Oldfishlady water change recommendations

[Oldfishlady]

In a 1gal-I have found it easier to do the stir and dip method with smaller tanks.

I give the substrate a slight stir with a chopstick or woodenspoon-then dip half the water out of the tank using a small plastic cup-Then replace with like temp dechlorinated water.
The water should clear within the hour, if not, then you either missed a water change or overfeeding or overstocked.

[camille0119]

thanks.. i'll try it out!

[cnbufford]

My older male betta, Homer, is very combative when I'm trying to cup him to change his aquarium. This event happens 2-3 times a week, usually on the same days, so I was hoping he'd eventually catch on and be cooperative. Well, today I noticed that when he got back in his home, his right ventral fin was slightly torn from the transit. Any suggestions to train this bucking bronco, or if nothing else, a technique to get him out easier?

[aokashi]

I feed my betta whenever he's in the cup. Now he knows, cup time = food time

[SilverWolf]

Hi! So, another newbie! I really tried to read the posts first, its just so much reading/time!

I am setting up my tank still.. So far:

10G LED and in bright indirect daylight. Will be supplementing lighting soon
Filtered, HOB with only a sponge in filter and prefilter sponge too
Soil/sand sub
All live plants, currently 4 rooted, 1 floating (Sorry, I really don't remember the names but I just added a pic to the sticky thread for tank photos) (more coming, namely moss and another rooted plant I don't know the name of)
1 piece of Malaysian Wood
1 betta
heater
thermometer

I don't know my water parameters yet. I do not have a testing kit but the listed ph is for the city is 7.1-8.0 and water is hard ( http://www.calgary.ca/UEP/Water/Page...arameters.aspx )

Question:

When vacuuming the soil/sand you say to submerse the vacuum all the way and let it sit a second or two. Won't that mix the soil and sand? Is it supposed to be mixed? Sorry, I'm just not grasping this...

[Oldfishlady]

I wouldn't vacuum natural planted soil based tanks....If you feel you need to vacuum anything up-use your free hand to kick it up into the water column-then vacuum-You don't want to disturb the soil or roots if you can help it...

[SilverWolf]

Ok, that's what I thought! So my only care is water changes right?

[Oldfishlady]

Right, however, water changes on a soil based can be different-based on number, species and plant growth itself. Once the soil has started its life underwater and plants thriving-limit water changes-Remember, with soil based it is all about the plants that function as the filtration and if you don't have enough of the right species in active growth-the system can crash. If you haven't already, look over the other sticky in the planted tank section on NPT's for more information.

Hope to see a new thread with pics once you get your NPT setup.

[SilverWolf]

Thanks OFL! For the 'right' type of plant, is it generally rooted that I'm looking for? To me rooted = filtration not only from the leaves, but also the roots in the soil. Am I looking at it the right way? The tank is still brand new, how quickly should I see new growth on rooted plants? My floater (hornwart I think it's called) is already growing like crazy and the tank has only been running 3 days. I know it'll take a couple months for the tank to mature, meanwhile I'm still seeing some cloudiness in the water, should I do more changes? (Currently doing 50-75%/day) I'm going to take a sample in to the pet store today (I found one that does liquid testing) to see what my readings are and hope to be able to afford my own kit soon.

[Oldfishlady]

Rooted or stem plants is what you need a lot of-at least 75% of the floor planted with stems-then 10-20% floating like the hornwort. The rosette plants are fine too-like your swords, crypts, vals, sags...etc...,however, since these are not big water column feeder or fast growers-you need more stem plants due to their fast growth that in turn makes them big eaters...lol....You should need to make your first trim and re-plant of the stems in 7-10 days. If you still have cloudy water-make 25-50% water only change every day if needed-until the water is no longer cloudy-then back down on the water change frequency to 1-2 times a week and as needed. If you don't have a mass amount of stem plants-I would hold off adding any fish or shrimp-but add common snails-if you don't have trumpet snails-be sure to poke-not stir the soil with something 3-4 times a week the first week. Once you make your first trim-the stem plant roots should be able to provide the oxygen to the soil to prevent anaerobic issues-Make sure and do the daily sniff test too and if it ever smells like rotten eggs....you might have a problem...

Be sure and take 3 different sample of water to be tested and get the numbers and write them down to compare-You need-tank water, source water without additives and source water with additives-tested for Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and if they can get the KH/GH too.
By having the baseline on the source water with and without additives will tell you if anything is in the source water to start with and if additives are causing any skewed or interactions-to prevent unneeded water changes.