Starting A Classroom Aquarium!

Hello again!

OK Cameron, hmmm. Everything I know about guppies is that as long as you have multiple males, you SHOULD be fine. Individual fish vary, of course. I'm not sure that the OP wants to worry about fry in a classroom tank, though, so females might not be an option.

Re: Swordtails. Yes they can be aggressive, good point, and of course they are a larger fish that can push to 4 inches. That's why I cautioned in my post about size/bioload issues. What about one male swordtail? It's the unique tail that might be cool for the students to see.

 

I have a 10gal with nothing but male guppies and while they have their occasional spats there is no aggresion to one single fish, it is spread out across multiple fish, much like in a school of tiger barbs.

 

HI again!! Yes, it is the bow front tank. I do have it on a very sturdy, well supported table. So far the students have been very good around it and I have a small group (14 students) so am able to closely monitor what's going on in the room. They love checking it out with magnifying glasses and the fish aren't even in it yet!

As far as cycyling the tank, I'd really like to get started as soon as possible. My preference is to do a fishless cycle but I'm not sure if that is the best choice for a beginner. What do most of you think? Also, if I do try the fishless cycle where can I buy pure ammonia?

I know I have to give a lot of consideration to the type of fish to house. There have been so many good suggestions on here and that will really help me narrow down my choices. Hopefully I can get my "cycling" up and running so I can begin to focus on what type of fish would be best.


Thank you!!

 

Here's the thing about keeping bachelor groups of any livebearers. The males won't fight with each other because there aren't any females to fight over. Add a single female to the mix, and you're asking for problems. I've kept male guppies in a bachelor group and never had any problems with aggression at all.

 

As far as cycyling the tank, I'd really like to get started as soon as possible. My preference is to do a fishless cycle but I'm not sure if that is the best choice for a beginner. What do most of you think? Also, if I do try the fishless cycle where can I buy pure ammonia?

Quite often at your local pharmacy store like a CVS or Rite Aide or what have you. If you want the fastest route get some Tetra Safe Start, just make sure to read the thread on here about the Q and A with Tetra about the product and follow it.

 

I agree with Tetra Safe Start. That way you can get fish into the tank quickly. I have not used it, but many forum members here have had success with it.

 

I would also like to chime in with another top of the tank fish, if you don't want to go with the livebearer root and having to deal with fry constantly.

I really love the espI rasboras that I have. They are small, sweet, schooling fish that add a lot of color to the tank. They are fairly active and stay relatively small. I would say you could have about 8-10 (please someone correct me if this seems like too much) in your tank.

 

bassbonediva, how many male guppies did you have together when you did that?

 

Ummmmmmmmm...well, it was in my 46gal bowfront when I first got it. I probably had 15-20 in there. Someone was offering guppies for free on Craigslist, so I went to pick some up. They had two 20gH tanks and two 29gal tanks FULL of guppies, male and female. They took a one gallon ice cream bucket, filled it with water, then took a big 6" net and scooped three big scoops of guppies into the ice cream bucket. It was about a 50/50 split, males to females. I only kept a few of the females, but kept most of the good-looking males. I put the females in a 10gal tank (there were only about three or four that I kept) and the males in the 46gal. After a while, I got tired of having guppies, so I kept the prettiest four or five males and moved them to my 29gal, then got rid of the rest. Even with only 4-5 males, I had zero aggression.

 

Ok, here's where I'm at. My master test kit arrived in the mail. I ordered tetra safe start online and it is scheduled to be delivered Thursday. My unconditioned tap water has been in the tank for about a week and the filter has been running for the past two days. I'm just confused about something I read on the tetra q&a page. Below is a part of the paragraph from that page...

"So...where to begin? First, ideally you should set up the tank, and let
it run at least 24 hours, then, shortly before you head off to the store
for your first fish, add TSS to the tank. Within two hours, you should
add the fish. Our normal recommendation is to add one small fish per
ten gallons of water. However, you CAN fully stock the tank, you just
need to keep a close eye on it, and be sure to not complicate matters by
overfeeding as well."

It says within two hours I should add fish. Is it very important to add the fish within two hours. It just seems like such a fast timeline. What if I add the tetra safe start, test it with my kit and the levels are off. Then I will have fish waiting to be added that have nowhere to go. I thought I'd be able to do this over the course of a few days, e.g. add the tetra safe start, and then test the water within a day or so, once I'm sure the water is at the right level I was planning to go out and buy the fish. Does anyone have experience using tetra safe start? Am I able to wait a few days before adding fish or is it important to add them right away? Thanks.

Laura

 

The TSS won't work without the ammonia from the fish to keep the good bacteria alive. I used tss not too long ago and added the fish first and then the tss and my tank was cycled within a week. Don't do any waterchanges until the timeframe is over or it can cause the tss to fail.

 

I haven't used it, but the premise of TSS is that it is a bottle filled with beneficial bacteria. However, bacteria needs a food source or else it dies, so you add the fish right away so that they can feed the bacteria with their waste. I'm pretty sure that if you don't add fish with it, all the bacteria will die, thus wasting the TSS.

 

I have used SafeStart in the past.

If you do not add an ammonia source right away, the bacteria in the SafeStart will have no food and it will die off, and your tank will not cycle.

Your water should be fine, since you do not have anything in the tank. It is possible that your tap water contains ammonia, nitrite or nitrate, but most does not and even if it does, it is what it is, and the SafeStart will take care of it.

I would recommend adding the fish and as soon as they are in the tank, dump in the bottle of SafeStart...then just wait 14 days. Don't even test the water for those 14 days. Your parameters will fluctuate a bit when using SafeStart, but your fish will be fine. Many people see that fluctuation and panic and start doing water changes. That will only lead to failure.

 

Ok. Thanks for the clarification. Now I completely understand why I need to add the fish right away. I have water conditioner but have not added it yet. Should I go ahead and add that first?

 

Yes add the water conditioner now.

 

I believe if the water conditioner detoxifies the ammonia then you'll have to wait 24hrs before adding the TSS? Right?

 

Yes that is correct, and if you wanted to wait say 36-48 hours for extra assurity that would be fine as well.

 

Also you don't need to do any testing for the first 10 to 14 days after adding the TSS. The readings will not be correct and could cause you to panic and do something like a large water change which will casue the TSS cycle to fail. Just add the TSS and the fish and sit back and enjoy the tank for the next two weeks. After 10 to 14 days test your water for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. Your readings should be something like: ammonia=0, nitrites=0 and nitrates > 5. Once you have tested the water and it has the proper readings it will be time to start doing weekly water changes.

 

Yes that is correct, and if you wanted to wait say 36-48 hours for extra assurity that would be fine as well.

What a great word....assurity. If it's not a word, it should be.

 

YAY You're getting closer to having fish in your tank!!!! Yeah, exciting! So what kind of fish did you decide on? Inquiring minds want to know!

And thanks for posting pictures. We love pictures: before and after shots, during shots, anytime shots.

 

I would recommend treating it with water conditioner. Just some advice for you on cycling your tank. Make sure to rinse your hands before and after and worse case if there is a disease you can even let the 3rd graders search for symptoms, and then you give them a list of diseases and symptoms and they try to find out which one it probably is and why (even if you already know which one).

When cycling your tank, do not use prime in my opinion. Since you are doing a fishless cycle, prime is generally a good dechlorinator, but in situations like cycling it removes ammonia which is your bacteria's food source.

Here is a thread on how to cycle. For your tank I recommend using the add & wait method.

 

Just to correct about Prime: Prime does NOT remove ammonia. It detoxifies it and converts it to a form which is harmless to fish. This conversion lasts only about 24 hours.

FYI: OP has started a new thread! She is going to use Tetra Safe Start and do a fish-in cycle.

 

Just to correct about Prime: Prime does NOT remove ammonia. It detoxifies it and converts it to a form which is harmless to fish. This conversion lasts only about 24 hours.

FYI: OP has started a new thread! She is going to use Tetra Safe Start and do a fish-in cycle.

It does last about 24 hours but that may still be enough to start killing off your bacteria and in the detoxified form, is it still bacteria worthy?

 

It does last about 24 hours but that may still be enough to start killing off your bacteria and in the detoxified form, is it still bacteria worthy?

Yes, the bacteria can still "eat" the detoxified form of the ammonia. So Prime won't hurt the cycle. The only time that someone shouldn't use Prime is if they use Tetra Safe Start (or use Prime 24 hours before adding Tetra Safe Start).

 

Update-- I'm getting my fish on Monday. I just posted in "Aquarium Stocking Questions" with a few of the choices I'm strongly considering. Thanks again for all of the help and support!!

 

I will be adding my fish tomorrow and will probably be getting either skirt tetras or honey gourmais. I'm cycling the tank using tetra safe start. My question is how much of the bottle should I add? My tank is 16 gallons and I got the bottle of safe start that can be used for a tank of up to 30 gallons. Should I add somewhere between 1/2 to 3/4 of the bottle?

 

I would just suggest using all of it. You can't overdose TSS but you can definitely underdose. Even if got the right dosage in, you don't know if all the bacteria was in the last half of the bottle. In my tanks, I just pour the whole thing in. No need to try and save the rest for the next time.

 

Ok thanks!! Also, would you suggest adding the fish at about the same time, shortly before, or shortly after?

 

It doesn't matter as long as you add them both around the same time. At least within two hours.

 

Yes as mentioned above you want to shake the bottle well and pour the entire bottle into the tank. I usually fill the empty bottle with tank water, shake well again and pour it back in the tank.

 

^^^makes a great point about getting the bottle empty, I actually do the same.

 

Ok. I'll definitely make sure and use the whole bottle. I'm a little nervous about transferring the fish. I found this "How to" on the internet for transferring fish. Does it sound like the correct way to do it?

-Turn the light off in the aquarium to reduce stress.
-Lift the lid and place the sealed bag containing the fish in the water so it floats.
-Let the bag float for ten minutes, then open the top of the bag.
-Using the measuring cup, place one cup of tank water into the bag.
-Close the bag and allow it to float for another five minutes.
-Repeat steps five and six once. For sensitive fish such as neon tetras repeat two or three times.
-Place the small net into the bag, lift the fish out, and quickly transfer it to the aquarium.
-Discard the bag of water in the sink (never in the aquarium).
-Leave the light off for several hours to allow the fish to adjust to the new setting.

Thanks again for all of your help

 

Oh and I didn't cut and paste the first step which was about testing the water levels since I'm using the tetra safe start. Therefore when it says repeat steps five and six it's really referring to steps four and five.

 

sounds about right, altho you don't have to float the bag, you can use another tank or even a bucket should you so desire. You can also use the drip method which is to set up a siphon out of say air line tubing and tie some knots into it so you can control the flow and slowly drip the tank water into the bucket or bag or what have you with the fish in it.

Also, when buying new fish I tend to try to leave the bright aquarium lights off for that day and only turn on softer lights around the tank so that all the fish get some light as well as the plants but nothing blinding or startling to the new fish.

 

if you have a master kit, this is what I do:

Measure the ph of your water and the ph of the water from the bag the fish are in (I don't worry about ammonia nitrite or nitrate, because there is no beneficial bacteria in the bag, so ammonia is usually through the roof. Float the bag so that temperatures equalize. Slowly add tank water to the bag (take a some bag water out and dump down the drain if too full) until the temp and ph are the same. Then net and release. The farther apart they are in pH the it should take. Remember pH is logarithmic so even if your water is 6 and the water they are in is 7, your water is 10 times more acidic. The whole process should take at least 20/30 minutes.

 

Thanks! One last question....sorry!!! My water temperature was right at about 78 degrees last time I checked. I will recheck it tomorrow morning before adding fish and safe start but does that seem like a good temperature for skirt tetras or honey gourmais?

 

seems like a fine ending temp, I might start it a bit higher as a preventative measure for ich but other than that it seems fine. IF you decide to change it then when you bring it back down a couple degrees per day is fine but don't go crazy with it.

 

Sorry. More questions keep popping into my head!! When should I feed them for the first time?

 

Personally I always try to feed the fish when I add new ones, sometimes it does mean a bit of overfeeding for a day but I can live with it. To me it helps distract the original tank mates from the new fish for a bit and lets them find a place to be. IF they are hungry they will find some food. I don't specifically spot feed unless the fish looks like it hasn't eaten for a month or so. Most fish will eat when they are hungry, most of my fish will eat after the first 24 hours or so whenever the next meal time is really. Thou I have had some that refuse to eat for a couple days but they usually come around semI quickly.

As these are the only fish in the tank I would drop a little bit of food in with them but not too much, and watch them. If they are interested great feed a little more and watch. If they are not then no major harm done for a few flakes of food. Keep trying small portions daily or twice daily until the fish show interest in eating. Then only feed what they can eat in 2-5 min.

 

Thanks again!! I really hope it goes well. I'll try and get on and update everyone tomorrow. Thank you!!!!