Bent Needle
Aquarium Advice Regular
So this is my first ever fish tank. I posted how/why I decided to get into fishkeeping over in the introduction section so I'll spare you all that here, but I have a lot of questions. I've read and read and read on tanks, fish, and aquarium plants but feel like I'm mostly on information overload and can't figure out what will work best with what I have right now.
My tank is a 20 gallon long. Using Petco black gravel mixed with CaribSea Floramax (probably should have added more of the Floramax, in retrospect). Plants are java fern (which I know should be on driftwood...trying an experiment to see if it will wrap around the gravel when there are only a few pebbles holding it down) and water wisteria.
I don't think I have enough light for the plants. I have one T8 24" 17 watt bulb. The fish seemed a little scared by it the first day they were in the tank, which was the day after I added the plants (probably should have waited till the plants were established, I guess?). So it hasn't been on as much as it maybe should have been.
Do I need to add an airstone of some kind? I have my filter running in such a way that it splashes a little. You can see the bubbles in the picture. Is that enough?
I have two baby red wag platys, supposed to be female. Trying to avoid dealing with any baby fish right now. They seem happy enough, but they will explore the tank for awhile and then they go hide behind the castle next to the heater. After awhile they come out again. Is that normal? I have been keeping the water at about 78 degrees, is that good enough for them? I am terrified of hurting the poor little guys.
This is a link to a video of the tank today, right after about a 30% water change. This was the most active I had seen them - granted I have been at work during the day for the other two days I have had them and my husband said they had been out playing quite a bit in the afternoon. Does everything look normal?
Hopefully the pictures are formatted correctly, I haven't used a forum with this method of adding pictures before.
My tank is a 20 gallon long. Using Petco black gravel mixed with CaribSea Floramax (probably should have added more of the Floramax, in retrospect). Plants are java fern (which I know should be on driftwood...trying an experiment to see if it will wrap around the gravel when there are only a few pebbles holding it down) and water wisteria.
I don't think I have enough light for the plants. I have one T8 24" 17 watt bulb. The fish seemed a little scared by it the first day they were in the tank, which was the day after I added the plants (probably should have waited till the plants were established, I guess?). So it hasn't been on as much as it maybe should have been.
Do I need to add an airstone of some kind? I have my filter running in such a way that it splashes a little. You can see the bubbles in the picture. Is that enough?
I have two baby red wag platys, supposed to be female. Trying to avoid dealing with any baby fish right now. They seem happy enough, but they will explore the tank for awhile and then they go hide behind the castle next to the heater. After awhile they come out again. Is that normal? I have been keeping the water at about 78 degrees, is that good enough for them? I am terrified of hurting the poor little guys.
This is a link to a video of the tank today, right after about a 30% water change. This was the most active I had seen them - granted I have been at work during the day for the other two days I have had them and my husband said they had been out playing quite a bit in the afternoon. Does everything look normal?
Hopefully the pictures are formatted correctly, I haven't used a forum with this method of adding pictures before.