Got my first tank yesterday

[ken1508]

It's a 25 gal. Tru Vu with an AquaTech filter and two Powerhead 301's and a 5" Pleco, one large Neon Tetra, two Tetra's of some sort and a Gourami of some sort. Transported fish in tank with about 4-5" of water. Refilled tank and turned on heater to warm up new water. Probably not the recommended way but previous owner said he did it and went fine, crossing my fingers.

Do I need to run both Aquatech and Powerhead all the time or is one at a time sufficient? Please recommend proper usage. Is the Powerheads too powerful for this tank? They seem to churn the water really fast.

How long do I need to wait before introducing five more neon's and a swordtail?

Can I put some live plants in there now or should I wait? There's only a small pinkish bulb type of plant in there.

Thanks in advance.

[hungryhound]

Congratulations on a new tank. Hopefully you floated the filters in transit and the bacteria did not die in transit. If not you may be in for cycle problems.

With that being said I am all for adding plants in. A heavily planted tank will help remove ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and will minimize a cycle. However you do not want to rush out and buy a bunch if you do not have the lighting to handle them.

If you are going to add plants I would add anubais, java fern and mosse. Maybe some anacharis or another low light stem plant.

I am not sure what you want to do for plant growth, but if you want to grow a wider variety of plants you will need to take a look at your lighting and maybe even your substrate.

I hope everything works out.

[RobbieG]

You need to run the filter all the time - you probably don't need two powerheads on a tank that size.

Do you know what model number the filter is?

[ken1508]

The AquaTech was taken out for the transport. Upon arriving home I rinsed both filter elements out with tap water, on my neighbor's recommendation, guess that was a no-no. The gourami ate a bunch of flakes today so I suppose that's a good sign. The tetras seem to have a smaller appetite.

Thanks for the suggestion on the types of plants to get. There a large piece of driftwood and a rock in there, so the tank looks very bare and I want to fill it up with some nice green plants. Lighting is a 15 watt Aqua Ray fluorescent tube.
I think I'll add the plants before introducing more fish.

Don't know AquaTech model but it measures 9.5" across and 7.5" tall. I'm thinking of running the AquaTech most of time with the Powerheads off and run the Powerheads a few hours during the day with the filter off. Reason being the Powerheads create too much turbulence and they are very noisy.

[Lady Hobbs]

You can't turn your filters off and on. They need to run continuously. The power heads don't have to be used at all unless you have under gravel filters and if you have those, I'd remove them. Just an air stone works fine and most of the time even those aren't needed. The filter supplies oxygen to your tank unless it's heavily stocked and you feel additional oxygen is needed then adding an air stone is fine.

You probably killed the bacteria off the filter by rinsing in chlorinated water. (Unless you have a well.) But you have bacteria in the gravel and on the decoration so it will catch up again quickly. If you should began to get a bit of white water, don't worry about it and let it go. It just means a bit of a mini-cycle has started for you.

When you add water to the tank, it should be the temp the fish are used to. You shouldn't have to warm it up. Adding too cold will shock and kill the fish.

I would wait a week before adding anymore fish and add a few at a time.

PS The pleco won't be able to be in there long. They get a foot long+ if it's a common pleco.

[Zerileous]

don't ever turn the filter off. just run the powerheads with the filter when you want them on.

othewise it sounds like you have a solid plan. you may or may not have to re-cycle the tank. Sometimes the media in tap water will kill bacteria, but you may be lucky. Keep a close eye on the parameters over the next few weeks.

edit: you beat me to the punch hobbs

[Lady Hobbs]

I got up at 3 AM so I could beat ya!

[thizzviet]

actually i can stay up till 6 am lmfao

[zackish]

You need to run the filter all the time - you probably don't need two powerheads on a tank that size.

Do you know what model number the filter is?


I was going to say you probably don't need a powerhead at all in a freshwater tank. Maybe if your filtration isn't doing that good setup the powerhead on the oposite side of your filter so it blows into the media towards the filter.

[ken1508]

The power heads don't have to be used at all unless you have under gravel filters and if you have those, I'd remove them.
PS The pleco won't be able to be in there long. They get a foot long+ if it's a common pleco.

There is an under gravel filter which I don't want to remove because it would be too disruptive and too much trouble for me to do. The Powerheads are actually a 2C1 and a 3C1. I was told they sell a valve type device that can be inserted into the air intake hole which will allow me to regulate the amount of air bubbles coming out. Anyone have any experience with that?

At what size will the pleco be too big and need to be relocated to a bigger tank?

Please identify the gourami for me, the back half is orange and front is grayish with two long tentacles on bottom, top fin is light blue on the top, about inch and half in size.

Thank for all the suggestions.

[ken1508]

I topped off the tank today and the powerheads became fully submerge like they should've been and they're not blowing out any bubbles and there's lot less noise and turbulence. That was part of the learning curve.

Added a large amazon sword and will add another type of plant in a few days.

Also added a red Hi Fin Lyretail Swordtail. He's been eating like he was starved at the store.

Hope I'm not adding things too quickly. I know I should space things out but kinda anxious to get the tank looking good.

[Zerileous]

Sounds like things are going well. Don't worry about overstocking plants, it wont hurt the fish and is pretty hard to do. (just don't let dead plants/plant matter decay in the tank). As for your swordtail, if he is like my guppies it will eat like a pig. Don't feel the need to feed the thing until it stops taking food, it wont lol. Just give a small pinch.

[salman]

I like your set up, but you do know that pleco's eat algae right? Your tank won't have any for about a month. Go buy some algae pellets or some sort of algae good to feed your pleco or it will die.

[ken1508]

The swordtail is even outeating the gourami, as soon as the flakes land on top of the water he's slurping them up, leaving very few to fall down to the tetras below. So, now I try to release the flakes in the AquaTech's outflow so that some flakes get driven down quickly to the lower depths where the tetra's have a chance at them.

I want the pleco to grow as slow as possible so that I can keep him in this tank as long as possible. So how many days can he go between algae discs?

There's two inches of gravel with no substrate. Will plants grow ok in just gravel?

[Zerileous]

ken, sounds like a good plan with the flakes. Just make sure everyone gets fed even if it means netting and isolating the swordtail. Feeding competition is one of the greater compatability issues after aggression, but hopefully you can outsmart the fish and get everyone fed.

You should feed every other or every third day to the pleco. My honest recomendation though is that you don't try to streatch this guys stay in your tank out. It will only harm the fish in the long run, so my advice: start looking for a happy/healthy home for the guy now and give/sell the guy once you have the opportunity. 5" is already pretty big for your tank.

Some plants will grow in gravel, others wont. Anubias and java fern probably would work, but they do best just attatched to some driftwood. Anacharis would work well, but it can be ugly. Crypts will probably do fine too, even though they have roots.

You can also buy Flourish Root Tabs (or another brand, just flourish is what i have seen) to feed the roots of your plants if you have an inert substrate (ie gravel)

[ken1508]

Z,
Yours is the first mention I've seen anywhere regarding feeding competition being an issue. That swordtail is an eating machine and I can see it becoming a real issue. Hope I'm not going to have to resort to using a net to isolate him during feeding time, that will be a hassle. I'm going lower the water level at the next water change so that the outflow from the filter can fall on the water with a greater downward force to drive the food down deeper and faster.

Next plants going in are anubias and crypts, then a Red Rubin. Root tabs wil be on my shopping list as I very much would like to have a well planted aquarium.

I've observe the swordtail scratching himself, at least that's what it looks like. He kinda rubs himself on the driftwood or the powerhead a quick once or twice, but only occasionally. Hope that's not a symtem of something wrong with him.