Aquarium Moron?

[SanDiegoCa]

Ok, so my son talks me into an aquarium. Well, I had them when I was a kid, so it didn't take much talking on his part to get me to acquiesce. Now, about a week and a half into it, I'm doing everything. But that's ok. I'm having a blast!! Got a 29 gal. tank, Whisper 30 HOB, Small cheap pump for bubbles, Heater, etc. First few days I struggled with dead fish, cloudy water, smelly water. Then I found Aquarium Advice. Did my homework, went to my LFS and got ammonia and nitrite test kits. After my first ammonia test, I did a 75% water change immediately. Everybody perked up almost right away, and the mortality rate is now at 0% and holding. Now I'm doing 20% water changes every day. Now, from what I understand, I should probably keep this up until my ammonia readings are 0 ppm. Is that correct? My nitrites are at 0 ppm now. (Don't understand what 0 ppm nitrites means at this point). When my ammonia readings reach 0 ppm, that means my tank has cycled, and my bio filter has taken over. Then my water changes can be reduced to about 10% once a week or so, right? How am I doing so far guys? One mistake I made is that I didn't write down my inventory of fish when I bought them. Now I don't know everything I have in the tank. I do know that there are 17 fish in the tank and none are over 1.5 inches in length. Maybe I'll surf the web tonight and identify my fish. I know there are 6 tetras (not neons, but with orange coloring-maybe cardinals?), 2 cool looking catfish type-predominantly black with orange fins, 2 black mollys, 1 orange guy-perhaps a platy of some kind, 2 zebra danios I think (zebra like striping with long flowing fins), and 4 guys of which I have no clue. No goldfish though. Learned that from this forum. Anyway, I am rambling. All advice is welcome. I will filter it (no pun intended), and use what I want and ignore the rest. Bottom line is that I am thoroughly enjoying myself. I'll take an aquarium over a dog anytime!!! (I'm sure that last line will be somewhat controversial, even in this forum)

 

[Allivymar]

LOL welcome to AquariumAdvice SanDiegoCa! Anyone willing to do research and ask questions is NOT a moron IMHO; hope you don't mind I disagree with your self appointed title *grin*

OK. first things first. A tank actually is ALWAYS cycling. By that I mean ammonia is always being produced (assuming you have live things in it), is processed into nitrites which is then processed into nitrates by nitrifying bacteria. When people say a tank is *cycled* here tho, they mean there is enough bacteria to process all the ammonia and nitrites and only nitrates show up during water tests. So your tank is not considered *cycled* until you have no readings of ammonia OR nitrites. You will most likely have levels of nitrates; thats ok, but you don't want it to go over 40 ppm. Thats why water changes are important. Really nothing other then live plants process nitrates, so they need to be removed. Yeah there are some chemicals which will reduce them, but you'll find most of us here avoid chemicals for the most part. Usually winds up messing with the water parameters anyway. So you are pretty close with your understanding of the cycle, but not quite there yet. You may want to read this article; explains the cycle pretty well IMHO: http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-cycling.html

Onward and forward: Your filter. You really want a filter that cycles the amount of the tank about 6-10x an hour. I'm guessing here, so you may want to check, but I *think* a Whisper30 may only cycle 30 gallons per hour. Double check it and see; if it does, you'll need a larger filter.

Just a FYI, but those cute little bubbles? Don't actually add oxygen to the tank. All O2/CO2 exchange occurs at the surface of the water; what those bubbles do is agitate the surface to enhance the exchange.

Definitely look up what fish you have. You want to be sure they will all be compatible, and you'll need to find out their mature size to be sure all will fit in that tank. Do come back and let us know; we can then determine whether everything works well in there.

*grin* its is fun isn't it. I've a no pet clause in my apt lease, so no fuzzy creatures for me. I figure fish don't count And I adore my guys!

 

[SanDiegoCa]

Alliv.... Thanks for the response. If my filter is undersized, as you suggest, what short term symptoms might I look for and what long term ramifications could I experience? Also, regarding the bubbles, are they a requirement for the health of the tank? Since the tank is in my son's room, could the bubbles be turned off at night in the interest of quietness in the room? TIA

 

[sweetsuvvyb]

The filter provides the mechanical filtration...so if you don't have an appropriate (ie, underpowered) filter, you'll have visibly dirty water. You probably wouldn't notice this so much now, when you're doing water changes every day. The problem is that the gunk that's not getting filtered out then contributes to a host of water quality problems, that can hurt the fishies. Solution? Either buy a new, bigger filter, or buy another, smaller filter, and run 2.

The bubbler contributes some surface agitation which helps oxygenate the water, but if you have an HOB filter, you've got that little water spout return that creates plenty of agitation. So for the most part, it's an aesthetic thing. Feel free to turn it off.

 

[Allivymar]

LOL what sweets said.

 

[tkos]

Yeah, I would go out and buy another whisper 30 filter and attach it to the other side of the tank. They aren't super expensive and it means if one breaks down for some reason you don't have to panick too much.

The only fish from your list (except the 4 unknown) that may give you problems are the catfish. Some catfish stay to 4 inches or less and that will be fine with your tank. Some, however, grow massive and will eat everything in your tank.

Try going to www.planetcatfish.com and reading about things there. Also try going back to the fish store with a piece of paper and writing the names down. It is always so hard to remember all those names when you are starting out.

Congrats on buying test kits and being willing to learn. It often takes people awhile to figure that stuff out.