It's a 20g tank (24x12x16) with a Whisper 40 Power Filter, dark gravel substrate, and currently only four really tiny plants. I also have some driftwood and am planning on getting a Java fern.
I would like to stock the tank with:
1 Bristlenose Pleco (Ancistrus Temminckii)
2 Peacock Gudgeon (Tateurndina Ocellicauda)
6 Neon Tetras (Paracheirodon Innesi)
6 Hatchet Fish (Gasteropelecus Sternicla)
I realize that once these grow full size the tank might get a bit crowded, but I'm planning on buying and setting up a bigger tank within the next month or so, and transferring one of the schools and possibly the Pleco to it, if needed.
From everything I've read, they seem to be compatible. A 7.0 PH, 5-6 GH, with a temp of 76 should keep them all happy. It says that the Gudgeon's will defend a breeding spot, but they all seem to be fairly non-aggressive fish.
I also have a question about driftwood - how are you supposed to boil it? Maybe the piece I got was just too big, but there's no way it could fit in a pot...the LFS said that it'd be fine if I just soaked it, but everything on here says it needs to be boiled.
I was hoping someone had an idea that wouldn't involve spending another $30! I guess I'll be able to reuse it when I get a bigger tank...and we can always start eating more soup ^.^
well if your LFS has any wood in there show tanks see if you can buy the wood out of there, that is what i did, it was a little bit more expensive, but i did not have to boit it, deal with any leaching and it gave my cycle a nice little boost, alond with the plants...
You don't have to boil it, you can soak it. Soaking just takes longer. I've boiled driftwood and it worked fine. I've also bought driftwood out of tanks at the lfs and that was much easier. Besides, if the water in the driftwood boils down and you don't notice it....it really smells.
You can also just put the chunk in your tank, it'll stain the water, but putting charcoal in your filter and doing frequent water changes will clear it up soon.
You didn't say whether or not your tank is fully cycled. I'm not sure about all the fish, but those tetras are sensitive and need a mature tank.
My ammonia and nitrites were at the lowest that my testing kit detects (0.0-0.3 maybe? I'd have to go pull it out and check to be sure). I've got 8 plants in there right now, bought 4 more when I went to the fish store earlier, and they're a bit bigger - also got a piece of rock with some caves/tunnels in it.
when you have a freshwater aquarium you dont need Test Kits, and that PH stuff. I had a 20G freshwater tank, with 2 power filters and thats all. (for 5 years) No fish died because of the PH or anything else!
i think that many of the people on this site will strongly disagree with you on that point. water testing is essential to any aquarium fresh or salt water,
I lived with two vet majors for a year, who had a ton of aquariums...it's what got me into it. This tank has actually been set up before, but they took it over and I didn't really learn anything from it...other than the need to test your water. The LFS that we used wouldn't let you buy a fish without a water sample unless they knew you had a fully established tank. I just decided to do it myself this time rather than driving somewhere to have it done ^^;
I would just soak the piece of driftwood in a bucket for half a day, then dump the brown colored water and refill it and let it soak for several more hours. It might take a day or 2 or maybe a little more, but eventually when you put the wood in there and the water stays clear, then you will know it is ready.
As far as testing water, if you do water changes, vacuum gravel, don't over-feed, etc., like you are supposed to, then you shouldn't have to check your water. I checked my water on the 30 gallon probably 3 times out of the past year. I tested it when I first set it up, then I checked it again after the first water change, then was gone for about 2 weeks and checked it when I got back before a water change, everything was fine, but nitrate was somewhere between 40 and 80, little on the high side, but went down after the water change. I happened to check the 30 gallon after I set up the 125 gallon, and all was normal and had gone for several months without checking it, but I did do quite a bit of water changes. When I first got my 10 gallon, I went through a bottle of 25 test strips in a couple of months checking every other day for it to tell me that everything was fine. You can really just observe the tank and tell if there is something wrong, fish not eating or swimming about, etc., water cloudy, smell in the water, etc.
It is good to know how the water checks out with the test strips, but they can get expensive if you have several tanks and test the water each week so I'll save my test strips for emergencies when I observe something that isn't normal in the tank, but everything should be fine with regular maintenance of the tank.
I don't think it's a good idea to advise people to not test their water when you don't even know what the quality of their tap water is. If you luck out and get tap water with a good pH, for example, then you're lucky. My tap water produces a pH of 8.2, which kills many fish. If I didn't test, I wouldn't have known and I wouldn't be controlling my pH. Considering how critical water quality is, I don't think anyone should advise against water testing.
Thankfully my pH is pretty good - 7.5 which is on the higher end, but still acceptable for the fish that I have. It is really soft - gH of 1, which I'm trying to raise to 5. I bought some sea salt, but I'm not sure how much to put in?
testing water is a must for any responsible aquarist or enthusiast...
first of all... you messed up by putting the word "fail" in your screen name... lol...
but srsly... i was just about to say to san's the hatchet fish... they aren't astheticly marvelous to stuff into a small tank that is going to have gudgeon as the main attraction...
also... boil the wood... if my piece of wood is too big, i just throw some boiling hot water into a bucket or a huge container that the piece fits in... or i boil it in halves... but luckely for me i'm mexican... so i end up boiling huge pieces in the huge pot we have for making tamales... lol...
