Randa
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Well not really a kid but definitely new to aquariums. 
Let me tell you our story so far, I hope I don't bore you. Its been a hit and miss adventure to say the least.
My husband decided it would be a good idea to get our 5yo dd a fish tank for her birthday and much to my protest at first we got her a 10gal tank set from Walmart. It came with a AquaTech 5-15 filter and we bought a small heater (I forget the brand.) This was all started In January of this year.
After listening to the LFS we cycled for 24-48 hours and got a few fish. 2 Glofish and 3 Neon Tetras. When I talked to the gal LFS she said that they would school together and we wouldnt need the min 5-6 of each species. Boy was she wrong! We then got a few more Glofish and a live plant. My husband bought the plant so I don't know what kind it is. And we got 2 Albino Cory Catfish. I wanted some lighting to brighten up the Glofish without just using a black light and settled on a ZooMed 50/50 Reef Sun 50/50 Compact Fluorescent bulb.
After a few weeks we started getting some brown colored algae. I scrubbed the tank and did a few 20 % PWC and bought some algae removing drops (I forget the brand) The next day we lost 2 of our Glofish. I was so sad! I thought that maybe I had done too much of a water change since the algae stuff said it was safe for plants and fish and I followed the instructions on the bottle. After doing a little more internet research, I thought maybe we had high ammonia so I did more water changes and then bought some test strips that determined that our water was fine. The algae was clear by then and our fishies seemed happy. I'm guessing that the algea likes our light and now just keep an eye on it and scrub it down and with water changes it seems to be manageable. (any advice with this would be helpful since I don't want to put any more chemicals or stuff in there to mess with my fish again)
After all this I learned about proper cycling and purchased a Master Testing kit. After testing over a few days and close monitoring. Our water seems to be fine. (We do have well water with no chlorine or other added chemicals that regular tap water has)
Even with the trials we have had so far, I have found myself loving this new little hobby and want to make our little fishies happy. After doing some research on each of the species we have I realized that we need to get a bigger tank so we can have the proper schools for them and recently obtained a used tank off Craigslist. Its a 30gal and I am currently making sure that it holds water properly and will be doing a fishless cycle but am reading that I can use the biofilter or some substrate from our 10 gal tank, but I will make a separate post on all that later.
So now to sum it all up our current stock includes:
3 Glo fish
1 Zebra Danio
2 Albino Cory Cats
3 Neon Tetras
1 mystery plant with long slender leaves.
They all seem to be getting along fine right now but I know that we are close to max capacity and that's why I need to get our 30 gal up and running asap.
I'm excited to learn more from you all and never thought that I would enjoy this new little hobby as much as I have!
Let me tell you our story so far, I hope I don't bore you. Its been a hit and miss adventure to say the least.
My husband decided it would be a good idea to get our 5yo dd a fish tank for her birthday and much to my protest at first we got her a 10gal tank set from Walmart. It came with a AquaTech 5-15 filter and we bought a small heater (I forget the brand.) This was all started In January of this year.
After listening to the LFS we cycled for 24-48 hours and got a few fish. 2 Glofish and 3 Neon Tetras. When I talked to the gal LFS she said that they would school together and we wouldnt need the min 5-6 of each species. Boy was she wrong! We then got a few more Glofish and a live plant. My husband bought the plant so I don't know what kind it is. And we got 2 Albino Cory Catfish. I wanted some lighting to brighten up the Glofish without just using a black light and settled on a ZooMed 50/50 Reef Sun 50/50 Compact Fluorescent bulb.
After a few weeks we started getting some brown colored algae. I scrubbed the tank and did a few 20 % PWC and bought some algae removing drops (I forget the brand) The next day we lost 2 of our Glofish. I was so sad! I thought that maybe I had done too much of a water change since the algae stuff said it was safe for plants and fish and I followed the instructions on the bottle. After doing a little more internet research, I thought maybe we had high ammonia so I did more water changes and then bought some test strips that determined that our water was fine. The algae was clear by then and our fishies seemed happy. I'm guessing that the algea likes our light and now just keep an eye on it and scrub it down and with water changes it seems to be manageable. (any advice with this would be helpful since I don't want to put any more chemicals or stuff in there to mess with my fish again)
After all this I learned about proper cycling and purchased a Master Testing kit. After testing over a few days and close monitoring. Our water seems to be fine. (We do have well water with no chlorine or other added chemicals that regular tap water has)
Even with the trials we have had so far, I have found myself loving this new little hobby and want to make our little fishies happy. After doing some research on each of the species we have I realized that we need to get a bigger tank so we can have the proper schools for them and recently obtained a used tank off Craigslist. Its a 30gal and I am currently making sure that it holds water properly and will be doing a fishless cycle but am reading that I can use the biofilter or some substrate from our 10 gal tank, but I will make a separate post on all that later.
So now to sum it all up our current stock includes:
3 Glo fish
1 Zebra Danio
2 Albino Cory Cats
3 Neon Tetras
1 mystery plant with long slender leaves.
They all seem to be getting along fine right now but I know that we are close to max capacity and that's why I need to get our 30 gal up and running asap.
I'm excited to learn more from you all and never thought that I would enjoy this new little hobby as much as I have!
