# I've got a bunch of newby questions



## Fishy Famjam (Sep 12, 2012)

Hey guys! (And gals).

We're a family of three of fish lovers. We have a 75 gallon tank with a variety of tropical freshwater fish. I consider myself pretty knowledgeable on the topic, but I do have some concerns and questions that hopefully you all can help us with.


We have about ten fish of average sizing between 2 - 4 inches. (A couple larger ones, a couple smaller ones). How often should I be changing the water in my tank? I have an Eheim canister filter that can filter upto 92 gallons, so I don't know if that matters or not.

I have a small case of what I think is fin rot going about the tank. I've added some store-bought medication and have changed the water. Is there anything else I can do for my little guys?

I've been thinking about buying a gravel filter. Are they worth the money? 

Lastly, I think I want to change from my gravel over to sand. Any recommendations? Is it cleaner? Is it easier to clean, or harder?


Sorry for my slew of questions! And thanks in advance for anyone who can help!


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## BV77 (Jan 22, 2005)

welcome to the forum. As for water changes, REGULAR partial water changes is the answer. Alot of folks use different intervals. I do 25% weekly along with a gravel vac. Others may do as much as 50% every two weeks. Keeping a regular schedule is the important part IMO. By "gravel filter" I am assuming you mean a gravel vac, as opposed to an underground filter. Yes , a gravel vac is well worth the money as it lets you remove debris from the gravel layer. Sand vs gravel, sand, if in a layer of like more that 2" will create anerobic pockets, which can release hydrogen sulfide gas into the water and eventually "crash" the tank. So stirring up the sand with a gravel vac is important. Plants help and maylasian trumpet snails can help keep the substrate aerated. Hope this helps. There are many discussions and opinions on these subjects. Just research through the forums.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

water changes......25-40% every week....
your eheim is too small...try to find a filter that you can add and boost your turnover rate to 10x
turnover rate is the number of times your filter is able to pump the volume of the tank each hour....75 gallon tank......turnover rate is 750 GPH...
if you mean undergravel filters...i love them..but i don't know if you would want to be branded a dork by using an oldfashion type filter....for water changes i use a python...works great on cleaning gravel..

i prefer gravel for a substrate...what type of gravel i use depends on what kind of fish will be in the tank...natural riverbed for species that prefer a PH level of 7 or less...
for rift lake species i use dolomite....
although sand may look nice , it has a tendency to have toxic gas pockets develop and kill fish...the substrate needs to be stirred up frequently...

i don't use a lot of different meds...my standbys are Aquari-Sol.....Lifebearer....Mela-Fix....Pimafix...Metronidazole......
according to our local expert the cure for fin rot is to amputate the damaged part of the fin...i'm not a disease expert.(actually i'm not any kind of expert..lol..)...if one of my tanks gets something , i treat it..what works for me may not work for another...

welcome to fish forums...it is great to see a whole family involved in the hobby together....


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

see bob....i knew you typed faster then me...lol
my orange lasers finally started spawning....but no viable eggs yet..rams ate theirs...but the apistos are taking good care of theirs...


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

I doubt a UG filter will work well with sand. The sand would just go through the cracks and end up under. UG filters are cheap bio filter, but you have to "gravel wash" regularly and take out the gravel and clean under the plates every several months. I don't mind them, but they are more work the I like to do and you have to keep up water changes to keep nitrate down (all the "muck" stays in the tank decaying). 

I deal with mild fin rot & cloudy eye by lots (like daily 50%) of water changes. Works well in a QT tank, but could be a pain in a 75.

What fish are they? Something like serpaes could be nipping rather than disease.


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## Fishy Famjam (Sep 12, 2012)

emc7 said:


> I doubt a UG filter will work well with sand. The sand would just go through the cracks and end up under. UG filters are cheap bio filter, but you have to "gravel wash" regularly and take out the gravel and clean under the plates every several months. I don't mind them, but they are more work the I like to do and you have to keep up water changes to keep nitrate down (all the "muck" stays in the tank decaying).
> 
> I deal with mild fin rot & cloudy eye by lots (like daily 50%) of water changes. Works well in a QT tank, but could be a pain in a 75.
> 
> What fish are they? Something like serpaes could be nipping rather than disease.



I do have a ropefish in there, but he's only bothered/eaten my smaller fish. I'm starting to see some of my larger fish with frayed/see-through fins. I also have a black ghost knife, but I haven't seen him bother anybody. He is also only about five inches big. My only other large fish is my black & white angelfish, but he just swims around the tank and I've never seen him bully any of his other tankmates.

Sadly, we had our dojo loach die this morning after the disease got progressively worse in him. However, aside from the frayed fins I don't see any redness on any of my fish.

I've been treating the disease with Melafix from API. I also did between 40 - 50% water change this morning.

Also, in regards to my filter size, this is the one I have:

http://www.petsandponds.com/en/aquarium-supplies/c5809/c7359/p16366949.html

This is a new filter for us, as of this week, before we had some bio-wheel filters. The disease occured before I put in this eheim one.

Also, thanks to everyone for their answers!!


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Did you switch out the filters without an overlap? That could give you "new tank" like water quality issues. 

Melafix is decent for regrowing fins, but if you actually have a killer bacterial finrot, you could need an antibiotic. I would suggest a 5-20 gallon hospital tank where you could put the worst affected fish and try meds until you find the right one, then treat the big tank.


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## BettaGuy (May 6, 2012)

I would also think that the reason your fish got sick might be that you swithched the filters without transfering the media or overlapping. This causes your filter not to have any beneficial bacteria on there whatsoever. 

As for sand as a substrate, I really like it in my betta tank. I have a rather deep layer so I introduced some malaysian trumpet snails, but beware these things reproduce like crazy. I'm at the point that I want to introduce an assassin snail to kill some of them but sadly my lps doesn't have any as of now. The only problem with sand is that if you put a to deep layer that you might get those gas pockets to form. But otherwise it would be great for loaches (if you still have some) and corries.


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## ZebraDanio12 (Jun 17, 2011)

lohachata said:


> see bob....i knew you typed faster then me...lol
> my orange lasers finally started spawning....but no viable eggs yet..rams ate theirs...but the apistos are taking good care of theirs...


Sorry this has nothing to do with the thread, but..

awesome Loha! saw those at the lfs. amazing color. I wanted some but they are pretty expensive. maybe. maybe.


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## Fishy Famjam (Sep 12, 2012)

BettaGuy said:


> I would also think that the reason your fish got sick might be that you swithched the filters without transfering the media or overlapping. This causes your filter not to have any beneficial bacteria on there whatsoever.
> 
> As for sand as a substrate, I really like it in my betta tank. I have a rather deep layer so I introduced some malaysian trumpet snails, but beware these things reproduce like crazy. I'm at the point that I want to introduce an assassin snail to kill some of them but sadly my lps doesn't have any as of now. The only problem with sand is that if you put a to deep layer that you might get those gas pockets to form. But otherwise it would be great for loaches (if you still have some) and corries.


I do believe my loach first showed signs prior to switching the filters. I was actually hoping that the better filtration along with medication and a water change would cure the little guy.

I do still have a kuhli loach, a botia, and a couple of albino cories. However, by the sounds of you guys in here, sand is kind of dangerous.

I'm not new to fish, but I'm definitely not a master by any means. I think I'll avoid the sand for now until I can better maintain things.

Thanks again for the advice everybody!


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## BettaGuy (May 6, 2012)

Yeah replacing the filter is most likely what made things worse because of all the beneficial bacteria just being taken out at once with the biowheel. I wouldn't change the gravel right now anyways because it might be the only thing in your aquarium that has beneficial bacteria on it right now.

Sand is just as dangerous as gravel if you take care of a couple of things. First of all, select the right kind of sand. Pool filter sand and play sand are most comonly used. Then make sure that you wash the sand really well so that there is no more dust in it. Then when you place the sand in your aquarium make sure to only put a 1inch layer. 

Maybe once you have the tank back under control you can think about a switch again. The corries will love it as they can search through the sand for food and so will the loaches.


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## hXcChic22 (Dec 26, 2009)

My recommendation for sand would be a larger-grained sand, like the one that Petco makes (which is a cheaper, slightly larger-grained version of Tahitian Moon Sand, in my opinion). 
We have it in our loach tank. It is the perfect size for them to be able to filter feed through it, and also is light enough for them to dig. In my experience, I would not recommend play sand to anyone unless they needed sand in a pinch, since you can get it at hardware stores. It is VERY dusty and very dense, which means it tends to get stirred up into your filter and is difficult for fish to dig in.


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## Guest (Sep 15, 2012)

Yep loaches do love sand. Also loaches, clown loaches are very susceptible to changes to the aquarium. Clown loaches are also called indicator fish because of their susceptibility to water conditions, they are the first fish to get sick when things aren't right with the water conditions.


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