Beginning our first tank, questions, and hi to everyone!

[SirensEye00]

Hi my name is Lindsey, my boyfriend Mark and I decided to start a fish tank. We decided on a 10 gallon half moon from Petsmart, came with a filter and a heater, and we added a sand bottom to it. Well, the sand hasnt settled yet (its been 3 days) and we have alternated turning the filter on and letting that run, and turning it off to let the water settle. Can't really decide what the best option is.

We didn't rinse the sand first (stupid now that im looking back on it, but I guess i was being impatient), so Im wondering if that was crucial?

Anyway, whats everyone's advice? Also, as far as scenary, has anyone been able to do much with a ten gallon tank? Its got more height than most 10 gallons I have seen, not alot of floor space. I wanted driftwood, but im not sure where exactly to get that from, or if its even safe. Any comments are appreciated

 

[herp_mommy]

Welcome to the forum! So this is going to be freshwater? The sand should settle in a few days, rinsing it doesn't really matter that much. First thing to do is to read up about Cycling an aquarium. This builds up the beneficial bacteria that break down fish wastes. Don't add fish until this process is complete. Then you can get to stocking!

 

[SirensEye00]

Yes, freshwater! Sorry i forgot to write that. Would love a saltwater tank, but since im just beginning im not going to risk all that money // probable loss of fish because I don't know what im doing just yet haha.

 

[djtypykuhl]

Hello, and welcome.
a ten gallon tank is good to start with, but if your anything like any other fish lover, you will quickly become irritated with the stocking limitations.
driftwood is safe, if you get it from a pet store. if you get it from your local lake or pond, it may carry some diseases.

my recommendation for scenery: get a long, skinny peice of driftwood to stand up and lean it against the back of the tank. get some very tall live plants (water grass is the easiest to maintain) and randomly place it about the substrate. (do not organize the plants in any way to keep a natural look to the tank) space it out with some smaller plants, real or fake, but try to keep the plants natural looking (dont get a neon pink fake plant, it'll scare your fish) and get a small hollowed out decoration to place in one of the back corners of the tank (maybe a log, a skull, a castle, or whatever else you may find that interests you. if your fish get scared, it helps to have a place for them to hide.)

my stocking recommendations:

1: Get a livebearer (molly, platy, guppy, swordtail, or endler), a small school of tetras (3-6, could be neon, black neon, black skirt, red-eye, scissor tail, or many others), and a beta.

2: Tiger barbs (4-7), and corydora catfish (2-3)

3: Tetra display (get a couple pairs of varying tetras, but dont exceed 12 total)

I hope you have fun with your aquarium adventure!

 

[SirensEye00]

djtypykuhl, I ended up buying another filter, so I have 2 running right now, a Fluval U 1, and the stock filter with the tank. We also have an air stone bubbler in the corner. I have some live plants, but I did buy a fake pink soft one (so it wouldnt hurt them, but I didn't think that the color would scare them. Oops)

But right now, I have the bubbler, heater, and two filters going on... all trying to get the sand to settle :/ i have been monitering the PH and thats been steady at 7. The ammonia is back and forth between 0 ppm and .25 ppm. I added two mollies, to start off. I left them in the bag for about 45 minutes to situate them. But I don't think the one of them is doing too well, he is just sitting in the corner being very still :/ Any suggestions on how to save him?

 

[redsea]

Welcome to the forums!

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Welcome to AA!
IMO a 10g I way too small for mollies but you have them now....
Please read this.
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/artic...-to-Starting-a-Freshwater-Aquarium/Page1.html

 

[djtypykuhl]

I need to know more about the molly's behavior and appearance.

Does it seem to "shimmy" in place?
Do it's eyes appear to be swolen?
How is your other one doing?
what kind of mollies? (color, short or sailfin, balloon or not)

also, getting two mollies was a mistake for such a small tank. the mollies will inevidably breed, and if the babies don't get eaten, you'll be over stocked within two months
easy fix though, get a beta or three tiger barbs (NOT BOTH) the tiger barbs tend to attack fish with long fins and fish that are smaller than them (luckily, they are small) if you have sailfin mollies, tiger barbs are a bad idea.

story time!
i had a mollie with the same behavior when i brought her home. always at the bottom of the tank, swimming in place. i noticed that her eyes started to swell, and eventually, her eyes popped out of their sockets. it's called pop-eye (suitable name) and it is a parasite that is nearly impossible to cure. if this is the case with your molly, it's just best to end it's missery now

also, i'm not familiar with some filter models. just make sure the surface of the water doesn't look like high-tide and you should be fine. be careful with changing your filter packets often, as you throw away all of the beneficial bacteria that has built up on them in the process.

how bright is the plant? the colors themselves arent what scare the fish, it's the rapid change of colors within the tank. (in your case, green to pink, and back to green) it stresses them out. stress leads to desease, desease leads to death. never thought that cute pink plant would kill your fish, huh? i've experienced this with a large school of neons about four years back, didnt know why they died, did some research, and it was all because i used too many random and bright colors

the airstone is always a nice touch try experimenting with the placement of it. i personally like to hide them inside my hollowed decorations for a cool effect. and the benifet the tank by adding more oxygen. good move there

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Please don't put tiger barbs in a 10g!!!! ^^^

 

[djtypykuhl]

Mumma.of.two, i've had good experiences with tiger barbs.
one of my many 10g experiments included a tiger barb and corydora set-up, with no problems
we had to move, and i had to rehome them though
they have done great in my friends community tank the last i've heard, but that was four or five years ago.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

IMO (and just about everybody else's) they are too large and aggressive for a 10g. With other fish or not.

 

[djtypykuhl]

thanks for that advice then.
yeah, mine were still pretty small when we had to get rid of them, so that makes sense.
i was planning on helping someone set up a 10g TB display, thanks for helping me stop the mistake

also, i thought they only got to be 2 - 2.5 inches? would 3 of them really be that big of a problem in a 10g?