New and needs advice!

[MaryC1999]

Hi!
I'm sort of new to fishkeeping and sort of not. I've had a tank before but I followed the advice of the pet store employees and family members whom I thought were knowledgeable only to end up with a big tank mess in the end. Now many years later I decided to give it another try with the help of the internet. Basically, we've bought a 30 gallon (I decided a 10 gallon doesn't give much) and I read up on fishless cycling. Being a peace loving vegetarian I always thought the thought of buying "expendable" fish to start the aquarium was unsettling. So I set it up about a week ago with a cup of squeezed out water from my mothers small established tank's filter sponge. Aside from a messy situation with being sold terrarium plants and not aquarium plants (and ending up with a brown gooey mess and slightly greenish yellow water) we seem to be doing well. I'm desperately hoping for some help with some burning questions though.

1. I've maintained my ammonia levels at 4.0 since the beginning. The nitrites showed up two days ago at .25 and have now jumped to 1.0 overnight. My ammonia has stayed level though and I haven't had to add anything for two days. I read on the board that nitrite levels at this stage are unreliable BUT is it normal to not need to add ammonia to maintain the 4.0/5.0 level? Is there anything else I should be testing for or adding right now or is it just be patient time? I have a PH kit but I haven't bothered to test for it yet.

2. I have four Amazon Swords in the tank still. As far as I can tell these plants are doing well still. I do have regular gravel on the bottom. Is that sufficient for them? What other plants do well in aquariums? My husband would love to have some more plants in there but I want to keep it lower maintenance since we both work 40 hours a week and have three kids. Also can you buy plants online reliably? The pet stores around me are obviously clueless on the plant realm.

3. This tank is a gift to my sons for Christmas. They love fish and lost their beloved hamster last year. Since we don't have a place in the house suitable for small animal right now the fish tank seemed logical. They're being surprisingly patient for two seven year olds and a three year old and understand the tank needs time to be livable for fish. We've taken them to look at fish though and get ideas and they seem drawn to Mollies. I read Mollies are brackish though which kind of scares me. Is there any other fish compatible with brackish water and Mollies? Anything about Mollies that makes them a bad choice? I was edging more towards tetras myself because I think they come in more interesting varieties. I also don't want a lot of little babies. We had livebearers when I was little in our tanks and they seemed to have lots of little babies (most of which got eaten even with the fry grass my mom put in) so I get kind of jittery about them. Would all female/male Mollies get along fine and can you even tell them apart? They really like Bettas too. I know Bettas aren't brackish but what fish go well with a Betta? You probably don't want aggressive nippy fish in with him. I also was thinking we might need an algae eater (the tank is near a window) and a bottom feeder. My old method was just going to the store and picking whatever looks interesting which I know to be a bad idea. I'm not really sure where to start researching this though. What are good (easy!) fish for a 30 gallon?

Any advice would be wonderful. My past tank was a 10 gallon that I let run overnight (as I was advised) and then dumped in a goldfish (again on advice) and added, a month later, a bunch of neons and a catfish. Poor neons went belly up immediately so I returned to the pet store, was sold more test kits (originally told I only need a PH kit), found high levels of ammonia (I know, duh) and shelped back to get ammo-loc which did nothing. Shortly after the water went all murky and gray so they sold me some solution to clear up the water (mind you this is with the state of the art corner filter they sold me) which I used to clear up the water just in time to find a dead catfish. Now little goldie is the last holdout but 400 water changes, 2 months and a remurkified tank later and even he didn't make it through. The ammonia stayed off the charts and I assumed I somehow messed it up and cleaned out the tank. I'm trying for a happier ending this time around!
Thanks in advance!!
Mary

 

[Zagz]

Welcome to AA! Very happy you found us here.

Fishless cycling seems to be going right on schedule for you. If I may ask what kind of test kit are you using?

As for plants the possibilities are endless.
Best to start out with some low light plants. Browse the planted tank forum for a wealth of knowledge and options.

Mollies in stores are mostly freshwater, FW is easier to care for than Brackish esp for youngsters. If you choose mollies get males as the females usually come pregnant and can store sperm for many months resulting in several spawns without male contact. Same goes for guppies, platies and swordtails. They are all easy to keep, they are livebearer's which means they give live birth.

If you choose bettas there are many fish that bettas get along with. What you have to be careful for is fish with long flowy fins or aggressive fish. Bettas are actually aggressive primarily to their own species.

 

[jsoong]

I am no expert on fishless cycling (did it fishie way the first time & use that tank to seed all subsequent ones since then) ... however, if you are seeing nitrites, youa re well on your way. Normally, you would need to keep adding ammonia at this stage, as the level should drop as the NH3 is converted to NO2 .... but in your case, you might be getting your NH3 from your rotting plants... so I'd jsut keep an eye on the levels for now.

Amazon sword are heavy root feeders, you will need some root tabs or other fertilizers in the substrate if you are using plain gravel.

What light level do you have? That will determine what plants you can keep. Read the stickies on the plants forum for some more info on plants. In general, good, easy low light palnts are: crypts, hornwort, java fern, java moss, anubias, hygrophilia (green ones easiest).

Salt & plants don't mix! If you go brackish, you won't have much choice in plants (plastics would be the most doable! ). Mollys however, have been tank bred & fairly well adapted to fresh water that salt is not really necessary.

Fish choice .... lots of different approaches in a 30 gal ... depends on what you like to keep. For a community tank, you might have a school or 2 of neons, tetras, or other colourful fish as the center piece, then a school of cories for the bottom, or some Otos for algae cleaning. More challanging would be a pair of chiclids (kribs, angels) as your center peice fish. Just research your fish choice well, know the final adult size, prefered water conditions, compatability, etc. before you go to the fish store. Impulse buying is not a good idea.

BTW, bettas are a bit dicey in a community setup. You don't want any fin nippers for sure, but also no long finned fish in the tank or the betta will attack it. Bettas have different personalities, some will do well with other fish, others are best kept alone, and you can't tell till you try putting the fish together.

 

[MaryC1999]

Thanks for the replies! I'm still chugging along on the cycling but I haven't had to add any ammonia to it yet. It's been like 5 days of just the tank sitting on it's own and the levels haven't changed. Kind of weird. As far as tests go I have the type that use the glass vial and you drop in the solutions and shake it, wait for 5 minutes and then compare them to a chart. I'm not sure of the brand, I would have to check again. I bought a nitrate test kit yesterday and that is testing really low, 5.0. I'm guessing that's good. I hope it's still doing something!
With lighting, I have the hood and flourescent light that came with the tank. The light has one bulb that runs the length of the tank. It lights up the tank much much nicer than the incandescent bulbs I used to have in my 10 gallon! Right now I leave the light on from 6am to 5pm and then shut it off at night. The tank is near a window so on sunny days the sun also comes in on one side.
I was also off on the plant name. I found the paper in which I had written the plant names and it seems the plants are pongol swords. I can't find any info on them though. Confusing.
Thanks again, I appreciate the help!
Mary

 

[jsoong]

To find your light level, you need to know the wattage of the fluorescent bulb (should be stamped on the bulb somewhere). A stock 30" light is around 20W (unless you have a compact fluorescent, those are U shaped & double back on itself), which is very low light for your tank. You might be able to manage java ferns/moss but not much else. Even though the light looks bright to you (esp. compared to incandescent, which is useless for plants), most plants won't be happy without at least 30-40 W of light in a 30 gal. Most people seriously getting into plants will be upgrading the lights .... but for starts, you can go wiht the stock lights & see how the plants do .... but I must warn you that almost all swords will die in low level lights like yours ...