10g tank questions

[maxima423]

i am going to start a 10g tank for my little sister and i was wondering if you guys can answer some questions:

1) how long does it take to cycle?
2) what kind of fish would be perfect in a 10g tank?


that is most likely it

ty for your time

 

[eja206]

i have found platies good for a 10g, hardy and colourful!

 

[maxima423]

how many would you say would fit into a 10g tank?

 

[eja206]

i would say 5. however if you want another type of fish as well then obviously get less platies.

you can use this to work out your stocking:
AqAdvisor - Intelligent Freshwater Tropical Fish Aquarium Stocking Calculator and Aquarium Tank/Filter Advisor

i put in 5 platies to a 10 gallon and it suggested your tank would be 90% stocked.

Of course there are lots of other types of fish you can get - i think they different colours of platy are cool though.

also, here is something i found online - to give you some other ideas!

Stocking a 10 gallon tank:

Stocking 1
1 dwarf gourami
6 neons
12 ghost shrimp
1 snail- they are great algea eaters, dont bother your fish, and contribute little bioload to a tank. Better for smaller tanks than algea eating fish IMO.

Stocking 2
1 honey gourami- similar to the dwarf gourami, but stays 1/2 inch-1 inch smaller.
6 harlequin rasboras- small, good looking, and great schoolers. Another great community fish.
6 ghost shrimp
1 snail

Stocking 3
8 neons
6 ghost shrimp
1 snail

Stocking 4
1 dwarf gourami
3 platies- all male or all female unless fry are wanted
4 pygmy corydoras- stay very small, getting to around ¾ of an inch to an inch long. great for small tanks, but needs to be kept in groups of 4 or more.
1 snail

 

[maxima423]

that site is really helpful, thnx so much for the suggestions, as for the cycling, do you know anything about how long a 10g tank would take?

 

[eja206]

cycling i'm not so good on. i usually cycle with fish (not the best method), so someone else will have to jump in i'm afraid.

yeah the stocking calculator is great isn't it - i find it so helpful!

 

[Crepe]

It will depend, every tank is different. But in general, the smaller the tank the faster it is. Only problem with a small tank is that it is unstable.

You need a water test kit to really know whether you're cycled yet.

You need an ammonia source, then nitrifying bacteria make nitrites which another type of nitrifying bacteria will make into nitrates which remain in your tank unless taken up by plants (this is where your water change comes into plan) The process tanks anywhere from a month to upwards 6 months.

 

[Andrewz00]

not sure how old your sister is.. but my only suggestion would be to keep the fish food away from her or make sure you teach her the proper way to feed them....

as stated earlier, the environment inside a 10 gal is very unstable, which means the water parameters can move rather quickly. so things like, overfeeding can have a very fast negative impact on the balance inside that tank. but with proper knowledge, some supervision and a good maintenance schedule, you shouldn't have a problem!

Im glad to see people get involved very young! i started maintaining tanks with my father when i was bout 5 and have been addicted since!

 

[maxima423]

my sister is 7 years old, and i will most definitely keep the food away from her, its going to be in the basement so everyone has access to it, as for the plants, i will be putting a couple of java ferns, about 3-4... i can wait a month or 2, thnx for the help ^_^

 

[BigJim]

I'm sure you realize that you're probably going to be doing 99% of the maintenance on this tank. If you can seed the tank with material from an established filter, it'll speed up your cycling. Feed the tank with 4ppm of ammonia and crank up the heater.

 

[maxima423]

that wont be a problem for me, i expected it and this is actually my first time doing a fish-less cycle =] so its going to be exciting

 

[maxima423]

so i decided that out of everything i wanted to do, i chose a dwarf puffer fish, i did my research and so far it looks like it can survive in a 10g tank, even my sister thinks its cute when we were in the pet shop..=P so thats always good... i just have a few questions about puffers :

1) can they live peacefully with corys?
2) since the puffer is going to be pretty shy for the first few days in the new tank, is it better to start feeding the puffer with snails rather than brine shrimp and worms?
3) how messy are they? how often should i change the filter and replace the water since they are messy eaters?
4) is their skin poisonous like other puffers?

thats basically it thnx =]

 

[BigJim]

1) Dwarf puffers are less aggressive than their larger cousins and cories don't bother anyone, so I'd give it a shot. Most cories will be larger than the puffer anyways.

2) Try a variety. If you can, find out what the store was feeding the puffers. I'd try pond snails rather than the larger varieties.

3) If you get a decent filter, you could probably clean it once every week or two. For a puffer in a 10g, look at an AC30. Don't replace the filter media, just rinse it out in a bucket of old tank water. Replacing it will cause you to lose most of your good bacteria, causing your tank to re-cycle. Do a PWC weekly.

4) I have no idea.

 

[logansmomma1228]

It took my 10 exactly 4 weeks to cycle. Yours could be more or less but shouldn't take long. Glad you decided to go with the DP They are fun little guys!

P.S. if you get cories with him let me know how it works!

 

[maxima423]

alright i will try cories, and in another website, it says that otos are good tankmates, so i will be trying 1 oto as well, and i was thinking about pond snails aswell ^_^. i will be buying the AC30 this weekend.. WOOT

i prob wont be setting my tank up for about another week. when i do try it, i will definitely let you know ^_^

just one other question, before i start the cycle and replacing the water after a PWC, i should remove all the chlorine? yes?

 

[logansmomma1228]

Whenever you do a water change, or add any more water for that matter, you should put a dechlorinater like Prime in it. It is only 4$ for a little bottle, but that is all you need for a 10gallon. It only takes about 2 drops per gallon.

You do know the puffer will eat the pond snails, right? I am going to get some ghost shrimp and see if mine will eat those as well...

 

[BigJim]

Yes, you should add a dechlorinator before adding water to the tank.

logansmomma, the pond snails were a food suggestion.

 

[logansmomma1228]

8) lol

 

[maxima423]

ok thnx a lot, and logansmomma, i prob wont be adding any fish for a while, still need to cycle and figure out what plants i need to buy =] and also looking for good rocks for the DP to hide around =]

 

[logansmomma1228]

Yeah I am having a hard time finding some good stuff to put in my aquarium also. I am pretty limited as far as places I frequent often (Walmart, Meijer, not too great of selection) and it's hard for me to tell if I think something will look good in the tank, and if Alejandro will like it. Good thing I can always take it back. I am looking for lots of plants for him right now, starting out fake and then once I have all my tanks set up and stable I will work on replacing fake plants with real ones. It's just that all the extra maintenance for plants seems like a lot more work than what I can handle right now.

Sorry, went off on a tangent for a minute lol. As far as plants go the easiest seem to Java Fern, Java Moss and Anubias (I think anubias but not sure) . If you check out the planted section (if you haven';t already ) they have all kinds of awesome things going on over there. Also, I don't know if I gave you these sites before or not : www.theplantedtank.net and www.plantgeek.net are some real good ones.