Nronchetti
HI all,
Sorry for the long post skip to the bottom for the Q's if you don't like reading!
Thanks for taking the time to read through. As mentioned I am a bit new to this after my 4 year old wanted a pet for Christmas. My response was no but the wife seemed to think that Santa could deliver an aquarium and with fish in it! Hey ho I always wanted an aquarium any way so here I am.
We ended up getting a Superfish home 40 and I find myself already wanting something bigger and we are not even out of January! After getting the tank, setting it up with the substrate some plants and a big rock I had been advised to leave it a couple of weeks without fish and I did as instructed. I understand now that the advice was somewhat lacking and I should have paid more attention to the cycle process. Christmas eve I went and collected a couple of platies ready for Christmas morning.
Christmas morning came and our two fish had converted in to 42 fish :-O !! after some cannibalism this was reduced to 20 odd fry and two mummies. Shortly after Christmas I had to go away, the inlaws were coming to stay at our house in a few days so I thought I would be ok leaving half a weekend feeding block in the tank before they arrived. It seems that this extra food might have caused a ammonia spike as one of the mummies died in the two days they were on their own.
I am now left with about 20 younguns and 1 mummy which obviously when fully grown will be too much for the tank, I know some people who have shown a interest in taking some off my hands when they are a bit bigger.
The tank seems pretty stable and I have been measuring the levels a couple of times a week to make sure everything is progressing as it should. I am currently doing about 20% water changes every week and the fish seem to be happy.
I have had some problems with my amazon sword with the leaves starting to look like skeletons and with algae on the rock and glass, I think I may have had the lights on for too long so I have set the timer for 10 hours a day rather than the 14 it was and I have also added some API root tabs. I only changed and added these at the weekend so I am waiting to see what happens.
As to the questions:
1, My fry; when will they be able to reproduce? Obviously I don't really want to have a continuing batch of endless platties so I will need to get the males out when I can tell which is which. For now though I have read on some sites they can reproduce from 1 month which seems a bit soon as these little guys are not even a centimetre long yet. Other sites say 3-4 months which I am thinking is more realistic.
2, Plant lighting needs, I have read up a bit on lights and plants and I am somewhat confused. will I need more lights than the ones that come with the superfish home 40 or should teh ones in teh lid be sufficient for what I have?
3, What is the process for changing the filter cartridges in my Aquaflow 100? It says that the filter cartridge needs changing monthly but then I need to retain the good bacteria. Do I just take the old one out and leave it in the tank for a couple of weeks while the new one settles in? Also when buying there seems to be either 2 cartridges or two refills, the odd thing is that the refills are more expensive than buying two complete cartridges.
4, Snails? It looks like I have a stowaway pond snail from one of the plants. Currently its just one, is there any benefit to keeping it or am I best letting it see how it gets on outside?
Thanks for taking the time to read and TIA for any answers! I have been reading and learning since mid December but still have a long way to go.
Oh nearly forgot a picture of how its looking:
Nathan
Sorry for the long post skip to the bottom for the Q's if you don't like reading!
Thanks for taking the time to read through. As mentioned I am a bit new to this after my 4 year old wanted a pet for Christmas. My response was no but the wife seemed to think that Santa could deliver an aquarium and with fish in it! Hey ho I always wanted an aquarium any way so here I am.
We ended up getting a Superfish home 40 and I find myself already wanting something bigger and we are not even out of January! After getting the tank, setting it up with the substrate some plants and a big rock I had been advised to leave it a couple of weeks without fish and I did as instructed. I understand now that the advice was somewhat lacking and I should have paid more attention to the cycle process. Christmas eve I went and collected a couple of platies ready for Christmas morning.
Christmas morning came and our two fish had converted in to 42 fish :-O !! after some cannibalism this was reduced to 20 odd fry and two mummies. Shortly after Christmas I had to go away, the inlaws were coming to stay at our house in a few days so I thought I would be ok leaving half a weekend feeding block in the tank before they arrived. It seems that this extra food might have caused a ammonia spike as one of the mummies died in the two days they were on their own.
I am now left with about 20 younguns and 1 mummy which obviously when fully grown will be too much for the tank, I know some people who have shown a interest in taking some off my hands when they are a bit bigger.
The tank seems pretty stable and I have been measuring the levels a couple of times a week to make sure everything is progressing as it should. I am currently doing about 20% water changes every week and the fish seem to be happy.
I have had some problems with my amazon sword with the leaves starting to look like skeletons and with algae on the rock and glass, I think I may have had the lights on for too long so I have set the timer for 10 hours a day rather than the 14 it was and I have also added some API root tabs. I only changed and added these at the weekend so I am waiting to see what happens.
As to the questions:
1, My fry; when will they be able to reproduce? Obviously I don't really want to have a continuing batch of endless platties so I will need to get the males out when I can tell which is which. For now though I have read on some sites they can reproduce from 1 month which seems a bit soon as these little guys are not even a centimetre long yet. Other sites say 3-4 months which I am thinking is more realistic.
2, Plant lighting needs, I have read up a bit on lights and plants and I am somewhat confused. will I need more lights than the ones that come with the superfish home 40 or should teh ones in teh lid be sufficient for what I have?
3, What is the process for changing the filter cartridges in my Aquaflow 100? It says that the filter cartridge needs changing monthly but then I need to retain the good bacteria. Do I just take the old one out and leave it in the tank for a couple of weeks while the new one settles in? Also when buying there seems to be either 2 cartridges or two refills, the odd thing is that the refills are more expensive than buying two complete cartridges.
4, Snails? It looks like I have a stowaway pond snail from one of the plants. Currently its just one, is there any benefit to keeping it or am I best letting it see how it gets on outside?
Thanks for taking the time to read and TIA for any answers! I have been reading and learning since mid December but still have a long way to go.
Oh nearly forgot a picture of how its looking:
Nathan
