I would definitely like some shrimp but ive read very conflicting accounts on their treatment of plants
I'm prioritising my clean-up fish before deciding on other fish. Tbh I'm not sure about the loach. Id like one because I don't think my tank is big enough for a pleco and they look pretty ruddy cool and sre supposedly excellent algea eaters
Apart from nerites and the Otos I don't know of any other good algea eaters that I could get apart from the Hillstream loach. I was considering other snails but with the tank being open topped mystery snails and other types would likely climb out so nerites seems like go to. I think All plecos will get too big?
There's two sorts of clean-up you might want to consider. First off Algae, and secondly excess fish food / organic detritus. Shrimp and snails are omnivores and great at doing both. So are some cats. and I'm with you that many cats look awesome! Long term your clean-up crew will help keep the tank in balance, but there are many, many posts on this forum stressing that they are no substitute for prevention; you need to get the balance about right first, and then the clean-up crew will help keep it in balance.
Cherry shrimp don't eat plants. Cherry shrimp have the advantage of breeding, so if they are happy with your tank they'll breed to the point of sustainable population, and self-regulate. Cherry Shrimp will eat diatoms and generally keep the tank clean, but don't eat thread algae. The disadvantage of Cherry shrimp is that they are small and tasty. Most fish view them as a food!
Amanos are great algae eaters - gram for gram they out-eat cherry shrimp, but they don't breed in freshwater, so long-term they are not as effective. They do eat thread algae, though. They are also much bigger than Cherries, and so less likely to be eaten. They will also scarf up any fish food they can find, so keep the tank clean in that respect too. There are some anecdotes about lazy Amanos eschewing algae in favour of fish food, though! Within UKAPS there are also a few anecdotes of Amanos eating specific plants if they are hungry. My Amanos haven't to-date, but that's just my experience.
The great thing about
Catfish is that if you look hard enough there's one for every occasion! I also have a 64L tank and wanted to find a bottom-feeder that would deal with all the fish food that the other residents miss - at the moment the snails are loving it, but they're not the vibe I'm going for! I wanted something small that doesn't need sand or lots of company. Took a while but I've just picked up some
<Red Lizard Whiptails> which fit the bill perfectly. And will eat algae to boot. With a bit of hunting around you will find the right cat for your needs!
A lot of fish I like seem to prefer less hard water, what can I do to lower hardness or am I pretty stuffed in this regard?
You can take the approach that 'if it works for the LFS it works for me', or you can cut your hard tap water with rainwater (a water butt) or Reverse Osmosis (RO) water, which is essentially pure water with all the minerals removed. There are plenty of people on this forum who do both, and many who only use RO water, and then re-mineralise it to the hardness they want. I use 50/50 tap water and rain water on one of my tanks.
d have assumed after 5 weeks of dry start + tap water levels there would be some nitrite/nitrate. I did really keep the tank clean and there was little to no plant death but I expected some from he soil itself. as well as the first dose of fertiliser when I flooded the tank.
Just to reiterate what
@foxfish and
@sparkyweasel have been saying.
- Test kits are notoriously inaccurate. They will let you know when something is way-off, but don't help with fine-grain tuning. I last tested either of my tanks about 6 months ago. However I do regularly inspect my floating plants (esp the frogbit) to see if they are happy. Since they get plenty of light and CO2, if they're not happy then my tank ferts are off somehow. I also use a TDS (total dissolved solids) meter (pretty cheap to buy) which accurately and consistently reports on the overall mineral content of my tank. My aim is to keep this consistent. That way I'm confident that my tank conditions are stable. And finally the livestock. If the fish, shrimp, snails, and plants are all happy, then my tank is in good shape.
- If you do go down the low-tech (no CO2) route then make sure your light is low intensity. You are trying to get light, CO2, O2 and ferts all in balance. If you don't, algae will benefit. Generally speaking you can get away with overdoing it a bit on ferts (this is called EI dosing - making sure there is always plenty) using surface stimulation for O2, and then just worrying about getting the CO2 and light in balance. And light intensity is more important than duration for a low tech tank. Start with maybe 6-8 hours a day. If you get a lot of GSA and green thread, your light intensity is probably too high. I made this mistake! Easier to start low and then gradually increase until you hit your sweet spot.
Time to plan some DYI float ring
The easiest way is to use airline. you can create a ring using connectors and anchor it to a wall for pennies. I had a pontoon crossing my tank for months until leaves from my Vals hit the surface and took over the job!
Cheers,
Simon
