Need Help With Filter

Hello everyone, i am few weeks old in this domain. I have a three feet wide tank which holds 45gallon/120litres. And i have around 50 tetra neons and four german red guppies. The filter i am using says 650l/hour...guess this is what it does in an hour..is this filter optimum? I never see the tank water crystal clear though..would a Powerful filter do the job? Or an external flter is better? Please suggest

 

Here is a useful old thread: Aquarium Filter Gallons Per Hour Filtration

That does sound like a packed aquarium. Is there a particular reason why you have those guppies in there with the tetras? They have very different water needs. As far as the water clarity, could you first let us know how long the tank has been running, the water parameters, is it planted, and what the lighting is like? Also a photo would help a lot.

 

Three week old tank..i ve had my bad experiences with cycling it..lost few fish as well. I like both tetras and guppies, and as they r compatible i have them together. It is a planted aquarium.

 

Yes, more details please, it could just be a bacteria or algae bloom, but more info is needed to make good recommendations.

 

It is interesting the way you have the plants in pots. I have not seen that before. I would think the plants would do better in an actual substrate bed. More area to draw nutrients. Your tank is very young at three weeks. Are you testing water parameters?

 

Yes, i bought the ammonia test kit..currently the ammonia level is below 0.25. i use hardwater..treated with prime and dechlorinator

 

So you are not quite cycled yet. Ammonia in a cycled tank should be zero. Be patient. Stay on top of water changes. I would get a full API freshwater test kit.

 

You are cycling with 50 neon tetras and 4 guppies? That's utterly insane, but I am seriously wowed that so many fish are still alive. Neon tetras and guppies can live together peacefully, but a major issue is that the tetras need soft, acidic water, and the guppies need hard, alkaline water. They can survive together in something in the middle, but it's not optimal. Also, the neons like their water warmer than the guppies do.

How are you doing on water changes and reading your parameters?

Go ahead and look up the needs of each of your different plants and provide for them accordingly. Rather than jars of gravel, some of them would do better in jars of dirt with a layer of gravel at the top. Others will do better without a pot and just lightly anchored to the bottom. I have some bare bottom tanks--they have their uses, but I wouldn't recommend doing that with neons. They do better with heavily planted tanks, and a nice layer of organic potting soil on the bottom capped with sand or pebbles works well. But you'd have to be prepared to do a quick change with appropriate buckets, and I wouldn't risk that until after your beneficial bacteria is established as that will seriously stress out the neons.

 

So, all that to say that I don;t think your filter is undergunned.

 

I do a 20-30% water change every few days

 

I'm curious where your neons were bred and where you're located as it's amazing that they're able to survive this stress. Around here, we mostly get very tired neons from Thailand that mostly go belly up, and they're difficult to medicate as they're raised with a lot of antibiotics. I've had to keep them in 50% reverse osmosis water as out hard, alkaline water is very hard on them.

Are you not testing for nitrite and nitrate? You will need to get a positive nitrate reading to show that you have beneficial bacteria.

 

Im located in India...and here..usual practice is to stuff the tanks with many fish. A 12 inch small tank can have 15 tetras...these are bred in India..and i experienced that tetras are far more better quality than guppies here...they last longer

 

I see you are an endler expert..would like to see some pics..very few love endlers

 

Oh, you're in India--that explains so much If your water is soft and acidic (which it likely is since neons do well in your neck of the woods), you should try keeping the guppies separately in a 10 gallon tank and adding some dissolved aquarium salt. Crushed clean egg shells in a nylon bag in the filter can also help. They really can't do well in water that tetras like.

Overstuffing a tank only works if you're able to stay on top of water changes to maintain very good parameters, and if the fish are a type that won't shred each other when stressed out. Endlers handle overstuffing very well if there is no mycobacteria in the tank. My maximum was 60 adults (mixed males and females) in a 10 gallon. The only drawback was that absolutely no fry were surviving. I've since put that particular group in a 29, where they're reproducing quite well.

I wouldn't call myself an Endler expert so much as a very dedicated amateur. Emeraldking has the best photos as he's a serious biologist with a huge personal collection of livebearers, both pure and hybrids. Be sure to check out his photos

 

Thanks for your reply