The Plan: New Fish

Neon Tetra

So I have been doing a lot of research which is what lead to me getting new lights (which I plan to pick up this weekend) and know I have a plan for getting new fish. For those of you who are new to the aquarium hobby it is usually more appealing to have one or two large groups of schooling fish and one or two species of none schooling fish. For me right now I have three Platy's which are none schooling and two Liberty Mollies which are  also non schooling. I want to have two different schools but schools usually need to be made of eight or more fish, so I am limited to quite small fish. That being said I have come to a decision. I wanted to get a Dwarf Gourami but its large size would have stopped me from adding my second school so I decided to go without it. In the end I have decided to with ten Neon Tetras and eight Black Neon Tetras or Silver Tipped Tetras. The neon Tetras are peaceful active, and not picky about food or water. The Black Neons and Silver Tipped will contrast with these nicely and are also like most tetras very peaceful. I am strapped for cash at the moment and the new light fixture and a few new plants will be strain on my Budget so the fish will have to wait for a couple of weeks.

Black Neon Tetra

Silver Tipped Tetra

Deciding on Lights

I have known for several months now that I would eventually need to upgrade my lighting set up. My current stock set up of one twenty watt bulb over twenty nine gallons, was not good enough to grow any but low light plants and see the fish. With Co2 added and fertilization I am able to very slowly grow some low light plants, but this is in adequate for growing a wider variety that I want to grow. So I have been looking around the internet for more powerful lighting fixtures and found myself in a stick. It seems in most situations the lights available are not quite adequate coming in at around forty watts our way over kill at 130 watts. Aiming to get in the two to three watts per gallon range I was hoping to find a thirty inch ninety watt, but with no luck. But I did find one that could work, a double 65 watt that works on independent systems, so I can run either bulb independently, and it also has separate cords to run two timers. This would run me about $150 at Big Al's. With this and reactor Co2 I could grow any plant that I liked the look of as well as speeding up the growth of other plants. I don't have time to do this on the weekend so but I will try to do this as soon as possible.  

New Series: Fish

Now that the results of the poles are in and I have finished work for the time being on the Co2 system, I will be starting a new series on research I have done as well as my experience with various types of Fish.


Coming up in the near future I will putting up posts on: Neon Tetra, Platy's  and White Cloud Minnows

Co2 Trouble: The Solution

Also on the weekend When I was off getting fish and plants I got new airline tubing that was a few millimetres skinnier (as in approximately 1) then the previous. this provided a tighter fit then the previous and that combined with eliminating the check valve which had too short of stems on it makes the system practically leak free compared to the previous. Hopefully this results in more Co2 actually getting into the tank. I have a hunch you will be able to see these results in a  lower pH from now on. In any case I'm happy that I was able too fix a long standing problem so I can work on other things.

New Fish: Liberty Mollies

Over the weekend I finally succeeded in getting new fish, sort of. The fish shop that I went to just received there Neon Tetras and were being quarantined and they did not have any Black Mollies. So failing that I got 2 Liberty Mollies as well as three new plants. I'm happy with them but they are still pretty skittish and stressed out but hopefully they will soon get used to the new tank. 

Water Condition Record 1

Here are the records from water testing over the last while. Quite a few are missing from days I forgot to test before I changed the water.

As you can see things are fairly stable except with pH which fluctuates depending on where the C02 rector is in it's cycle at the moment. I suspect the rise of GH is from evaporation over time.

How many Fish

So your wondering how many fish you can put into a tank.
First let me say that this depends on such a huge and varied bunch of variables such as substrate, substrate heating, aquarium temperature, plants, filtration capacity and water buffering that no equation can accurately tell how many fish you can put into a tank. But for a rule of thumb we can combine two equations ti give us a rough idea which is better then nothing.

The Inch Per Gallon Rule
Pretty basic stuff one inch of fish of fish for each gallon of water. Remember two things when using this rule.
1 Use the full grown size of the fish. A one inch catfish can grow to be half a foot long.
2 The equation assumes that they are fairly slender fish. Stocking a ten gallon tank with ten slender Minnows is different that stocking it with ten full bodied goldfish. Full bodied fish produce more waste and thus need more water capacity.

The Surface Area Rule
This rule has one main advantage in that it takes into account the shape of the tank. This is important because contact with the air is the main way that oxygen is introduced into the water. Thus a tall narrow tank can support less fish then a standard, flatter tank. For this rule there should be 12 inches of surface area for each fish. There are once again two things to consider.
1 Plants, air rocks, and some filters add extra oxygen to the water, making this equation less accurate.
2 Once again the equation assumes that they are fairly slender fish. Stocking a ten gallon tank with ten slender Minnows is different that stocking it with ten full bodied goldfish. Full bodied fish produce more waste and thus need more water capacity.

These are very rough rules that should only be used as a guide. I wouldn't stock a tank above 75 to 80 percent to stay on the safe side, especially if your a day or two late in your water change it provides a bit of a buffer zone.

Hopefully this is helpful but remember that in each aquarium you have unique conditions, so do your home work before adding more fish.

Choice of Fish

I have come to a decision on what new fish I plan on getting.

2 Black Mollies

10 Neon Tetras

If these go well I may also get some Emperor tetras and a dwarf Gourami.