I'd skip the pipefish or at least do some really heavy duty research on them. Almost everything I've heard about them is how hard they are to keep alive. Shame because they're so neat looking.
Get some more live plants, vals would do great in there and grow to the height of the water, cant say I really like the white substrate, maybe add some darker rocks to contrast and reduce the white level, I found a bag of mexican river rocks from big box stores actually look pretty good once you get them wet.
i thought the same thing after looking at the pictures, the sand isn't that bright in person but i will defiantly look for some dark rocks. i live right by a quarry so i can get various granite rocks. can you give me the full name of the plant you mentioned? im not very familiar with the names.
Are those the new glotetra? I'd get about 5-6 more for that tank, they like having a lot of friends, plus IMO a large group of fish swimming together is an awesome sight.
Plants, I'd take out the anubias from the sand.. It needs it's rhizome out of the substrate or it'll rot. A cool idea is to take some white cotton thread and tie it onto the driftwood, pretty soon it'll attach it's roots to the driftwood and you can remove the thread.
Other plants.. I'd look into:
-a surface plants like water sprites
-apongeton crispus- gorgeous and easy to care for
-bacopa- nice, most of them are low light
-sunset hygrophilia- I saw it in my store, if they have medium light the leaves turn pink which is pretty cool looking
-any other hygrophilia- awesome hardy low light plants
-moss, like java moss for example- you can make a carpet, tie it down to some flatish rocks.
yes they are! i am probably going to do that today because 2 of the tetras always leave the other one out . i wish i knew this before i put them in, no worries though im going to do that right now.
i hate how bare my tank looks, off to go order some plants!
floating plants? like lily pads? i have a old 115w heater and when i plug it in it brings the water to like 85 degrees even thought the dial is at 75, do you think its broken? when i took it out of the water it started smoking but only for a second.
If your water heater is going above what you set it to, it's time to replace it. One of the best ones I've used so far is the Aqueon Pro.
Aqueon Pro Heaters, Aquarium Heaters | PetSolutions
It comes in different sizes for different tanks, doesn't have the same issues glass ones have (tend to be ugly, harder to hide, don't blend as well, can shatter on you, etc).
i got these small neon glowfish the other day and one of them already died, his mouth was wide open (it looks like his top lip was missing) he started swimming towards the catfish and they nipped at him and he kept doing it and died later that day.
are the catfish a bad combo or are the fish just defected? 2/6 of the glofish have a missing top lip and one of them died so now its 1/5
What species is the catfish, and how many? From one of the earlier photos it looks like a Pictus Catfish, these get large and can eat other fish, though I'm not saying it was in your case. If a fish is weak the others in the tank can sense it and some will then go after it. Check the profile (click the shaded name) to see if that is the catfish you have.
Prime detoxifies ammonia and nitrite in a manner that will still cause them to be evident in tests. Prime is effective for 24-36 hours according to Seachem. If numbers are still evident in tests after that period, another water change shold be done. Ths is the standard procedure durng cycling.
Lots of live plants, esp floating, should eliminate this.
On the plant question, Water Sprite is a floating plnat and if you can get it, buy it. It is ideal for this, plus all fish love a "roof" of floating plants over them. The Corkscrew Vallisneria will also be very good. Both these are fast growers, and very nice plants as well. Click shaded names for profile and photos.
On the catfish question, a group of 5 or more corys (Corydoras paleatus, Corydoras aeneus, Corydoras trilineatus are some of the more common ones, click the shaded names for the profiles with photos). If you have one species, 5 or more; if you want two or more species, get at least 3 of each species. Corys are very social fish. The Whiptail Catfish is interesting. You have room for corys and a whiptail or a couple whiptail.
I would encourage you to get more upside down catfish but not until we figure out this sand issue. Simply because the company makes aquarium quality sand does not mean all of it's products are aquarium safe. It's very possible they have multiple quarries with one or more containing substances toxic to fish.
this product contains small amounts of crystalline silica a common mineral found in natural sands and stones. excessive inhalation of respirable silica dust may cause cancer and lung disease. avoid breathing in the dust.
myoldcastle.com
this is what is says on the bag. hope it helps.
the substrate looks crystal like and has a few black dots mixed in
this product contains small amounts of crystalline silica a common mineral found in natural sands and stones. excessive inhalation of respirable silica dust may cause cancer and lung disease. avoid breathing in the dust.
myoldcastle.com
this is what is says on the bag. hope it helps.
the substrate looks crystal like and has a few black dots mixed in
Safe for humans is not necessarily safe for a fish tank.
The sand in that link is not good for soft water fish aquaria. It would be OK in rift lake cichlid tanks or livebearers. Reason is the fizz. When an acid like vinegar is dropped on sand or rock and it fizzes, that means the sand/rock is calcareous. It contains calcium, possibly magnesium and other minerals, that will raise GH in the tank slowly and steadily. That shouldn't be put in a tank with soft water fish.
The silica is an issue too, though we hashed this out in a thread a while back and there may be some "silica" in most sand. But the playsand I use has no warnings about it on the label, so I would assume there may be more in the linked sand. And this can cause diatoms (commonly called brown algae, but not a true algae).
Nooo.. Considering that 90% of the bacteria live in the substrate, that would kill the cycle right away.
You could try switching out small amounts of the sand? Maybe 1/4-1/3 every 2 months or so?
half a year? what about 1/3 a week, i feel it would be difficult adding a substrate and taking away a different kind in the same tank. has anybody tried using bio-spira?
I'd wait for Byron's opinion on it.
That water is pretty toxic. 0.5ppm ammonia is already toxic, and 0.25ppm nitrite is also extremely toxic. 1ppm nitrite is usually fatal, it has a suffocating effect on fish...
At this point, you'd need a lot of water changes to get nitrites down.. My nitrite maxed out at 5ppm during the cycling process, and after that the cycle was done in 5 days.. but with fish the levels need to be lowered and the cycle may be slowed down.
if the substrate sand only contains small amounts of crystalline silica, then it must contain large amounts of something else, if that is calcium carbonate, it will alter the water chemistry to the detriment of soft water fish, which you have
what you want is 100% crystalline silica (quartz) - the warning about the inhalation hazard is, I believe, due primarily to California regs, so it may not appear on labels when sold in Canada
what exact substrate do you have? can you test the GH and KH of the tank water? the pH is a little high
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