Another newbie here

[warpedscout]

Hey all, been a while since I had fish and glad to find a site like this. This is the biggest tank I ever had, 36gal bow front. Did the 24 hr cycle per petsmart reps and now wish I had been here first.
Whole reason for tank is wife has stage 4 breast cancer and wants some color and life around. Currently we have 3 tetras, 2 glo fish and 2 Dalmatian mollies. The mollies have been kinda down the last 24 hours so I got a master kit and checked water, in tolerable levels. Pulled about 5 gal out and conditioned 5 to o in. They are kinda coming back so hope I am working that way. Also added some kosher salt and went from the cheap filter that cam with tank to a fluval u4. Bought extra pellets for bacteria bin and hope to get those thriving soon!
Have a pump working a coliseum with small air rock and a 8 strand of LEDs with air tube so I should have some oxygen in the water. I have them both on individual valves to cut them down some.
Wife also wanted live p,ants so we have a few in with a white sand bottom. Only been about 2 days so hopefully I won't kill these guys!
Will get pics up as possible.
Oh yeah, we also have a 6 month old bengal cat, and she has been eying the tank a few times. Have tank on stand with nothing around, but we keep a good watch on her. Till later...

 

[Mebbid]

Welcome to the hobby and the forums

Also, I'm very sorry to hear about the health problems But fish are a nice theraputic addition to a home, at least they are for me.

The fish are most likely just getting used to the new surroundings. It can take them a few days to get their act together. Just a quick tip though, 5 gallons isn't going to affect levels in a tank that size. Once you start getting readings of ammonia I would try a 50% change instead.

What's really funny with the cats and fish tanks, I have found that some fish will chase the laser lights just like cats will My cichlids go crazy over a laser pointer, not sure if community fish will do the same though.

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing pics of the tank.

 

[Freshwater_King]

Once the tank is cycled ( two weeks or so ) in a 36 gallon fish option become quite numerous beacuse or good size. Personally I don't like mollies I think they are quite difficult to care for that's why I don't have any. Neon tetras provide lots or color to a planted tank , good barbs are well ... Bright gold adding color. Se other fish with interesting bodies or behavior that may be interesting is the silver hachet fish species or Cory cats . For something Elese than fish you can get many varieties of shrimp and snail for varritiy .( sorry this is so long ) plants that is a while another world , as long as you have decent lighting and decent substrate lots of spices can thrive , pet smart isn't bad but if I may say so go to a fish store that is more geared towards fish is no local fish store then a pet smart is ok , hope your wig likes the tank and gets better best of luck

 

[Freshwater_King]

Once the tank is cycled ( two weeks or so ) in a 36 gallon fish option become quite numerous beacuse or good size. Personally I don't like mollies I think they are quite difficult to care for that's why I don't have any. Neon tetras provide lots of color to a planted tank , gold barbs are well ... Bright gold adding color. Some other fish with interesting bodies or behavior that may be interesting is the silver hachet fish species or Cory cats .
For something Elese than fish you can get many varieties of shrimp and snail for varritiy .( sorry this is so long )
plants that is a while another world , as long as you have decent lighting and decent substrate lots of spices can thrive , pet smart isn't bad but if I may say so go to a fish store that is more geared towards fish is no local fish store then a pet smart is ok , hope your wig likes the tank and gets better best of luck
Freshwater_King

 

[Freshwater_King]

Sorry I posted it twice that was a accident the first one has some typos so the second is fixed , sorry about that good luck

 

[warpedscout]

Thanks, i was at a friends house over the weekend and totally forgot he and his wife had fish. They have a 90 gallon up right now and gave me some rocks to help establish our tank. When I poured the rocks in it was great, algae and all kinds of nastiness went everywhere. The fish went nuts and were loving it, dropped the ammonia level by half in about 10 minutes. The mollies are all gone, the last two were on the bottom so I pulled them out to take back and noticed they barely had any tails! They got flushed and replaced by two striped tetras and another fish I can't remember the name go (gourami?), any way he's beautiful! Just tracking levels now and all pretty good; PH 7.2-7.6; ammonia flux between .25-.50; Nitrates and Nitrites at 0. Temp is between 78-80, wanted to kinda keep it at the high end to get the bacteria and algae to grow! Looking a little clearer already!

 

[Mebbid]

Thanks, i was at a friends house over the weekend and totally forgot he and his wife had fish. They have a 90 gallon up right now and gave me some rocks to help establish our tank. When I poured the rocks in it was great, algae and all kinds of nastiness went everywhere. The fish went nuts and were loving it, dropped the ammonia level by half in about 10 minutes. The mollies are all gone, the last two were on the bottom so I pulled them out to take back and noticed they barely had any tails! They got flushed and replaced by two striped tetras and another fish I can't remember the name go (gourami?), any way he's beautiful! Just tracking levels now and all pretty good; PH 7.2-7.6; ammonia flux between .25-.50; Nitrates and Nitrites at 0. Temp is between 78-80, wanted to kinda keep it at the high end to get the bacteria and algae to grow! Looking a little clearer already!

Please don't flush live fish, it's a terrible way for them to die. What kind of gourami did you get?

 

[warpedscout]

Don't worry, they had passed by the time I pulled them out! I believe the gourami is an opaline, he is very pretty but seems shy. Was told they are better by themselves because they are territorial. Just finished cleaning up my electrical plugs in the cabinet with a timer for the lights, hope this thing works!