Dani's First Aquarium Adventure

[DaniV]

I blame Youtube suggestions for bringing me to aquarium videos.  After seeing some cool tanks, fish, and all the cool things you can do in the hobby, I decided to give it a shot!  I initially wanted to start small, a 5 or 10 gallon, but after going through some fish stores to see what was available, I was like "I wanna have more fish!"  So I bought a 20 gallon column hex tank cause it looked cool, a starter kit from Petsmart, so the tank came with a heater, thermometer, hang off filter, and net.  I then went and got a testing kit, an air pump, air stone, water conditioner, bacteria starter, and various plants from Petsmart, while I got gravel, a piece of driftwood, and rocks from a different LFS.  I ended up buying some Easy Green from ACO at a later date to help my plants out.

I was unaware of a fishless cycle, so I went with the fish-in route, and I bought 3 Dalmatian Mollies to start.  1 male, 2 females.  I love these little guys, they have been very tolerant of the cycling and my bumbling!  Sadly, this is when I made my first major mistake.  I initially wanted to just keep the 3 Mollies until the cycling was over before I added more fish, but my dad convinced me to get more.  He had aquariums for years in the past, but he just threw fish in, water parameters be damned.  I had thought getting some bottom dwellers would be a good next fish to start, so I grabbed 6 Corydoras.  Big mistake!  One by one throughout the remainder of the cycle, they died.  My dad is convinced I was sold bad fish and they starved to death, but my gut (and testing results) tell me it's because I had rising nitrites.

I tried my luck again and bought 3 Swordtails, again 1 male and 2 females.  And they're juveniles cause the male's sword tail is just a little nub right now, so that'll be fun to see grow!  Fortunately, these guys have been holding on just like the Mollies, and everyone is getting along no problem!  The Swordtails tend to stay near the bottom and middle, while the Mollies just go wherever they want.

After losing my last Cory, that was when my tests showed 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites.  I've been testing every 2-3 days, and today was the 3rd test in a row that showed that it's on the other side!  I've been gathering everything I need to make a quarantine tank so I don't make the same mistake with the Corys (my dad thinks I'm going overboard and wasting money with all these extra steps.  love the man, but he can be stubborn!).  Got a tub, a little heater, a sponge filter that's being seeded in the main tank, the med trio, a clean new net, and some PVC pipe pieces for hiding spots.  All I gotta do is cut into the lid for all the wires and tubing.  I want to get everything together and ready to go before I fetch my next fish; possibly set up the tank this coming Saturday, have it run and settle a few days and get the fish on Tuesday when I'm off work.

But I'm excited to have survived the first month with this tank!  Here's to a good next month!

Ze tank!

 

The results of the water testing throughout the first month!

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/30/2022 at 6:26 PM, DaniV said:

After losing my last Cory, that was when my tests showed 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites.  I've been testing every 2-3 days, and today was the 3rd test in a row that showed that it's on the other side!  I've been gathering everything I need to make a quarantine tank so I don't make the same mistake with the Corys (my dad thinks I'm going overboard and wasting money with all these extra steps.  love the man, but he can be stubborn!).  Got a tub, a little heater, a sponge filter that's being seeded in the main tank, the med trio, a clean new net, and some PVC pipe pieces for hiding spots.  All I gotta do is cut into the lid for all the wires and tubing.  I want to get everything together and ready to go before I fetch my next fish; possibly set up the tank this coming Saturday, have it run and settle a few days and get the fish on Tuesday when I'm off work.

"back in my day" LOL.... Parent's always know best, right?

Needless to say, well done, you're doing everything right and it's cool to see the attention to detail and tracking you're doing.

Welcome to the forums. Best of luck with amazing success in your tank!

[Schuyler]

On 11/30/2022 at 6:26 PM, DaniV said:

I blame Youtube suggestions for bringing me to aquarium videos.  

This probably applies to the majority of us here...

On 11/30/2022 at 6:26 PM, DaniV said:

My dad is convinced I was sold bad fish and they starved to death, but my gut (and testing results) tell me it's because I had rising nitrites.

You're probably right but there's also a chance that your dad is on to something too. Depending on where you got them the corys may not be intentionally fed, they just pick up the scraps left over from other fish. I feel like I remember Cory talking about this in one of the videos... But there are so many.

Hopefully next time you'll have better luck! How do you acclimate them to your tank? Most instructions say to just float them to get the temps to match but it also helps to get them used to the water parameters. What I've seen is float them for 20 mins, put a cup of your tank water in the bag with them, wait 20 mins, add more tank water, wait 20 mins, and then transfer them. Just so the shock is less.

And as a dad and a son with a dad who was into aquariums "back in his day" I hope you and your dad are able to make this into a bonding experience.

 

[DaniV]

Last night I put together the quarantine tank, complete with seeded sponge, heater, and pipes.  Went and bought 5 little Harlequin Rasboras from Petsmart, and did the Med Trio.  Did not expect the Paracleanse and Maracyn to smell so strong after adding them.  Guess I've got the first time jitters, hoping that the little guys can handle the meds. 

Setting up the tank last night!

1 of the Rasboras is bigger than the rest, I guess it's a few weeks older?  Kinda hard to tell in this photo, it was the best I could get right now.Tested the quarantine water to establish a base line of sorts.

[DaniV]

Last night I saw my male Dalmatian Molly had a few white spots on his tail when I came home from work.  Did a little digging to see what to do, and when I checked back I saw a spot or 2 on some of my other fish.  I've started dosing with Ich-X and raising the temperature to 82 degrees.  Bought some Aquarium Salt, added 2 Tbls after doing a water change and 2nd dose of Ich-X.  Good news is, already I see less spots on the initial Molly.

Sad news is, I lost 2 of the 5 Harlequin Rasboras.  I'm thinking doing the Med Trio all at once on clearly young fish may have been overkill.  Maybe I should have done 1 med at a time?  Hopefully the remaining 3 will survive.  1 of them did hop out of the tank when I opened the lid to scoop out the dead fish, got him back in with no issue.

Edited December 5, 2022 by DaniV

[DaniV]

Welp, lost all but 1 of the Rasboras in quarantine!  Dang!  I think it was because I was trying to Med Trio fish that weren't old/big enough, they looked like they were small fry.  The surviving one was the big one, so I just plopped him into the tank and we'll see where it takes us.  Gonna go to a different LFS and grab some Rasbos from them and see if it makes a difference.  Went and changed out the water, added some more live bacteria, and this time I'm gonna just feed and raise these guys normally for about a week before I start hitting them with meds.  I really wanna get this quarantine thing down for when I get my centerpiece fish!

[Schuyler]

On 12/6/2022 at 8:57 AM, DaniV said:

Welp, lost all but 1 of the Rasboras in quarantine!  Dang!  I think it was because I was trying to Med Trio fish that weren't old/big enough, they looked like they were small fry.  

Maybe ask your LFS how long they've had them in when you buy them. A lot of them are fasted before getting shipped out so maybe the combination of fasting, shipping, coming home from the LFS, and the meds was too much? Feeding them sounds reasonable. Just make sure to keep an eye on water parameters since you won't want to change water while medicating.

How were you figuring out dosages for the quarantine tank meds?

Someone else may have better suggestions. I haven't really done a quarantine tank so I'm following along to see how yours goes for future reference.

[DaniV]

@Schuyler  I've been following some ACO articles such as this one and this one.  I added in 1 packet of the Maracyn, 1 packet of the Paracleanse, and 1 tsp of Ich-X into the water.  I just came back from the LFS with 5 new Harlequin Rasboras, and the lady I talked to said they've had these fish in the tank for at least 1 month.  They are as big as the surviving one I have, so hopefully I'll have better luck this time!  I'm gonna feed and observe for a week with no meds and see how they do, and if they look good, then I'll start the trio all over again.

[Schuyler]

On 12/6/2022 at 11:27 AM, DaniV said:

@Schuyler  I've been following some ACO articles such as this one and this one.  I added in 1 packet of the Maracyn, 1 packet of the Paracleanse, and 1 tsp of Ich-X into the water.  I just came back from the LFS with 5 new Harlequin Rasboras, and the lady I talked to said they've had these fish in the tank for at least 1 month.  They are as big as the surviving one I have, so hopefully I'll have better luck this time!  I'm gonna feed and observe for a week with no meds and see how they do, and if they look good, then I'll start the trio all over again.

Hopefully you have better luck this time

Do you know how many gallons your tub holds?

[DaniV]

On 12/6/2022 at 2:32 PM, Schuyler said:

Do you know how many gallons your tub holds?

It holds about 7-8 gallons of water.

[DaniV]

After 5 daily doses of Ich-X, there are no signs of Ich anywhere!  The last dose was this past Thursday, and so far everyone is looking good.  I've also noticed the Swordtails getting real chummy and swimming real close.  A quick Google search says it's the mating dance.  Oh boy!

The 5 quarantined Harlequins have been doing very well.  Been feeding them, the water's holding up, so today I attempted the Med Trio with them.  Here's hoping these guys can hold out without food for a little bit!

[nabokovfan87]

On 12/3/2022 at 10:04 AM, DaniV said:

PVC is a nice touch.  It's definitely something I need to add to my QT setup.

 

 

On 12/6/2022 at 8:57 AM, DaniV said:

Welp, lost all but 1 of the Rasboras in quarantine!  Dang!  I think it was because I was trying to Med Trio fish that weren't old/big enough, they looked like they were small fry.  The surviving one was the big one, so I just plopped him into the tank and we'll see where it takes us.  Gonna go to a different LFS and grab some Rasbos from them and see if it makes a difference.  Went and changed out the water, added some more live bacteria, and this time I'm gonna just feed and raise these guys normally for about a week before I start hitting them with meds.  I really wanna get this quarantine thing down for when I get my centerpiece fish!

Ich is just a difficult disease sometimes.  Ich can show up as a result of stress. Something like temperature, PH, etc. can trigger that in some cases.  This video might be helpful.  I really, really had a hard time with Ich when it happened and I lost about half my tank.  It was setup for almost 3 years and then I had new fish that introduced it. 

It happens, and unfortunately you live and learn. 
 

 

[JJenna]

Welcome to the group Dani! Don't let these setbacks scare you off from this adventure. I think of mistakes as opportunities for learning. As one of those 'old ones' you'll see me posting things like..."back in the day" but I know what worked then doesn't necessarily work now. Keep listening to and asking your Dad for advice, doesn't mean you have to follow it! I'm about 4 weeks into my first planted tank and I've made mistakes along the way. There's a great group of people here ready to help you out. 

[DaniV]

Just wanted to say, I am blown away at how quickly my male swordtail is growing.

Took this picture November 29.  The tail was just a tiny nub when I first got him and saw it was starting to grow.  It's been over a week, look at it now!

[DaniV]

I dunno if it's due to having taken out the filter during the Ich battle or if it was just a matter of time, but there's been some algae buildup in the tank  There is some green and brown growth on the rocks, and some faintly on the glass.  My dad noticed it and said it was time to get a clean-up crew.  After doing some research, I decided to give Nerite Snails a shot.  Bought 3 of them, got them acclimating now.  1 of them has yellow and black stripes, the other 2 have no stripes or patterns.  I'm aware that the females leave trails of eggs behind, and I have no idea whatsoever which ones are female, but oh well.  I'll deal with that when they get to it.  Dad has never kept snails cause he had a massive outbreak of pest snails that hitchhiked from live plants, so bad that he had to take the aquarium apart, deep clean, and get all new gravel, rocks, etc. in order to get back to a clean and controllable state.  Turned him away from keeping nerite or mystery snails completely, so this is a whole new thing for all of us.

Harles are still alive in quarantine.  Fed them very lightly yesterday since they've gone several days without food and I don't want them to drop dead from starvation.  

[nabokovfan87]

Shrimp and otos might be a good option then if he's comprehensive about snails.  Nerites are fun.  They will lay eggs on the wood and stuff, but they won't hatch at all so you're fine.

[DaniV]

Snails are doing good, been roaming around.  A bunch of the rocks have gotten cleaned up, but there's still a few that haven't even been touched.  One of the snails (the striped one) had been living on the driftwood for the first 2 days before finally venturing to the glass.  Dunno what they found there, but it must have had some good stuff for them to eat.  The algae on the glass has barely come off, so I may need to clean the glass myself.

In the meantime, I finally got around to ordering some plants!  Everything in there so far I had gotten from Petsmart and they're doing OK.  The Dwarf Grass looks like it's trying to spread, but the Amazon Swords, Rosette Sword, and some kind of fern aren't looking so hot.  I took out the fern completely cause it just didn't look nice with the other plants, even when it was healthy.  So I ordered from ACO 2 pieces of Micro Swords, 1 Dwarf Aquarium Lily bulb, and some Anubias Golden.  Glued the Anubias to a rock and the top branch of the driftwood and placed the bulb in the back corner to (hopefully) fill out that space.

[Patrick_G]

I just got caught up on your journal. I’m a fan of hexagonal tanks and yours looks great. 

I’d be a bit hesitant to add any more fish.  Both Mollys and Swordtails get really big. In a 20 gallon long aquarium you’d be ok but that shape has more surface area and horizontal swimming room. Maybe a few small Corydoras or some Otocinclus would work, but 6 schooling fish in addition to the cleaning crew might be too much. 

[Schuyler]

On 12/16/2022 at 6:06 PM, DaniV said:

So I ordered from ACO 2 pieces of Micro Swords, 1 Dwarf Aquarium Lily bulb, and some Anubias Golden.  

That will be cool to see what the dwarf aquarium lily looks like one of grows out. It seems like it would be a really cool way to fill up all that vertical space.

[DaniV]

On 12/16/2022 at 9:43 PM, Patrick_G said:

I just got caught up on your journal. I’m a fan of hexagonal tanks and yours looks great. 

I’d be a bit hesitant to add any more fish.  Both Mollys and Swordtails get really big. In a 20 gallon long aquarium you’d be ok but that shape has more surface area and horizontal swimming room. Maybe a few small Corydoras or some Otocinclus would work, but 6 schooling fish in addition to the cleaning crew might be too much. 

Thanks!  And good to know that I'm hitting the limit on fish.  The Harles still have a few weeks in quarantine, tomorrow is day 7 after Med Trio, and they're looking strong.  I'm gonna hold back from adding anything new until they get in the tank.

[nabokovfan87]

On 12/16/2022 at 6:06 PM, DaniV said:

The algae on the glass has barely come off, so I may need to clean the glass myself.

Yeah, leave the back for grazing, sides if it's not too bad, and then go ahead and scrub the front glass.

On 12/16/2022 at 6:06 PM, DaniV said:

 Is that an egg in the middle or lens flare from the camera?

[DaniV]

On 12/17/2022 at 1:25 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

 Is that an egg in the middle or lens flare from the camera?

I think it was a bubble actually.  I had done a gravel vacuum and water change before adding the new plants to make it easier and less messy, so that might have been it.  I haven't seen any snail eggs whatsoever.  I looked up how to sex them, but it's hard to see under their antenna even when against the glass.

[DaniV]

Surviving the winter storm has been fun, fortunately no power outages, which is good cause I don't have any kind of backup systems for that.  With tomorrow being Christmas, I figure it'd be a nice gift for the Harlequins to finally introduce them into the display tank!  It has been a month, they got their meds, no issues or deaths, so I declare my first quarantine a success!  WHOO!

Speaking of display tank, the Dwarf Lily bulb grew some grey fuzz, which I read is pretty normal.  Just waiting to see any roots spring out from it, gonna give it a turn later tonight.  The Anubias is just chilling, and the Microswords are getting a little yellow and stringy.  I add Easy Green to the tank twice a week for the plants, started adding Easy Carbon to try and control the algae bloom I've got going on, and the plants are still looking a little sad.  I think it's time I invest in some of these magical things called Root Tabs, lol.  I keep seeing people swear by these things, so I'll give it a try and order some after the holidays (along with some more plants perhaps).

[nabokovfan87]

On 12/24/2022 at 2:03 PM, DaniV said:

I keep seeing people swear by these things, so I'll give it a try and order some after the holidays (along with some more plants perhaps).

If you're not seeing results, just try a different one.  Very useful for some plants to have those!

[DaniV]

Took some time to grab 'em all, but I moved the Harlequin Rasboras into the display tank!  They're all swimming together, haven't seen anything odd between them or the other fish.  Just darting around and checking out the new surroundings.  Now that they're in proper lighting, I can see that some of the Harles are more orange/bronze color than the others.

 

I also got this for Christmas from mom and dad!

EDIT: Just did my weekly water change and saw the pH jumped to 9 at some point during the week.  I've started using Easy Carbon for a week, so I dunno if that's directly causing it.  Just to be safe, I'm gonna hold back from adding it for a week to see if the pH does indeed go down.  I went and did a 50% water change, vacuuming up as much of the gravel as I feasibly could and got a lot of the waste out.  Still need to get scraping/cleaning tools, but that will have to wait until I can safely drive to a pet store.

Edited December 25, 2022 by DaniV