TGB
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Hello, I'm not new to this site; I've been visiting for several years browsing the forum and photo gallery, but this is my first time posting.
I couldn't stay away from my aquarium hobby as long as I thought I could; missed my old tank.
So for starters I bought an All Glass Aquarium kit a couple days ago, which came with a 20 gallon tank, Whisper 20 power filter, light/hood, and 100w heater. I'm not familiar with the Whisper 20, so I reunited with an AquaClear filter (30), but kept the Whisper for added filtration and circulation. I used to have a 16 gallon and was running both an AC Mini and 20, so I feel more comfortable with the AC. The Whisper's fine though. I was gonna wait to complete the cycle before adding any life, but I did throw in Stress Zyme which claims to have beneficial bacteria in it.
My ma got excited and surprised that I bought a tank (didn't tell anyone of my intentions) after so long and went out bought 3 swordtails and 2 platys. She surprised me with that. She's not tank savvy by any means and doesn't know anything about cycling, so now I have 5 fish in a brand new tank. Totally unexpected. That water has gotten slightly cloudy, but the fish are doing fine. One thing I forgot to do was buy a water test kit, so that's on my to-do list for tomorrow. But the fish are doing great. I added aquarium salt and some stress coat since their stay at Cycle Hotel was unexpected. Both platys are female, but not pregnant. Only one of the three swordtails are male. The females do circles around each other frequently. After the tank is suitable, I'll get more of the Sword/Platy family.
My cycling plans are monkey wrenched from my ma's impulse buying lol and being the amateur that I am, I don't know how to counter that. So tomorrow, hopefully water tests won't be crazy and those fishies can suck it up while my filters do what they need to do in the upcoming weeks.
Any advice, suggestions, etc? BTW, sorry for the essay.
I couldn't stay away from my aquarium hobby as long as I thought I could; missed my old tank.
So for starters I bought an All Glass Aquarium kit a couple days ago, which came with a 20 gallon tank, Whisper 20 power filter, light/hood, and 100w heater. I'm not familiar with the Whisper 20, so I reunited with an AquaClear filter (30), but kept the Whisper for added filtration and circulation. I used to have a 16 gallon and was running both an AC Mini and 20, so I feel more comfortable with the AC. The Whisper's fine though. I was gonna wait to complete the cycle before adding any life, but I did throw in Stress Zyme which claims to have beneficial bacteria in it.
My ma got excited and surprised that I bought a tank (didn't tell anyone of my intentions) after so long and went out bought 3 swordtails and 2 platys. She surprised me with that. She's not tank savvy by any means and doesn't know anything about cycling, so now I have 5 fish in a brand new tank. Totally unexpected. That water has gotten slightly cloudy, but the fish are doing fine. One thing I forgot to do was buy a water test kit, so that's on my to-do list for tomorrow. But the fish are doing great. I added aquarium salt and some stress coat since their stay at Cycle Hotel was unexpected. Both platys are female, but not pregnant. Only one of the three swordtails are male. The females do circles around each other frequently. After the tank is suitable, I'll get more of the Sword/Platy family.
My cycling plans are monkey wrenched from my ma's impulse buying lol and being the amateur that I am, I don't know how to counter that. So tomorrow, hopefully water tests won't be crazy and those fishies can suck it up while my filters do what they need to do in the upcoming weeks.
Any advice, suggestions, etc? BTW, sorry for the essay.
