Tropical Fish Keeping banner

A guby aquarium for starter

12K views 115 replies 9 participants last post by  SinCrisis 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi!

I always wanted to have a fish tank and recently (2 hours ago) i got the seal of approval from my mom to let me have a fish tank (she always afraid of me not taking care of it and end up taking care of it for me, but that won't happen since i know im really serious about this). Im in college right now and this is my final week so im thinking of starting to make one like a week from now so this week, beside from study and playing WOW, imma gather information of how to make, and maintain one. I been doing a lot of research on it and i have a some questions, answers and advices are always welcome and appreciate.
For me, taking away life is a very bad thing (i never kill an ant in my life after i know things) so unless the guby died of aging, otherwise if it die, i would feel really bad and blaming myself so i need to know what the heck im doing here so any advice is deeply appreciate.

1. I planning to have a 3 - 4 gallons aquarium and my fish of choice is guby, so how many guby is a good number for the tank?
2. Algate control, how many time in a week do i need to clean the tank and what are some other method to control algate like fishes that eat algate and go together with guby?
3. The only spot in the house that i can put the tank is damn close to a heater and there is no way to change this around so is there any problem cause i know guby is sensitive to temperature and what is the right temperature for a guby tank? (if the problem is critical, then i will consider to place the tank at a different spot).
4. I need to know how test the ph in water and what is a critical ph level for guby and what is an ideal ph level for guby?
5. The place where i place the guby tank is the living room so it kinda high traffic place so will the guby gonna have a lot of stress?
6. How long is guby life expectancy?
7. How do you tell the difference between female and male guby?
8. I planning to go very far with this like to the day i died and after im good with all the basic stuff, i want to breed guby.

Thank you for reading
 
See less See more
#38 · (Edited)
Imma go the store again tomorrow and return the test strips and get the test kit and a bottle of cycle like Johnny said. Yeah, imma do the fishless cycle just to be safe. Also, i got some cabomba today but i couldn't find pearlweed. What should i do here?

As for Sin, ur last paragraph kinda bother me because i added the dechlorinator after i added the plants and i didn't know anything about fertilizer. I have a flourescent light that is very near to the tank and imma take a picture of it tomorrow to let you guys judge whether is it ok to leave it as it is or i have to get a new light.
 
#39 ·
well as long as you didn't leave your plants in chlorinated water for an extended period of time. if you dechlorinated right after introducing your plants you will be fine. Although a lot of people describe lighting as watts per gallon, the rule is actually more tuned towards spectrum rather than wattage. Theres a thread somewhere in the forums about ti but it gets very complicated. If you ahve a nearby light thats strong, it may be fine. Did you get a hood included with your tank? this is not as important but a hood will help reduce evaporation and reduce moisture in teh room you ahve your tank. Its not a necessity but will amke your life easier.

note: Pearl Weed (Hemianthus micranthemoides)
also has medium light requirments.
 
#40 ·
good call on returning your test kit of another one. You will need to buy some ammonia for your tank as well. Make sure it is pure ammonia, its be the strong kind for cleaning or the scented kind, just plain ammonia. Good luck, let us know you make out!
 
#41 ·
haha i'm just repeating what Johnny is saying but make sure the ammonia you buy is 100% ammonia. Anyhting else will introduce bad chemicals to your tank. Ive heard of some peopel letting little bits fo food rot in the tank while adding bacteria cultures. This takes longer to cycle but i heard its easier to control this way.
 
#43 ·
Ohk, I lost the receipt for the stuffs i bough at petsmart so i don't think i can return the test kit. I went to a lfs instead and bough the master test kid like John said but the store owner said he doesn't has any ammonia. He ask me why do i need that cause it bad for the fish then i told him i doing the fishless cycle so i need the ammonia for that but he looked at me in a weird way, like "what the hell is fishless cycle" way. Anyway, i bough a cycle bottle instead and i did the test for the tank before i added in the cycle liquid. Here is the result

High range ph = 7.8-8.0
Ammonia = 0
Nitrate = 10
Nitrite = 0

I also remove the carbon filter for tank. I noticed that the cabomba is getting a little bit gray and dull now. I think it dying.

Here is the pic for the light

with the light off


with the light on


What next now?
 
#44 ·
Cycle, is a great product to help jumps start your cycling process, but it does take the place of ammonia. you will need ammonia to cycle your tank without fish.

Tank looks good, I would be hestiant to keep that light on the tank like that, you will see some algae growth on the left side of your tank, if not all over it.

Get your self a bottle of ammonia and figure out how much needs to go into your tank to start getting a reading on your test kit.

Good job on getting the master kit, you'll thank yourself later on!
 
#46 ·
you can get a bottle of ammonia at your local hardware store or even a grocery store would have it. Just make sure that it's pure ammonia..and it's not the "sudsy" kind either.

let us know how you make out
 
#47 ·
If you don't wanna use the ammonia dropping fish food flakes will also help promote bacteria growth. Little bits at a time. the cabomba is dying because its probably shocked. plants, like fish, work better if acclimated. The light, i do not think is sufficient but i could be wrong. Ive had cabomba before and the plant is ver sensitive to changes in water parameters. When i moved mien it browned and 50% of them died. The other 50% adapted and grew fine. Give the plant some time to adjust. IF the plant start decaying and dissolving in your tank, you may want to remove it. However, in your current situation, since you are cycling, the rooting plants might help your cycle. after your tank is stable, rotting plants should always be trimmed and dead ones removed.
 
#48 ·
also your hood looks like it was designed for a terrarium instead of an aquarium. Can someone confirm this? It doesn't look like you can put your hood on with your filter in. Also that hood will obstruct light as it looks like black with mesh. marineland makes glass hoods thats have a plastic back end so you can cut it to fit your filters. They're also all glass so light passes through them perfectly. Finally, the light oyu ahve set up looks like something you will have on for a long time? Note that tanks should only get light for around 8-10 hours, of course this varies dependign on plant amount, but too much light will cause algae blooms. I dont think your light is direct enough to affect your tank too much but if you start experiencing algae blooms, you might want to figure out a way to cut back on the lighting.
 
#50 ·
No, i can't put my hood together with the filter.

Seriously, getting pure ammonia is harder than i thought, i went to 99cents store, Home Depot, and Stater Bros but the only thing i can find is something called Clear Ammonia but on the ingredient, it said Ammonia Hydroxide with Surfactant. So is this the right one?
 
#52 · (Edited)
When i ask my lfs about ammonia, he was like "why do u want ammonia, it gonna kill ur fish." Then i told him im doing fishless cycle but he looking at me all weird and tell me that he doesn't has any pure ammonia.

For the hood, i don't think i would be much of a problem. Or maybe when i have more money later, i will buy a different hood. Do they sell the hood separately?

What is hardness range? i been reading a lot of this in fish profile already but what does it mean?

Does oto is a bottom dweller so does he take tank space?
 
#55 ·
the all glass hood from marineland is designed to stop evaporation. When water evaporate, it affects filter power and also increased the concentration of nitrates and other non evaporable substances in your tank. Without a hood you will be adding water a lot, especially on hot days and your room will be very humid. You said before you added dechlorinater after addign teh water, in the future dechlorinate before adding the water to the tank. As for importance of the hood, its really up to you. If you are ok with having to top off your tank every couple of days and can tolerate humidity, then its really not as important. Guppies do not jump, at least ive never heard of them jumping, so you can save up and buy a hood later.

The pure ammonia is never sold in pet stores. Fishless cyclign is atechnique developed by experienced fish keepers so its kinda like DIY cycling. If you cant get ammonia the cycle will take longer but the end result is the same. As for hardness range, for guppies it really doesnt matter that much. unless you know for a fact taht your water is extremely hard or soft, you dont really ahve to worry too much. Yes all fish take up tank space. Otos all count as 1inch fish so 1 gallon of space. However, if you do go Otos, they enjoy being in groups so roughly 3-6. however, tehy eat algae like mad and your tank will ahve very little right after cycling so you can hold off on getting otos until you see algae forming or get algae tablets to feed them. Guppies count as 1 - 1.5 inch fish.

starting a new tank is very expensive. When i started my 46g tank i had to spend close to a grand just to get the right equipment. However, note that keeping fish is cheaper in the long run than keeping land animals like dogs and cats.
 
#61 ·
I can't help you here, I"ve only ever used ammonia, I'm sure someone else will be along to help you out. I can't believe you cannot find pure ammonia...it's stocked in grocery stores everywhere...
 
#62 ·
for me ive always used old fish flakes. I just pour in like a pinch everyday and it kinda just sits at the bottom for a day or two and then it starts to rot and dissolve and the water turns a little cloudy, water tests show that ammonia is really high, and I drop a pinch fo food once every 2 or 3 das until the water stops being cloudy and the ammonia drops to 0. and then i introduce my fish. It takes liek 3 weeks though. And im 80% that my method doesnt preforma full cycle, just a partial one but i was starting off with danios so i knew that the little bit of ammonia that returned was something the fish could handle. For guppies and otos, you need a full cycle done.. you could keep doing my fish food method and follow a longer timeline to be sure. If you google it im sure you could find a guide to it. Frozen shrimp will rot in the bag real slowly but its the same concept as using old fish food.
 
#63 ·
Ever since I started doing fishless cycles, I've used the shrimp method. Just stick a frozen shrimp in a filter media bag or some pantyhose and drop it in the tank. As it rots, it will give off ammonia at a fairly steady rate. Keep testing the water with your liquid test kit. You should see the ammonia spike, then lower as the nitrite increases, then the nitrite will begin to drop and nitrate will climb. Eventually, you'll steadily have readings of zero ammonia and nitrite and your nitrate will keep climbing. At this point, you're ready for fish. Just remove the bag, do a water change to get the nitrate down to acceptable levels (under 20 ppm is ideal) and you're set.

Remind me: how big is the tank, and what is your stocking list?
 
#64 ·
First thanks for helping, second i have some questions for you.

I have a 10 gallons tank, i was thinking of putting in 5 1.5 inches fish and 2 shrimps

I dump a bag with open ends of 4 dead shrimps down the tank. I want to know if that enough. And by keep testing the water, do mean weekly or daily?
 
#66 ·
Four shrimp should be more than enough. Since you don't have any fish in the tank yet, you don't have to monitor the water parameters constantly, but you'll still want to do tests every few days so that you don't miss something like the ammonia or nitrite spiking.

Five guppies and 2 ghost shrimp is a fairly light bioload. You could add a couple more guppies and several more shrimp if you wanted with no worries. As SinCrisis said, the shrimp are extremely light on your bioload.

No animal in your tank should ever be counted on to keep your algae problems completely at bay; if you've got an algae outbreak, you're going to have to do some scrubbing yourself in order to get that glass nice and clear. Ghost shrimp do, however, do a good job of picking through the gravel to eat pieces of food that have made it to the bottom.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top