Ney guy - New tank.

[SNewlin06]

Hello everyone - I've lurked around this site for awhile, but I have just gotten a bit more serious about this hobby and finally registered.

I've been hobbling along with a little 10 gallon tank. Complete newbie purchase with lots of bad advice from my local independent pet store. I tried to avoid the chains - but recently found a lot better advise and help at Petsmart... after a year of frustration, dead fish, upset kids and upset daddy I think I have it figured out a little bit.

Yesterday i made a big buy (for me) - Marineland 46G bow tank/stand combo with their big LED day/night light. I intend to setup with a sand substrate (no more dyed gravel for me! Chased that problem for 4 months!). I want to put some short live plants in it like hairgrass and a few swords, but mostly want mixed areas of hairgrass and open sand bottom.

I have a Fluval HOB filter rated to 55 gallons that I'm going to put on this with the plan to upgrade to a good cannister filter in a few months when the bank account reloads. I have 40G airpump to run a couple small airstones and 1 bubble wall. I have one of those cheap Grech GUP-01 UV sterilizers and a heater. Ideally all the hardware will fit in the right rear corner of the tank, and the bubble wall will run in front of it to help disguise the gear.

I'm backing the tank up against my staircase, so the kids will be able to see the tank through the back on the stairs, and through the bow in the front. Area is out of direct sunlight.

Last night I got everything home, rinsed off the tank and laid out air lines. I hope rinse enough sand to get that in tonight and start filling with water. I'm being very careful to make sure no chemicals or debris remain on the equipment.

For livestock, I have 4 electric green tetras and 1 powder blue gourami in my 10G tank. They will move over and will likely be all I have for at least a few weeks. These are the survivors from my learning experiences and have proven themselves hardy. I would like to eventually add two more tetras and maybe another gourami. Then I'm thinking of a some sort of top swimmer and probably 4 Corys. No more than 15 fish I think. I'm going to add fish slowly to try and manage any issues - adding fish from different sources too quickly was a problem I had before.

I say all this because I'm hoping someone will point out any obvious problems with my plan. I know there will be some discussion about sand substrate, I've read about 100 opinions online that all very. I'm going to try this and see how it goes. I have somewhat hard tap water, and have read this can help me manage any issues.

Ok experts - flame away.

 

[librarygirl]

Hi and welcome!

I think you've got it covered actually. Not sure the UV sterilizer is really needed. If you're moving fish over just move the media from their current filter into the new one to keep the bacteria. The tank may be cloudy at first from the sand but it'll settle.

The LED lights may not be sufficient for some plants, though. You can try it and see how it works out.

 

[SNewlin06]

We'll see..

As far as the sterilizer goes - I might not need it - but I already have it. I'm putting it on a timer to turn an hour or two per night and will adjust if there's an issue.

I hear what you're saying about filter media. I have had such a nightmare getting water right in my 10G I kind of feel like I dont want to bring ANYTHING from the old tank to the new one except fish. Thanks to the idiots that tried to advise me when I got started there has been a whole host of chemicals in this tank in the last year. I plan on getting the new tank up and running without fish for a week or so with quick start and prime circulating. I'm debating maybe getting a couple fish right at the start to begin the cycle (something I dont really understand yet honestly) before moving the other guys over.

 

[librarygirl]

Running the tank empty won't cycle it unfortunately. The bacteria starters can be hit and miss at best but without an ammonia source it won't help at all in terms of cycling. You can do a fish-in cycle with the fish you have now but it takes some dedication. This link explains cycling some: Guide to Starting a Freshwater Aquarium - Aquarium Advice

 

[Rivercats]

The filter media will be fine to move over as long as there are no sick in the tank. The lighting on that tank is really really low so you will only be able to do very low light tolerant plants. But with that being said you could do a nice looking tank if you could find a nice branchy piece of DW or just a large piece of DW that you can attach low light plants onto. Ones that would work would be Anubia, Java ferns, and Bolbitus (my favorite). A carpet plant such as Dwarf hair grass would not grow in this light at all and I'm really not sure if a Sword would have enough light either. Now you can look into Crypts, they can tolerate some pretty low light and there are different types. You would need to add root tabs around them when using sand as your substate.

As for fish I wouldn't suggest adding a second gourami and two will often have aggression issues. It would be good to up your school of tetras and in a tank that size I'd have a school of at least 10. Also cory's would do better in a group of at least 6. Then if you'd do a top level swimming fish that tank would have a low bio-load for the size of the tank and yet there would be fish that occupy all levels of the tank. For top swimmers something like 6 "male" guppies for alot of color or a school of 6-10 Marbled hatchets would work nicely. Harliquen Rasboras also tend to school in the upper level of a tank and a school of 6-10 would also be a nice option.

 

[SNewlin06]

The filter media will be fine to move over as long as there are no sick in the tank. The lighting on that tank is really really low so you will only be able to do very low light tolerant plants. But with that being said you could do a nice looking tank if you could find a nice branchy piece of DW or just a large piece of DW that you can attach low light plants onto. Ones that would work would be Anubia, Java ferns, and Bolbitus (my favorite). A carpet plant such as Dwarf hair grass would not grow in this light at all and I'm really not sure if a Sword would have enough light either. Now you can look into Crypts, they can tolerate some pretty low light and there are different types. You would need to add root tabs around them when using sand as your substate.

As for fish I wouldn't suggest adding a second gourami and two will often have aggression issues. It would be good to up your school of tetras and in a tank that size I'd have a school of at least 10. Also cory's would do better in a group of at least 6. Then if you'd do a top level swimming fish that tank would have a low bio-load for the size of the tank and yet there would be fish that occupy all levels of the tank. For top swimmers something like 6 "male" guppies for alot of color or a school of 6-10 Marbled hatchets would work nicely. Harliquen Rasboras also tend to school in the upper level of a tank and a school of 6-10 would also be a nice option.

You think the light is low? I'm a bit surprised by that.. this thing is almost painfully bright with the white LEDs burning. Not sure about the spectrum, but people have used this light on bigger tanks than this..

Had trouble finding sand, but ending up with 80lbs of Petco freshwater sand. Rinsed it to death in my kitchen sink by hand, laid it out and filled up. I'm very pleased how little cloudiness came from the sand. Water is clear as a bell. Fired up my air bubblers and that all works. I'm almost worried if there is such thing as too much bubble action... I have a 12 inch bubble wand and three small airstones and even valved way down it looks like a lot.

I didn't have everything ready to go moving my filter. I stuck a little 10 gallon HOB filter running mechanical filtration only to remove and sand floating, but I don't really see any. All in all I'm very happy how this is going so far. Lots of thought and Internet surfing went into this.. Hope that pays off.