Starting over: 45L tank from scratch

Hi guys,

My dad handed over his fish tank to me yesterday, as he got tired of the hobby.

He was never particularly interested in the hobby, so he didn't have much knowledge to part with me. He basically just kept a few fish in a tank and replaced them as they died.

I'm wanting to be a lot more methodical in my approach to the hobby.

I've read the thread about the nitrogen cycle for aquariums, and found it very beneficial. But it also opened up a few questions for me.

Basically my overall question is - What are the key things I need to know/do/buy to keep this tank happy?
I have a dream of being able to have a somewhat self-sustaining ecosystem that doesn't require me cleaning algea from the tank every second week. Something like where I have animals/plants which consume the bad stuff and ouput some good stuff. Not sure if that is a realistic goal.

So what I've done so far is:

• Placed his old gravel into the tank
• Added 40l of water to the tank, sitting at 27 degrees.
• Added some declorination solution to it.
• Added his fish to the tank.
  • Which is like 5 neon tetras, 2 black tetras, 2 completely transparent fish (not sure of the breed), 1 loach, and 1 orange neon-tetra-sized fish, but its just completely orange, as opposed to just a stripe like a tetra.

I currently have fake plants, but I really want real plants. I have also learned that real plants really help with the ecosystem, which is even more reason for me to go that route.

The filtration system has some cylindrical stone-like things. I believe they have something to do with holding bacterial colonies or something. Not sure if thats correct though. Should I be adding some bacterial solution to that? Or will it just generate its own bacteria over time?

So far, have I done anything wrong?

As you can see in my photo, the tank is getting quite a bit of direct light, but I've read that its possible to avoid algea by getting the right plants and animals to balance out the algea levels. Does anyone have some tips on how to do that?

I have also read that in order to keep real plants, I might need to replace my substrate with some fertilized substrate or something. Or alternatively add fertilizer to the water or something. Is this correct? Do you guys recommend a better substrate? Or is adding a fertilizer fine (Wont that generate more algea?). Or are there plants which can survive without the fertilized substrate/added fertilizer?



EDIT: I measured the tanks dimensions and its 55x33x25cm. Which actually makes it 45l, not 40l as I initially thought

 

Hi @Craigils ,

Welcome to the forum

As @A new day said, fantastic first post and introduction

She has covered most of your questions and she is the green finger lady here, plants are not my forte

I would like to strongly suggest, as has been said, to get some Stability from Seachem and dose the tank for 7 days
As you asked, yes the ceramic noodles are where the bacteria that will convert your ammonia to nitrites and then the nitrites to Nitrates, will grow on the noodles
I honestly dont think that that tank has ever cycled and i doubt there is enough bacteria in there and whatever there was might have suffered a knock with the move

Dont add anymore fish for now, do the 7 days with Stability first
Thereafter when you add fish, add 1 or 2 at a time not to cause any spikes in the water parameters

The other thing you should get is water test kits, preferably the liquid one as the strips are not that accurate
The test kit will be your tool to check your water parameters
You dont need to get the big kit if you cant but try get the essential, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph

All best in your new venture and dont be shy to ask questions

 

Welcome to the forum and hobby - it's a lot of fun in general.
Fish in there look like white skirt tetras (couple small flat white fish), an orange danio and the others you mentioned.

Hard to say how much beneficial bacteria is still in the filter and on all the surfaces inside the tank. If you drained it, moved it and set up again, without everything drying out, might be ok. Feed sparingly to be safe, as overfeeding adds greater load on the system, especially if you're unsure if it is still 'cycled' (seeded with beneficial bacteria).
As mentioned, Seachem Stability is great to assist in this, should it have dried out and/or you rinsed things in regular tap water (chlorine kills it off).
Worth mentioning that whenever you clean out the filter sponge, make sure it is done in dechlorinated water, typically water drained from the tank into a bucket during maintenance.
On average, a weekly 30% water change is good- be sure to roughly match the temperature as close as possible to the tank water.

It's a nice tank to work with in general, but algae might be a battle with that natural light, something to look out for. If it becomes an issue, you could add a black or frosted vinyl background to the back of the tank.
Check out 'MD Fish tanks' on YouTube - his channel covers a lot for those new to planted tanks, especially the older videos. Great inspiration. I find Reddit also has good content.

Good luck and enjoy!

 

Thank you very much, @A new day @MariaS and @Cale24, for your responses.
I was very surprised to hear that I should try lower the tank to 24 degrees. My dad always thought that the tank should be 26-28 degrees
I will try lower the temperature slowly.

So with @Cale24 and Google's help, here's an updated list of what I've got:

1. 1x Orange Danio
2. 1x Zebra Loach
3. 5 Neon Tetras
4. 2x White skirt Tetra
5. 2x Black phantom tetra

The cylindrical things in the tank are indeed ceramic rings.
I went to my local pet shop to ask for Seachem Stability and the guy got angry at me (no joke) and gave some other stuff in a bag for free instead. I assume it was Insta-Pure Magic Bacteria, because that's what he stocks on his shelf. (He said he doesn't stock Seachem products because they are very overpriced).
He told me to throw the entire contents of the bag into the water. I'd guess it was around 50ml of the stuff.. so I hope/think it was diluted already (It was a lighter colour than what's in the pure bottles).

But you guys speak of treating with Seachem for 7 days.. which isn't an option when I just emptied everything I got into the tank.. so I'm wondering if I should be going and buying more of this stuff or what.

Aside from that, he was very helpful, and has asked me to bring him a sample of the tanks water so he can do a pH test (he might have mentioned it tests something as well, but not sure). Apparently he can do Ammonia and Nitrites too for an additional R35. But I'm unsure if its too early for me to do those tests at this point. Either way, I was thinking of just buying a testing kit so that I can test the water myself. Or do you not need to test the water that often, in which case its worthwhile to just pay the R35 every time I need it?

And thank you @A new day for the offer of ludwigia repens and susswassertang - Those look like cool plants. I live in Milnerton. Would you be available this weekend? Otherwise any other weekend is fine for me.

 

I have kept Zebra loaches but no shrimp and snails so not sure but they would probably have a few
What i can say is they very outgoing even with lights on, they extremely friendly and dont grow very big which makes them ideal for small tanks

 

Seachem products are not cheap but go a long way and they work
I not sure what he gave you as i have never used it so maybe just check with him or if you have the name google and see what they say regarding how many times you need to add, maybe its just a once off but im not sure

As for testing,whilst cycling it, is the most important time todo tests as testing will tell you if your tank is cycled or not
Once your tests read 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and around 10 Nitrate then you know your tank is cycled
PH is important but fish settle and adjust to various ph so long as its not drastic like over 8 or lower than around 6.5. The important this is that the ph stays stable, the fluctuations is the problem

Once your tank is cycled and all going well,you dont need to constantly test your water however the first thing you do if your fish suddenly dont look happy, is to test the water and make sure all is still ok so, its worth getting your own so if something happens you can test straight away and correct if there is a problem

 

General rule I go by is if it can fit in the fishes mouth, then they not safe

@Craigils Welcome to the forum, if you want to help your fish relax after the stress, add some cold rooibos to the tank

 

Hi @Craigils and welcome to the forum. Lovely introduction you have here.

I just want to say the above is fantastic advice and I have also cycled like you in the past with a whole lot of fish in the tank. What I did was a small 25% water change every other day or if fish looked quite stressed out I changed on that day. This may or may not have made the cycle take longer but it certainly has kept my fish alive.

Maybe if you can get a little media from an established tank this may help (even if it looks dirty, it may be exactly what you need)

 

Hello @Craigils welcome , great first tank, if you like I will have some easy to grow stem plants hygrophila polysperma , hygrophila difformis, limnophila sessiliflora, xmas moss, only catch is i am up in JHB, if you are willing to ship you can get those plants for free from me.