I am new to the hobby and I need some advice. When I first purchased my fish tank I new relatively nothing about the hobby and I am learning as I go, which I know now was a mistake but being as I have already purchased everything it's to late for that now. So I am hoping some experienced fish owners can help me understand if I am doing something wrong or how I can improve my abilities as a caretaker for my fish.
I currently have a 15 gallon rectangular fish tank with a plecostomus and two gold fish, a black moor and a Calico Ryukin, housed in it. I use an Aqueon QuietFlow 30 aquarium power filter that is mounted on the outside of the tank, and I also have a bubble stone decoration to help improve air quality in the tank. Now I know many of you are thinking that a 15 gallon is to small for the fish I have, and I know this now but I don't have room for anything larger in my current apartment. In about 6 months I will be moving and I will be upgrading to about a 45 gallon tank, but for now this is all I can fit in my current living situation. I have had my tank for a little over a month now. I was using a smaller water filter until about a week ago when I decided after reading some forums that I should upgrade to a larger filter. So onto my fish and my issues. My fish seem to be fine, or as I see it relatively healthy. They are very active, there fins are all erect (not clamped) and they dont' seem to be gasping for air at the surface. I feed them about once a day, with a variety of foods from gold fish flakes, vegetable enhanced crisps, sinking mini sticks, tropical medley and I occassionally throw in an algae wafer for the pleco, that the Godlfish will nibble on if he isn't touching it or they try to fight him for it, but he usually wins. The water appears a little cloudy, but nothing extreme. The temperature is usually about 74 maybe a little less depending on the time of day. I have gravel substrate, two different live plants and some decorations that offer hiding places (logs with openings) and a relatively small piece of driftwood that is attached to the back of the tank with a suction cup that I purchased from a LFS. I tes that water daily for ammonia using a tube with a liquid test and I test every couple of days with a paper strip that tests PH, Alkalinity, Nitrates, Nitrites and hardness of the water. The strip tests is always fine, I even took some water to a LFS to have them test it to make sure I was right and they said my water was fine. However, for the ammonia test there is always traces of ammonia in the water. The amount varies anywhere from .5 to 2 on one occasion the ammonia was about a 4, so I did an emergency water change which brought the ammonia down. I realized during that change that the bubble stone I have was most likely the problem. As I was vacumming the stones then I moved the Volcano decoration that has the bubble stone in it and I huge cloud came out form underneath it. An accumulation of food and fish waste. I didn't realize that anything was accumulating underneath the volcano and I now always vacumm underneath that as well.
So I guess my question is, is the problem with ammonia part of the Nitrogen cycel or is it because of my tank size and my fish? The goldfish area bout 2" each and the plecostomus has grown significantly since I purchased him, and he is around 3.5" now. Will this ammonia problem go away eventually? And will these fish be ok in this size tank now until I am able to upgrade? Sorry for this being so long, I just want to make sure that anyone who attempts to answer my question has all of the information they need.
Thanks!
Shannon
I currently have a 15 gallon rectangular fish tank with a plecostomus and two gold fish, a black moor and a Calico Ryukin, housed in it. I use an Aqueon QuietFlow 30 aquarium power filter that is mounted on the outside of the tank, and I also have a bubble stone decoration to help improve air quality in the tank. Now I know many of you are thinking that a 15 gallon is to small for the fish I have, and I know this now but I don't have room for anything larger in my current apartment. In about 6 months I will be moving and I will be upgrading to about a 45 gallon tank, but for now this is all I can fit in my current living situation. I have had my tank for a little over a month now. I was using a smaller water filter until about a week ago when I decided after reading some forums that I should upgrade to a larger filter. So onto my fish and my issues. My fish seem to be fine, or as I see it relatively healthy. They are very active, there fins are all erect (not clamped) and they dont' seem to be gasping for air at the surface. I feed them about once a day, with a variety of foods from gold fish flakes, vegetable enhanced crisps, sinking mini sticks, tropical medley and I occassionally throw in an algae wafer for the pleco, that the Godlfish will nibble on if he isn't touching it or they try to fight him for it, but he usually wins. The water appears a little cloudy, but nothing extreme. The temperature is usually about 74 maybe a little less depending on the time of day. I have gravel substrate, two different live plants and some decorations that offer hiding places (logs with openings) and a relatively small piece of driftwood that is attached to the back of the tank with a suction cup that I purchased from a LFS. I tes that water daily for ammonia using a tube with a liquid test and I test every couple of days with a paper strip that tests PH, Alkalinity, Nitrates, Nitrites and hardness of the water. The strip tests is always fine, I even took some water to a LFS to have them test it to make sure I was right and they said my water was fine. However, for the ammonia test there is always traces of ammonia in the water. The amount varies anywhere from .5 to 2 on one occasion the ammonia was about a 4, so I did an emergency water change which brought the ammonia down. I realized during that change that the bubble stone I have was most likely the problem. As I was vacumming the stones then I moved the Volcano decoration that has the bubble stone in it and I huge cloud came out form underneath it. An accumulation of food and fish waste. I didn't realize that anything was accumulating underneath the volcano and I now always vacumm underneath that as well.
So I guess my question is, is the problem with ammonia part of the Nitrogen cycel or is it because of my tank size and my fish? The goldfish area bout 2" each and the plecostomus has grown significantly since I purchased him, and he is around 3.5" now. Will this ammonia problem go away eventually? And will these fish be ok in this size tank now until I am able to upgrade? Sorry for this being so long, I just want to make sure that anyone who attempts to answer my question has all of the information they need.
Thanks!
Shannon