Several questions right now.

Mickey · Post by **Mickey** » 11 May 2006, 22:52

Well for one, I am setting up a new/old tank.
It was the first tank my family had {ten gallons} and yeah it is kinda old along with the stuff it has.
I am planning on buying it new stuff and everything, but how long does everything have to sit before it's safe to move in fish? And what do I have to do during this wait?

Also, my pleco just died {and I understand that I should only get bristlenose plecos}and I am going to have to wait for some plecos to get into the stores. One store will have some stocked next week, but I don't trust that store seeing as the care of the animals is sometimes.. near abusive. The other store has my number for when the stock the plecos. How long will my tank stay okay without a pleco?
I have snails in the tank cause I am too much of a animal friendly person to kill them. {Would putting them in the new tank I have help it at all?} And yeah, are there any ways to stop my guppies from breeding during this time that I must wait?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Mickey · Post by **Mickey** » 11 May 2006, 23:41

Oh all of the wonders in the world met here...
The store that I was gonna use, they just called to say my pair is here. ^^

Mickey · Post by **Mickey** » 12 May 2006, 13:12

My two bristlenose plecs {I think they are both male} are in the tank, and they are still skittish in the morning...
They are about 3 inches long and one is kinda flatter than the other...
Once again any help on this is appreciated {Want to know how to calm them down, working at getting zuchinni for em}

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 12 May 2006, 15:13

They will be calmer once they settle in, first of all. Second, you can help them settle in by having plenty of hidey-places for them, such as terracotta pots of suitable sizes laying on the substrate or some pieces of slate, or bits of bamboo cut into suitable size, or plastic (PVC) water pipe from Home Depot (buy a small piece and see if it sinks or not before you spend your weeks wages on half the stock, ok?)

--
Mats

jimmyB · Post by **jimmyB** » 12 May 2006, 17:36

Regarding your question of how long it has to sit before you can put fish in, you are talking about cycling the tank. Some people do that with some inexpensive fish to get the cycling process going, which can actually take several weeks. If you can buy some of the Bio-material, (it is the good bacteria in a bottle) that gets it going sooner, you can reduce it to a day or two. I usually take a sponge filter from another tank, and use the water from that tank to start mine instantly. I add the fish, and then change water frequently as the sponge filter biological capacity adjusts to the amount of fish in the tank. You don't want a spike in your ammonia/nitrates/nitrites, so a cycled sponge filter or a hang-on-back filter with a cycled filter media will do the trick on a 10 gallon tank.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 12 May 2006, 17:46

Yeah, like Jimmy said, it depends on how you cycle the tank, and lots of other things.

The easiest way to prevent guppies from breeding is to have only one sex present (that works for MOST animals, although for example snails are hermafrodites, which means that all individuals have dual sexual organs, so they are both male and female at the same time - which is why ONE single snail can make the whole tank full of them after a while].

Of course, if you get female guppies, they can hold the sperm from a male for quite some time, so even if they aren't pregnant [i.e. just given birth] when you put them in, they could get pregnant without access to a male, if you see what I mean... So it's probably easiest (from a procreative perspective) to just keep males in the tank if you don't want them to breed.

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Mats

racoll · Post by **racoll** » 12 May 2006, 18:05

A couple of baby guppies and a few snails will be perfect to cycle your tank with.

Just add a couple of extra guppies evey week, and in about 8 weeks, it should be ready for other fish.

I do recommend you invest in some test kits though. It takes away the guesswork, and prevents you exposing your guppies to harmfull levels of pollution.

Mickey · Post by **Mickey** » 13 May 2006, 01:59

{I just wrote up this nice long thing explaining stuff and then my mouse went weird and refreshed my page. sigh}

MatsP: I would buy them stuff if I had money and if I had a method of transportation. Sadly my parents are out camping so I am sitting at my grandmothers, twenty minutes away from my tank at home, le sigh. And yeah I wanted to buy them zucchinni but I can't till I get my ride.><

JimmyB: Thanks... but my filter is way too old to use what I have... sadly.

Racoll: I am planning on doing just that once I get money... for Christmas this year I have a feeling petland will become rich.><
And snails and guppies are in it right now, the babies were dieing so quickly and the hatchery is killing them so I moved the three living ones out.

I am still having problems with snails and algea though. If I put in an algea pellet the next day the water is just green... and I have an algea eating plant that obviously isn't doing it's job. And the problems with the snails is that I don't want to kill them... not to mention that
I don't have anything that I could use to trap them, also the snails don't tend to go towards food, I swear those things were dropped by the fish a few too many times... I am really frustrated with the plant though..

bronzefry · Post by **bronzefry** » 13 May 2006, 15:45

How often do you change the water?
Amanda

Mickey · Post by **Mickey** » 13 May 2006, 16:37

I try to change the water once a week or more
but the beings away from the home kinda kills that pattern

bronzefry · Post by **bronzefry** » 14 May 2006, 15:27

In a 10 gallon tank, the balance can be upset quite easily. The smaller the tank, the more difficult it is to maintain. It sounds like there may be a heavy bioload on this tank which could create the green water. Snails eat algae, but they also create waste, which can create more algae.

Is the tank near a window?
Amanda

Mickey · Post by **Mickey** » 14 May 2006, 21:21

the ten gallon is fine
it's the twenty gallon thats green
and my twenty is in a corner, close to a window, but it doesn't get much light cause a tree shades it