New to the scene...

[jakeandwendy]

Hello! me and my girlfriend recently set up a 20 gal freshwater tank. We cycled it for about two weeks without fish, then added 7 black tetras. Couple days later, we put in the cats and crab. Today we added our final additions (for now!!) 2 neon blue dwarf gouramis(my babies) and 2 veiled angels(her babies). We can't find much info on the gold claw crab, so if any body could help out that would be great. Any other thoughts, comments or suggestions would be awesome!!! We want to get some upper level schooling swimmers, but want to keep the tank peaceful as possible. Any thoughts would be great!!

 

[Bettababe1011]

Hello! Welcome to AA! I'm trying to save up for a twenty gallon as well. It'll have zebra danios, and some others. Not sure about the others yet. But anyway, enjoy the forum!!

 

[melosu58]

Welcome aboard.

 

[jakeandwendy]

thanks! worried we may be a little overstocked but we're gonna go bigger in about 6 months neways sooo... we'll see if everyone makes it! we think by careful maintenance and proper tank up keep we should be fine.

 

[glassbird]

When you say that you "cycled it for two weeks without fish", do you mean you started the nitrogen cycle (with pure ammonia, or some other source of ammonia) and did daily testing for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate? Or did you just let the filters run for two weeks?

Two weeks is probably not long enough to do a true fish-less cycle, unless you had some used filter pads and/or gravel from another aquarium to seed the "beneficial bio-bugs". So if you did not truly cycle the tank (and just had the filters running for two weeks) then your tank is NOT cycled...and with that bio-load you are going to have trouble, soon.

 

[jakeandwendy]

i used water and some gravel from our pet stores tanks, monitored my nitrogen and ph and ran my filters. half the water and 4lbs of the gravel came from them. i bought a master test kit and our pet store owner tested my water with me. any reccommendations on maintaining it. the plan is to upgrade to bigger tank this summer. my lady at the "lfs"? is super cool and knowledgeable and she helped me with the cycling

 

[jakeandwendy]

got rid of the black tetras. too stressful on the gouramis and angelfish. did a good job helping to get the tank going, but they sorta disrupt the stately feng shui of the other guys. we're gonna hold off on putting anything else in there for now, and save up for when we get our bigger tank.