elysekuf
Aquarium Advice Regular
So after much frustration, our 36 gallon bowfront is cycled! 3-4ppm ammonia -> 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites in 26 hours! Hoorah!
Now, we're in the middle of performing a nearly complete water change (nitrates are >100), and turning the temperature back to 78*, and going to pick up some fish tomorrow evening!
Our finalized plan for the tank (so long as no one sees any big issues, of course! ) is as follows:
- 15 Cardinal Tetras
- 7 False Julii Corys
- 1 Bristlenose Pleco
- 1 Angelfish
And we'll be getting them in that order (but of course waiting to get the bristlenose until algae appears). I have a few questions nwo that we're out of the cycling phase and into the fishkeeping:
1) For tomorrow, is our bio-capacity high enough to obtain the entire school of 15 tetras? If not, how many do you recommend?
2) Can you walk me through everything that fish should NOT look like on purchase once more, just to make sure that I have a checklist to go through so I don't get overwhelmed with the excitement of having fish tomorrow only to find that we managed to pick unhealthy fish!
3) On a related note, we will be picking up these tetras from the fish store nearby that I mentioned in my previous thread. The proprieter was rather condescending about our choice to fishless cycle and told me it was a waste of time and that patience was better (meanwhile it took us 6-7 weeks to cycle a fishless tank, I'm pretty sure that was patience!). I'm now worried that he won't allow us to leave with the school of tetra that our tank should support. How do I deal with a persnickity LFS shopkeep?
4) The reason why we're returning to this store, though (aside from the fact that it's the closest one that's not a petco or petsmart), is because when I had my husband call the other day to ask when their most recent shipment of Cardinals came in, he was asked whether he meant upstairs or downstairs. Apparently they quarantine all their fish before selling them -- husband didn't ask how long and they didn't say. If they quarantine their fish for a 2-4 weeks, how long should I quarantine future purchases from them? Do I need to quarantine less? Regardless, we're picking up a ten gallon for quarantine / hospital purposes this week anyway, but I'm just curious if the fact that the LFS does this impacts quarantine time on our end at all.
5) This relates to plants. Currently we have two anubias, a handful of java ferns, some java moss and one amazon sword that's more fully grown and 3 or so that we recently cut off another bigger plant. We don't have much light (less than 1wpg...yikes!) at the moment, but we are looking at purchasing this fixture: 30in 2Bulbs fixtures Has anyone had any experience with this company? Are they reliable fixtures? Also, with this amount of light, will we need to add CO2?
We'll also be picking up some root tabs in the next couple of weeks (currently we have a layer of CaribSea FloraMax underneath a layer of mid-sized, very smooth gravel), and I've been dosing with Flourish Excel as per half the directions (less since there's been extra nitrate for them to eat up during the cycle, will bump up to full dosing once we get our fish in).
In terms of once we return with the fish, we've decided to do the drip method since cardinals are so sensistive to pH differences. Our tap water is 7.0-7.2, and I believe the LFS said their tanks are around 6.8-7.0, so hopefully it won't really be that big a deal, but still, I'd rather be safe than sorry!
But that makes me think of another question:
What are the feeding habits for tetra? We have a bottle of Tetra Color -- is that quality enough...should their diets be varied? And finally how much and how often? I know not to feed them once we get them home and to leave the lights off overnight to help acclimate them.
Anyway, I think that's everything -- I apologize for the novel, we're just super excited!!
Now, we're in the middle of performing a nearly complete water change (nitrates are >100), and turning the temperature back to 78*, and going to pick up some fish tomorrow evening!
Our finalized plan for the tank (so long as no one sees any big issues, of course! ) is as follows:
- 15 Cardinal Tetras
- 7 False Julii Corys
- 1 Bristlenose Pleco
- 1 Angelfish
And we'll be getting them in that order (but of course waiting to get the bristlenose until algae appears). I have a few questions nwo that we're out of the cycling phase and into the fishkeeping:
1) For tomorrow, is our bio-capacity high enough to obtain the entire school of 15 tetras? If not, how many do you recommend?
2) Can you walk me through everything that fish should NOT look like on purchase once more, just to make sure that I have a checklist to go through so I don't get overwhelmed with the excitement of having fish tomorrow only to find that we managed to pick unhealthy fish!
3) On a related note, we will be picking up these tetras from the fish store nearby that I mentioned in my previous thread. The proprieter was rather condescending about our choice to fishless cycle and told me it was a waste of time and that patience was better (meanwhile it took us 6-7 weeks to cycle a fishless tank, I'm pretty sure that was patience!). I'm now worried that he won't allow us to leave with the school of tetra that our tank should support. How do I deal with a persnickity LFS shopkeep?
4) The reason why we're returning to this store, though (aside from the fact that it's the closest one that's not a petco or petsmart), is because when I had my husband call the other day to ask when their most recent shipment of Cardinals came in, he was asked whether he meant upstairs or downstairs. Apparently they quarantine all their fish before selling them -- husband didn't ask how long and they didn't say. If they quarantine their fish for a 2-4 weeks, how long should I quarantine future purchases from them? Do I need to quarantine less? Regardless, we're picking up a ten gallon for quarantine / hospital purposes this week anyway, but I'm just curious if the fact that the LFS does this impacts quarantine time on our end at all.
5) This relates to plants. Currently we have two anubias, a handful of java ferns, some java moss and one amazon sword that's more fully grown and 3 or so that we recently cut off another bigger plant. We don't have much light (less than 1wpg...yikes!) at the moment, but we are looking at purchasing this fixture: 30in 2Bulbs fixtures Has anyone had any experience with this company? Are they reliable fixtures? Also, with this amount of light, will we need to add CO2?
We'll also be picking up some root tabs in the next couple of weeks (currently we have a layer of CaribSea FloraMax underneath a layer of mid-sized, very smooth gravel), and I've been dosing with Flourish Excel as per half the directions (less since there's been extra nitrate for them to eat up during the cycle, will bump up to full dosing once we get our fish in).
In terms of once we return with the fish, we've decided to do the drip method since cardinals are so sensistive to pH differences. Our tap water is 7.0-7.2, and I believe the LFS said their tanks are around 6.8-7.0, so hopefully it won't really be that big a deal, but still, I'd rather be safe than sorry!
But that makes me think of another question:
What are the feeding habits for tetra? We have a bottle of Tetra Color -- is that quality enough...should their diets be varied? And finally how much and how often? I know not to feed them once we get them home and to leave the lights off overnight to help acclimate them.
Anyway, I think that's everything -- I apologize for the novel, we're just super excited!!