paulmorphine
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Hello,
I've been in this hobby for about a month now but thanks to sites like yours, I feel like my little fishies are getting the care they need. I have 3 - 10 gallons + a 20 gallon + am about to purchase a 29 or 55 gallon very soon.
My tanks have been running with fish for 3.5 weeks now. My 10 gallons are all cycled (0 ammonia 0 nitrites 10ppm nitrates). Strangely enough my 20 gallon seems to have hit a plateau. It isn't severely overloaded or anything - it has very small juvenile fish including a rainbow shark, a guppy, 5 fast-growing guppy fry, and recently I added 2 yoyo loaches + an otocinclus. The last 3-4 days, I've tested with the same parameters (0 ammonia 2ppm nitrItes, 10ppm nitrAtes).
I added another filter (it was running an aquaclear mini and I added an Aquaclear 30), improved aeration with an airstone + air pump, added cycle + stresszyme, did 10% and 25% water changes the last 2 days respectively, and even did a little gravel cleaning + filter floss cleaning today b/c as a doting parent, I tend to overfeed the fry.
Any advice? I didn't want to clean the gravel before the tank cycled or do so many water changes but I don't want any casualties due to high nitrites. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
As for my next tank, how difficult is it to move a fully stocked 55 gallon? I might move soon in the next 6 months so should I just stick w/ what I have until then, or would a 29 gallon be OK? I don't want any of my babies to die due to stress + moving. Thanks in advance.
I've been in this hobby for about a month now but thanks to sites like yours, I feel like my little fishies are getting the care they need. I have 3 - 10 gallons + a 20 gallon + am about to purchase a 29 or 55 gallon very soon.
My tanks have been running with fish for 3.5 weeks now. My 10 gallons are all cycled (0 ammonia 0 nitrites 10ppm nitrates). Strangely enough my 20 gallon seems to have hit a plateau. It isn't severely overloaded or anything - it has very small juvenile fish including a rainbow shark, a guppy, 5 fast-growing guppy fry, and recently I added 2 yoyo loaches + an otocinclus. The last 3-4 days, I've tested with the same parameters (0 ammonia 2ppm nitrItes, 10ppm nitrAtes).
I added another filter (it was running an aquaclear mini and I added an Aquaclear 30), improved aeration with an airstone + air pump, added cycle + stresszyme, did 10% and 25% water changes the last 2 days respectively, and even did a little gravel cleaning + filter floss cleaning today b/c as a doting parent, I tend to overfeed the fry.
Any advice? I didn't want to clean the gravel before the tank cycled or do so many water changes but I don't want any casualties due to high nitrites. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
As for my next tank, how difficult is it to move a fully stocked 55 gallon? I might move soon in the next 6 months so should I just stick w/ what I have until then, or would a 29 gallon be OK? I don't want any of my babies to die due to stress + moving. Thanks in advance.
