim teh plants when you get over grown but i think it looks good.
6: yeah i do 6 hours for the first few weeks normally 2-3 weeks after that I increase light length by 30 minites each week after that, but no more than 8 hours a day. I normally do dose my tanks a little bit before fish. I tend to does a small amount a few days after I plant the tank to give plants a chance to settle before fertiflising the tanks (this helps in my experiacne to stop lots of initally algea growth)
7: i would uses a nano syphine to clean substrate, how to uses hover over substrate around plants, some of that waste in the substate will help plant growth but if it gets too much i would sphen it out in a way that minimises plant root damage.

hope this helps, with everything its just what i do and have found work and im sure others would do differtly
ember

Great advice - thanks very much!!!

 

[ogelthorpe]

No bacterial starter cycles a tank instantly. The best ones speed up a cycle, the rest do nothing. If you want to do a fishless cycle with ammonia, a good bacterial starter will speed up the cycle.
Plants take up ammonia faster than bacteria and if there are enough fast growing plants you don't need to grow bacteria just wait until you are sure the plants are actively growing - this will also allow them to grow more roots as mentioned by ember04.
Your photo does show a number of fast growing plants, just wait till they are bigger.


The tank is perfect for a betta. But not otos or pygmy cories. A 9 gallon tank can't grow enough algae for a shoal of otos, and many otos will eat nothing else. The tank has a footprint of just 12 x 13 inches and even pygmy cories need more floor space than that.
There are very few fish suitable for a tank of this volume and dimensions, and those which are will be very small - small enough to trigger a betta's predator instincts. He may not be able to catch them but trying to will stress the small fish. Shrimps might be an option, but many bettas see shrimps as a tasty snack.
All ever kept with a betta was a nerite snail.


Assuming the tank is cycled (with ammonia or plants) before adding fish, 50% water changes a week is better than 25%. If the tank is not cycled, water changes should be done whenever ammonia and/or nitrite are above zero.



For my personal taste I would have less stone but if there's only a betta it's OK as it is.



If the substrate is very fine, just vacuum up what lies on top of it. I have sand and I find it easiest to use just a length of tubing. I fill it with tap water then thumb over each end, one end in the tank the other in the bucket then remove my thumbs.

Thanks very much for the feedback and advice - much appreciated!