Lucky

Great thanks for the advice. I'm not moving for a few weeks but I added 2 small sponge filters a few weeks ago and I was planning to use them to kick start the cycles on my new tank and the quarantine tank I'll be setting up for the new fish. I'll also have the tank running for about 2-3 weeks before I add anything and since it'll just get my current 10g stock at first, I'm not worried about anything crazy happening. The tank will definitely have a good amount of wood/rocks/plants so the shrimp will have a lot of cover but I also have a 4g tank on my desk that currently houses shrimp. If I end up getting a betta and it causes problems, I can move the shrimp to the main tank and make the 4g my betta home. I've tried to avoid floating plants for now because I'm worried about lighting at the bottom of my tank and I'm not a huge fan of their look. I guess pothos would probably be the best option then if I'm having trouble with nitrates.

Hi everyone, I started my first tank over 3 years ago and since I am going to be moving soon, I am planning to upgrade my tank as for my new apartment. I currently have a 10g tank with guppies and neocaridina shrimp but in my new apartment I'll be getting something between 40-60g. I need some advice for stocking the tank and I was hoping I could get help here. I am attached to my colony of guppies and shrimp so making sure whatever lives in the tank won't wipe them out is the priority. With that in mind, I had a few ideas for additional species that I could include in the tank. I'm not saying I want to do all of these but I would like to have some variety within the tank. - Panda Corys - Super red bristlenose plecos - A single halfmoon plakat betta - Neon tetras I am open to any other suggestions but I definitely want smaller fish so I can have some variety. I should also mention that the tank will be planted so any suggestions should be plant safe. I also like breeding fish but I'm not looking to do it for profit or work with anything too demanding. I am going to be starting law school so I would like to keep things relatively low maintenance (that includes under-stocking the tank a little to give me more wiggle room if i miss a water change). Thanks.

Your tank is very similar to mine and the one thing I'd say is if you're breeding guppies it can become challenging to get food to your bottom dwellers like shrimp and corys because the guppies don't let much get by them and even when they do, they will scavenge from the substrate. Some ideas I've used to get food where it need to go is using repashy covered rocks (did this for the first time today), feeding bottom dwellers at night, and using a pvc pipe to help me guide food down directly to where it needs to go. Takes a little creativity but I've been able to get my fish and shrimp breeding so I think it has been working.

I might not explain it well but I feel like with weekly dosing I'm rapidly adding a lot of nutrients to the tank and then slowly they are getting used up. Because of this my water parameters from the beginning to the end of the week would show some significant swings compared to the smaller daily cycle that would happen if I dosed every day.

@Jeff @James Black As of now I don't dose anything. I have root tabs in the substrate near my root feeding plans but the water column feeders have been neglected. I am leaning toward Easy Green right now but I am a little concerned with using a weekly fertilizer since I feel like doing smaller, more frequent dosing would be better for creating a stable environment. @Kirsten @Mr_Manifesto Thanks for the advice. The more I think about it the more I feel like my idea to add in corys might not be the best move. I would love to see a new species and I'm sure if I was attentive and on top of testing my water I could do it safely but one of the reasons I love my tank is because it is pretty stress free and having to worry about whether or not I'm overstocked might add some stress to my hobby. I think what I'm going to do is wait until I eventually buy a bigger tank before adding in Corys. I might move to a new apartment in a few months and if I do I am hoping to get a 40 breeder or at least a 20 gallon maybe even both. In the meantime I will focus on my guppies and try to find ways to breed them into a hardier strain. I really appreciate all the advice you guys have given me. Thanks to everyone for sharing your insights on my situation.

I use the same kit to test the tap water and it has come back with very high readings. I'm going to take some water over to the pet store near my house just to get someone with more experience to double check my work. Right now I'm leaning toward adding in fertilizer. Thanks again for all of the help with my tank.

Thanks for the advice. I just tested for nitrates again and its definitely showing at or very close to 0. I also checked and the test kit doesn't expire until 2022. My tap water has crazy high nitrates so I use distilled water mixed with seachem equilibrium (crushed coral in the tank for hardness). I do 2.5g water change every week. Since there is no nitrate coming from the water changes would that explain the reading. I can try to find a different test kit tomorrow and take some water into the pet store for free testing if the reading still seems impossible.

Hi everyone. I am looking for some advice with my 10 gallon tank. Currently, the tank houses my colony of bloody mary shrimp and my breeding colony of guppies (10 guppies total). I remove the fry when I find them and put them into different tanks to grow out in. The 10 gallon is my main tank and is located right next to the desk I spend all day at so I am always looking for ways to make it better. Currently, there are a lot of live plants (anubias, buce, crypts, java fern, and bolbitis) and I noticed that while they're not wilting, they're also not thriving. I know most of the plants are slow growing but in some cases I'm not sure there is really any growth. Some of the plants are also showing signs of distress like discolorations but these are not common in the tank. I generally test my water every 2-3 weeks and every time I do, I find that the ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates are always at 0 or close to it. I know that this is a great for the fish but the lack of nitrates in the tank is also probably contributing to my plant issues (there are root tabs near the root feeders so they are getting nutrients that way). I know the common sense solution here is to just add in some easy green and use that to bring the nitrates up but I was also thinking that my lack of ammonia and nitrate build up may mean that I can stock my tank a little more. I decided to test my idea by slowly adding some of the largest fish from my grow out tanks to my 10 gallon. I also increased food roughly proportional to what I added. As I was doing this I was frequently testing the water to monitor for any sudden spikes but my readings stayed very low (possibly because of how slowly I was increasing the fish load). After about 3 weeks I had added 10 fish in and was feeding much more than before and still my ammonia and nitrogen levels were basically undetectable. I removed the guppies that were not part of my original breeding colony but now I am wondering if it would be safe to add in a school of 6 panda corys. Everything I have heard suggests that a 10g should not be able to stock guppies, shrimp, and corys but based on the fish load I had in the tank, I believe I might be able to safely add in a small school. Am I falling into a rookie mistake here or do you think I can try adding in my second species of fish? If I don't add in the corys should I increase the food I'm feeding my breeding colony since I know it is safe? Should I just use fertilizers with my weekly water change and keep everything else constant?

I was wondering a few things about this. Once the parasite's eggs are laid, how long does it take for them to hatch and after hatching, how long does it take before a larva is mature enough to lay its own legs? I felt that based on the growth rates of other small worms, 2 weeks might be long enough for a new set of eggs to be laid but I have no information to confirm that for internal parasites.

What's going on guys. I'm new to the forum after watching a lot of the aquarium co-op videos and shopping at the store since I got my tank around 3 years ago. So far I've only kept guppies and bloody mary shrimp (bred both a decent amount) but I'm looking to get something new soon. Always open to suggestion and advice.