Tank advice?

[Deborah J. Brown]

Hi all,

(waves at those I know from the goldfish group)

I have two tanks, a 30 gall with one 4" (2" of which is tail!) fantail
goldfish. It's healthy, still not cycled but I'm working on that with
Stability and hope that it'll get there. Sooner or later.

The second is a 10 gal that had started as the goldfish tank (long
story, not important now) but which is now a properly cycled (I test
regularly, it's good.) tank.

I made a mistake however and bought the first set of fish from a LFS
that I'm beginning to really distrust as far as their fish go. All the
fish I've lost so far have been from there and while some of the
losses were due to New Tank Syndrome, not all were.

It currently has two sunset platys who appear healthy although there
was a brief case of ich that I treated and which went away properly as
far as I can tell. I'm also almost certain the ich got in from the
first set, not this, but not absolutely. (FWIW, the LFS where I got
the platies and which I visited not long after showed no signs of
troubles with the tank.)

In any case, I plan on waiting at least two to three weeks before
getting any more tropicals to make certain the two left aren't sick.
Before I do, could I get some advice on about how many fish of what
size would be acceptable for a 10 gallon with two sunset platies in it
already? I like danios, platys, tetras (neon, but I know they can be
fragile), mollies and guppies. No great fondess for big or oddly
shaped fish.

Also, I'm currently doing the water exchange at about two weeks for a
25% change. I get a lot of the brown algae on the substrate, though,
so I'm considering making the change once a week. About how much of a
change would be reasonable under those circumstances?

Thanks in advance!

Deb

[Ali Day]

> I made a mistake however and bought the first set of fish from a LFS
> that I'm beginning to really distrust as far as their fish go. All the
> fish I've lost so far have been from there and while some of the
> losses were due to New Tank Syndrome, not all were.

AFAIK new tank syndrome really only applies to tanks that haven't cycled and
are literally just filled with water. If the tank has been cycled and the
fish are still dying having been given the proper acclimatisation then for
me it would either suggest wobbly fish from the LFS or your water chemstry
is off. Let us know all your levels.

> Also, I'm currently doing the water exchange at about two weeks for a
> 25% change. I get a lot of the brown algae on the substrate, though,
> so I'm considering making the change once a week. About how much of a
> change would be reasonable under those circumstances?

In a new tank especially one of that size if not cycled be prepared to do up
to 20%+ water changes daily depending on your levels. In a stable tank how
much water change is a contentious issue, depending on filtration, tank
size, fish, etc.
Alot of people scoff at so-called chemist aquarists, who measure water
quality every day. But I found in the beginning it gave me a better
appreciation of what exactly was going on with the tank and gain a very good
feel for what happens when you add fish, do water changes, and just what
happens to the tank throughout the day. Though I rarely check it now a days,
except I check the water quality direct from the tap every few months to see
if's changed. I personally do 20% water change every week to ten days
(depending on if I'm busy at the weekend), on a medium stocked 600L/160gal
tank.

Cheers

A

[John D. Goulden]

> I made a mistake however and bought the first set of fish from a LFS
> that I'm beginning to really distrust as far as their fish go. All the
> fish I've lost so far have been from there and while some of the
> losses were due to New Tank Syndrome, not all were.

This isn't the question you asked, but you might think about investing in
another bare-bones 10 gallon and using it as a quarantine tank. New fish go
into quarantine for two weeks, at least, and then when you're sure they
haven't brought any illness or parasites with them, put them in the main
tank. I would never simply drop a LFS fish into any of my established tanks
without a two week quarantine first.

--
John Goulden

[Daniel Morrow]

Bottom posted.


"Deborah J. Brown" > wrote in message
...
> Hi all,
>
> (waves at those I know from the goldfish group)
>
> I have two tanks, a 30 gall with one 4" (2" of which is tail!) fantail
> goldfish. It's healthy, still not cycled but I'm working on that with
> Stability and hope that it'll get there. Sooner or later.
>
> The second is a 10 gal that had started as the goldfish tank (long
> story, not important now) but which is now a properly cycled (I test
> regularly, it's good.) tank.
>
> I made a mistake however and bought the first set of fish from a LFS
> that I'm beginning to really distrust as far as their fish go. All the
> fish I've lost so far have been from there and while some of the
> losses were due to New Tank Syndrome, not all were.
>
> It currently has two sunset platys who appear healthy although there
> was a brief case of ich that I treated and which went away properly as
> far as I can tell. I'm also almost certain the ich got in from the
> first set, not this, but not absolutely. (FWIW, the LFS where I got
> the platies and which I visited not long after showed no signs of
> troubles with the tank.)
>
> In any case, I plan on waiting at least two to three weeks before
> getting any more tropicals to make certain the two left aren't sick.
> Before I do, could I get some advice on about how many fish of what
> size would be acceptable for a 10 gallon with two sunset platies in it
> already? I like danios, platys, tetras (neon, but I know they can be
> fragile), mollies and guppies. No great fondess for big or oddly
> shaped fish.
>
> Also, I'm currently doing the water exchange at about two weeks for a
> 25% change. I get a lot of the brown algae on the substrate, though,
> so I'm considering making the change once a week. About how much of a
> change would be reasonable under those circumstances?
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
> Deb
>

Hopefully netmax will speak up about how many small fish you can keep in
your 10 gallon (don't worry though - I am sure you will be pleased with the
answer), You should be able to keep a good reasonable amount/number. You can
split 20 percent into the number of water changes you make for the same
interval or you can do any reasonable volume of water change as frequently
as every 1 or 2 days (the one major worry about changing water often is
osmotic shock I think, which means you might cause an imbalance of water
contents as tap water contains a lot of minerals, elements, characteristics
like ph, etc which can buildup in tanks and the fish's systems come to
expect those characteristics, etc., and there is more to it than that as I
can't quite remember it and you don't really need to know it either so don't
worry - just don't water change TOO MUCH.) and the more water changed
generally the more your fish will appreciate you, just don't over do it.
Good luck and later!.

[NetMax]

"Daniel Morrow" > wrote in message
...
> Bottom posted.
>
>
> "Deborah J. Brown" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Hi all,
>>
>> (waves at those I know from the goldfish group)
>>
>> I have two tanks, a 30 gall with one 4" (2" of which is tail!) fantail
>> goldfish. It's healthy, still not cycled but I'm working on that with
>> Stability and hope that it'll get there. Sooner or later.
>>
>> The second is a 10 gal that had started as the goldfish tank (long
>> story, not important now) but which is now a properly cycled (I test
>> regularly, it's good.) tank.
>>
>> I made a mistake however and bought the first set of fish from a LFS
>> that I'm beginning to really distrust as far as their fish go. All the
>> fish I've lost so far have been from there and while some of the
>> losses were due to New Tank Syndrome, not all were.
>>
>> It currently has two sunset platys who appear healthy although there
>> was a brief case of ich that I treated and which went away properly as
>> far as I can tell. I'm also almost certain the ich got in from the
>> first set, not this, but not absolutely. (FWIW, the LFS where I got
>> the platies and which I visited not long after showed no signs of
>> troubles with the tank.)
>>
>> In any case, I plan on waiting at least two to three weeks before
>> getting any more tropicals to make certain the two left aren't sick.
>> Before I do, could I get some advice on about how many fish of what
>> size would be acceptable for a 10 gallon with two sunset platies in it
>> already? I like danios, platys, tetras (neon, but I know they can be
>> fragile), mollies and guppies. No great fondess for big or oddly
>> shaped fish.
>>
>> Also, I'm currently doing the water exchange at about two weeks for a
>> 25% change. I get a lot of the brown algae on the substrate, though,
>> so I'm considering making the change once a week. About how much of a
>> change would be reasonable under those circumstances?
>>
>> Thanks in advance!
>>
>> Deb
>>
>
> Hopefully netmax will speak up about how many small fish you can keep
> in
> your 10 gallon (don't worry though - I am sure you will be pleased with
> the
> answer), You should be able to keep a good reasonable amount/number.
> You can
> split 20 percent into the number of water changes you make for the same
> interval or you can do any reasonable volume of water change as
> frequently
> as every 1 or 2 days (the one major worry about changing water often is
> osmotic shock I think, which means you might cause an imbalance of
> water
> contents as tap water contains a lot of minerals, elements,
> characteristics
> like ph, etc which can buildup in tanks and the fish's systems come to
> expect those characteristics, etc., and there is more to it than that
> as I
> can't quite remember it and you don't really need to know it either so
> don't
> worry - just don't water change TOO MUCH.) and the more water changed
> generally the more your fish will appreciate you, just don't over do
> it.
> Good luck and later!.


Daniel, you leave me breathless ;~)
http://www.2cah.com/netmax/basics/stocking/stocking.shtml :o)
--
www.NetMax.tk

[Daniel Morrow]

Bottom posted.

> Daniel, you leave me breathless ;~)
> http://www.2cah.com/netmax/basics/stocking/stocking.shtml :o)
> --
> www.NetMax.tk
>
>

;-)

[Deborah J. Brown]

<snippity Snip>

Thanks to all for the advice. I'll explore the possibilities in a few
weeks, when I'm certain I don't have sick fish still.

So far, so good, btw. The two remaining platies are acting healthy and
I'm /almost/ certain the one is hiding because the other is picking on
her. Not terribly, no injuries, just chasing around the tank. I'm
hoping I don't have to separate her out because I'm not sure it would
help anything. *sigh*

Oh, as regards the tropical tank's cycle. It's good and solid at this
point. All the tests come out where they're supposed to and I'm just
going to go with a once a week small cleaning to make sure the algae
stays down a bit. Or maybe get an algae eater? I've heard they can be
problematical, if the algae level isn't high enough. Can one of the
littler ones work?

Deborah