20 gallon long

[Annie]

Hello, I have a 20 gallon long , planted aquarium. As of now I have 1 pleco about 2 inches, and 2 glass cat fish. . I’ve been struggling with fish dying for the last year now. Guppy’s, platys , endlers...I always check my water parameters before I buy new fish but still😥

one problem I am having is vacuuming my substrate. It does not suck anything and I become so frustrated I want to give up.  I followed multiple videos on how to  ciphon but doesn’t work for me.  
Today  water parameters are

PH 6.0

ammonia 0

nItrIte 0

nitrAte 5.

Temp is around 80 degrees 

 What about adding flame dwarf gouramis and if so,how many? I’d like more algae eaters too if they could help with my disgusting substrate.

i did recently clear out a lot of plants.  Definitely no problem with plants growing in this tank. 
I appreciate any advice on how to move forward successfully. 
Oh one more thing, I looked into the powered automatic vacuums but the reviews were so mixed I was reluctant to spend more money on this.

Thanks

[Fish Folk]

Hey there! Don’t give up. Your tank is beautiful, and a 20 gal long is an amazing aquarium. 
 

Best guess is that pH at 6.0 is far too low for non Amazon fish. If you can check you GH and KH, you might find that they are also low. Check the pH of your water source (tap? well? City?). Do this: (1) turn your sink on, warm water, for 1 min. (2) collect water in a small clean glass container (cup, etc). (3) test pH  immediately. (4) let that same cup sit there for wait 48 hrs, and test it again. 
 

Letting your tap water “rest” allows pH to balance, things to “gas off” and provides a picture of how your water is settling into your aquarium. 
 

If your rested tap water pH is still around 6.0, you should stock your tank to match that sort of water. 
 

The great news would be that there’s some GORGEOUS fish YOU can keep that many aquarists CANNOT. 
 

However... if your rested tap water is much higher pH, then your aquarium is pulling it down. This is where you must learn your KH (carbonate hardness) and GH (general hardness). Among other things... Hardness measures the buffer in your water. Higher buffer prevents pH from changing rapidly.

Your substrate is probably not as bad as you think, unless you’re seeing fungus all over uneaten food. I think that the pH (possibly the hardness too) may be more  of a problem to keeping certain fish than an unvacuumed substrate. 

 

[Maggie]

Hi Annie, I also have a 20 long and noticed that gravel vacuuming is different in there versus a deeper aquarium. My suggestion is to use a teeny little siphon - mine is about 6" long x 3/4" tube diameter and a long hose that curls a bit around the bottom of the bucket, with an inside diameter of about 1/2". I also have a longer-tubed siphon (about 8 or 10")  but with otherwise the same dimensions and that doesn't work nearly as well in the 20 long, but it works superbly in my 45 gallon tank which is a lot deeper. When you start the siphon, let the tube empty about half way, but keep the opening real close to the water line so you can quickly submerge it to keep the siphon going. It might take a few tries but you'll get the hang of it! Hope you don't give up. 

[Levi_Aquatics]

I also have a 20 long. I am currently trying to breed kribensis in it.  I agree with Maggie that a small siphon is best to clean with.  That aquarium looks great! Don't be discouraged by the loss of some fish (it happens to everyone).  I would suggest trying some bronze or albino corydoras and some cherry barbs as both species can tolerate softer water and also provide some action and color in the aquarium.  You might want to cool the water down a bit for the barbs though. You should also make sure you are getting the fish from a quality source and quarantine them just to make sure they are healthy so you get started off on the right foot. I hope this helps! Good luck! 

[Annie]

Thank you all so much for all of this detailed information.  Last time I did my tap water ph test it was 7.4

i will follow your instructions to test that again but I don’t know what GH and KH is and do I need an additional test kit? Right now I’ve got API master test kit. 
I’ll try  a smaller ciphon too. 
thanks for the words of encouragement too. Why did I wait so long to reach out? 
one more thing... there are 2 local fish stores I’m my town and I’m not sure about either of them. I guess I could do a search on the reviews. Otherwise  would have to travel 40 minutes to petsmart. Or order online. Any thoughts?

[JeremyAllen]

What kind of substrate are you using? It could be the reason it dropped to 6.0. In planted tanks if you have root feeders or any plants, depending on how nasty is nasty of course, siphoning the substrate isn’t as necessary as you think. I have tanks I never clean the substrate that often maybe once a month or two I go over them for debris but the rest my plants use for nutrients. I hope you can figure out the cause so it can be fixed and your aquarium hobby continues!

[Annie]

Hi, it’s CaribSea Eco-Complete 20-Pound Planted Aquarium, Black

 

 

[Bruce]

Honestly gravel vacuuming is something that shouldn't be done too often. The beneficial bacteria is populating your substrate and the ugly mulm benefits your plants. I have a gravel vac with a bulb so when I try to vacuum up my tanks are shallow like yours I pump the bulb a couple times until I see the debris really going up. As far as fish selection you have very acidic water sitting at 6.0 ph you should be looking at soft water fish you'd have really good luck with Neon Tetras maybe a single Angel etc.

[Mauricio]

Hi, I wanted to add some things concerning the two local fish stores. In my experience, I live in Phoenix, Arizona but the 5 or so fish stores within drive-able distance i feel are far more beneficial to visit than a big box store like petsmart. Not to down talk that store but the way i view it is those fish stores are specialty stores and only work with fish. 

When I first started, I was as addicted to fish as could be and would spend so much time at both kinds of stores just staring at fish and studying the products for fish. Being a college student and only having a minimum wage part time job, I didn’t have the budget to buy uselesss things so i did my homework. When I was out of money, I would go to the petsmart just down the street from me and kill like an hour in there just in the fish section. With this being said, I would converse with the employees and found that usually those fish stores had more similar knowledge to what I found on Aquarium Co-op’s YouTube channel than the Petsmart. Now, my sister works at a Petsmart grooming dogs and she knows that since they have so many different kinds of animals, employees get little training on every animal so as to help the general customer population help when asked.

I wanted to suggest, as i learned from watching an Aquarium Co-op video, do some recon in new fish stores. If i remember correctly, Cory mentioned to pay attention when the store gets their shipment (normally toward the end of the week) and make a mental note of if the store quarantines or if they sale fish as soon as getting them in. That second method usually adds extra stress of fish and decreases survival rates. 

 

Lastly, Cory had a video on siphoning from a tank. They are really old videos so you may have to scroll a bit but what I do in my 20 long is i siphon any visibly loose detritus if it bothers me but really, it just gets used from the plants especially the more plants you have. 

 

You’re doing a great job, keep the spirit alive!! 🙂

[Bruce]

I believe eco complete maybe softening your water.

[David Ellsworth]

Eco Complete is neutral. Organics in the water building up will generally cause water to drift downward in pH. If you have regular water changes it should even out the pH of your water by pulling out lower pH water and adding in slightly higher if your tap water is higher. Lower pH is great for plants, but hard on new fish that are added and not gradually adjusted to your water, unless the fish are used to low pH. This is why many people can keep the fish they have fine, but when they try to add new fish to low pH, the new fish struggle and die if the water they come from is too different. 

 

I have a cheap Aqueon siphon I picked up from Walmart that works well. It is smaller sized and has one of those auto start function. You fill up the intake tube with water and tip it upwards and raise the end over the rim to start the siphon before quickly lowering it down in the water when the water starts flowing in the tube. Works well. You could try one of the siphons with the hand pumps to start and keep it going. Like others said above, stick with a small siphon for a 20 gal.

[Paul]

@Annie the fish you’re loosing prefer much a higher pH and harder water. I’m not one for chasing pH but you can make adjustments by adding crushed coral or aragonite to the tank either in the substrate or in your HOB (filter bag). The easier way to go is switching to fish that will thrive in your water parameters. Good luck.

[Paul]

@Annie the fish you’re loosing prefer much a higher pH and harder water. I’m not one for chasing pH but you can make adjustments by adding crushed coral or aragonite to the tank either in the substrate or in your HOB (filter bag). The easier way to go is switching to fish that will thrive in your water parameters. Good luck.

[Annie]

Hi. Thanks again for the feedback. Now I’m thinking tiger barbs but just concerned how they would treat my 2 glassfish and 1 pleco .