DrewSith
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Hey Everyone!
So about a month ago, went to a parent/teacher conference for my kindergartner. Mom and I got to see a journal the kids have been working on, they write a simple sentence and then draw a pic about it. Well, one day they had to write about their favorite pet. He didn't have one, so the teacher told him to pretend he did and write about it. He drew a small blue fish. So now we have an aquarium!
It's a 10 gallon. Planted with 7 tall yet thin things of grass, 1 anubias, 2 ferns (broad-ish leaves, the name escapes me), 1 amazon sword and some little thing that a friend threw in when he sold me the grasses. Picked up 2 15 watt fluorescent bulbs and switched out the incandescents that came with the Walmart kit and the plants seem to be doing just fine (plenty of new roots on the plants that I've had to move around, the lights are on 12.5 hours a day). Using Flourish and Flourish Excel. There's a pirate ship in it that I just hooked a pump up to yesterday because the kids insisted it should open and close, so I threw in a small airstone next to the "lava rock" with a whole in it (but now it looks kinda busy in there, and the surface seems rather turbulent). Got the big API test kit and tested the water yesterday, and it looks like it's cycled: 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrates and about 40ppm nitrites. pH is a little on the high side, but within the range for the fish.
Oh, right. There are fish in there! 3 platys: a sunset wag, a panda and a blue MM. Started with 2, but one was a red MM that was really aggressive, she chased the sunset endlessly. They were both female, definitely. Bought the panda (female) to see if another tank mate would keep the red MM busy, but no. Kept chasing her. So back to the store she went, exchanged her for the blue MM. The sunset seemed pretty traumatized, hiding in a corner behind the grass for 2 or so days. Did a water change every day at that point just to make sure she wasn't being affected by water quality or something, but after the 2 days she was out socializing with the other two and everything seems to be just great!
Now that I know the tank's cycled, I'm thinking of picking up some ghost shrimp on the way home from work tomorrow. Maybe another platy later in the week. Won't have more than a total of 5 platys in there if we get more. But I'm toying with the idea of getting 4-5 dwarf corys instead. Thoughts?
So about a month ago, went to a parent/teacher conference for my kindergartner. Mom and I got to see a journal the kids have been working on, they write a simple sentence and then draw a pic about it. Well, one day they had to write about their favorite pet. He didn't have one, so the teacher told him to pretend he did and write about it. He drew a small blue fish. So now we have an aquarium!
It's a 10 gallon. Planted with 7 tall yet thin things of grass, 1 anubias, 2 ferns (broad-ish leaves, the name escapes me), 1 amazon sword and some little thing that a friend threw in when he sold me the grasses. Picked up 2 15 watt fluorescent bulbs and switched out the incandescents that came with the Walmart kit and the plants seem to be doing just fine (plenty of new roots on the plants that I've had to move around, the lights are on 12.5 hours a day). Using Flourish and Flourish Excel. There's a pirate ship in it that I just hooked a pump up to yesterday because the kids insisted it should open and close, so I threw in a small airstone next to the "lava rock" with a whole in it (but now it looks kinda busy in there, and the surface seems rather turbulent). Got the big API test kit and tested the water yesterday, and it looks like it's cycled: 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrates and about 40ppm nitrites. pH is a little on the high side, but within the range for the fish.
Oh, right. There are fish in there! 3 platys: a sunset wag, a panda and a blue MM. Started with 2, but one was a red MM that was really aggressive, she chased the sunset endlessly. They were both female, definitely. Bought the panda (female) to see if another tank mate would keep the red MM busy, but no. Kept chasing her. So back to the store she went, exchanged her for the blue MM. The sunset seemed pretty traumatized, hiding in a corner behind the grass for 2 or so days. Did a water change every day at that point just to make sure she wasn't being affected by water quality or something, but after the 2 days she was out socializing with the other two and everything seems to be just great!
Now that I know the tank's cycled, I'm thinking of picking up some ghost shrimp on the way home from work tomorrow. Maybe another platy later in the week. Won't have more than a total of 5 platys in there if we get more. But I'm toying with the idea of getting 4-5 dwarf corys instead. Thoughts?
