Aquascape suggestions?

[mileshasabrowndogenm]

Hello! I finally have some money for fish stuff, but haven’t bought anything other than a new light for my 10 yet bc all the options r sO overwhelming. Here’s some pics of my tank. It’s a new 20 with 4 zebra danios (long finned and regular) and I wanna put 3 African Dwarf Frogs in there at some point. Gonna hopefully order some floaters, but other than that I have nothing in particular in mind. Tryna use some of that real estate at the top.

 

[grac3]

new? did you cycle the tank first?

 

[mileshasabrowndogenm]

new? did you cycle the tank first?

Sadly no, I found out afterward that you need to cycle tanks with any type of fish. I was hearing that only some tanks need to be cycled but I don’t think that’s true.

 

[kbn]

Dude, get a bottle of beneficial bacteria ASAP and double the dosage. Those fish are gonna die without cycling a tank. The only way to go around it at this point are 100% water changes daily and that's too stressful for everything, get the bottle of bacteria right now

 

[grac3]

Sadly no, I found out afterward that you need to cycle tanks with any type of fish. I was hearing that only some tanks need to be cycled but I don’t think that’s true.

definitely not true! read up on how to do a fish-in cycle and monitor your parameters often and you should be fine i think maybe some long-ish piece of driftwood would look great and add some height! some vallis or java fern for the taller background plants too

 

[Jo7984]

https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfishforum/threads/fish-in-nitrogen-cycle-simplified.414083/

A great article which you could read

 

[mileshasabrowndogenm]

Dude, get a bottle of beneficial bacteria ASAP and double the dosage. Those fish are gonna die without cycling a tank. The only way to go around it at this point are 100% water changes daily and that's too stressful for everything, get the bottle of bacteria right now

My tank is stable now, I use seachem prime, beneficial bacteria, plant growth thingy, and regular stress coat to dechlorinate. My parameters are stable, I’ll check them again tonight to be sure and I’m doing weekly water changes

Fish In Nitrogen Cycle Simplified | Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle Forum | 414083

A great article which you could read

Thx I read something else about it later after u suggested and I’ll thoroughly read this one now

 

[JLAquatics]

Greetings, if you would like to delve into the world of aquascaping, I have a guide here that just may help answer some questions on how to create a compelling setup. Nothing can beat the aesthetic of live plants arranged in a pleasing manner alongside compatible fish and inverts. As someone said above, I would constantly monitor your water parameters in the meantime for cycling your tank but if you have funds to work with I think a nice 10-20 lb set of Seiryu or Ohko stones may be what you are looking for to add in conjunction to the great pieces of wood you already have in your 20g. After you create your new hardscape, it will be time to buy live aquarium plants to finish the setup. Remember, it will be much easier for you if you start with a compelling hardscape design and finish with the plants.

 

[Rachaeljuno]

Hi! I just finished a fish in cycle on a 5.5 gallon. It was actually pretty easy. I used about double the dose of seachem prime so that all of the nitrites, nitrates, and ammonia wouldn't be so toxic. I also did 20% daily water changes and tested my water daily too. As long as you keep up with water changes (and it could mean doing daily water changes for a few weeks) then you should be good! However, if you don't do the amount of necessary water changes the fish will die. This is a very simplified version though so definitely do lots of other research through videos/articles so that you really have a lot of knowledge on how to do a fish-in cycle.
As for aquascaping, I always love to use driftwood. I have a piece in each of my tanks and one of them is taller that fills the space well in my more vertical tank, and the other is wider, that fill up the space in my more horizontal tank.