20 Gallon Tank My first tank in years... watch it grow.

I am so excited to be posting this! My fish arrived in the mail today! Eeee.

I am starting out with:
- a pair of Electric Blue Acaras (they are eventually being moved to a bigger tank which I am getting in a few weeks, but I have to set it up, so for now they are in a 20 gallon, since they are still smaller)
- a Gold German Blue Ram (this girl was accidentally sent to me, I messaged the lady from Angel Fins and let her know, and she said she accidentally sent her to me, but said don't worry about it and to consider her an early Christmas gift, how sweet!)
- a Black Eyed Yellow Bristlenose Pleco
- andddd last but not least, a black devil snail

I also ordered some Heteranthera Zosterifolia (a.k.a Star Grass, I believe!) for the tank! I dosed the tank with prime & stability, and will continue to do so for the next 7 days, aswell as keeping up with the water changes until the tank is cycled in. Everyone is eating and doing well. I have never ordered fish online, and I couldn't be more pleased with my experience to be honest! I am definitely going to be placing many more orders. I am so excited to watch my tanks grow. Welcome home new little friends.

I have to get better pictures but here are a few I snapped for now! I need to order alight for my tank, I haven't done that yet, hehe. Ooop. I assumed there was enough light in my kitchen that they would be just fine and dandy.

I adore the Electric Blue Acaras, they are just inquisitive, curious little guys. I sat in front of the tank looking in there for a while and they were right up at the front following my finger around, so cute. I am super happy with them, incase I didn't say that already, heheh. I added a little castle and some more fake plants to the tank, and they immediately went inside of the castle and checked it out.

I separated the Star Grass into three different spots in the tank, and buried the roots in the gravel, I am hoping it grows alright. I am wishing I would have used sand for the bottom, oh well - atleast I know for when I get my bigger tanks.

Thanks for reading, I will keep this updated with how my tank is doing and any new plant/fish additions! I have to rearrange some decorations in the tank, but for now it is what it is!

Oh, posts here are more than welcome aswell!

 

Nice! So your doing a fish in cycle right? Sorry if you already mentioned it. And I would fishless cycle the bigger tank before moving them over

 

Nice! So your doing a fish in cycle right? Sorry if you already mentioned it. And I would fishless cycle the bigger tank before moving them over

I am doing a fish in cycle, correct! I kind of got a little gung-ho and couldn't wait to get one of my tanks going, so I tried to pick hardier fish (or at least I think I did, from what I read, but please correct me if I am wrong, as I only ever had guppies as a teenager, and they were easy to take care of!) and I am using prime and stability, of course.

I think I can agree with doing a fishless cycle in the bigger tank, it does make more sense because it's more water, I honestly hadn't thought that far ahead, thank you for pointing that out, I am willing to follow any advice that is given to me, hehe. I am very excited to have fish again. Woo!

 

If you have a sponge filter from the already cycled tank and move it to the bigger tank, it would cause the cycling to go a great deal quicker.

 

If you have a sponge filter from the already cycled tank and move it to the bigger tank, it would cause the cycling to go a great deal quicker.

That is a great idea, I am going to do that, once I pick up the bigger one and finish getting this one cycled in!

All my fish are doing well today, even the Ram, I am so happy, I was told not to be surprised if he dies because the tank isn't cycled in, so I am glad to see he is doing well. The yellow coloring on his side looks brighter to today.

Woo - my brother fixed the extra aquarium light I had and it fits on the tank, so we have light! I also did a 35-45% water change & redosed with prime & stability. I will post some more pics this evening.

Everyone is doing great, I couldn't be more thrilled. I switched the filter I had on the tank to a sponge filter, because the top wouldn't fit on it with the filter I was using, so hopefully the sponge filter serves the tank well.

Like I said, pictures coming shortly.

 

If you keep dosing with prime, I think there wouldn’t be enough ammonia from the fish to cycle the tank.

 

If you keep dosing with prime, I think there wouldn’t be enough ammonia from the fish to cycle the tank.

So don't dose with Prime after each water change? Thank you for telling me!

 

Prime doesn’t eliminate ammonia, it simply makes it non-toxic to fish (but only up to a combined level of ammonia and nitrite of 1 ppm).

While some folks claim a different experience, Prime has never affected the cycling process for me.

Unless you are using a different dechlorinator, you need to use Prime for every water change.

 

So don't dose with Prime after each water change? Thank you for telling me!

Prime will not "remove" ammonia, you should always use Prime when its appropriate. the bacteria in fish tanks are capable of consuming ammonia in any form.

Ammonia exists as NH3 and NH4 in your water. NH3 is the toxic form and NH4 is non-toxic to fish. If your pH is closer to neutral then most of the ammonia in your water is already NH4. All Prime does is push that relationship a bit further. The main function of Prime is as a dechlorinator and possibly as a binder for toxic metals and such. Using Prime will never affect your cycle in any way.

I'm very liberal with Prime btw lol. never had any issues

 

Sorry for the bad info! Thanks for the correction!

 

How exciting to have the new fish! I love my Electric Blue Acaras! Great choice for your tank!!

 

How exciting to have the new fish! I love my Electric Blue Acaras! Great choice for your tank!!

I’m absolutely loving them so far. They are such active, cute little fish.

I am on day 3 of my fish in cycle and everyone is doing fantastic. I did a 25% water change today, dosed with stability as I have been every day so far. I was told by a few people not to be surprised if I lose the Ram because they are delicate little fish - she’s doing awesome and her colours are coming in already, she is getting a nice orangey red on her head and her fins, and a bit on her side. She literally had just the faintest hint of orange on her fins when she got here a few days ago. The acaras also look bluer today. The pleco is just the cutest, it gets little spurts of energy and zips around the side of the tank - it’s funny to watch! Oh and he loves carrots! I love the little dude.

I will have to post some more pictures later on.

 

So my sand and slate arrived in the mail today. I ended up only taking the ram and the snail out while I did the switch, the acaras didn’t want to be caught, so I figured I’d just leave the pesky little buggers in there along with the pleco. They hid behind the filter while I switched everything, lol. They seem pretty happy with the little slate cave I have built them and they seem to like the sand too. The water is still cloudy - but I expected that and I’m not overly worried about it, it’ll work itself out in a day or two.

I will never do a water and fish in substrate switch again. What a pain! Well it wasn’t too bad, but it would have been easier if the tank had been empty to begin with.

I am still in the process of ordering live plants, and maybe some more slate. I’m not really sure how to tell if my Stargrass is dying or alive.. lol. Oop.
Anyways, here are some cloudy photos for now. I have to vacuum the tank but I’m waiting a couple of days as I’m still cycling the tank. Which I realize I maybe should have waited to do the substrate change, because there was probably lots of bacteria stuck to the gravel. Hopefully the sponge filter caught lots of it when I stirred up the gravel. Ooop.

 

That is the crystal river you mentioned in another thread ?

Your picture makes it look yellowish but i have the stuff and it is white.... probably a colour balance issue ?

 

That is the crystal river you mentioned in another thread ?

Your picture makes it look yellowish but i have the stuff and it is white.... probably a colour balance issue ?

I think it's the lighting I have on my tank right now, the lights are yellowish. I have been meaning to switch the lighting on my tank, hopefully I can order new lights over the next couple of weeks! This is the Crystal River though.

 

Sadly I lost the ram - I am not surprised though, with my tank still cycling in and what not, still a shame though, even if I did get her accidentally shipped to me, still sad.

The acaras are doing fantastic, and so is the pleco. The pleco is such a cute little thing. I love watching him eat his little algae wafers, he's too cute (or she!).

 

rams are as delicate as can be - it'll take a buzzdozer to kill the acara though ammonia can be tough on any fish.

 

So I have ordered some Cryptocoryne wendtii, as I have read that it has strong roots that can withstand the digging of cichlids, so I am going to put that in the tank when it gets here.

I am going to be moving the black devil snail into the endler tank, as I feel he has a better chance of survival in there, even though the acaras are leaving him alone for now.

I am possibly going to be moving my bristlenose to the endler tank aswell maybe, as I have ordered a longfin green dragon pleco to go in the acara tank, when him & the acaras get a bit bigger they are going to be moved to the bigger tank that I am getting soon.

I can't wait to post pics after I get the plant & the new dude in the tank when everything arrives.

 

I added my green dragon pleco to this tank, he’s still a baby, as are the others in the tank. My other pleco is following him around everywhere, awe. I took all the live plants except the moss out and moved them to the endler tank, because the acaras kept digging up the roots, little buggers. I love watching them. Twice now I have seen one of them flip through the sand on their side and flip the sand around. They seem pretty happy? I think anyways.. lol.
The acaras don’t like to hold still for pictures... one is in the little tower but you can’t really tell, it’s too dark.

 

I did a thing.. I added some mollies, platies, 2 females bettas and some random smaller fish to my tank... they came from my friends overstocked tank. I googled about keeping community fish with my acaras, and I read mostly good things, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to try as long as I keep an eye on things - everything is going great so far though.

The acaras are very curious about their new tank mates, but they don't seem to mind. When the acaras start to get bigger they are being moved to a bigger tank in the future anyhow.

It's nice to see more activity in the tank!

 

It's been about three weeks since I started this tank! I have had 1 fatality, which was the ram that was accidentally sent to me. Otherwise, everyone else is doing well so far. I decided to take a picture of tank, since I added the mollies, platies & 2 female bettas. The acaras are playing nice, for now, I realize once they get bigger that will change, which is why they are still getting their bigger aquarium very soon!

The platies and the mollies are nice, they go around and clean up all the leftover food and whatever else may be on the bottom, the acaras are lazy and don't do that, haha! The one molly looks like she is going to have babies, so I will pull out what I can when they are born and put them in the endler tank until they are big enough to rehome or go in one of my bigger tanks.

The bettas are just beautiful, I love them too, they are always just doing their own thing, and they are so chill with all the other fish.

 

I can't remember which thread I saw you mention it on but I came back to see if the ram coped with the cycling process - sucks that she didn't

but tanks looking great, pleco is adorable

 

I can't remember which thread I saw you mention it on but I came back to see if the ram coped with the cycling process - sucks that she didn't

but tanks looking great, pleco is adorable

Yeah - it does suck, but I wasn't surprised as everyone prewarned me that it was most likely going to happen! The two acaras are doing great, they are going to have their own 40 gallon next weekend, and the pleco will be moving in there eventually with them also. I adore the pleco so much - he/she is so cute. I am excited for the acaras to get bigger and bluer!!

Thank you for your kind words about my tank and pleco!