Tank Reset - Advice Please

[Dwarfy]

Hello all,

This is my first post so please be patient with me.

My tank had been established for a number of years but I've always struggled to grow plants. So I decided to start again from scratch and do some proper research. My tank set up is:

20 gallon tank
Eco-complete substrate
External Eheim filter
2 x 18W Tubes

My current stock is 5 red-eyed tetras (which were survivors from my previous set up) and a dwarf gourami.

I have some green/brown algae on the gravel and some of the plants. I've checked the water chemistry and my water is hard, running at 7.4 ph. Nitrate levels are 20mg/l. I am doing partial water changes (15/20%) on a weekly basis. I'm going to add more plants to compete with the algae.

According to the 1 inch per gallon rule, I guess I am close to my stocking limit but the tank looks fairly sparse.

I don't know whether to add some shrimps or ottos ?
Am I right about the stocking level? I would love to have another little shoal of fish?

Any suggestions?

Oh, one last thing...my gourami has only been in the tank since last weekend. He seems happy enough after an intial bout of bullying from the tetras but I noticed today that he was brushing or flicking his flanks against some of the plants. Is this something to be concerned about?

Many thanks!

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Dwarfy. The flicking you are talking about can be a sign of bad water quality or of ich. It means that something is irritating that fish. If your tank has had a chance to mature after you reset it, it may be possible to add a couple of otocinclus. They require more than a merely cycled tank, they need one that has settled in and matured. The idea to get more plants to compete with the algae strikes me as a good idea but I'm no plant expert. Your lighting level has you about as high as you can go without adding CO2. The plants you can grow will now include not only low light plants but the medium low ones as well.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, welcome from me too. I have very similar equipment (28g,micro-nutrient substrate, ext.eheim, 2x18w) and am somewhat new and struggling with the same types of algae and plant inexperience, so I'm going to comment. I agree with adding more plants to compete with the algae. From what I've been reading from our plant guys, the irony may be that when you gravel clean during the partial water changes, that may serve to stir up small amounts of ammonia that help to trigger the algae. I don't know how to remedy this as I certainly think the water changes are important from the fish side of things. I am dosing with Seachem Flourish once a week but that is only micronutrients I think, not macro. I'm thinking about starting to use Flourish Excel as a carbon source - this has been recommended rather than CO2 for a smaller low-light "easy-plant" type of setup. Anyway, fluctuating CO2 and fluctuating ammonia seem to be two of the more common algae "triggers" in our type of situation if I'm beginning to learn correctly from the plant section.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Dwarfy]

Thanks for the replies guys

I added half a dozen more plants and all is looking good on the algae front. LFS was out of Otto's tho so I ended up buying 4 small platies instead.

Tank is looking fine but the extra plant cover has meant that the fish have become more timid (except the gourami who has settled in well). Everytime someone approaches the tank the tetras shoot for cover, closely followed by the platies. I've had the tetra's for a couple of years and this is new behaviour for them.

This fish-keeping business can be tricky

Is there any way to encourage my fish not to be so scared?