Hi everyone!
I recently started researching more on fish keeping. I’ve had a 10g tank for almost 8 years now but with 3 small kids (being born in that time frame) I was pretty busy.
we are finally out of diapers! So last November I upgraded to a 20g tank and had it pretty balanced until I made de newb mistake of getting more fish and a new filter because “I read it could house more beneficially bacteria”, of course that didn’t go well because in my excitement I took out the old filter as soon as I got home, put in the new one and the new fish (yup! Didn’t quarantine) and you can pretty much guess what happened 🤷♀️. Ammonia spiked, had to re cycle the tank and got my first big lesson in fish keeping with a visit from Ick.
This is when I really started to educate myself. Was able to get rid of the Ick with Ick-X and finally, a month later my tank is showing 0 ammonia and 0 nitrates and with zero loses!! But lesson learned!
I realized by doing some research that some of the fish that the fish store had sold me as “great for my 20g” were in fact not! (Dojo loaches, opaline and pearl gourami) so I got a new 75g on sale and took out my 10 gallon to have ready for quarantines, did the meds cycle that Cory suggested for new fish and to start fresh (ick-X, erythromycin & paraguard) got plants and will now start cycling my 75g aquaclear filter in my 20g for a few weeks while I can get everything I need ready to start working on my 75g. I also had to rehome my pearl gourami that had been with me since November because he got super aggressive even towards the cory catfish that had been there the same amount of time as he had. (Fish store also told me my tank wasn’t overcrowded but now I know better) so I got another 10g in the meantime and took out some of the fish while I get their new homes ready. And got some filter media from a friend which helped both tanks tremendously!
It’s been quite a journey but I’ve enjoyed learning mainly from Cory’s videos and other youtubers and have big plans for a planted 20g with nano fish in the future, in the meantime I’m scrambling to keep everyone alive, happy and healthy while learning the hard way to do my research first.
At this rate my house will be filled with fish tanks but if the kids can leave all their toys around the house, I should be able to have fish tanks all over the house as well, jk! I’ll probably stop at 3.
anyways, loving this forum and looking forward to learning more from you all (instead of the hard and stressful way as before)
