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Starting new 10 gallon freshwater tank!

7K views 48 replies 7 participants last post by  Agent13 
#1 ·
Hello all! I am starting a new tank. 10 gallons to be specific! Right now it is all i can afford because bigger is quite expensive. I would love 30 but i dont want to spend anything over 50$...anyways I would like to know (like in my saltwater new tank help) What i need and What i can put in there. I am for sure putting Alpha my Betta fish in there. He has been with 3 ghost shrimp in a 1 gallon with no filter no nothing. Just little rocks and a color wheel. He picked at them and atually took off the front legs of one (they are now all dead). So for this one I am going to have a cave for my little shrimp but what other fish can I add with him? What plants should I get, if i should get any? It is a brand new tank so should I wait to put the fish in it? Any help would be greaT so thank you!
 
#3 ·
I do not know what gh and kh stand for. if you mean pH as in acidity I have not made it yet. I am getting it thrusday and I want to know all the means for it before I start any fish. And yes I do plan on getting live plants if 10 gallons is enough room
 
#6 ·
Ok then well thanks. I havent purchased the tank yet so I cannot tell you the pH levels. The only thing I can say is I am adding a betta fish. So should I continue this forum once I get everything set up? Any advice would be great :)
 
#11 ·
There are many fish that you can't add and many that you can. The betta adds another aspect. I added my betta to a 20g community tank containing platys and tetras and he chased them constantly. It's a very real possibility that you'll end up with a ten gallon betta tank. Other people have had bettas exist peacefully within a community tank. You never know. You just have to be prepared for the worst. To be honest, as soon as you said the betta was definitely going in, I had a bad feeling. As a rule, they generally don't make good community fish...if not for their aggression, then that of fish that can't resist nipping at those long beautiful fins. Your betta will surely benefit from having more space, heat, filtration, and cover in the form of live plants. The rest is a gamble. Best of luck.
 
#13 ·
You can get the General Hardness (GH) and pH from your water utility if you are city water. Call or look it up online.

Given your betta behaviour with the shrimp I might suggest he will be aggressive with anything. If you have lots of plants and maybe a small piece of knarly driftwood you could keep cherry shrimp, maybe. I did that with my betta but in a 37 gallon tank but mine didn't bother with them at all.

A 10 gallon heated tank will be good for the betta as a solitary fish.

Jeff.
 
#15 ·
FrightyDog, welcome to Tropical Fish Keeping forum.

This thread has bounced around a bit, but as you asked at one point what fish could go in your 10g, I will mention our fish profiles, second heading from the left in the blue bar across the top of the page. Each profile has minimum tank sizes for the fish, and minimum numbers as some fish are shoaling and need a group.

Knowing your water parameters is essential though, as some fish need specific ranges. As someone suggested, you can get this info from your municipal water supply people, they likely have a website. The GH is the general hardness, and pH refers to the acidity/alkalinity. Selecting fish suited to your tap water is always wiser and easier.:)

Byron.
 
#16 · (Edited)
Update

Finally got the tank! The filter set up, water had amquel and novaqua added to detoxify the water, light set up, getting gravel and fish today (cheap hardy fish to help the cycle). I also finally got a measuring thing! My measurements were
Ammonia=.5
Nitrate= 20
Nitrite=0
(Hardness) GH=0
Chlorine=0
(Alkalinity) KH= 300 (High)
pH= 8.4 (Also high)
So there are my measurements. I am not too happy on the alkalinity and pH. So Anything to add now that its updated?
---
Edit: What should my gameplan be today? Go to the store and buy gravel, and fish, and plants(?)
 
#17 ·
Finally got the tank! The filter set up, water had amquel and novaqua added to detoxify the water, light set up, getting gravel and fish today (cheap hardy fish to help the cycle). I also finally got a measuring thing! My measurements were
Ammonia=.5
Nitrate= 20
Nitrite=0
(Hardness) GH=0
Chlorine=0
(Alkalinity) KH= 300 (High)
pH= 8.4 (Also high)
So there are my measurements. I am not too happy on the alkalinity and pH. So Anything to add now that its updated?
---
Edit: What should my gameplan be today? Go to the store and buy gravel, and fish, and plants(?)
First on those numbers, presumably that is the tap water on its own. Recheck the nitrate. If your tap water really is 20ppm, we can discuss ways to lower it. Confirm the GH being 0 and the KH being 300ppm with the municipal water folks. This is a bit odd.

First thing to do is plant the tank, so decide on the substrate, and get some plants. Floating are ideal especially in new tanks as they grow fast and therefore use more nutrients including ammonia/ammonium.

On the substrate, either fine gravel or sand is best. If you intend substrate fish like corys, sand is what you should get. I use basic play sand. A 50 pound bag costs a few dollars from stores like Home Depot or Lowe's.

Byron.
 
#20 · (Edited)
Umm

I had no choice. My sister bought "final sale fish"
1 green tiger barb (as small as the danio so very very young)
3 platys (about an inchpretty grown)
3 zebra danio (about 4 cm but pretty grown as well if i had to guess)
-.- no plants. no decoration. What do i do. I have to put the fish in. I asked the store no refunds or "give-backs" for that matter
 
#21 ·
I had no choice. My sister bought "final sale fish"
1 green tiger barb (as small as the danio so very very young)
3 platys (about an inchpretty grown)
3 zebra danio (about 4 cm but pretty grown as well if i had to guess)
-.- no plants. no decoration. What do i do. I have to put the fish in. I asked the store no refunds or "give-backs" for that matter
Doyou understand the cycle issue? If not, read this post:
http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/...inners-guide-freshwater-aquarium-cycle-38617/

To avoid the toxic effect of ammonia and then nitrite as that post will detail, your only option now is to do daily water changes of half the tank, every day, until it is cycled. Or until you add some fast-growing plants.

Aside from that, you have some fish issues. Barbs and danios are shoaling fish, they need a group of their own species. A 10g tank is not sufficient room for groups of all these fish, so I guess you can't do much about this. Check the profiles [click the shaded names] on the fish species.

Things cannot be rushed in this hobby, something we all had to learn.
 
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#22 · (Edited)
Thats pretty heavily stocked for an uncycled tank... Be prepared to do lots of large water changes in the weeks upcoming. I would highly reccomend getting a bottle of seaochem prime, could be a life saver for your fish. Read up on the nitrogen cycle. Regarding your test results, high kh and ph and a gh of 0 sounds really unrelistic... What test kit are you using? Is it one of the strip test kits? Those are notorius for being unreliable. Is your source water tap water? I'm pretty sure 20ppm of nitrate in tap water in the U.S is illegal, there is a set limit of 10ppm (nitrate can also be poisonous to humans). Where do you live?

Edit: oh yeah, try to get a heater for your betta. Bettas are tropical fish and need to have warm water. You can commonly find heaters made for betta bowls.
 
#23 · (Edited)
I know my sister came home with them. Poor guys...But what plant would be good? I didn't want to rush. I was going to get my betta's waste water and use that to help cycle but my sister was too soon. I am hoping to upgrade tank size in the mean time thats just too many fish, even I know that. Also I AM using strip tests. The fish store guy says he uses the same thing and his fish are fine. Its a nice clean place with healthy fish so I took his advice. As to ammonia and nitrite killers i have amquel and novaqua. And i used filter water for this. I also put in quickstart. I live in the hills in southern california my room is always humid/stuffy.
As to the betta I will try, right now I am low on money...
Edit: The actual tank with all the fish is setup. It is on my "aquarium" page.
 
#25 ·
one of the Platy is just laying there I don't know what's wrong with it I don't want iT to die is there anything I can do
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#26 ·
one of the Platy is just laying there I don't know what's wrong with it I don't want iT to die is there anything I can do
Posted via Mobile Device
A water change, daily. Use one of the ammonia products mentioned, follow their instructions.

Fish trouble is likely ammonia, but of course could be any one of several other issues that I frankly wouldn't worry about now. Cycling is your main concern, and get those floating plants.
 
#27 ·
The tiger barb is picking on everyone and I dont want to flush him alive nor kill him, so can I put him in a one gallon (for now) and put my betta in that 10 gallon? Or can I get a critter cage and put him completely under the water in the tank?
 
#28 ·
I would frankly destroy the barb (since the store won't take it back). This is how they behave, he will never improve. They are in our profiles as Tiger Barb, you can read more there.
 
#30 ·
The problem is that the TB needs to be in a group larger than you can accommodate and even then they can still do the same thing. The store won't take it back and, unless you are going to get another larger tank and buy more TBs, you are stuck... unless you can find someone to take it. Putting it in a 1 gallon for now... what is the later plan? There is a point that what you may choose to do may be harder on the fish than euthanizing it.

Impulse fish purchases are never a good idea and more often than not result in problems where fish die. Actually, store advised purchases, while not as often as pure impulse buys, still often have the same result.

Jeff.
 
#31 ·
Solution

Well he calmed down except to one poor platy. They platy can arely get away without SEVERAL nips. Not to make things better, a fellow platy also nips at him! So I put him in a pet carrier in the actual tank for now. He has been inactive lately except for food and attacks so I think this is good rehabilitation for him. other than giving him away, any suggestions to help the attacks? I believe he is male and the female is attacking. The other male platy gets attacked by the barb also but he gets away when the barb approaches.
 
#34 ·
Why?
 
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