Small dwarf cichlid that do well in community tanks?

[alex07]

My ggrs & dwarf gourami completely ignore each other I even put a betta in the tank meanwhile I setup another and nothing has gone wrong. Dwarf gourami are known as peaceful fish same as the ggrs & gbrs

 

[IvanMike]

Ivanmike, I've seen you say several times that we should put foam in place of the filter media, what exactly is the filter media? In my filter I've got the black scrubber pad lookin stuff and the white pouch that the carbon goes into. Then on my other filters, I've got the biowheel and the carbon pads. Im assuming you mean take out the carbon? But don't you need the carbon to filter out the ickies?? (I know, I'm very technical lol)

There's 3 types of filtration - biological, mechanical & chemical. Of these biological is the most important as these good bacteria in a cycled tank remove the ammonia and nitrites which are lethal to fish. Mechanical filtration is cool as it removes all kinds of "crap" which make the tank look icky and more importantly, which decompose to produce more ammonia. However, "crap" that's stuck in the mechanical media is still in the tank water supply, and until you remove it by rinsing the mechanical media (such as foam or black scrubbie looking stuff) in tank water during a water change, it's still a menace. Almost all of the bacteria that accomplish biological filtration live on the mechanical media (or on a bio wheel, or bio balls in a trickle filter), so this mechanical media does two jobs in one. This is why you shouldn't throw this stuff away, but rather rinse it in tank water and reuse it. Likewise, the more of this mechanical foam (or whatever) you have in your filter, the more robust your bacterial colonies will be - which is one reason i advocate replacing carbon with more mechanical media. I also prefer the aquaclear/fluval foam blocks over the media used in other filters as it clogs less, is easier to rinse out, and lasts for years before falling apart. It can also be easily cut to fit different brand filters if you buy an oversized block.

chemical filtration (done by carbon or some other more fancy products) removes other compounds which can discolor the water, cause a slight odor, or be poisonous (such as medications when a treatment is all done, or accidental contaminants such as insecticide). However, carbon can leach stuff back into the water, and some evidence seems to indicate that it's harmful to some fish. As such, it's better to reserve it for emergency use. Water changes will remove compounds just as well, and should be done anyway. In the case of medication removal or suspected contamination - i use a large water change followed by carbon for a few days, then i take the carbon out. The space that the carbon would have taken up is better served by more mechanical media that more bacteria can colonize.

 

[brittanykluss]

So basically in laymans terms I have a aquaclear 50 that comes with a black spongy a white spongy and a bag of carbon squares. Are you suggesting instead of using the carbon to put another spongy square in it's place ? and when would you use the bag of carbon?

 

[alex07]

So basically in laymans terms I have a aquaclear 50 that comes with a black spongy a white spongy and a bag of carbon squares. Are you suggesting instead of using the carbon to put another spongy square in it's place ? and when would you use the bag of carbon?

Your sponge is black?

Yes, you can do that. On my ac50 I have sponge bottom, biomax middle, sponge at top.

 

[brittanykluss]

I hvent opened it yet but on the back of the box looks like a white sponge block a black sponge block and carbon squares in a bag. So when should I use the carbon square bag thing ? Save it for somehing important ?

 

[alex07]

I only use carbon when I want to remove medicine from the water column, which i don't use medicine

 

[IvanMike]

oh - well open the box! These days they have a white foam block which goes on the bottom, and then a white mesh bag you put the contents of a clear plastic bag in which are labeled as biomax. these are really porous "rocks" and are in fact great for biological filtration. Then you can buy another foam "replacement" block and use it as alex suggests.

do you have any tanks running now? You want to have bacteria on that biomax and foam block before you put fish in the new tank (or use this filter only on an existing tank). If you're planning to use the aquaclear as a replacement for a filter you already have and are not going to use, i would stuff the old non-carbon filter media from the old filter in the aquaclear to continue biological filtration of your tank and to allow the bacteria to spread quickly onto your aquaclear media. (or you can run both the new aquaclear and the old filter in the tank for a few weeks).

If you're setting up a new tank, I'd run the aquaclear on your existing tank with your old filter as well for a couple of weeks, or at least figure out a way to get the foam block and/or biomax in the filter on an existing tank in order to "seed" it.

 

[brittanykluss]

I'm starting a brand new tank and I got a rock from an established tank with lots of algae on it. that's all I got

 

[IvanMike]

rock as in gravel or little pieces of rock or big chunks of rock?

 

[alex07]

rock as in gravel or little pieces of rock or big chunks of rock?

It can help but not make a huge difference as a filter media or gravel

 

[brittanykluss]

big old 4" rock!

 

[IvanMike]

hmm - go look up the guide to fishless cycling on this site - looks like you'll need it before you start considering fish (unless you can get a good chunk of active filter media from someone).

 

[brittanykluss]

I know lol. I got an empty 20 gallon I'm waiting for mygrandpa to finsh building me a stand I plan on fishless cycling that's why I got the seeding material from
someone

 

[Lady_Alia]

So take out the carbon filter pad and put in a foam block. That just seems so so sooo wrong. I've thought about doing it, but the idea frankly scares me.

 

[jpchin]

I'm not sure on the GBR and dwarf gourami together, I've never tried that... As for the cories try getting one that doesn't get as big and get 6 of those such as juliis, pandas or dwarfs(you could have 8 of those in there!)

i've got 2 male gbr's in with 7 dwarf gourami's. they all get along just fine. no problems in my tank. it's a 45 gal. length is 56"