Hello

Hi there,

I'm Dan and I have had an edge up and running now for about 3 months. It's my first tank and it's going well apart from a few mishaps. I slowly introduced 4 guppies, 2 mollys and a shrimp. The shrimp died after about 2 days though. Not sure if it was a lack of food or bullying. He didn't seem to get left alone by the guppies. Anyway, that was a couple of months ago and I now have a new amano shrimp that's been in for a couple of days. Everyone seems to leave him alone and he has a healthy appetite.
I lost a couple of guppies about 3-4 weeks ago over a period of 3 days. They just stopped being active and eventually died. Not sure why as they both got their fair share of food and everyone else seems fine. I did a couple of big water changes prior to them dying in an effort to clear some algae out. Maybe they didn't like that.
I don't currently have any plants in the tank as the missus wanted it to be minimalistic!! However I did bring her round and got a plant about a month ago, however it only lasted a week as it just withered and died, all the leaves just disintegrated. None of the fish were eating it so not sure what happened there, more research needed I guess. I'm looking to re-aquascape the tank and change the gravel (which is currently white and looks really dirty) for black gravel and introduce some plants, maybe some moss and slate as well.
Currently fish wise i now have 2 guppies, 2 mollys, 2 panda corydoras, 1 cherry barb, 1 amano shrimp and 1 angelfish.

So that's where I am currently, looking to get some good ideas/advice from the forum.
I'll post some pics in the gallery of how my tank looks today and then hopefully over the next couple of weeks I'll have new ones of it with plants introduced. If anyone has any advice on changing gravel in an established tank I'd really appreciate it also.

Cheers.

Hey dant100, welcome to the Edge!

Few things to say - when you first set up your tank did you cycle? Slowly introducing would still put stress on the fish if the tank hadn't cycled. A massive water change could cause problems, but guppies are quite hardy fish.

If the plant fell apart then the chances are it wasn't aquatic at all - lots of shops sell plants that aren't aquatic because inexperienced keepers like the colours. You should put in something like java fern, java moss or anaubis, hardy, true aquatic plants.

You may also want to look at your stocking - especially the angelfish. I had two in a 72L tank and they grew too big for it - they're def. too big for a fluval edge! Other than that, your stocking is okish but I wouldn't add any other fish.

Hope this is of help and doesn't sound too much like nagging.

Pop up some pictures of your tank when it's been scaped and feel free to ask for any advice!

Magister

Dan,

with regards to changing your gravel - take all of your livestock out and place it in a large container, along with your mature water.

remove all of your existing decor and gravel/sand. One of the problems here is that the substrate is a bank of beneficial bacteria. You could leave a handful of your current substrate at the back or middle of the tank and cover this with your new substrate - that way you won't see it, but you'll be keeping some mature substrate to 'seed' your new one. Also keep the current filter material and keep it running!

once you've got your new substrate in, and sorted out your new aquascape, plants and all, begin to fill your tank. do it about 35-50% new water and then begin to add your mature water. The more the better. Let your water get to temp (if you're using a heater) or just to room temp and then slowly add your fish with the lights off.

Leave them for an hour or so and then pop the lights on!

Voila!

Magister

Hi to everyone, me and the family are 5 days into life on the edge and to be honest its been v interesting even for my wife who dosen't even or more to the point didnt really like the thought of fish, now she realises how much she likes the set up with our new friends !!!! trying to convince my son that it would be better in the kitchen/diner !!
Although weve had three deaths, all neons, 2 up the pipe and one stuck to the sponge i fitted (modified pan scrubber) this morning, my son Henry age 8 takes it all in his stride !! got 4 angel fish and 4 what look like mini cat fish (bottom feaders) settled in v well, just done a water test (6 in 1 test strip kit ) and all values look well within parameters although its on the border for a water change at the end of the week, i am thinking of doing a partial change and balancing out ths addiitves etc... will upload pics v soon and hopefully gain some feed back from all you fuvel fans here, thanx and chat soon, Troy, Nicola and of course the boss Henry (well it was his birthday present)

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Initial set up after 4 days minus 3 neons, we will see, so far so good ..............

Troy,

in the nicest possible way, you need to get those angel fish out ASAP. One angel in the edge is too much as they grow very big very quickly (I had them in a 72L and had to get rid of two of them).

The bottom feeders you have are panda corys - the four you have in there now will grow pretty big too, but it'll take a bit longer than the angels.

Whichever shop sold you them seriously needs to be more informative to their customers - either that or the customers need to do some research before going out and buying totally unsuitable fish!

I don't mean to burst your bubble, but you need to take them back / get them in a much bigger tank ASAP - it's not good for any of the fish at all as the environment you're creating will be highly toxic to the fish in there.

Magister

Hi, thanx for your advice, in hindsight, maybe it was the staff at the shop that were keen to sell them as bundles of fish. Am very keen to run this tank at its best for my son, hes spent alot of his un-earned cash from his birthday !!!, so am open to all advice be it negative to our set up but positive in the long run ...
Does anybody recommend a type of fish for the size or the amount etc at the moment it all seems fine !?!?!? as all are young stock .. thanx again

Hi Troy,

I meant it as friendly advice - but it needed to be given!

You may think that having young angels are fine but two months down the line and they'll have very little swimming space and the tank will be overwhelmed by ammonia, nitrates and nitrites.

If you're changing your stock (and you're going to need to), I's suggest perhaps two of the corys, four enlders guppies and two dwarf gouramis max. It isn't a big tank and you can't have a lot of fish.

If you want colourful fish, go for 6-8 male guppies and keep one cory. For something a bit different, one or two cherry shrimp or one amano shrimp and some java or christmas moss.

Magister