My 20 gallon tank Journal

[emfishy98]

Hello, I decided to start a journal about my 20 gallon long aquarium. I just set up my 20 gallon about 1 month ago. At first I just had 2 tiger barbs from my 5 gallon, then me and my dad bought 3 more tiger barbs and 3 bleeding heart tetras. We also had to buy a filter, a hood, some more decor, and a bubbler which is a decor piece too. Before we had a 10 gallon so we had a heater and some fake plants and a decor piece cave. Then we bought a golden algae eater after a couple of weeks. Then disaster struck. I guess the algae eater gave the rest of my fish ick. We had some old ick medicine but it didn't work, so all my fish died except the algae eater. After they all died we went to the store and bought a bigger heater and then cleaned the whole tank. Now we are planning to buy more fish. I just hope they don't get ick again because when we went to the pet store it didn't seem like that they had any ick medicine. I'll keep you posted about what we do next.

[imma24]

Good luck with your tank! If I might butt in, may I recommend that you cycle your tank 1st before you put new fish into it?

If your tank is ready to handle the waste (ammonia) of new fish from the beginning, there will be less stress on new fish and less of a chance that one of them will come down with ick or another illness.

[emfishy98]

Andreahp, I had my tank cycle for about 3-4 days and now I got 3 albino tiger barbs, 1 golden algae eater, 2 rainbow sharks, and 3 orange von rio flame tetras. Also when me and my dad went to the store to buy the fish, we did buy some newer ick medicine, and some tropical granules for the sharks since the pet store clerk said that they are bottom feeders. The fish seem to be doing fine now too. My dad said that we should put the ick medicine in a couple time a week to lower the risk of getting ick again. So that's what we are doing. I'll upload pics of the new fish here soon too.