tank maintenance question

[Eskimette]

Hello
This is a fairly standard question..but it needs to be asked..
I have a 55 gal African tank, with 3 tinfoil barbs.. they were originally purchased to help cycle my tank but they are gorgeous and too large for the cichlids to harm, so while they will not be a long-term fish in a 55gal, I have arranged to bring them back to LFS when that becomes an issue..

They do however make quite a mess

I have a marineland double water wheel style filter that came with my 55gal day/night aquarium, which I added an extra bag of charcoal to...

I also at the other end have a bubbler and a submersible filter to keep that side moving and clean, and create a bit of a current..

I am worried about ammonia spikes as I have had a few (tank is newer,) and don't want to stress my fish..

Aside from water changes, how often should i be vaccuming the bottom of the aquarium?? Tank is fairly stocked with approx 12 varrying size fish

 

[Gary_Gilbert]

I vac my tank every week. Bring the water level down about 2 or 3 inches then refill. Had no problem with a 125 that had 50 Africans. With my bigger tank I just vac until the return starts blowing bubbles. Then refill.

 

[ecoli73]

Hello
This is a fairly standard question..but it needs to be asked..
I have a 55 gal African tank, with 3 tinfoil barbs.. they were originally purchased to help cycle my tank but they are gorgeous and too large for the cichlids to harm, so while they will not be a long-term fish in a 55gal, I have arranged to bring them back to LFS when that becomes an issue..

They do however make quite a mess

I have a marineland double water wheel style filter that came with my 55gal day/night aquarium, which I added an extra bag of charcoal to...

I also at the other end have a bubbler and a submersible filter to keep that side moving and clean, and create a bit of a current..

I am worried about ammonia spikes as I have had a few (tank is newer,) and don't want to stress my fish..

Aside from water changes, how often should i be vaccuming the bottom of the aquarium?? Tank is fairly stocked with approx 12 varrying size fish

This will be determined by your water parameters. Nh3 no2 must be 0, if not, you need to either reduce stock or add more filters.

Then the level of NO3 must be stable between water changes. That is, I would measure NO3 before each water change, if the level goes up from week to week, then you have to either reduce stock, do more cleaning of the bottom, do larger water changes, or add some pothos in your tank(roots in water, leaves in air)

As for the barbs, they are simply too big to keep in a 55 for long term. I have 5 in my 300...I bought them at 2 inches and 3 months later they have almost tripled in size.


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[Eskimette]

noted- and agreed on the barbs - when I purchased them I did so because they were inexpensive and I needed to quickly cycle a tank.. but was unaware they reached 14 inches lol.. Sigh.. I ask more questions now

 

[jrthor_85]

One thing you could also do if you don't want to get more filters is "customize" your Marineland a bit more than the standard cartridges do, and even save a little money.

Go to a local fabric store and buy a yard or two of medium batting (blanket stuffing). You can attach that to the frames of some older filter cartridges using some string or whatever. Then fill the extra space in the body of the filter with some ceramic bio-rings. Those can be cheap online, or pricey in a store. They probably wont increase your bio-filtration for a few weeks, but they will eventually help quite a bit.

That's similar to how I have my 20gal af breeder set up. I didn't have a seeded sponge filter ready as I'd just nursed a diseased fish, and had to bleach it out. Not enough time to reseed. I took a little Whisper i10 or i20 in-tank filter, wrapped a small patch of batting over the filter intake for mechanical filtration using some elastic stuff, then filled the body of the filter with ceramic rings that I pulled out of the sump on the main african tank.

 

[Fishaholicc]

Start looking into Canister filter, they are your best friend besides sumps but that's another story.
It's always better to over filtering when keeping Africans. Adding power head to creat some current will make your fishes happier.

 

[james99]

like mentioned, do water changes based on parameters, you may require more than one change a week to keep things balanced. vacuum the bottom weekly. You could also look into another filter to add to what you have, maybe a rena or fluval canister or an aquaclear 110. try to get your filtration to turn the water over 10 times or more any hour.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; One thing that many do that can contribute to extra ammonia is over feeding. I have found over many years that feeding less has many benefits to tank conditions.