questions and advice required by newbie

[Miss.Soul]

I am new to owning fish and I was hoping you could all share some pointers and tips with me!ALSO....

I have a cory in my tank and he doesn't seem to be keeping it very clean... I fully cleaned it a week and a half ago and there's this nasty black sludge at the bottom. I don't think it's harmful to my fish (?) but I want them to be as happy as possible and ALSO it looks really gross. I also get this same gunk on the sides if my tank. I have a 10 gallon tank and an adequate filter (or so I was told at the pet store). So what am I doing wrong or what can I do differently? I was told I only need to clean the filter once every 6 months but I have a full tank so would that affect it??

[Fishfirst]

well first off you really never want to "fully clean" a tank unless there is something MAJORLY wrong. You probably put your whole tank into a new cycle. See a tank when first set up goes through whats called "New Tank Syndrome"
Basically it lets ammonia levels and nitrite levels become unacceptible because there isn't enough bacteria to take care of the ammonia. Your tank will have to go through the nitrate cycle. I would buy a gravel filter to get the black stuff off the bottom instead of cleaning the whole thing. Your filter cartridge should be changed every two months, your filter should be cleaned the opposite of that two month date. If you want your cory to be happy, then get him about 3 more pals to join him. They need groups to display normal cory behavior. (but not before cycling the tank)

[UgLy_eLf]

You think the "sludge" could be some sort of algae? I wouldnt bother cleaning the entire tank out because of it, just grab the siphon and shuffle it around more in the gravel until it lifts and sucks up the gunk.

How long has your tank been running?

[Lexus]

The sludge could be algae but we are forgetting one key thing. Corys do not eat algae or poop or any waste. They eat excess food on the bottom but need to be fed in conjunction with this.

Also I clean my 55g once a week or once every 2 weeks. Depending on what fish you have in there I would clean yours once a week or so.
I change my filter pad when it gets dirty and clean the filter when it gets nasty.

[Fishfirst]

yeah, lexus is right, a cory will not keep a tank clean, just be on pick up duty on the food that hits the bottom instead of letting it rott

[Miss.Soul]

Originally Posted by Lexus @ Wed Apr 06, 2005 1:28 pm

Also I clean my 55g once a week or once every 2 weeks. Depending on what fish you have in there I would clean yours once a week or so.
I change my filter pad when it gets dirty and clean the filter when it gets nasty.

so clean 20% every week or so?? or more... or less?

Originally Posted by UgLy_eLf @ Tue Apr 05, 2005 11:31 pm

You think the "sludge" could be some sort of algae? I wouldnt bother cleaning the entire tank out because of it, just grab the siphon and shuffle it around more in the gravel until it lifts and sucks up the gunk.

How long has your tank been running?

since the 25th of feb

Originally Posted by Fishfirst @ Tue Apr 05, 2005 10:08 pm

well first off you really never want to "fully clean" a tank unless there is something MAJORLY wrong. You probably put your whole tank into a new cycle. See a tank when first set up goes through whats called "New Tank Syndrome"
Basically it lets ammonia levels and nitrite levels become unacceptible because there isn't enough bacteria to take care of the ammonia. Your tank will have to go through the nitrate cycle. I would buy a gravel filter to get the black stuff off the bottom instead of cleaning the whole thing. Your filter cartridge should be changed every two months, your filter should be cleaned the opposite of that two month date. If you want your cory to be happy, then get him about 3 more pals to join him. They need groups to display normal cory behavior. (but not before cycling the tank)

okay so I bought the filter and everything as a package....so the filter cartridge should be changed once every two months but the whole filter ITSELF needs to be replaced or just the water in it...?

I dont think my tank will hadle more corys as I have 3 platys, 3 neons, 2 white skirt tetras and 2 black skirt tetras as well as 2 balloon mollys and a dwarf frog.

So basically I should just do a 20% water change once a week and get a gravel filter instead of replacing the rocks?

[MyraVan]

Here's what I do for cleaning:

Every week, I do a something like 15% water change. I take out the old water using a gravel vacuum to remove the junk that's collected in the gravel. I also take the filter off the back of the tank (it's an internal filter) and rinse the pads off in the tank water I have removed. I squeeze them until they look pretty clean. I also remove the impeller (the thing that looks like a kind of mini-fan) and use a Q-tip to whipe out any junk that may have collected in the impeller well (the hole it sits in). I haven't changed the filter pads yet and the filter is about 6 months old, so I think this weekend I'll buy some new filter pads and change one of the pads at next water change, and then wait a few weeks, and then change the other one. You don't want to be changing the filter pads too often, and if you have two pads in the filter, you don't want to be changing them both at once. The filter pads is where most of your good bacteria live, so you want to keep the bacteria alive by simply rinsing the pads in used tank water, not really cleaning them using any kind of soap or stuff like that.

That's my weekly cleaning regimen.

Also, whenever the algae on the front of the tank gets annoying I scrape that off using a Mag-float. Whenever I see bits of plant floating around I remove them. That's it really. I have a good coating of brown and green algae on my filter, rocks, and bogwood. I don't mind this, as I have algae-eating fish whom I can't get to eat anything else, so I want to have a good crop of it for them to eat.

[Thunderkiss]

Ther are 2 things i know of that eat scat ... snails and scats or scatophagus argus. Cories eat food. and they school, so get more

[sumpthinfishy]

Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

I could be way off base, but it's my experience that snails don't eat fish waste. I raise apple snails and mts.

Shrimp, crawfish and crabs, though...

And yes, a single cory is a lonely cory. If you are overstocked, return the cory or some of the other fish so you'll have room for more cories. They really cannot tolerate isolation.

[Courtney]

Snails do NOT eat fish poop, or any kind of poop for that matter apple snails eat DEAD and DECAYING matter only, and some veggies and waffers and so forth.... but not poop...