FishRBeautiful

Ok, good to know. Our basement isn’t finished so I’ll check it out well.

There’s only one place in my whole house not used up that I can put it. I’ll check the joists. That’s good to know. I do know when my daughter was potty training and had an accident, it fell through the floor there and we had to clean it up in the basement. It’s an old house. LOL

That’s probably what it is. I switched to a light substrate. Even so, it used to be more of a blue black. Now it’s more of a brown. I’m thinking it’s a she too. I got the measurement based on my finger. LOL I measure big stuff with my arms. It may be a bow front. I haven’t seen it in a while. And I was more referring to floor space in my house. Will the floor hold, etc? Will my husband allow it there? LOL

I considered getting a 30 or 36 gallon (there’s one I had my eye on) for Christmas but that’s my only option for upgrading my tank size and depends on space and flooring support, etc. Wow! I’ll keep my eye on the pleco. Seems like a pair of otos would have been a better fit. Also, It has changed color a lot as it’s grown. Is this normal? Seems like maybe it’s lighter? Not pale stresssed lighter. It’s done that like twice ever

So I realized when my tank almost crashed after a substrate change that it’s overstocked. It’s mostly back on track. However, I’m wondering if my Bristlenose pleco is outgrowing my 20 gallon tank. Is that possible? He’s probably 3 1/2 inches but bigger than all my other fish. (I know that’s normal but he seems cramped.) Is all this poop his/hers from like 3 days? Could my 3 nerites be contributing to this? Surely not the Corys’s? Platy poop isn’t black. I know because it hangs off them because they’re pigs. I’m flabbergasted a pleco is even recommended for a tank this size. Or did they accidentally give me a common pleco? Once in a while, I see him “aggressive” toward a Cory if they get too close any time of day or try to share his food during feeding time. He does have driftwood. And I feed sinking catfish pellets. Can’t find my algae wafers but when I do, I’ll give those again. And don’t worry. I’m planning to find any substrate but this that shows EVERYTHING. Disgusting! But glad I did it because it shows me what’s going on so I can assess my fishkeeping as a newbie. Shows food, poop, algae, everything!

I’m only a few months into this hobby myself. I’m starting to realize that no matter how much I research, I learn the most by doing. Last week, I switched my gravel substrate for white pool filter sand. (It only comes in white at my local Menard’s.) So, it turns out all the fish poop from my Platys and pleco (heavy Bioloaders) shows on the white sand. Now I’m wondering how people have perfectly white sand in their pictures unless they clean right before taking pics. Your hills look super cool, if they stay when you add water. You could just take some sand out and do shorter hills if you want. I know nothing about a tank’s ability to hold the weight but I’m wondering if sand weighs more than water. I worry about that when I add too much substrate. Also, I understand sand needs to be stirred once in a while to kill deadly air pockets or something like that. I’m debating between the black diamond blasting sand at Menard’s (but it’s a mix of super fine stuff which might be super complicated) and going back to gravel (got at Menard’s). Gravel was so easy. Maybe you could do a test aquarium or something. I put sand in small containers with water and gravel vac to see if it works before adding to aquarium. I would save the sand because if you’re like me, you’ll change your mind down the road. Just scoop some out if you don’t want to use it all. I haven’t had luck drying it after rinsing though.

Ok, cool! If I can do a water change to help, I’ll do that just in case. I Googled it and same thing the plumber and well guys said. It’s usually normal to have that happen. They said if it suddenly happens, then there’s more concern but we’ve had it for the 5 years we’ve lived here. There’s a minute chance of a few things, but If it wasn’t safe for the fish, it wouldn’t be safe for us and the health department advised us on the UV light to make it safe for us based on the $65 water test of like a million things. So surely it’s fine.

Wow! I made sure to keep the good bacteria “alive”. I just tested again and nitrites still 0 and nitrates at 10. If I get ammonia tests Friday, will they be ok? I noticed the foam before I added the fish. Happens when I rinse substrate with my hose (sand was washed with the hose). So I’m wondering if the foam is from my hose. I might need to research well water. Happens in our basement sink also but not other sinks or the bath. I use the kitchen sink for water changes because I know it’s safe. We have a filter and UV light on all our water.

Makes sense about the 2” cap. I came home and it was working fine. I. Think I’m still going to buy that lubricant when I go to town Friday. I have never used meds so far. I used salt back when I only had Platys in my tank and they got ich (I won’t buy from that store now.) My well water always tests no chlorine. The foam is probably from either sand dirt (even though I pre rinsed it well) or my well water does that sometimes. Has something to do with how parts in the well are hooked up. Nitrates are like 10 ppm and nitrites are 0. I don’t have ammonia tests because I didn’t think it was needed for cycled tanks. Thanks for all your help. After I respond, I’ll top off the tank with another gallon or so. Water is still cloudy.

Thanks for the recommendations. I have to go to work. I added an air pump for now and will work on it when I get home. I will respond to your posts later tonight when I have time.

By the way, I did a test corner of sand on top of the gravel. By the end of the day, all of it sunk down into my gravel. It was a good idea though

I buy the TopFin filter refills I have filter floss but if I switch it out now, I’m afraid I’ll kill all the good bacteria. I literally changed all the substrate and almost all the water

Follow up! I used navokobfan’s method this time to switch my substrate. The problem is my water is cloudy and filter isn’t running enough water. I took the HOB apart. A slight layer of gunk but no clogs. Do I need a new filter system? This is set to all the way open. I’d just get a sponge filter except this tank kit came with a hole in the lid for the HOB. And I’m not going to town until Friday (It’s 45 minutes away) Do I need to hook up my extra air pump for now?

I’m new to fishkeeping so take what I say with a grain of salt but I saw somewhere the other day you can get some sort of worm in your tank. It was a video or something about hydra that said worms are different than hydra? I don’t remember. Just throwing that out there in case you know something I don’t. Second one reminds me of a tadpole. LOL

Oh, interesting. Great idea! Do I need something to brace it to the bottom? It’s just a tube attached to an air stone. It’s always floating up when I do water changes. I just started fishkeeping so when I set up the 5 gallon, I Googled what fish need to live and found oxygen and heaters. I had no idea about filters or types of filters, except that my 20 gallon kit came with an HOB. I don’t have an ammonia test because when nitrites are 0 and I have nitrates, the pet store tests always show 0 ammonia. Once I get stocking the way I want it, I’ll keep adding plants. I do add plants here and there. I got cheap plastic ones from a Amazon until I get more live plants. They are a pain to clean though.

That makes sense. I do test 15-40 ppm nitrates. I have 1 Betta & 4 ember tetras so maybe heavily stocked. Bacteria may be living in floating moss ball if they like surface. Would it still be better to add filter media? What if I just stuck it under some gravel? Any other ideas?

I have a 5 gallon with an air pump and heater. I recently learned the filter is where the good bacteria live but my 5 gallon always tests 0 nitrites so I know it’s cycled. My question is where is the good bacteria living in this tank so I know not to kill it? Oh and should I put filter floss under the gravel so the bacteria has somewhere to live?

That’s good advice! I have figured some of that out. I usually use a few references for any fish, plant, algae advice, etc. But I’ve also found people with experience can often be as much or more helpful

Thank you! I’m always afraid to overclean my tank of algae and starve the fish. It’s good to know I can use other foods to keep them fed. The hilstream loach only eats off the glass. It’s like he’s scared to leave it to find food. Hopefully he’ll venture out if he’s enticed enough by other food. He’s not gone after algae wafers, sinking pellets, or flake food. I’ll try some of your suggestions. I don’t think I’ve done cucumbers either since I got him a few days ago

Super helpful! Thanks! What about the hilstream loach? Yesterday, I scraped off a bunch, but not all, of the green spot algae and he’s freaking out. He doesn’t eat pellets or fish food.

Great! Thank you! By fake, I meant not as natural. Like if I ate oat bread or Quaker Toasted Oat cereal instead of oatmeal. Commercially made foods (for both people and animals I’m sure) are usually less natural and have fillers. Often, vitamins are pulled out and then added back in. That’s more of what I was trying to say. Obviously some brands are better than others. And that’s not to say there’s not a need for some added vitamins because of our diets and way of life. That’s very helpful! I also Googled something last night and Aquarium Coop had an article with a diagram for causes of different kinds of plant problems. Brown leaves can be low phosphates. But I’ll have to relook at that chart if I can find the website, which shouldn’t be too hard.

I keep the light on way too long to try to grow brown diatom but the fish just eat it all. Does it matter what type of fertilizer? I use Omega One flakes. I didn’t know they had algae wafers. I’ll have to try those. I have just Tetra pleco wafers because I wasn’t aware of other options. And my fish like the Hikari catfish pellets better then the algae wafers I have. I noticed some of the plastic Amazon plants are harder to get algae off and show the algae more than other brands. Would Petco or PetSmart or some other fake plants be better? My fish eat the anacharis. And the live plants get brown spots and holes. They said I don’t need fertilizer but maybe I do?

Wow! Thanks for all the info. You know a lot about nerites. And that poor snail!

Ok, thanks! I haven’t had them super long but my well water is liquid rock (except I do have driftwood). The tests always show that it’s hard and I get calcium deposits on lots of stuff in my tank. I’m not sure what deformations look like as I’ve never seen one but their shells look fine. I’ll watch for eggs just in case. Not sure how they find each other. Do they have eyes?

I started my tank in January (new fish keeper). I know I asked before but I have lots more algae questions. I have 3 Cory catfish (want to get 2 more, not sure if they eat algae), a Bristlenose pleco, and 3 Nerite snails (may move one to another tank), and now a hilstream loach (and my Platys and Kuhli loaches which probably don’t eat algae). Thinking of getting 2 Otos but not sure. Anyway, because I love the algae eaters, they’ve eaten all the brown soft algae (assuming I can see it all). I read the other day you can add fertilizer to make more algae grow. Would love to but I have green spot algae which some are eating but no one seems to love. Also have some fuzzy brown algae on my driftwood and fuzzy green algae on my rock and thick brown algae on fake coral which only pest snails from my plants eat. I killed them all now. So would fertilizer cause problems with these algaes? I just want my fish to have natural algae instead of the fake algae in wafers and sinking pellets. I’m anti-bleach so that’s not an option. I can add pics if needed.