gavinkai
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Backstory/confession- thanks for reading! My son was set on a gold fish for his 4th birthday back in December. We got an old Aqueon 1 gallon minibowl from a friend and we headed to the pet store where the attendant helped us settle on a little feeder gold fish which my son named Wall-e. We decided to get a tank mate and the attendant suggested a little Panda Cory would be good. We followed the instructions for set up and everything seemed fine for about a month, then the Cory died. I started doing research and realized that I had a total ignorance of fish care and aquarium care in general. I started doing weekly water changes/gravel vacuuming while I continued to research and gather the funds to put Wall-e in a safer home.
We don’t have a lot of room, but I was able claim a bookshelf in the living room with enough space to fit a 10 gal tank. I thought this would be the best option to keep Wall-e happy and start a small community tank until we can settle on a good spot to get something lager to grow into in the future. I’ve been very excited to get into this hobby and doing research like crazy.
I picked up a 10 gal Aqueon LED starter setup on sale, upgraded to an adjustable tank heater(set at 74°f) and planted it with some micro sword grass and dark red Ludwigia. Set the tank up Friday morning, added plants and fish Saturday evening. We also added 2 olive nerite snails to keep him company until it’s safe to add a another fish as a tank mate. I picked up an API full test kit so I can monitor levels and packed the empty space in the filter with some loose biomax media I picked up this afternoon.
I checked levels this evening and got the following.
PH ~7.5
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
I plan to continue to check every couple of days.
My questions for whoever cares to give their thoughts:
- What would be an acceptable tank mate to eventually add for this set up? I really like Plecos but not sure which type would be a good match for this smaller (for now) set up. Rubberlipped Pleco perhaps? Very interested in shrimp as well if they would be a good fit.
- Any suggestions on acceptable additions to the community would be greatly appreciated.
- Any general suggestions for a new comer for things to watch out for as I’m getting the cycle going and letting Wall-e settle in to his new home?
- Water changes, how often and how much water? Should I use the gravel vacuum or just scoop water out? I use Stresscoat+ as a de-chlorinator.
- Been feeding Essentials goldfish pellets and I just got some Hikari algae wafers to keep the snails happy - any suggestions?
- Lighting - the tank setup came with a lid with 9 LEDs which seems decently bright. I am thinking of DIY adding some lights for night time as well as some additional lights for day time. Necessary? Recommended? Any ideas?
Thank you so much for reading and giving me you thoughts and ideas. I really appreciate it! Cheers!
We don’t have a lot of room, but I was able claim a bookshelf in the living room with enough space to fit a 10 gal tank. I thought this would be the best option to keep Wall-e happy and start a small community tank until we can settle on a good spot to get something lager to grow into in the future. I’ve been very excited to get into this hobby and doing research like crazy.
I picked up a 10 gal Aqueon LED starter setup on sale, upgraded to an adjustable tank heater(set at 74°f) and planted it with some micro sword grass and dark red Ludwigia. Set the tank up Friday morning, added plants and fish Saturday evening. We also added 2 olive nerite snails to keep him company until it’s safe to add a another fish as a tank mate. I picked up an API full test kit so I can monitor levels and packed the empty space in the filter with some loose biomax media I picked up this afternoon.
I checked levels this evening and got the following.
PH ~7.5
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
I plan to continue to check every couple of days.
My questions for whoever cares to give their thoughts:
- What would be an acceptable tank mate to eventually add for this set up? I really like Plecos but not sure which type would be a good match for this smaller (for now) set up. Rubberlipped Pleco perhaps? Very interested in shrimp as well if they would be a good fit.
- Any suggestions on acceptable additions to the community would be greatly appreciated.
- Any general suggestions for a new comer for things to watch out for as I’m getting the cycle going and letting Wall-e settle in to his new home?
- Water changes, how often and how much water? Should I use the gravel vacuum or just scoop water out? I use Stresscoat+ as a de-chlorinator.
- Been feeding Essentials goldfish pellets and I just got some Hikari algae wafers to keep the snails happy - any suggestions?
- Lighting - the tank setup came with a lid with 9 LEDs which seems decently bright. I am thinking of DIY adding some lights for night time as well as some additional lights for day time. Necessary? Recommended? Any ideas?
Thank you so much for reading and giving me you thoughts and ideas. I really appreciate it! Cheers!