New tank ideas! Any help would be great :)

LasColinasCichlids

@leogtr... for someone who just started their first aquarium in January, you have really done your homework! Right on!!! :) And as for the filter, I agree 100%! Some just dont work as good as others...of course its also important to do monthly maintenance on filters by cleaning the intake tubes and impeller to avoid build up and such, and some filter are more delicate than others.

leogtr

thank you I just really wanted to have the healthiest happiest fish because it just makes me so sad when animals suffer by the cost of ones ignorance...I had my little Rosie die by the cost of my ignorance..she died because she got stuck in a little hole from a decoration. I never thought that she would go in there but she did and ofcourse she hurt herself very badly and she died. It made me feel horrible and stupid because she was my favorite fish and she was pregnant and I knew about that little hole but I didnt cover it because I thought that I didnt need to since I didnt get kuhli loaches because it said on their profile that they often try to get into very small plces so I didnt take care of it...something inside me keeped telling me to cover that hole but I dont know what came over me when I didnt.

I really hate it when animals suffer because they cant tell you help help I need help!!!! and it just made me so sad I will never let something like that happen to another one of my babies..it just makes me so sad

I want to try and learn as much as I can to help people avoid these horrible events that happen when we dont pay enough attention and ofcourse I want to do it also because I want to be a good parent to my little fishies:)

LasColinasCichlids

What kind of fish was Rosie?

Byron

I won't repeat all the good suggestions and advice from subsequent members' responses. Just two points i want to pick up on.

First--research your intended fish well before acquiring them. Not all fish suit every aquarium, due to many factors. For instance, you mention Tiger Barb; this severely limits other fish, but even before that, an 85 litre (22 gallon) is not suitable for Tiger Barb. We have fish profiles here, and most of the regularly-available fish are included. Second tab from the left in the blue bar across the top of the page, or you can click on the shaded name of fish 9or plants) in posts. If you check the Tiger profile, you will understand what I said above.

Second, as you intend live plants, let them do your "cycling." If you plant the tank well at the first, you can add a few fish and there will be no discernable cycle. The plants use the ammonia/ammonium from the fish very fast. Using shrimp, food, whatever is un-necessary with live plants.

Byron.

redchigh

Aw, Byron beat me to it.

Be sure to throw in some stem plants for good measure to use up ammonia though. All plants do use ammonia, but the faster they grow, the more they use.

As an alternative, floating plants are great as sucking up nitrogen compounds as well.

SuperRyan89

Thanks guys, I currently have a fair few plants, but will be adding more later. I may need to organise some pictures to show you to see if there is enough in your opinion. I think now that I have been looking around at fish on this site, the tiger barbs don't compare with so many of the other fish I have been looking at now. Pretty keen on tetras, corys and maybe another type that would suit these.

At the moment the water is cloudy, what could the cause of this be?
How long will it take for the good bacteria to grow in my tank if I don't need to cycle like the way I was going to?
I will also get a picture of my tanks filter set up, is it important to have a carbon pad, or is filter wool enough?

I'm pretty pleased with how my tank is turning out, I'm so grateful for the advice everyone

leogtr

how are you cycling? to do the cycle with only plants you have to have plenty though because if you dont have enough plants they wont rid of the toxic levels of ammonia and nitrites fast enough for the fish to not have breathing problems. Cloudiness is totally normal in the beginning so no worries on that. The good bacteria will appear in about 3 weeks into the cycle although it depend on how you cycled and everything. The carbon takes some nutrients from to water that the plants need so the carbon is not recommended if you are going to have plants. I took the carbon out of my filter pads when Mr. Byron told me. He is one of the most knowledgeable people here in this forum that he is:)

SuperRyan89

I was planning on cycling the tank with the shrimp. But now I'm unsure if I need to. I have roughly 16 small based plants, all with decent sized roots and leaves. There is a photo in my aquariums, if you could look and decide if that would be enough plants, or if I need more that'd be great! The cloudiness has greatly reduced since then, nearly crystal clear!

SuperRyan89

The tank has been set up for 3days now. With the plants in, filter running and heater on. I have just tested the water and got - Ammonia: .50
Nitrate: 5
Nitrite: 0
Ph: 7.0

Any feedback would be great!

Byron

Those are relatively slow-growing plants, so to help with "cycling" I would get some floating plants, even just a stem plant and let it float. Almost anything will do; floating plants use a lot of nutrients (i.e. ammonia/ammonium) from the water as being at the top they assimilate CO2 from the air so that is plentiful and the light is right above them.