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well, the only flaw is the pleco otherwise i think your set and if the filter does up to 20 gallons, then i bet your set on that toouh, baloon mollies get over 4 in? *checks profile*..ok so there isnt one *looks at another sorce* about 1 hour later i read a profile on thatpetplace.com

Max Size: 2-3 (inches)

the link


oh, and why not get a few ottos for algae
HTH

Last edited by fishyhelper288 at 07-Jul-2005 18:06

Last edited by fishyhelper288 at 07-Jul-2005 18:07

UPDATE: I am posting to let you all know what has transpired this weekend with my tank. I took the advice and took back my pleco to the pet store. I also picked up two otto’s and they are a wonderful addition to my tank. I also picked up a ghost shrimp (his name is Pierre)

Part of my cleaning problem was (as I got the idea from a Ornament posting) a rather large Parthenon ornament that was fairly dirty. I wasn’t able to clean under it so all sorts of gunk was under it. I removed it and vacuumed the gravel under it and replaced the ornament with a nice rock with swim through holes.

So the activity has increased in my tank. The Cory’s are swimming and playing in the air bubbles of my air pump. They played in it for hours…silly little things! My three baby molly’s are using the holes in the rocks and will come out every now and then. So thank you all for the advice.

BTW: Recommended amount of feeding for: 3 panda cory, 1 armored cory, 2 otto?

Greetings and Thank you all! Everybodys advice is greatly appreciated. So onto some answers. First, I will take back my pleco to the store…he is cute and all but growing fast! I will get two of the little otto’s. Note: I have fairly hard water (even with water softener) so I think they should do quiet well.
Second, I feed my fish one pinch (small) of tropical flakes in the morning. Then at night I put a small tablet (size of a aspirin) for the cory’s.
Third, WATER CHANGE… I change the water every weekend or if it is bad every three days. I vacuum the gravel but sometimes (ok all the time) it gets more sediment in the water then I started. I also change the filter every two weeks (but it is sometimes bad so sometimes every week). Also when I check the water I have the dip stick that has five color pads. They show low ph’s. I just have a lot of sediment in the water. So I guess this should clear after the good bacteria finally gets created.

SMAPTY,

I have been doing partial water changes about every three days but again, being a new owner, I am not sure if I should still be doing the water changes this far into the process.

As the most common answer to this statement would say, “It depends”. Depending on the reasons for your poor water conditions that might actually not be such a bad idea. You still have to find the source of the problem, remove (i.e. less feeding), and then you could do water changes to clear the tank up quicker.

I would like to know from you what you do during your water changes and what else you do to clean the tank, in the line of how much water do you change etc.

Ingo

Last edited by Little_Fish at 08-Jul-2005 10:56

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Applesnails are not a good algae eater. They need more to their diet than that or they will starve. They also don't digest their food well and can be quite messy. I would say they add more food for the algea than the amount of algae they manage to eat. Of the common small plecos a bristlenose would fit in a 10g. There are a few others and if you check what's at the lfs you can then ask this forum if it would be a good choice. Non pleco algae eaters the otocinclus are the best choice but somewhat sensitive to water quality so solve that first. Stay away from CAE(chinese algae eaters or tanks just labelled algae eaters) as well as mystery/common plecos that you don't know the exact species.
Are you cleaning all the gravel everytime you change the water? That could cause a bacterial bloom every time making the water cloudy. How long has the tank been setup since the goldfish? Do you have a test kit? Checking the water quality and giving us the numbers could be very helpful. Do you clean the filter at the same time you do a water change? Finally a penguin 100 is more than enough for a 10g. I wouldn't upgrade unless your looking to make a very high current tank or stick goldfish in there again but of course you wouldn't do that.

SMAPTY

To start of with you "could" be doing several things that could cause the problem

Gravel not washed properly.
Over feeding.
Changing too much water too often.

Could it be any one of these?

Keith

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You could go a few days without feeding your fish to see if that would clear up the water. Just a suggestion.

Buying Common Plecos is a common (no pun intended) mistake for beginners. Every local fish store (LFS) sells them and they rarely bother to tell the buyer just how big they get. Most Plecos get too big for a 10g. Mollies get pretty big too, so think about what you're going to do with them in the future. They also breed like crazy, so hopefully you don't have males and females, because that's another problem brewing.

IMO, Ottos (Otocinclus) are great algae eaters and they stay small (less than 2 inches). They should be easy to find too. Read about them in the Profiles. They like to have buddies, so 2 would probably do well in your tank. Pay special attention to proper acclimitization.

Sorry about your bad experience with cycling with goldfish. Unfortunately, that's another common LFS mis-direction. Goldfish are the worst fish to use for cycling because the tanks they are stored in are usually full of diseases because they cram 100's of them in together. I had the same experience when I first started out. They recommended 6 to cycle my 12g! For any new tanks in your future, read up on Fishless Cycling.

As for your filter, the one you have should be fine. The Penguin 100 will give you greater than 10x the water turn over per hour. Your tank is a 10g, but you don't have 10g of water in there after accounting for all the water displaced by your gravel and decorations. The cloudiness could be due to over-feeding. Since you have Pandas and you've had them for a while, your tank is clean. Pandas will die very quickly if your tank is dirty. The good news is they stay very small and 3, along with your other Cory, should do ok in your 10g.

Hope this helps.

Last edited by renoharps at 07-Jul-2005 18:23

Hello!

I enjoy the discussions I read so I want to post my problem. Being a new fishtank owners (3 months) I have some problems keeping it clean. My 10 gal.tank is stocked with:
3 Panda Corys
1 Armored Cory
1 Pleco
3 Baby Balloon Mollys born three weeks ago)

So I am wondering if this is too many fish for the tank? I have a Penguin 100 bio wheel filter and it seems to always be dirty and the water is a bit cloudy. I have been doing partial water changes about every three days but again, being a new owner, I am not sure if I should still be doing the water changes this far into the process. Any ideas?

Apple snail, pitbull pleco, ghost shrimp. All of these will eat algae and stay small.

Huh...well the molly's are under a 1/4 in so I dont think I am in a rush to get rid of them. The Pleco can go and I can return it to the pet store. What would be a good replacement?

Also will this take care of the cleaning problem I have?

Could you get rid of the pleco and mollies? If you can get rid of them, then I would add an apple snail for algae and then another open water fish that stays under 2".

Yes it is just a common pleco. So what would be a solution for alge eater? The balloon mollys take care of a bit of the alge but not all.

Also do I need to get a bigger filter? It says it should work for up to 20 gal.

And then should I just continue to do partial water changes?

What type of pleco is it? If it's a common plec, you should try to get him out of there asap.

Actually, your tank is WAY overstocked.
Balloon mollies can get upto 4.75" long, cories 2.5" long, and depending what pleco you have, it is most likely between 2-20" long.

With the mollies and cories you have 24.25" of fish in a 10 gal when you should have less than or equal to 10" of fish.

Yes well when I started the tank the employee at *etCo. told me to start the nitrogen cycle with Goldfish...I didnt know any better. So long story short. They mucked up my tank and after putting new fish into it (after taking out goldfish) and having a few die I re-cleaned out my tank and put in a 1/4 gravel and plastic plants. So I have not put in any more fish and have been cleaning it properly (I think). Also I have vaccumed the gravel every time I take out partal water.

if those are the only fish in the tank, it doesn't seem over stocked. it makes me thing if you cycled the tank b4 u started. i would try upgradeing the filter. another thing i was thinking did you wash the gravel.

update: i haven't known ballon mollies to be able to grow to the size of reg mollies.

Last edited by bettachris at 07-Jul-2005 14:30