USAFDave13
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2015
- Messages
- 13
Hello, I am new to the forum and to aquariums in general (7 months). I just posted my introduction but already have some questions to ask. Sorry this might be long but I'd like to give you as much info as possible.
So avoiding the long winded 7 month history of problems I have doing this, in a nutshell, my 3 yr old loves fish and so "let's get him a fish tank"..."it's just fish and water, it should be easy right!?". I'm sure you've lost count how many people have done this. Since then I've been educating myself and know what I've done wrong, so no torches or pitchforks necessary
So here we are today, I have a 20 gal. Marineland starter kit, the usual cheap rock and a few decorations (and yes, I did drop 3 fish in it the first day without cycling). I learned quickly to get away from the big box stores and found myself a good tropical aquarium store to help and I like 90% of the advice they have given me. I am worried that I have the wrong fish and/or community make up for my goals and tank. And also worried about my nitrate problem.
The current community is 1 platy, 2 rainbows (one yellow one blue, forgot the actual names), 1 red tail shark, 1 swordtail, 1 Sterbai Cory, and 1 Pleco (which after I read this morning, I'm hoping is a Bristlenose and not one of the 18 inchers).
The tank has fully cycled and on an API master kit reads 7.0 ph, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and....80+ ppm nitrate. It has been that way for about 3 weeks, nothing has died but I can't get it to drop. I've been doing 10-20% water changes 2-3 times a week for the last few weeks but it hasn't dropped. I did have two live plants in the tank but they started to decay and I read it could add to the problem so I pulled them out. Another issue is that my tap water is 9+ ph, a tough lesson to learn the hard way. So now I've been buying distilled water which is getting expensive. Per the new store I dropped in Xport-NO3 in a tied up small sock behind my filter, but i just did that yesterday.
All the fish seem to be doing fine except my red tail. I think he has a swim bladder issue. He's been swimming sideways and vertical for a couple weeks and just today I found him upside down at the top. He would swim down but would clearly float back up. Three concerns I have here, one is the nitrate issue, two is that I think I might be feeding him (who I just learned is an herbivore) the wrong food which could cause constipation and gas...I'm using marineland tropical flakes, and three that I think I've been filling the tank up too high. I say that because I don't have any type of oxygenation and while this is an educated guess, I believe the water out of the filter "ramp" should be disrupting the water surface to oxygenate the water. I generally don't like the "splashing" sound so I fill the water above the ramp. The last one is compounded because I watched the red tail gulping air from the surface yesterday.
Needless to say, I'm in over my head and need to evaluate whether or not I should be in this hobby. I've grown to like it but there are complications. I know now that a larger tank would be better but I'm active duty military and concerned about having this hobby get too large and difficult to move often during an already difficult lifestyle. The water is also an issue, while I'm not trying to accomplish this hobby for free, 10-20% water changes in a 20 gal are getting expensive...the same thing in a 55 gal would be worse. But I think I might also be overcrowded and/or have the wrong fish together.
My goal here is to continue enjoying this hobby with quite a bit less maintenance. I know it will never be no maintenance but I'm buying water, chemicals/medicines (mostly prior issues due to not cycling), and trying to keep them alive while balancing the rest of life. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you!
Dave
So avoiding the long winded 7 month history of problems I have doing this, in a nutshell, my 3 yr old loves fish and so "let's get him a fish tank"..."it's just fish and water, it should be easy right!?". I'm sure you've lost count how many people have done this. Since then I've been educating myself and know what I've done wrong, so no torches or pitchforks necessary
So here we are today, I have a 20 gal. Marineland starter kit, the usual cheap rock and a few decorations (and yes, I did drop 3 fish in it the first day without cycling). I learned quickly to get away from the big box stores and found myself a good tropical aquarium store to help and I like 90% of the advice they have given me. I am worried that I have the wrong fish and/or community make up for my goals and tank. And also worried about my nitrate problem.
The current community is 1 platy, 2 rainbows (one yellow one blue, forgot the actual names), 1 red tail shark, 1 swordtail, 1 Sterbai Cory, and 1 Pleco (which after I read this morning, I'm hoping is a Bristlenose and not one of the 18 inchers).
The tank has fully cycled and on an API master kit reads 7.0 ph, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and....80+ ppm nitrate. It has been that way for about 3 weeks, nothing has died but I can't get it to drop. I've been doing 10-20% water changes 2-3 times a week for the last few weeks but it hasn't dropped. I did have two live plants in the tank but they started to decay and I read it could add to the problem so I pulled them out. Another issue is that my tap water is 9+ ph, a tough lesson to learn the hard way. So now I've been buying distilled water which is getting expensive. Per the new store I dropped in Xport-NO3 in a tied up small sock behind my filter, but i just did that yesterday.
All the fish seem to be doing fine except my red tail. I think he has a swim bladder issue. He's been swimming sideways and vertical for a couple weeks and just today I found him upside down at the top. He would swim down but would clearly float back up. Three concerns I have here, one is the nitrate issue, two is that I think I might be feeding him (who I just learned is an herbivore) the wrong food which could cause constipation and gas...I'm using marineland tropical flakes, and three that I think I've been filling the tank up too high. I say that because I don't have any type of oxygenation and while this is an educated guess, I believe the water out of the filter "ramp" should be disrupting the water surface to oxygenate the water. I generally don't like the "splashing" sound so I fill the water above the ramp. The last one is compounded because I watched the red tail gulping air from the surface yesterday.
Needless to say, I'm in over my head and need to evaluate whether or not I should be in this hobby. I've grown to like it but there are complications. I know now that a larger tank would be better but I'm active duty military and concerned about having this hobby get too large and difficult to move often during an already difficult lifestyle. The water is also an issue, while I'm not trying to accomplish this hobby for free, 10-20% water changes in a 20 gal are getting expensive...the same thing in a 55 gal would be worse. But I think I might also be overcrowded and/or have the wrong fish together.
My goal here is to continue enjoying this hobby with quite a bit less maintenance. I know it will never be no maintenance but I'm buying water, chemicals/medicines (mostly prior issues due to not cycling), and trying to keep them alive while balancing the rest of life. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you!
Dave