rydin4life

Would a group of danios work ok with my long fin minnows or would that not be a good mix? I do want something that will be at a different level, but nothing that will nip and the minnows fins.

thanks for all the input. I think I will upgrade to the 29. I'll still keep the 20L, so I can always go back to it if I decide to in the future. It will be a little work to change over, but only some large pieces of rock, fake plants, and the filters, so not a big deal...just takes a little time. As has been mentioned, I don't have live plants so lighting and light penetration isn't an issue in this case. I did want to add another fish or a small school, so this will give me the opportunity to do so as well which is a plus. Thanks all!

Im not going to be going bigger than the 29 at this point. I love the 40 breeder size and other bigger tanks, but the 29 gives me more options and doesnt require a different stand, filtration, etc. Cost is a factor along with convincing my wife so I'm either at 29 or keep the 20L at this point. What about cherry barbs? Would they be at the same level at the minnows? Right now my minnows are all over thr place but with an extra 6" of water column, that may change.

No light and I have fake plants and Gobi dessert rock so no worries there. What would be good fish to add along with the minnows and hillstream loach?

I've made some posts about a 20L that I have with 12 Long fin white cloud mountain minnows, a Tidal 55, and medium sponge filter. I'll be adding a hillstream loach to this as well and am considering upgrading to a 29 gallon. I had the 20L already which is why I used it, but I think the 29 would look better with a taller background and I already have the stand and lid that would work and the filtration should be fine as well. I could then add some guppies just to have more of a community tank. Pros and cons of going to the 29? I'd just keep my 20L as a quarantine tank for now.

First fish tank here...I had a musk turtle for 33 years (age 6 to 39) who died earlier this year. After letting her tank empty, my kids won some goldfish at a local carnival. They got sick unfortunately and we rehomed them for better care. After doing some research and becoming more interested, I picked up 12 long fin white cloud mountain minnows. They're in a 20L with some Gobi rock, four plastic plants, a Tidal 55 filter (pre filter sponge, internal sponge, polishing pad, purigen, and matrix) and a medium sponge filter. I've had them 2-3 weeks now and am feeding xtreme nano pellets and frozen bloodworms once a week. I'm going to add in a hillstream loach as soon as my lfs gets them in. I've already had a lot of good help here, just figured I'd post here as well.

I feel like a total idiot for not knowing that...but hopefully a 25% water change yesterday and a 75% today plus the addition of more Fritz Zyme 7 will take care of things.

You may have just hit the nail on the head. When I did my water change recently, I wiped out the tank with a sponge I bought at Walmart - it had no detergents listed nor any coating that it mentioned, however I just went over the inner plastic packaging and in tiny black print it stated "not for aquarium use". As such, I just did a 75% water change, treated the new water with Prime, and I had a partial bottle of Fritz Zyme 7 in my cabinet, so I dosed with that as well just for good measure.

@Tony s @AtomicSunfish Should I do small daily or every-other-day water changes (like 25%) daily to get those nitrites/nitrates out of the water? To confirm, when I did my water change last week, I did "shake out" the prefilter sponge and filter media in the dirty tank water I took out. the rocks and fake plants I have weren't touched, so I thought I was being pretty gentle, but again - could just be that since it is so new, it just needs time to recover.

I did check my water right out of the tap - no ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate so that doesn't appear to be the issue. I feed lightly and water tests during the first week were all good - will just keep an eye on it....just odd that those things registered after the water change.

I did test prior - I didn't test the new water going in though...are you thinking that there may have been nitrites/nitrates inthe tap water that registered?

I just started a new 20L tank with 12 white cloud mountain minnows, a few gobi dessert rocks, and some fake plants. I'm running a Seachem Tidal 55 (sponge media, polishing pad, purigen, and matrix) and a small sponge filter. The tank was started with Seachem Prime, Fritz Zyme 7, and some filter "squeezings" from a well-established tank. The first week my ammonia and nitrite levels were at 0 and nitrates were just barely showing on the test strip. I did a 50% water change after 8 days just to clean up some things and now I'm showing nitrites and my nitrates are slightly higher. Both are still on the lower end, but I'm wondering why the increase at all. I treated my water change with Seachem Prime before refilling the tank and only rinsed/squeezed out my filter media in the old tank water before dumping it.

Thanks @Tony s - I do have a filter in my quarantine tank that I set up with some filter "squeezings" from an established tank so there should be some bacteria in there. I also have Seachem Prime in there as well....hopefully that will handle any ammonia issues. Of course I'll monitor and test the water, but just wanted to be sure that feeding wouldn't cause any complications with the meds.

I juat got some long fin white cloud minnows and I have them in a quarantine tank with the med trio. Can they really go a week without eating after a day traveling ... so 8 days total? I'm new to this but it seems linke a long time to have them go without food. What is the reason behind not feeding during this time?

Thanks for all the input. If I go the route of using an established sponge from a trusted tank and put that in my HOB filter, is there a general rule of thumb for how long that should stay in there to establish bacteria on the new media (sponges and Seachem Matrix) in my filter?