How Best To Maintain My Tank

Hello!

First of all, thank you for all the advice so far... this may be my first post but I have been reading all of your threads over the last two weeks and have already learnt so much

So I bought the fella a 60l tropical fish tank for chrimbo... we set it up with gravel/slate/plants and left it running for a week before going to our local aquarium shop... and left with 1 red tailed shark and 3 male guppies... (I know our tank is small for a RTS but the plan is to upgrade next year so were told it's fine for now)

1 male guppy turned out to be a bully (took a chunk out of the littlest ones tail) so went back to store for advice a week later... 'get some girls'... oh kay but that means babies?... 'they'll be eaten immediately and it's good for the other fish'... yes, I let myself get talked into that so we left the shop with 6 girl guppies and 3 dalmation mollies...

By the following morning one of the females had given birth (was obviously already preggers!) and we had babies swimming around being completely ignored by all the other fish... my guy and I had visions of a very swiftly overstocked tank, got the net and promptly returned the 6 females and 1 bully male to the shop where they swapped for 5 platies...

This is where the water started going wrong... cloudy and test strips showed insanely high nitrites and nitrates... so thanks to the forum I started doing 50% water changes (R/O water) every other day... I tipped a bottle of safestart in on sunday and filteractive into the filter plus a dose of easybalance last friday and yesterday... finally today my test strip is showing everything safe and my fish are happily more active and playing... (We had no prior knowledge of the nitrogen cycle or the correct process of starting a new tank - nothing was mentioned in the shop and everything I've subsequently learnt has been online - doing my best so please be kind!)

Total Fish in Tank:
1 RTS
2 Guppies
7 Guppy Fry (these will be removed and returned when big enough to catch!)
3 Dalmation Mollies
4 Platies (we lost one almost immediately)

I have ordered a proper water testing kit, in the meantime will be taking some tank water to the shop with me on my next visit to request a test... I know now that the strips are not thorough enough!

Sorry for the long story but I'm sure the detail will help when it comes to answering my actual questions regarding maintenance

1) if I do 2 partial water changes a week is this good maintainence? 10l or 15l a time?

2) until tank is fully cycled and settled, should I add easybalance every partial water change or once a week? and do I dose for the total water in my tank (roughly 48l) or just for the new 10l-15l i'm adding?

3) can I wipe away the red-scummy looking stuff that has appeared on the filter since using filteractive or is that all the good bacteria?

4) how often do the fish need feeding? they've been having 1 pinch morning and night...

I just want to get to a point where we can enjoy our beautiful tank rather than be constantly worried about it! Appreciate any advice

 

FYI everyone its a 16g

50% weekly water changes 30L every time. Up these to twice weekly if levels become unbalanced again.

I have no idea what easybalance is, sorry

I have no idea what filter active is, red stuff sounds kinda weird?

Depends, how fast are they eating the food? Its good to spread the feeding out across the day so a pinch in the morning and night helps. Feed enough until the fish start ignoring the food to guage how much to feed.

 

There are too many fish and that will affect your water quality. I would return some of the fish, mainly the RTS (it gets very large) and the mollies. The guppies .. eh .. I would have gone for more males to spread out the sparring instead of adding females. You will be overrun in no time.

 

There are too many fish and that will affect your water quality. I would return some of the fish, mainly the RTS (it gets very large) and the mollies. The guppies .. eh .. I would have gone for more males to spread out the sparring instead of adding females. You will be overrun in no time.

They are planning to upgrade the tank, but yeah you'll need a 55 gallon at least for a RTS. I would agree and say tank is overstocked but parameters seem normal.

 

FYI everyone its a 16g

50% weekly water changes 30L every time. Up these to twice weekly if levels become unbalanced again.

I have no idea what easybalance is, sorry

I have no idea what filter active is, red stuff sounds kinda weird?

Depends, how fast are they eating the food? Its good to spread the feeding out across the day so a pinch in the morning and night helps. Feed enough until the fish start ignoring the food to guage how much to feed.

So 1 larger change rather than 2 small? Ok

Easybalance and Filteractive are both Tetra products... EB is 'supposed' to reduce water changes to once every 6 months which I have no intention of doing! Just read that it would help while the tank was unstable...

Have attached photo of filter as it looks right now... I want to clean it but am scared of removing all the good stuff I've added!

They eat everything within a minute so good, doing something right

 

I don't think the RTS can stay a 15-16g tank for a year, however. I would return the fish and restock next year, using the smaller tank for the quarantine tank at that point.

 

There are too many fish and that will affect your water quality. I would return some of the fish, mainly the RTS (it gets very large) and the mollies. The guppies .. eh .. I would have gone for more males to spread out the sparring instead of adding females. You will be overrun in no time.

Yes, we went to the shop to get more males as I'd read on the forum we should have a minimum of 5 to avoid bullying... c'est la vie, as I said any fry who survive will be removed as soon as they are big enough to be

They are planning to upgrade the tank, but yeah you'll need a 55 gallon at least for a RTS. I would agree and say tank is overstocked but parameters seem normal.

Sorry, I'm talking in litres instead of gallons aren't I! Yes, we were planning on doubling to a 120l/26g tank but if it needs to be bigger then we'll obviously do what he needs as he grows

 

Sorry, I'm talking in litres instead of gallons aren't I! Yes, we were planning on doubling to a 120l/26g tank but if it needs to be bigger then we'll obviously do what he needs as he grows

Safestart has never done anything for me when I first got into the hobby, honestly just doing water changes every 2-3 days or one big water change once a week is much better. 50gal+ Is what I would get for the rts, so even 26g would be too small

 

I've had Red Tail Sharks in the past, it will easily out-grow a 60L (15G) tank well before a year's time. The Mollies may grow too large for the 60L tank soon as well. The tank is heavily overstocked considering a few months from now and this could affect the quality of your fishes' lives and your water quality especially if you slip on the responsibility of keeping such a small tank clean.

Advice: Always take advice with a grain of salt, particularly by pet store employees. It is their policy to try to sell you fish, not paying much mind to the well-being of the animal (they could even lose their job for being too honest with customers). At least, that is how it seems to be in America. Since you're talking about liters, I take it you're not American? lol

Would recommend 50% water changes on a weekly basis, continue to test the water regularly to monitor the nitrogen cycle parameters.

EasyBalance may not be able to help you if the tank is overstocked. It seems the directions for dosage are determined on an already-filled tank so I would dose it fully. The directions I'm reading indicates 5mL per 19L, so about 16.25mL for your 60L tank. Please be sure that you're using a Water Conditioner (dose for the amount of water adding back to the tank, prior to the tank).

You can wipe the filter itself down but don't scrub at the filter cartridges as not to disturb the beneficial bacteria growing. Every now and then, when you're doing water changes, take out the cartridge and gently swish it around in the old water you took out of the tank to loosen up all the yucky bits. If that is algae, at least you know that there's nutrient-rich water coming out of the filter!

Most people feed their fish 2-3 times a day as with any other pet. Just be sure you're not overfeeding; only feed as much as they will eat in a few minutes. Some fish, especially all the livebearers you have, don't know when to stop and can overeat themselves to death.

 

I've had Red Tail Sharks in the past, it will easily out-grow a 60L (15G) tank well before a year's time. The Mollies may grow too large for the 60L tank soon as well. The tank is heavily overstocked considering a few months from now and this could affect the quality of your fishes' lives and your water quality especially if you slip on the responsibility of keeping such a small tank clean.

Advice: Always take advice with a grain of salt, particularly by pet store employees. It is their policy to try to sell you fish, not paying much mind to the well-being of the animal (they could even lose their job for being too honest with customers). At least, that is how it seems to be in America. Since you're talking about liters, I take it you're not American? lol

Would recommend 50% water changes on a weekly basis, continue to test the water regularly to monitor the nitrogen cycle parameters.

EasyBalance may not be able to help you if the tank is overstocked. It seems the directions for dosage are determined on an already-filled tank so I would dose it fully. The directions I'm reading indicates 5mL per 19L, so about 16.25mL for your 60L tank. Please be sure that you're using a Water Conditioner (dose for the amount of water adding back to the tank, prior to the tank).

You can wipe the filter itself down but don't scrub at the filter cartridges as not to disturb the beneficial bacteria growing. Every now and then, when you're doing water changes, take out the cartridge and gently swish it around in the old water you took out of the tank to loosen up all the yucky bits. If that is algae, at least you know that there's nutrient-rich water coming out of the filter!

Most people feed their fish 2-3 times a day as with any other pet. Just be sure you're not overfeeding; only feed as much as they will eat in a few minutes. Some fish, especially all the livebearers you have, don't know when to stop and can overeat themselves to death.

Thank you so much! I will take everything you've said on board Yes, in the UK so speaking 'British' And tbh a bit OCD so actually having to stop myself from over-cleaning!

Do I still need AquaSafe even tho it's R/O water from the shop? (They said I didn't but lesson learned on believing everything they tell me!)

My guy took one look at the filter and wanted to replace it but I wouldn't let him! I read a tip online (on here I think) that said when the filter cartridge's time was up to cut it open and empty the internal filling, then stuff the empty manky casing back into the filter box so the bacteria could transfer to the new cartridge... thoughts?

 

Thank you so much! I will take everything you've said on board Yes, in the UK so speaking 'British' And tbh a bit OCD so actually having to stop myself from over-cleaning!

Do I still need AquaSafe even tho it's R/O water from the shop? (They said I didn't but lesson learned on believing everything they tell me!)

My guy took one look at the filter and wanted to replace it but I wouldn't let him! I read a tip online (on here I think) that said when the filter cartridge's time was up to cut it open and empty the internal filling, then stuff the empty manky casing back into the filter box so the bacteria could transfer to the new cartridge... thoughts?

Oh, R/O water huh? In that case, I would suggest some kind of R/O conditioner then. Reverse Osmosis is nice if your tap water has heavy metals and chloramine, but at the same time, it doesn't distinguish such impurities from necessary minerals that your fish need. At least, that's what I read about R/O. It's basically setting your aquarium as a blank slate where you would have no water hardness, no karbonite hardness, and a base pH of 7.0 (at room temperature), which maybe necessary or at least a little easier for high-maintenance fish and marine aquariums.

As for the filter cartridge, most people either try to customize their media material or try to get as much life out of the filter cartridges as possible. A typical commercial filter cartridge is basically just a sleeve of filter floss/mesh with a small amount of activated carbon inside. Personally, I only replace the original cartridge- the one that comes with the filter, and that's it. In my experience, the filter cartridge that comes with the filter seems to be of poor quality, forcing you to buy replacements. After that, I almost never replace filter cartridges.

 

first water test!

 

I would pattern my water changes based on water tests. Your tank seems to be cycled. Go a couple of days and test for nitrates. When they reach 40 ppm, do water change

With your bioload, you’ll probably be stuck with water changes 2-3 Xs a week. But IMO testing nitrates regularly will tell you when to do water changes, and testing the next day will tell you how effective the water change was.

I have 2 tanks; 20/20/36. I only test PH, ammonia, nitrites weekly but test for nitrates 2-3 times a week. I wanted to get my 36 to 1 pwc a week but even with multiple filters, nitrates dictated a change a minimum of every 4 days. Moved 5 guppies to the newest 20 and now my water changes are weekly in the 36.

Long way to tell you your tests should dictate pwc until you have a stable effective pattern.

And i’m in the “rehome RTS” group.

 

I would pattern my water changes based on water tests. Your tank seems to be cycled. Go a couple of days and test for nitrates. When they reach 40 ppm, do water change

With your bioload, you’ll probably be stuck with water changes 2-3 Xs a week. But IMO testing nitrates regularly will tell you when to do water changes, and testing the next day will tell you how effective the water change was.

I have 2 tanks; 20/20/36. I only test PH, ammonia, nitrites weekly but test for nitrates 2-3 times a week. I wanted to get my 36 to 1 pwc a week but even with multiple filters, nitrates dictated a change a minimum of every 4 days. Moved 5 guppies to the newest 20 and now my water changes are weekly in the 36.

Long way to tell you your tests should dictate pwc until you have a stable effective pattern.

And i’m in the “rehome RTS” group.

Thank you so much for the advice! Very helpful, I am currently struggling with Nitrates so makes sense...

FYI - We've bought a larger tank and are in the process of setting it up!

 

Look into live plants. They can absorb lots of nitrates. Initially you could go with floating plants but trust me, you’ll get addicted and spend more time on-line learning about plants than fishes.