How to clean?

[Amazonabby]

I am new to this and I am not sure how I am supposed to use the "vacuum" to clean my tank when I have plants in my rocks. I have a 30 gallon fresh water with 3 angels, 3 barbs and 2 gouramis. I have 4 sizes of gravel in my tank: pea gravel, river rock, egg rocks and larger decorative rocks. I have 1 piece of driftwood in there and another soaking currently. I purchased a lot of plants on eBay and they seem to be doing good for the past week. I believe I need to re-home one of the barbs and one of the gouramis due to fin nipping. I have both of them now separated so they can't nip anymore. I have iron supplements for the plants and stress zyme for the water. I use Ro water to fill the tank. I have had this setup running for about a month.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

Welcome Aboard!

Great looking tank and I like the use of different sized rocks. As for cleaning, you could kinda poke the gravel vac into the areas you can reach and pull what you can up, but I find if I let gunk settle around the plants they use it as root food.

Is the tank fully cycled?

Why RO water? Plants and fish really need the nutrients and elements that are in dechlorinated tap water, so unless you have serious issues with what's coming out of the tap, I'd suggest using it instead of the RO water.

Iron is good to add, but I'd suggest looking into Seachem's Flourish Comprehensive too as a liquid fert and for heavy root feeding plants, root tabs are a good addition.

 

[jcolon]

Best thing to do is just vacuum the open gravel areas and around the rocks ... No need to vacuum where the plants are, any waste material will eventually be used by the plants as nutrients.

If you have TigerBarbs .. they'll continue to nip, especially at the angels fins as they get older ... You may need to remove them entirely. TigerBarbs are best kept in a shoal of 5+ to curtail fin-nipping, but the large fins of the Angels is like dangling a target in front of TigerBarbs.

Gouramis can be tricky ... sometimes they will not tolerate another Gourami in a tank ... especially two males.

 

[Fishkeeper26]

Some if the angels may need rehomed, or the barbs. What kind of barb is it?

 

[Amazonabby]

I live in Pensacola FL and recently we were rated as #1 in the country for worst water quality lol I just worried that the tap water would be bad. I'll start using the tap water and my drops if you think it would be better.

I have 1 tiger barb (aggressive), 1 albino barb, 1 rosy barb, a blue gourami, an aggressive gold gourami and 3 sweet as can be angels. The angels are the newest and I have lost 2 of them since I put them in on Monday. Now there are just 3.

I will look into that plant fertilizer. I have a 50/50 light in it.

Should I get a catfish to eat the dropped food before it becomes ammonia? I have good places under the open rocks for hiding. I want to get a algae eater but I was told I had to wait until I had enough algae to support it.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

I live in Pensacola FL and recently we were rated as #1 in the country for worst water quality lol I just worried that the tap water would be bad. I'll start using the tap water and my drops if you think it would be better.

I have 1 tiger barb (aggressive), 1 albino barb, 1 rosy barb, a blue gourami, an aggressive gold gourami and 3 sweet as can be angels. The angels are the newest and I have lost 2 of them since I put them in on Monday. Now there are just 3.

I will look into that plant fertilizer. I have a 50/50 light in it.

Should I get a catfish to eat the dropped food before it becomes ammonia? I have good places under the open rocks for hiding. I want to get a algae eater but I was told I had to wait until I had enough algae to support it.

That's not good news about your water . Maybe RO is better, but you might want to research what to add back in for the benefit of the fish/plants.

Ghost or amano (AES) shrimp are a good option for cleaning/eating algae if your fish don't try to eat them that is. Mine do wonders in 3 of my tanks, but my goldfish would consider them snacks so that tank doesn't get any lol.

 

[Amazonabby]

"fully cycled" I honestly don't know hat that means.

I am lost when it comes to the details of having a tank. I seriously don't know what I'm doing lol I got a tank, some rocks and some water and started from there. I take water samples to the pet store every few days and they tell me everything is fine.

This is my first ever tank besides gold fish and betta.

When I put the first fish in I was top that the water would get cloudy after a couple of days than go back to normal. Mine never got cloudy.

 

[Amazonabby]

I have the stress zyme biological filtration booster that says it has live bacteria in it to help keep the tank clean and speed the development of the bio wheel. Is that good enough for adding back what Ro water lacks?

 

[Mr. Limpet]

"fully cycled" I honestly don't know hat that means.

I am lost when it comes to the details of having a tank. I seriously don't know what I'm doing lol I got a tank, some rocks and some water and started from there. I take water samples to the pet store every few days and they tell me everything is fine.

This is my first ever tank besides gold fish and betta.

When I put the first fish in I was top that the water would get cloudy after a couple of days than go back to normal. Mine never got cloudy.

How long has the tank been setup and fish in it?

I'd suggest getting a liquid test kit and testing it yourself, so you know what the water parameters are. The API FW Master test kit is the one I like to use.

Making sure the tank is cycled means that the bacteria needed to keep the fish healthy should be established before putting fish in the tank. Here's an article that will tell you what may need to be done since you have fish already.

I just learned about cycling but I already have fish. What now?!

 

[jcolon]

Fully cycled means growing the Beneficial Bacteria that is needed for the nitrogen cycle. Fish create ammonia via waste and their gills. Any amounts over .25ppm is toxic and will kill fish. BB converts Ammo into Nitrites (still toxic) then another BB convert Nitrites to Nitrates ... not as toxic ... ok up to 40ppm ... but 0 to 20ppm is preferred. Nitrates can be used by plants as nutrients .. but PWC's are the best way to control excess nitrates.

To cycle a tank can take a few weeks to a month or two for the bacteria to develop and grow. Buying bacteria to seed the tank can speed up the cycle ...maybe ... otherwise substrate or filter media from a trusted established tank is the better way to seed a tank.

 

[jcolon]

Opps .. hit the post button too quickly .. but Mr. Limpet already beat me with the additional info

 

[Mr. Limpet]

I have the stress zyme biological filtration booster that says it has live bacteria in it to help keep the tank clean and speed the development of the bio wheel. Is that good enough for adding back what Ro water lacks?

The stress zyme might help, but I personally don't put much faith in them and I suspect that it doesn't add the essential nutrients/elements back into the water. The other issue is that since RO water removes buffers that stabilize your waters pH, that could be lower than desired. The test kit I recommended on your other post will tell you what the pH is. I suggest your get the kit asap, read the instructions fully and post your test results so we can better determine where your tank water parameters are.

Since you're using RO water (is that your drinking water too?), I'm not sure if a dechlorinator is needed and hopefully someone can answer that. But even for human consumption, straight RO water isn't the best from what I've read.

 

[Amazonabby]

I purchased the tank on May 15th setup the tank and had it running for a couple days than took a water sample to PetSmart an everything checked out good so I added the barbs. A week later I took another sample of water and all of the level were spot on so I got the gouramis. Monday my levels were still good so I went and got the angels and now I'm here.

I know I probably went to fast but I got excited and so far I don't think I have killed any fish the two angels were not doing well from the get go so I don't think it was my fault.

I think I'm way in over my head... That post about nitrate and nitrite levels I have no idea what it was saying.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

I purchased the tank on May 15th setup the tank and had it running for a couple days than took a water sample to PetSmart an everything checked out good so I added the barbs. A week later I took another sample of water and all of the level were spot on so I got the gouramis. Monday my levels were still good so I went and got the angels and now I'm here.

I know I probably went to fast but I got excited and so far I don't think I have killed any fish the two angels were not doing well from the get go so I don't think it was my fault.

I think I'm way in over my head... That post about nitrate and nitrite levels I have no idea what it was saying.

I'd suggest reading the article I posted thru a couple times and we can answer any question you might have.

NitrItes (AKA no2) are very harmful to fish and the test kit I suggested will tell you what level they're at. The nitrAtes (AKA no3) are less harmful to the fish and your plants will use it for food. Bacteria will take the ammonia (AKA ammo) created by fish waste (poo) and convert it to no2, both of these can be harmful (even deadly) to your fish. Then a different set of bacteria will convert the no2 into no3, the plants will use the no3 and yet another set of bacteria will convert some of the no3 into nitrogen. Thus is the circle of life in an aquarium (so to speak ), or the nitrogen cycle.

Sounds like the fish are doing fine for now, but an ammo spike could hit soon enough and your fish will show signs of it by gasping at the waters surface and their gills may become red/inflamed so I'd suggest you keep a close eye out for these symptoms.

I'd also suggest along with the test kit (liquid, not test srips), you get a bottle of Seachem Prime. It's a dechlorinator, but it also helps keep the ammo and no2 from hurting the fish as badly.

 

[Amazonabby]

So I should stop using the Ro and start using the drops and tap water for sure? I'll look for the liquid test kit. Hopefully I can find it on sale or used. I'm on a super fixed income. Thank you to all. I'll post again with my levels as soon as I can.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

So I should stop using the Ro and start using the drops and tap water for sure? I'll look for the liquid test kit. Hopefully I can find it on sale or used. I'm on a super fixed income. Thank you to all. I'll post again with my levels as soon as I can.

I can't really say, given your water is rated worst in the (area, state)? You may want to stick with the RO until someone has better info on it.

The kit is available online for a better price: Amazon.com: Aquarium Pharmaceuticals 34 Fresh Water Aquarium Master Test Kit for Testing High Range pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate Levels: Kitchen & Dining

 

[Amazonabby]

As far as the report said we are the worst in the country

I will check out that site thank you

 

[Mr. Limpet]

As far as the report said we are the worst in the country

I will check out that site thank you

Yeah, that's not a good thing and sorry to hear about it. If it's bad for you to drink, it'll be really bad for the fish IMO. Maybe do a google search on using RO in a FW tank and what might be good to add to the water that will benefit the fish/plants (nutrients wise).

Look there for Prime too, bet it's a better price than the store too.