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New BiUbe owner seeks general advice

4K views 6 replies 2 participants last post by  ldsdbomber 
#1 ·
I have a 39L BiUbe Pure (the cylinder one) with a heater and intelligent LED light. I followed the instructions and filled it on on Wed 6th January, adding the packet of "Stress Coat" later that day, which I read is something that corrects for the bad crap in tap water. the next day I added the "Stress Zyme" which is the live bacteria that I suppose will inhabit the gravel at the bottom and provide the live filtration. I left that for a couple of days, did a quick nitrite test (0) on the water and on Saturday added 2 small fancy tailed guppies after discussion with owner of pet shop. 1 male and 1 female, though there was a bit of confusion as my brother (who is more into koi now) says the male is likely the one with the slightly less big tail (light blue, similar colour to body) and the female the one with the bigger bright red and black tail. Initially they both razzed about seemingly happy as Larry, but now the red tail one (which is slightly smaller) spent a day hanging near the bottom of the tank, today its hanging up at the surface, doesnt look like it is gasping for air though. Have fed them very little (I think!), tested for ammonia and nitrite and after 3 days there is still seemingly 0 on both, does that mean my cycle has not started yet, and how do I know what to do? should I add another guppy or other small fish, should I feed more, buy more stress zyme? change some water (I assume if I add tap water I need to add stress coat to it each time?). The temp is a steady 26 celsius and I have a 16 hour blue moonlight, 8 hour white daylight cycle on the light. Is there anything else I need to test, and can someone also comment on what kind of time profiles should be involved with this rise in ammonia, rise in nitrite, rise in nitrate. Am I correct in thinking that as you get to the end of that, water changes lower the nitrates, then adding more fish slowly you recycle somewhat, and at the end of it with your final fish selection, its just cleaning and partial water changing.....
 
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#2 ·
Hello & welcome to the forum.

For the moment I'd leave the 2 fish alone in there until after your tank has properly cycled; to find out all details on this matter please read http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/freshwater-aquariums/aquarium-cycle-252/

Difference between male/ female Guppy: The one's with the fancy, colorful tails are the guys and the one's less colorful, often a plain tail like their body color are the gals.

It is advised to generally do a 30-40% water exchange each week, every week. Ensure to use a Dechlorinator to be added to your tap water before adding to your tank.

What are you testing all this with? The strips or a liquid test kit? If you're using the strips, they're extremely inaccurate and actually only then show coloration on t when the readings are so sky rocking high that its already very bad for your fish.

What also helps a tank cycle and establish quicker is adding live plants.

Hope this helps for the moment, please ask any question you have on your mind :)
 
#3 ·
Well, now I feel really silly as after talking to my brother and discussing test results ( I have the liquid drops for nitrite and ammonia, I only used the strip to check ph, though also happy to see nitrite 0 there but nitrate on the very first coloured square, and safe). We did use 2 small live plants with the plastic ones. Anyway, my brother said add another guppy (female) to keep the other company and destress it, and 3 neon tetras, which we did. My girlfriend also came home with a small frog. she said the owner said it would be OK in there, though would need a companion soon, also thatit would not interfere with the fish or vice versa. Now I read that the "African Clawed Frog" is often sold instead of dawrf version and it gets aggressive and massive! Maybe I should take the frog back! Also, the male guppy is not at the bottom again, hiding under the small coral sculpture in there. I added some new water with dechlorination, and also a little bit of something the shop owner said was "safe start" to boost the cycle early on. The 2 female guppies are happy as larry, the tetras too, and the frog seems happy enough. Am starting to wonder if the other guppy is sick or something. Also, perhaps I made the schoolboy error of lack of patience!!!
Please feel free to tell me off if Ive made a disaster here, or any other advice!
thanks!!
 
#4 ·
As a followup, what kind of final stock should I be looking at. I think a few more neon tetras will go quite nicely, maybe up to 8? (ie 5 more to go with the 3 there), we would have 2 or 3 guppies, and possibly the frog and a new pal for him. I have heard Danios are good also.

In the shop, we saw some small fish that looked nice but have no idea how suitable they are, can anyone comment

Corydoras Catfish people keep telling me, but I also hear they need to be 2 or 3 together, and they are not super small so wonder?

Something called "Rödfena" which is red fin (I now live in Sweden!). They are small and white with red tips and seem very pretty and not too big.

A cool looking small black one called "Khulii" or something like that

several barbs, fembandbarb(5 banded?), angobarb or anglobarb

galaxy rasbora

siamese flying fox! (nice looking maybe a bit big)

Kilfläcksrasbora (think that means fantail)


any other suggestions?
 
#5 ·
finally, and this is going to make me sound really stupid but after filling the biube to a couple of inches over the bubble tube as per the initial set up, I added 2 more litres today and now it seems the surface is oscillating a bit more because of the bubbles, is this OK, is it important to have the bubble tube a specific depth under the surface. The water level is still a good 5cm or so below the top of the tank itself so find it hard to believe that is a problem
 
#6 ·
Slow down LOL :)
Let me try go through this 1 by 1 w/out missing anything. Ok, today with your Guppy acting the way they do, does your Ammonia and Nitrate test 0?
The frog either you can ID yourself only or post a picture here, if it indeed should be a African DWARF fro I'll be able to help you, otherwise yea I'd bring it back to the store as well/

Now on all your Guppy & Neon's and adding Danios...you have a 39L tank, which equals 10g tank, that is a small tank. You'll need to make a solid decision what you want in there, either keep the 3 Guppy and handful Neons and add like shrimp for the bottom or give all away decide on another SMALL fish. Danios are VERY active swimmers and I'd not recommend them in any less then 20g/70L (given they're to be kept in groups). The Cory's are also to be kept in group and larger tanks, given an adult size of 2.5-3". Actually to cut this a lil shorter any of what you listed there ontop of your current stock will not work, not in the same small tank sorry.

I don't see a problem with your bubbles there, thou if you have live plants and intent to get 2-3 more live plants you can/ got to then take the bubble out of that tank.
 
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