Beginner looking for the right way

[pehcao]

Hello everyone,
decided to register and post here because I finally had it with being misled by my local fish stores with almost disastrous consequences for my new tank, and I was hoping to be enlightened regarding a couple of issues.

First of all I honestly didn't read up enough before setting up the tank, I didn't imagine the complexity involved, which was a very pleasant surprise but one for which I was not at all ready. Wouldn't want to go over the whole story because it's kind of long and frustrating, but finally after being advised to treat algae with H2O2 under the impression that "it's not harmful for fish" (and not triple checking first) and watching ALL my fish glass surf for 1 straight hour until I decided to do a massive water change, I'm hoping I can straighten my course and do as best as I can for my tank in the future.

I currently have a 15 Gal tank with inert substrate, it's heavily planted with a lot of valisneria, 2 amazon swords, some java moss, a single anubia on a piece of driftwood, and a couple other species I don't really know. As for fish I got 11 rasboras, 3 kuhli loaches, and 3 otocinclus. I setup the tank on November 13th, and I didn't really cycle it properly (now I know after researching more on the topic), and I do regular water changes of 20%-30% 2 times a week. I have a HOB filter with ceramic rings which I started gradually replacing with Seachem Matrix last week, my plan is to replace a few every week until Matrix is all that's left. As to not make this any longer the things that concern me are the following:

1. I've been struggling with algae growing on my plants, ranging from green hair to red algae in some cases, I've been told it's to be expected as the tank cycles but these are the same people that told me to treat with H2O2 and nearly killing all my fish. Any advice on dealing with it would be greatly appreciated.

2. Around 4-5 snails suddenly showed up, and I thought it was cool and that they'd help control algae, but this week i've found around 6-7 snail egg baggies (I removed them maually) and a lot more snails are starting to show up. Should I be concerned or should I just let them eat out all the decomposing matter and algae they can and die off naturally?

3. I've been keeping tabs on my water parameters using a 2 different test strips, the first are some 6 in 1 Test strips from Zhance, and the second are JBL Pro Scan. I started testing about a month ago and the parameters were inconsistent but "normal" especially PH, the first strips showed ~7.3, and the JBL Pro scan showed ~6.8. Finally I decided it's time to stop wasting money and getting the appropriate equipment and got an API Master test kit, but now I'm really alarmed because it shows a pH of ~8.3 (the others still show the same results) I then tested my tap water and it showed ~7.5. Should I be alarmed? If so, what can I do to improve my water conditions?

4. Finally, I was wondering if adding a single apistogramma to this tank would be a bad idea, I absolutely love how they look and I'd like to add one to my tank, but if it's not gonna be healthy and happy I'd rather just keep it the way it is.

I'm sorry if this is a long post, I really appreciate the time you take in reading it, and i'm pretty sure there must be other issues that I'm not seeing, but any knowledge you guys could share would be greatly appreciated.

Attached please find an image of my current setup, the rasboras love hanging in the back under the plant with the big leaves (I don't really know what species it is)

Edited December 30, 2020 by pehcao

[JettsPapa]

Welcome to the forum.

1. I've seen many reports that say hydrogen peroxide is safe to use in tanks, though I haven't tried it myself.  Maybe you dosed it too high?  In any case, you can eliminate most algae with the proper balance of live plants, light, and nutrients, but that can be very difficult to achieve.  I've had decent luck treating staghorn algae with Seachem Excel if you'd like to try that, or if you want something more natural you might give nerite snails or amano shrimp a try.
2. Snails populations will generally level off according to the available food.  I have "healthy" populations of Malaysian Trumpet snails, rams horn snails, and bladder snails in all my tanks, and they don't bother me.  If they bother you there are several methods for limiting the numbers.  A quick Google search should give you some of those options.  In any case, I wouldn't leave decaying plant material in the tank just for snail food since it can mess up your water parameters.
3. I have a wide variety of fish, invertebrates, and plants thriving in 8.2 pH water, and I make no attempts to alter it.  I'd suggest you do the same.  While there are some fish that require specific water conditions, most will have far fewer problems with water parameters slightly outside their "ideal" range than they will with them fluctuating because the fish keeper is chasing those "perfect" conditions.
4. I've never kept apistos, so I'm afraid I can't help with that.  A small group of honey gouramis, with females outnumbering males, might be a good alternative.

[pehcao]

Thank you very much for your reply!

1. Yeah I might have dosed too high, I think i put in about 20 - 25ml. A warning on how much is too much would have ben nice lol.

2. Great, I try not to overfeed at all since I've read it's one of the most common beginner mistakes (I feed the fish very lightly twice a day). They don't really bother me as long as they don't eat healthy plants nor bother the fish, I'll just let them level off and see how it goes.

3. Excellent, I'll just keep the tank as stable as possible then!

4. I was thinking more along "not overstocking the tank" lines, i've read 1 gal/fish is sort of a good rule of thumb in which case it's already overstocked (17 fish in total), but I really wanted to explore the possibility of adding a single apisto.

[JettsPapa]

There are a number of "rules" for stocking fish, but there are so many factors affecting stocking levels that none of them really work.  Bio-load, fish size, compatibility, filtration, and the fish's social needs are just some of them.

Edited December 30, 2020 by JettsPapa

[Alison]

Everyone else really answered everything else quite well but as to the apistos, wouldn't it be cool to set up like a 20 and get a pair and see if you can breed them? I've tossed that idea around in my head a bit. 

 

Depending on your filtration I am not sure I would try to add one to that tank. I don't know how much of a bioload the loaches will eventually add but they do get to a decent size. Generally I see the recommended tank size for those as a 20 minimum and the same generally goes for apistos.

[KaitieG]

I agree with what others have said but re: the snail--I was super excited when I saw my first tadpole snail--he was kind of cone shaped and slightly irridescent--yay!  I REALLY wish I'd gotten rid of him right then!  They multiply really fast, even when you're very careful with food.  There are good options for limiting numbers eventually--like if I feed a small piece of Rapashi, they swarm that and I can scoop a bunch out at a time.  I love nerite snails and even the ramshorn snails which have increased from 1 hitch hiker to about 4, but those tadpole snails drive me nuts!  Just my 2 cents since you asked 🙂 

[pehcao]

Thank you everyone for your comments!

The only issue that still worries me is the snail one, I've been manually removing any and all egg sacs I see and throwing them in a tupperware just to see how many come out and it's already swarming. I've been removing 2-4 egg sacs per day, my hope is they will eventually start dying off, I'll vaccuum the gravel a lot more often especially now that I have a new hitchhiker species in it, discovered today and it scared the living sh... out of me as I first saw it, thought it was some sort of spider out to get my fish (see attached image).

My very own Damselfly nymph (I managed to take it out and throw it in the same snail tupperware just to see if there's anything that can be learned from it) and just like with snails I don't expect it to be the only or last one. Clearly there's too much food in my aquarium despite my efforts not to overfeed, so I guess my only option is to gravel vaccuum a lot more often. ¿What do you guys think?