# New Algae Eater



## Arcfusion (Jan 4, 2008)

Hello everyone!
Before I start I would like to wish everyone a happy New Year.
Alright, sadly my Bushynose Pleco died this morning:rip:, and I was think what new algae eater I should get for a 38ga community/gourami tank. I am likely going to buy another Bushynose Pleco, but I figured I might as well know my options. My tank currently has: 2 gold Gouramis (couple), 2 Dwarf Gouramis (both female) 2 Powder Blue Gouramis (both female) and 2 LyreTail Dalmation Mollies (couple). I think the only fish in my tank that would bully anything else is (you guessed it) the male Gold Gourami, but from my research (because I am pretty new to the hobby) no fish (except the most aggressive of chilids and that kind of thing) picks on algae eaters (especialy plecos). I don't know how mine died because I doubt anything killed it, and all my bad thing (ammonia, etc.) levels were normal (for a 10 day old tank, only like 0.7 ppm of amonia). Well sorry about all that garbage you had to read but, bottom line is: could you please give me suggestions, perferably some hardy, fairly goodlooking, max size of 5" and common, basicly meaning I don't want to go to the Amazon a kill an Anaconda for a freakin' Pleco . I have a Big Al's near my house and they have a pretty good selection of fish.


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## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

Okay, 7ppm of ammonia is probably what killed your pleco. They are very sensitive to water conditions. This tank has been running for only 10 days and is already that stocked? I am afraid that this is only the beginning of your eventual losses. The gourami's will not handle the cycle very well. I don't know how hardy Mollies are. Even small amounts of ammonia will cause harm to a fish. 

Please read up about cycling your tank. If this were my tank I would save my fishes lives and give them back to the store until I could finish the cycle fishless. Then I would stock very slowly. I would not put any Gourami into my tank until it was stable for at least 2 weeks (longer is better but with a primarily Gourami tank I can understand not wanting to wait forever to put them in, but if you go slow then you can maintain control). And definitely would not add a new pleco until the tank was stable for at least 2 weeks. I would put the Mollies in first and then start adding the Gourami's one pair at a time, at least a week a part, even better at 2 weeks apart. 

Where to read about the cycle: http://www.fishforums.com/forum/general-freshwater/7125-nitrogen-cycle-basics.html
http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/biologicalcycle/a/nitrogencycle.htm

Some information about the chemistry in your water:
http://www.chelonia.org/Articles/waterchemistry.htm

Some information on fishless cycling:
http://www.fishforums.com/forum/beginner-freshwater/5756-fishless-cycle-question.html

I hope that everything goes well for you and your tank. The cycle is an annoying process but one that cannot be avoided. You can also go purchase some Birospira and cycle your tank with that. If you are not willing to give the fish back then I would beg of you to buy this product. It has the required bacteria and can make this process go much faster and be much safer for your little fish friends. Please do not buy other products that say they have the right bacteria, as they usually do not, and can put in the wrong kind of bacteria which will only extend your cycle time and continue to harm your fish. Birospira is in the refrigerated section of the fish store and is worth the expense. 

Goodluck!

I forgot to mention: If you have not already performed a water change, you will need to do that ASAP. You need to get the ammonia down, and the water changes will do that for you. I would suggest 50% water changes for 2-3 days to start with (check your levels before each change, and if its down to 1ppm or less then you can do less than 50%). Then you can do closer to 20-40% until you get it down to at least 1ppm or less. 7ppm is actually high enough to damage your nitrification process, so having it that high will prevent the tank from cycling right. Once you get the ammonia in control you still have to check your water levels daily and make sure it stays in control. The fishes lives are what is most important right now! Once ammonia is under control you should see a climbing in NitrIte. That will also hurt your fishes and if that goes above 2ppm you will need to keep doing water changes to keep it under control... when you have read about the cycle all of this information should make sense. Once nitrAte shows up that means you are on the downhill side of the cycle and it should finish fairly soon after that. It normally takes 4-6 weeks. It took me 8 on my first tank, and I cycled with fish. I lost all of those fish out of my ignorance about fishless cycling. And I lost them even tough I kept all ammonia and nitrIte levels less than 2ppm the whole cycle long. Thats why I recommend doing this fishless now.


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## joe kool (Jan 24, 2005)

9 fish in a 10 day old <40gal tank is too many. I cycled my 100gal with 10 goldfish over the better part of a month. Then the gold fish got acquainted with my male Green terror and I added 10 other fish then one'sies and two'sies after that. Even in a large tank you don't want to add more than a few fish at a time. Take Obsidians advice and read a little on the nitrogen cycle that way you'll know what to expect and why. They you'll likely want to go have words with the LFS employee but that's another story.

I would suggest you wait until you start seeing signs of algae before considering getting another pleco. there are quite a few nice looking ones that stay in the 7" max range or closes to that but few rival the cleaning prowess of the brushynose IMO. Green phantoms are decent when they can be found but they are more sensitive than the brushy nose. Gold nuggets are good as well and fairly hardy. Brushy nose are actually fairly hardy themselves but anything over 2ppm in Ammonia will start taking it's toll on ANY fish. I'm not sure who told you 7ppm was "good" but they need to check their references as well most test kits only go up to 8ppm and that's considered extremely toxic!


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## Arcfusion (Jan 4, 2008)

Sorry guys, I wrote that last night and I was pretty tired. My REAL ammonia is .7ppm, my bad sorry for the confusion.


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## Guest (Jan 5, 2008)

Arcfusion said:


> Sorry guys, I wrote that last night and I was pretty tired. My REAL ammonia is .7ppm, my bad sorry for the confusion.


Any ammonia at all in any tank is bad, very bad. Like they said you need to do a water change asap. I would suggest since it seems like you just started the tank and added fish that either you should take them back until you can cycle the tank or eventually they will die. 
You'll need to do a water change everyday until you start reading nitrAtes. Hopefully everything works out, but do not add anything else to that tank until it has been cycled.
Everyone else before has given you good advice about cycling a tank so I am not going to go into that myself. 
Good luck....


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## Arcfusion (Jan 4, 2008)

Okay thanks guys, I got it all fixed up. I did like 7 water changes in a week.

P.S This is really old sorry I forgot about it.


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