Stocking My 20g Long

[Antler]

Added 6 CPD's and 6 Black Neon Tetras Saturday. All is well and there color has come out a lot since they were put in.

Only concern is a bit of dirt on substrate. Almost looks like dust bunnies? Anyone know what it is and how I can get rid of it? My tank is otherwise perfectly clean and the "dust bunnies" only showed up yesterday morning.

 

[rmiller]

It may be some sort of algae. A pic would get confirmation of exactly what it is. You could do a quick vacuum to get it out.

 

[Rivercats]

Often those dust bunnies are found on plants that have a fine growth of fuzz algae that traps detris when water flow/circulation isn't enough. Try waving your hand over the substrate and see if they go into the water column. Or as suggested gravel vac them up. You may need to add a small power head in the tank to move water also.

 

[Antler]

I've tried to vacuum most of it out but there's still a bit left in the nooks and larger rocks. I tried to get it to float around for the filter to pick it up but it just sinks way too fast.

Sorry for the crappy pic but there's a couple pieces sitting next to the cave in there. I was thinking about moving the cray to its own tank, adding a few shrimp and a snail or two to this tank. It was nice and clean up until this happened, but I think the shrimp/snails would do a better job.

 

[Rivercats]

Yep that is just balls of detris and food. Adding a powerhead will usually be enough to keep them suspended for the filter to remove but also will keep them from being able to form since the fine detris and food won't just sink to the bottom and gather. Using any bottom fish or even shrimp are enough to keep detris stirred up off the bottom. I have either cory cats or loaches in all my tanks. Even in my 2 nano fish tanks that are a 55g and 24g I have nano loaches and apisdoras (a small cousin to cory's).

 

[Antler]

Yep that is just balls of detris and food. Adding a powerhead will usually be enough to keep them suspended for the filter to remove but also will keep them from being able to form since the fine detris and food won't just sink to the bottom and gather. Using any bottom fish or even shrimp are enough to keep detris stirred up off the bottom. I have either cory cats or loaches in all my tanks. Even in my 2 nano fish tanks that are a 55g and 24g I have nano loaches and apisdoras (a small cousin to cory's).

Ok. Im not fussy on adding a power head because of my fine sand substrate, I'm afraid it'll get blown all over the tank. I have an AquaClear 70 on it and I had to move it around find a sweet spot where the current wouldnt t move my sand all over the place.

 

[Antler]

Update: As I type this, I'm acclimating 3 black rabbit snails, another 6 Black Neon Tetras, 5 CPD's (they ran out) and 1 amano shrimp (also last 1 they had). I traded the blue crayfish in on the fish. I liked him but he kept eating the CPD's.

The lfs guy said that RCS and Crystal Red Shrimp would not help clean the tank, but the amano will? Both the RCS and CRS were cheaper than the amano, so if you guys say there just as good for a clean up crew I'm going to get some of those next visit.

Total stock now is:

12 Black Neon Tetra
7 Celestial Pearl Danio
3 Black Rabbit Snails
1 Amano Shrimp

I'll be adding another 5 CPD's and more shrimp next time I get to the city.