Return to fishkeeping after 20 odd years.

Hi there, after more than 20 years of a gap I've returned to fishkeeping. In at the deep end with a juwel vision 260. Apparently undergravel filters are no longer in Vogue.
Currently running on two aquael internal filters and an eheim (vitakraft) external. The plan is to add one more external and remove the two internal filters.
I have struggled recently with green water and fish mortality and consequently I'm currently focusing on plants and the remaining zebra danios and stabilising their environment.......

Have you got a water test kit?
Did you cycle the tank before you stocked it, or was it put them all in the tank at one time and hope filters keep everything stable?

I suggest to ask someone near to you, to give you a sponge out of one of their filters. This will get some good bacteria working in your system and filters and help stabilize it.

Where are you getting water from? Tap, water butt, etc
How often have you done water changes?
How hot are you keeping the tank?

How is the battle going ? Have you managed to stabalise the tank?

One piece of advice i got starting out was to alway have a sponge filter going. (Air pump air stone and sponge filter)

Handy if you are have ammonia spikes in a tank or need to set a tank up quickly to treat a sick fish or to quarantine some new additions. I have just the sponge from a sponge filter over the intake of my fluval306 cannister.. not much help starting out again though. But you have to start somewhere right.

The cons are they are ugly, take up space.

The pros they give u an instant cycled filter act as a back up in case of failure. They are simple and easy and you can get a battery powered air pump if you ever have power failure. Easy to move around and very very cheap.

Hi Jon, Thanks for your reply and apologies for the delay in replying. I cycled the tank for several weeks (Plants only) before introducing any fish, I would have started with one filter (Aquael Internal 650lh) and introduced a second filter a few months Later (another Aquael Internal 720lh), I also am now running an eheim 350. I don't have a test kit but do regular checks (weekly/bi-weekly) with my LFS. Everything is reasonably stable and initially fish seemed ok. Regular water checks confirmed water was stable, water changes were carried out every 1-2 weeks, this was taken from the tap and treated using Aquarian Tapsafe. I lost some fish over the first couple of months and am still at a loss to figure out how or why. Some did seem a little peaky from day1! I used ESHA finrot/fungus and bacteria with varying degrees of success. Everything settled down and plants and fish were doing well. I have had to treat green water on and off throughout all of this, in an effort to reduce the amount of organic waste I removed the gravel and used sand instead (better for plant roots?, less chance of food, fish waste building up in the gravel?) This worked well for a wee while but a return to green water prompted me to try blacking out the aquarium, this made no real difference and only resulted in me loosing some plants. So currently I'm trying to promote plant growth (with easy life profito), water treatment with interpet bioactive tapsafe and cloudiness with quickclear ,.........I'm afraid to buy any more fish at the moment as from a dozen Danios, three Corydoras, several Platies, several Guppies there are three Danios left..... I'm seriously pondering the wisdom of carrying on with what has become a money pit! Temp is 28C

Hi Lawrence, Thanks for your reply, Apologies for delay in replying, I did a major cleanup on the sand, removed some detritus and treated the water using Interpet bioactive tapsafe and Interpet quick clear (had previously used Accu clear which had initially been brilliant but then no longer seemed to have any impact. Water still hinting green, will get another test done in the am.......I would like to add another external filter and remove both internal but think I'll wait and see what happen first(Money pit!) I do have a small tank with plants, air driven filter and Daphnia so can always use that to seed another filter. Watch this space, I will post some timeline photos shortly.

I use tetra test strips 6 in 1 and a seperat ammonia strip. I cut them in half and double the number I get. Nutrient balace could be a factor.

How much light is the tank getting? Is it getting direct sunlght? This could be a factor.

If you take a sample of water out is it green or clear.

The green water itself should be ok for fish but the cause if it is related to the nitrogen cycle could be the fish killer.

Sand will probably kill all your plants. They will start to rot. Causing further inbalance. I use JBL manado and JBL aua basis as a nutirent provider - works great for the plants.

Adding some daphnia will help as they feed on the algae.

Had the water tested this morning, all good, be curious to see what other people think of sand as a substrate? I've reduced the length of time the lighting is on. The aquarium is in a kitchen which is facing south west, it can be sunny but the aquarium doesn't get direct sunlight. I'm happy that the green water is just algae and not anything sinister.............................. I am feeding the plants weekly with Easy life profito.