New 20G tank~ cycling/fish/temp/algae Q!

[Lightdarker]

:::First timer's spiel:::

Hey everybody! This is my first post on the site. I'm planning on shortly moving into an apartment in a new town to go to college, and after reading a book on starting up and maintaining an aquarium, I've decided that a freshwater tank would be a great way to make my new apartment a bit more comfortable, and a great way to spend some of my free time. I've only had a small amount of experience in keeping aquarium creatures when I was younger (a few red clawed crabs that unfortunately didn't survive more than a few months), but I feel confident and ready to take the plunge into taking care of some good first fish.

I've yet to buy any of the equipment yet, but I'm planning on buying:

-a 20G tank (that comes with a hood with built-in lighting)
-an AquaClear HOB mech/chem(activated carbon)/bio filter
-a 100 watt heater and thermometer
-an air pump and stone
-decorations, substrate (likely gravel), perhaps some rocks, fake plants
-vacuum for PWCs, conditioner, ammonia/nitrite/nitrate/pH tests
I think I remembered everything...

:::The actual questions!!!:::

a) I've read all about the nitrogen cycle and I've decided I'd like to try fishless cycling. Would you suggest the ammonia source be from fish food, chemical additives, or Bio-Spira? This is my first time ever cycling a tank.

b) The room in my apartment is relatively small (8x10), and since it'll have a window (with curtains), I'm curious if anyone thinks I might have lots of problems with undesireable algae growth due to mostly unavoidable sunlight (as well as my room light for studying)?

c) Another potential problem is that since the apartment is an older, ground level building, and the area's weather is normally very hot or very cold, I'm curious as to how stable I would be able to keep the tank's temperature inside of my room, especially at night (and winter is coming up soon); I basically have no idea how much temperature fluctuations outside of the aquarium will affect the heated water inside the tank. Think I'll have any major problems?

d) Though I'm really excited about the idea of properly cycling my tank, I'm getting pretty interested in the prospect of eventually putting in some fish (go figure ), and I've decided that I'd either like to have a lone occupant (that will grow to a large size, but still find the aquarium comfortably sized), or a school of lots of comparatively small fish, like some brightly colored tetras. I've heard the "1inch:1gallon" rule for fish, but I'm curious as to about what number of schooling fish to keep together in my tank. Any ideas for a single large fish (perhaps a loach?), or a great schooling fish for a single-species tank that I could keep a good number of? I'm thinking a bunch of tetras, but I'm open to ideas.

Any tips or advice would be appreciated, though I've already found this website immensely helpful. Thanks!

 

[875mill]

1. Bio-Spira is not an ammonia source it is a product that cycles your tank immediately.

2. As long as your tank isn't directly in the window you should be fine.

3. Get a GOOD heater and you wont have a problem. And I mean a good heater I hate those annoying cheapies that most LFS sell. they dont regulate the temp worth a damn.

4. I always have and always will love tiger barbs. Very active little fishes.

 

[Lightdarker]

Oh, didn't know that about Bio-Spira... thanks for clearing that up. I wasn't aware that there were pretty crappy heaters out there... would the 100 watt from the local Petsmart (about $20) be probably too cheap?

Thanks for the response.

 

[rich311k]

Bio-Spira is live bacteria that should be added when you add your fish for little or no cycle. If it works you will be golden if it doesn't you will have a fishy cycle on your hands.

Try bigalsonline.com for your heater and other equipment. They have much better prices than available in the LFS.

As long as the tank doesn't get direct sunlight you should be ok.

 

[875mill]

I would get a submersible heater. I've always had good luck With All-Glass brand heaters and visi-therm heaters. here are two links.

http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsU.../aquariumsystemsvisithermstealthheater100watt

http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS/ctl3684/cp18534/si1378918/cl0/allglasssubmersibleheater100watt

 

[Lightdarker]

Thnx again for the quick and numerous responses! Much appreciated.

 

[7Enigma]

For your temp questions, a heater can (obviously) only heat a tank. And it will only heat to its specified temp that you select. In the winter time this is not much of a problem (I would recommend a 150watt personally for your 20gallon), as your tank will stay within 1 degree the majority of the time (most heaters can heat about 20degrees above ambient consistently). I personally use the Visi-therm stealth 150w heater in my 20gallon and have nothing but praise.

The problem then comes during the summer. Since a heater will only heat to a specified level, when the ambient temperature from a hot day warms the water ABOVE the set level that your heater is at, at night you will get an undesirable fluctuation. You then either need to run the tank at an elevated temp at all times (not usually desirable), OR find a way to keep the tank temp stable through evaporation/fan methods. I just went through this with my tank this past summer. The office where my tank is in gets very cold in the winter time, which doesn't matter since I'll just keep the tank at 76-78F. In the summertime however, the tank can easily reach 85-86F on its own due to the heat in the house. I would keep my heater at 82F, but then realized this constant fluctuation every night was probably not the best for the fish. So I bumped the temp up to about 85F, and while warmer than normal, believe it is causing less stress to the fish.

Come fall (just the last couple weeks), I've slowly lowered the temp, and its currently sitting at about 81.5F by my digital thermometer.

Speaking of thermometers, make sure you GET ONE. The dials on the heaters are NOT accurate and should only be used to realize how much your increasing or decreasing the set temp. Use a good digital thermometer, I personally use the $7 from Big Al's, and have nothing but praise for both the product AND the company!

I'd go with a fishless cycle myself using an ammonia source and seeding filter media/gravel/plants from an established tank. You should be ready to add fish in under a month with that method.

Goodluck.

 

[JohnPaul]

First of all, welcome to AA!!! Lots of great folks here who have a lot of experiene and are happy to share it, so feel free to become part of the community.

Let's see, a few thoughts I have:

-- consider getting a "20 Long" rather than a 20 standard. Both hold the same amount of water (obviously!) but the 20 long gives your fish more usable room to actually swim in. A few years ago when I began I got a 30g tank (actually 29g), and about a week later a good friend of mine got his first tank, and chose a 30 Long. After both of us getting our tanks set up, I like my friend's much better...it "seems" as if his tank just has so much more room than mine. In the end, it's a matter of personal taste, but when you're out shopping be sure to look at both options and see which one you like better.

-- definitely get an all-glass aquarium. I say that because they do make acrylic aquaria that get as large as 20g, but they are much more difficult to work with (in terms of cleaning algae off the surface, etc.) and can easily get scratched, which mars the look. So all-glass is the way to go.

-- AquaClear makes GREAT, I mean great, HOB filters, so you've made an excellent choice there.

-- if you're concerned about the apartment being cold at night, then get a 150W heater rather than a 100W. As someone else already discussed, cooling off a tank when the room has gotten too hot is a much more difficult prospect; if your apartment does not have air conditioning and you foresee it regularly getting up in the mid-80's or higher inside, then that might pose a challenge...though certainly one you could overcome.

-- assuming you are using a HOB filter, then having an airstone is probably not needed at all...the filter flow falling back into the tank and churning the water will cause enough oxygen flow for the tank to be just fine. So if you like the look/sound of an airstone by all means add one, but it is not something that you would need to do for the health of your fish.

-- if you go with a gravel substrate, my advice is to go with smaller gravel sizes rather than larger. The larger the gravel, the larger the "holes" between the gravel...which means more space for more gunk (uneated food, fish poop, etc.) to collect, and the more of that gunk that collects in your gravel, the harder it is to keep good water quality. Smaller gravel sizes means smaller "holes", which means gunk falls less deep into the gravel bed, which means it is much easier to vacuum out when you do your tank maintenance.

-- all fish need the security of having "hiding places," so don't skimp on plants, whether real or fake. Among the fake ones, silk plants are TONS more realistic looking than the plainer plastic ones...definitely go that route if you are looking for a more natural look. (Of course, if you end up choosing a hot, neon pink gravel then maybe you aren't going for the "natural" look, hehe, but if you are going for something natural, silk plants are the way to go).

-- all tanks have some algae, and in fact having small amounts of algae is healthy, as most fish like to snack on it. It's when algae starts to overrun the entire tank that there are problems. Keeping the tank out of direct sunlight will go a long ways towards preventing that. Diffused natural light is okay. Standard room lighting doesn't contribute at all to algae growth, as far as I am aware.

-- as for fish, I'd recommend against getting just one lone fish for the whole tank. With a 20g, once you are cycled and if you add slowly, you could very easily have a small school of cory cats as your "cleanup crew" on the bottom, have one school of some tetras or something of that sort, and then have maybe one larger "centerpiece fish," maybe something like a nice gourami. While you're doing your fishless cycling, check out the pet stores near you and see what attracts your attention.

-- have fun with the tank, and definitely keep us posted! And when the time comes to add fish, we wanna see some pictures!!

 

[7Enigma]

Agree with the Long tank. I have a 20gallon high, and WISH it was a long.

 

[Lightdarker]

Once again, great feedback, thanks a lot! I'll have to look into getting a 20G long, but I'm not so sure that my tiny little apartment will have the room for it.

One more question, about algae growth: keeping the fish in a room that will get some ambient light from the sun, should I keep the built-in fluorescent lights that come with the aquarium hood on very much, or try to avoid using them for more than perhaps a few hours at a time?

 

[7Enigma]

Once again, great feedback, thanks a lot! I'll have to look into getting a 20G long, but I'm not so sure that my tiny little apartment will have the room for it.

One more question, about algae growth: keeping the fish in a room that will get some ambient light from the sun, should I keep the built-in fluorescent lights that come with the aquarium hood on very much, or try to avoid using them for more than perhaps a few hours at a time?

Algae will not be a factor with the stock tank hood light. At normal levels (almost all tanks with built in lights are under 1wpg), algae will not get a foothold unless you grossly ignore maintainance. The big factor is the natural light. If indirect (ie bouncing off a wall before getting into the tank) its not so bad. If direct (ie the light coming in the window goes right to the tank) you will probably experience some algae problems. The tank light being on or off will not contribute to this much if at all.

 

[Lightdarker]

As it turns out, my younger brother decided to get me a gift cift certificate for the local Petsmart, so it looks like I might as well get set up and start my cycling process this weekend, I'm pretty excited. I've decided on setting up a school or two of fish, likely a single species tank, though I've yet to decide on exactly what I want... probably some kind of tetras. I'll have to keep you guys posted.

 

[Lightdarker]

Well, $258 later, I'm ready to start cycling my tank, probably starting Friday night. Wahoo!

 

[rich311k]

Congrats!!! Good luck.

 

[eah]

Congrats on the tank! Be sure to post some photos so we can all see. What are you thinking now in terms of the tank's inhabitants? If it were me, I would definitely consider including a rubberlip pleco. They are very, very cute and don't get to be more than 4".

 

[Lightdarker]

Mmk, well I just finished setting up wireless internet in my apartment, and I finished setting up the tank yesterday. So far everything is going pretty well, and testing the water seems to be pretty easy. So far as inhabitants, I'm considering getting a school or two of tetras, or some other small schooling fish, so I can have a fairly large number of a diminutive species that won't grow to be too big. I was worried about poor insulation, but everything's been way past my expectations, and the apartment has actually turned out to be a little stuffy, and hold heat really well. No pics yet, but I'll try to post some eventually... just need to get ahold of a digital camera...

 

[Lightdarker]

Well, it's been a long time since I've posted, but after an extremely long fishless cycle was finally completed (after three faulty heaters from PetSmart -_-) I've acclimated 15 neon tetras to my 20G long tank, and sadly, two of the little fish must not have been overly healthy in the first place, didn't do too well, and have since died.

Anyways, my 13 tetras are rather small at the moment, the largest of them being approximately half an inch long, and of course, extremely thin. The tank is well filtered, the pH is the proper 6.5, the water is clean and regularly changed on a weekly basis. Going off of that I have a 20 gallon (long) tank, what do you all think the maximum number of neon tetras I should have is? I'd like to get more, since the tank seems rather empty with such tiny occupants, but I don't want to create a stressful environment.

Any response is appreciated.