Four Months In...

Carny77

Hi guys,

I've been lurking on this site for awhile now, and just decided it would be a good time to post, as I have a few questions regarding my tank.

Quick background - I set up a Marineland 29 gallon LED freshwater tank kit around the first of the year. I am running a Marineland Penguin 150 filter. Did some reading on this site & started with a fishless cycle, then added in 4 zebra danios after monitoring the water daily and doing changes as necessary. I lost one danio about a month or so in, but the others seemed fine. I have since monitored levels and added 4 neon tetras in early March, as levels were stable. Another danio died within the past month, but I have been monitoring levels and doing weekly changes and all other fish seem happy. In general, I believe the remaining 2 danios and 4 neons are healthy and happy.

Here are my questions:

1. In addition to the weekly water changes that I am currently doing, how often should I clean my filter and change the cartridge? I have seen posts suggesting leaving in the old filter for a few days and "seeding" the new filter with that. Thoughts/suggestions?

2. It's time to start stocking. I'd like to add more tetras to give them a better number in which to school. I'd ideally like mostly smaller fish in the tank, staying away from bigger "centerpiece" fish. Suggestions as to what to add and how often I may do so, now that I believe my tank is cycled and stable?

Thanks in advance and sorry for the lengthy post...

"Carny"

Termato

Welcome to TFK!!!

I would love to see some pictures of your tank!

This is my opinion, and many people will say many different things.

Depending on your filter. Mine deteriorates if I don't switch it, because of that when I see it starting to break apart I switch the pad. Probably Once a month. Others on here only rinse theirs and switch our the carbon.

The biggest point is that you are messing with the bacteria. Honestly, there should be enough bacteria in your tank...in the substrate, plants and decoration that removing the filter media and replacing with a brand new one or just simply cleaning it will not do any harm. I would say wait as long as you can to clean it. If you have one of those filter pads that don't decompose then you should never really replace it. You can just rinse it in the old aquarium water when you do water changes.



2 Danios and 4 Neons?

I would suggest raising that Neon number to at least 8 to get the schooling and super happy. I have 11 of them in my 29 and they are beautiful schooling together.

You can probably add the 4-6 new neons at once without a problem as long as you monitor the water. I would def no add more than 6 neons at once just to be safe.

I would also in the end have at least 5 Danios. They like to be in schools and any schooling fish will do best in at least a group of 5. Byron has posted some articles on stress and health of schooling fish and how their life span is increased just by at least having 5 fish of a schooling species.

Do you have live plants? That will truly help with adding stock and especially with adding more numbers than you are supposed to.

It sounds like you are going slow and doing great! I wish I had taken it slow as you are and really sat to think about what I wanted to put in my tanks.

Before I suggest any new different types of fish for you to keep, we are all going to need to know some things.

What is your gH and kH (Water Hardness)?

pH LeveL?

This is a great thread with a HUGE list of fish that you could potentially keep in your tank: Nano Fish

If I were you I would consider a substrate fish. One school of the many species of Cory Catfish would go well in your tank. A Bristlenose Pleco would do great if you had some driftwood and plants in there.

AbbeysDad

Welcome to TFK Carny.

As for the filter, you have a low stock level, but I still might rinse the cartridge weekly and use it until it all but falls apart. When it does wear out, you might find a place for it while the new cartridge populates, however, you'll have plenty of BB in the substrate to compensate for a cartridge change.

As to adding stock, you could add a half a dozen neons or other small fish or 3-4 larger fish per week. This may be a bit conservative, but give the tank time to stablize.

Termato

I swear, AbbeysDad, you seem to be able to condense what I want to say in 3 paragraphs into like a sentense. It amazes me.

Thanks!

Carny77

Sounds good, I'll plan on rinsing it when I do my weekly changes. Just to clarify, do you suggest I rinse the entire unit every week (not just the filter cartridge itself)?

Termato

I would suggest you only rinse the cartridge itself weekly.

You can rinse our the entire unit once a month and that should be fine IMO.

AbbeysDad

Just the cartridge. At some point you'll need to tear it down and clean the impeller/impeller seat, but that could be two to three months depending on bio-load.

Carny77

I unfortunately don't have live plants, as you'll see in the attached picture, since I went out and bought a kit that included LED lights before reading up on the subject as much as I should have. While the LED lights ARE pretty and don't take much energy to run, they won't support live plant growth. So, fake plants it is. Alas.

I'll be sure to get you an accurate up to date pH level this weekend when I do my weekly water change. Up until this point I've been more concerned with the nitrate/nitrite/ammonia levels, as I wanted to be sure the tank was fully cycled and functioning properly, but you're right, I need to know my full specs before adding more fish. I did go ahead and purchase one of the liquid test kits, as suggested by many others on this forum early on in the game.

I'm definitely planning on adding more neons as you suggested, but wanted to be sure that I wasn't increasing my bioload too quickly, hence the slow approach. I'd rather the tank wasn't dominated by the zebras, but another 3 or 4 certainly won't hurt. Thanks for the suggestion regarding the substrate fish.

Thanks again for your thoughts!

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Carny77

Perfect, that's exactly what I was wondering/needed to know. Thanks!