Topic: Started stocking 20 gallon

[Prot]

I have been getting my old 20 gallon tank ready to get back into the hobby again.  Last week I set it up and filled it with water, fake plants, gravel, and water.  I put in 3.38 ounce bottle of Tetra SafeStart and an appropriate amount of Tetra Aqua Safe.  The temperature is holding steady at 76 degrees.  I am using a Marineland 100 biowheel type of filter that is recommended for this tank size.  I have had it set just sitting there for five or six days now and yesterday or the the day before, I noticed a slight cloudiness to the water, which tells me the bacteria is starting to do it's thing and I can start to slowly stock it.  It's a 20 gallon high, so I know I am not going to be able to put many fish in it, but a tank this size will be easy to maintain.  Anyway, I decided to start adding fish to it.  I really wanted endler's but it seems that in the years that passed since I got out of the hobby, all but one local fish store shut down.  I called them to ask if they had any endler's and they didn't even know what an endler was, which tells me a lot about the place.  The petsmart here is hit and miss but I found the petco is actually pretty good.  No endler's of course and I don't feel like messing with online ordering, especially just getting started again.  I spent a lot of time in petco this morning observing fish so I wouldn't bring anything home that was diseased or something.  I ended buying two Julii Corys and one nicely colored male yellow cobra guppy.  His colors were very bright and stood out from the rest of the fish in the tank.   

The guppy is kind of hiding in the plants so far, but the two cory's seem to be adjusting easier.  I have had albino cory's long ago and they lacked identity.  These two guys seem very unique in their demeanor, which I find interesting considering my previous experience with the albino's.

I think in a week or two I will add one or two more fish.  I am thinking about swordtails, platys, mollies, or glofish which are really genetically altered zebra danios created for the study of polluted water.

It would have been nice to find some endler's locally, but who knows, maybe in a couple of weeks some place around here will get some.

Ha, just looked over and I see the guppy is swimming around all over the tank now and is no longer scared, so that is a good sign.

[Essabee]

Personally I don't have much confidence in bottled cycle systems. I would have liked you to monitor the ammonia in your tank at this stage.

[Prot]

The day I put water etc. in the tank, I put a 3 in 1 monitoring system in the tank (temperature, pH, and ammonia) that is color coded.  It's very convenient and it says it is good for 4 to 6 weeks.  The safe start stuff is beneficial bacteria, so I figure it can't hurt.  The worst case is that it was  waste of four dollars if it doesn't do anything.  Four bucks isn't much money to try something I never tried before.

The guppy is eating well.  I give him flakes.  I give the corys bottom feed sinking shrimp pellets that are made by Aquarian.  So far, the corys are yet to eat though.  The guppy nibbles at the sinking pellet in addition to eating his flakes.

Today I am going to stop by the place that didn't know what endler's were just to what they have.  I am very pleased with my setup.  I went with black gravel and the fake plants look realistic.  It suits the decor of the rest of the room and is much nicer than what I had before.  I shut down my tanks in 2002 after losing electricity in my house for over two weeks due to hurricane Lilly.  In January I bought a new house 25 miles north of where I used to live, which is much higher ground and much more reliable infrastructure since it isn't rural like my old place.

[Yipee]

The SafeStart stuff works but did you add in some ammonia when the tank was cycling to feed the bacteria, if you did not the bacteria could have starved. Use a drop test if possible, does your color coded monitoring system measure ammonia by 0-0.25 like the one I used to use? Drop tests are more accurate and are able to be used longer than test strips and the monitoring systems, making them cheaper in the long run if you are going to buy a master test kit. Other than monitoring the ammonia level like essabee suggested, check for nitrates which can indicate that the tank is cycled.

[LittlePuff]

Once your cycle is settled down, I would add at least one more cory of the same species. They will bacome more active in small groups.

[ruthcatrin]

definetly get 1 or 2 more cories of the same type (if at all possible, if you cannot find more Juli's get at least two cories of a similer size) cories do much better in larger groups.  The sinking shrimp pellets should be fine though I usually alternate shrimp pellets with algae pellets for mine.

Depending on how good the fish person is at your local Petco (the head of the fish dept I mean, not the random associate who nets fish when people need it) they may be able to GET endlers for you, though not all will do "special orders" it varies from store to store.  I have a very good relationship with mine and she's almost always willing to order whatever fish I want, even if I only want a couple, but then I've been shopping there for years before I even dared ask!