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Awesome! I hope all goes well. Keep us posted, and don't hesitate to ask questions if something is goin wrong.
 
Question...

Okay, after some consideration on the board here I have a question.

Is it really necessary to have a bubble stone/air stone?

I ask because I have quite a few live plants, great circulation from my filter and lots of surface area. I've seen some pictures here on AA of some really nice aquariums with happy fish and no air stone. :flowers:
 
No, you don't need an air stone, the filter in most cases will provide enough o2.

Also, the amazon sword is going to outgrow that tank pretty easily.

And the soil substrate is a pain, you may want to do some big water changes to get the particulate out, otherwise it will just settle on top of the gravel and cloud up anytime it's disturbed.
 
Okay, here is my update

Amazon sword did indeed get too big ~Thank you jetajockey~

I did a massive overhaul to the tank last night ~no more soil~ (too messy)
here are my tank conditions:

06/28/2011 @ 7:12PM
temperature: 80° F
Ammonia: 4 ppm
NitrIte: 0 ppm
NitrAte: 0 ppm
PH: off the chart
Hi Ph: 8.0

Oh, yes another thing. I went to my LFS and they graciously gave me a good quantity of gravel from one of their tanks. So hopefully things should get rolling off to a good start.

Also included with their offerings they gave me a little hitchhiker. A little baby snail. How will my cycling this tank effect it?

ps. the red cup in the tank is holding the LFS gravel.
 

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George9 said:
I Would check it in about 20 mins to make sure the ammonia is around 4 ppm. I would check it everyday to keep the ammonia at a constant.
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I'm not so certain that checking it daily is absolutely necessary. I never approached any of my tanks that way.

All I did for my last fishless cycle was:
1) Dose the tank up to 4ppm ammonia.
2) Wait about a week, occasionally glancing at the tank to make sure nothing drastic went wrong.
3) Check ammonia levels. If lower than 4ppm, then check nitrIte levels.
4) Redose up to 4ppm if necessary, and start checking ammonia and nitrIte levels more often, say every two days.

Once ammonia starts to drop more often and nitrIte levels spike, you can check daily, but I don't think it's necessary to check that often right out of the gate. There won't be a dramatic enough shift in ammonia levels in the first week of fishless cycling to warrant watching it like a hawk, and I wouldn't even test daily the second week either.

IMO, it's only really necessary to test daily once your ammonia starts dropping to 0ppm in a 24hr period and your nitrIte levels are spiked up high.
 
jetajockey said:
Also, the amazon sword is going to outgrow that tank pretty easily.
Click to expand...

That's actually a really good point.

I have a 20g high tank with amazon swords that are absolutely gigantic.
 
Thank you James in MN. Any thoughts as to the little one in there?
Also, does anyone know where I can get the Python no spill clean and fill. I cannot seem to find out where to buy it.
 
Kryten said:
Thank you James in MN. Any thoughts as to the little one in there?
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Mine started pretty small, and have grown to be larger than the height of my tank, which is taller than yours. You could keep it if you still wanted, but there are other plants that would probably fair better in that size tank. I also have a 10g with nothing but java ferns and java moss in it.
 
Also concerning my intended community I've considered the following-

Dwarf Crayfish (cambarellus shufeldtii) Note: this specific species is known to be non-aggressive; max size 1.5 inches.
Red Cherry Shrimp (neocaridina heteropoda)
Dwarf Gourami (colisa lalia)
Cardinal tetras (paracheirodon axelrodi)
Dwarf Sucker (otocinclus)
Norman's Lampeye (aplocheilichthys normani)
Scarlet Gem Badis (badis bengalensis, dario dario)

What your thoughts?
 
Kryten said:
Also concerning my intended community I've considered the following-

Dwarf Crayfish (cambarellus shufeldtii) Note: this specific species is known to be non-aggressive; max size 1.5 inches.
Red Cherry Shrimp (neocaridina heteropoda)
Dwarf Gourami (colisa lalia)
Cardinal tetras (paracheirodon axelrodi)
Dwarf Sucker (otocinclus)
Norman's Lampeye (aplocheilichthys normani)
Scarlet Gem Badis (badis bengalensis, dario dario)

What your thoughts?
Click to expand...
i know there known to be non aggressive,but crays are opportunistic.
 
I understand the desire to get different kinds of fish, but you can't (and shouldn't) overdue it in a 15g tank. I recommend that you only get one schooling species between the norman's lampeyes and cardinal tetras, only get one dwarf gourami, and limit the number of dario dario since they're territorial with each other. Ottos are best in groups of three I believe, and one other option you could consider that's around the same size is a pitbull pleco.
 
Thank you, thank you! Keep up with the comments.

I need and want as many suggestions for my 15 gallon community, open call here folks. :cool:
 
I am aiming on getting a few different colours in the tank

Betta - yellow or blue
Ember tetras - orange
And cherry shrimp - red
 
proposed community

I know that I definately want a deep blue/purple Siamese Fighting Fish, 3 Dwarf Suckers and an blue Apple Snail. :)

The issues that I have right now are how many Neon or Cardinal Tetras and how many Red Cherry Shrimp would I be able to fit into my tank without over doing it?

When I put my tank and filtration data into AqAdvisor.com is tells me that I can fill out my 15 gal tank with 10 of each in addition to the others I intend to have. I kind of feel that is excessive but I'm not entirely sure. What do you think? :confused:
 
id say 8 would be rthe most. you dont want too many schooling fish flying around your betta it can stress him out.
 
ooh, I just googled black ruby barb. What a knock out! Love that fish! I wonder if it would play nice with Cardinal Tetras and a single Betta?
 
So forget a moment about what I've said so far about having this fish or that betta. If you had to build a community for a 15 gallon tank what would you use? :D
 
if you want the Betta stick with it, I think something like...

1 betta
8 cardinal tetras or embers, neons, wcm minnows, harlequin rasboras
5 pygmy corys

should be ok for a 15 gallon? you should get fish at every level of the tank then top, middle and bottom. Im only a newbie though, and made this through researching not experience...
 
Actually that's kind of what I was thinking also. Perhaps 3 otos instead of the corys though.

***edit***

Also I have a question!

What can I do to protect my newly cycled tank from a pH crash? Just make sure it has buffers?

And then there is the issue of the hitchhiking snail in my tank, it turns out that he brought along some friends. It turns out that there are at least 10 of these itty bitty snails sneaking about my tank. Should they be cause for concern on my part? Should I remove them?
 
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