Water Parameters & Changes

stranded northern belle

Here's my parameters and livestock:

55 gal long tank
2 Whisper 40 filters
temp 78-80F
Ammonia 0
GH 180
KH 240
PH 8.0
NitrIte 0
NitrAte 20

1 colbalt blue male betta
4 albino cory cats 1-2 inches
4 black skirted tetra 1.5 - 2.5 inches
4 sunburst platty 1 - 1.5 inches (1 male 3 female)
4 dalmation molly 1.5 - 2.5 inches (1 male 3 female)
2 silver hatchetfish 1 - 1.5 inches
2 gold apple snails silver dollar size
1 ivory/blue snail quarter size

6 inch long hollow log decoration
3 fake floor to ceiling plants
3 fake floor to 1/2 tank plants
2 6inch air stones
1 weird glow in the dark fake pink anenome
25 lbs of black gravel

Feeding:
M W F flake soaked in garlic once daily
M W F cucumber slices
Tu Thurs Sun squished peas soaked in garlic
Saturday freeze dried bloodworms
Saturday orange slices
4 algea wafers every other day

Cleaning:
Saturday
50% water change w/gravel cleaning (python)
pull all decoration and clean
scrub tank sides, heaters, filter inlets
Tuesdays
50% water change w/gravel cleaning (python)
Every other Saturday
new aquascaping to break up territories
I use Aqua Safe from Tetra as well as Aqurium salt with every water change.

My questions are kinda basic, but being a newbie, I'm looking for reassurance that I am doing things "right". About a week ago I upgraded to a 55 gal from a 20 gal. New tank was cycled without fish. Am I overfeeding/underfeeding, or not offering a healthy variety of food for my fish? Should I be doing such large water changes/gravel cleaning? My snails are very messy, and I just don't want to have ammonia issues. Water is clear, no visable algea, and fish are active and eating well. I have had platty fry as well as molly fry, no snail eggs though. There is minimal agression with the tetras. I Guess I am looking for suggestions and/or ideas on how I can maintain a safe and healty environment for my pets.

Thanks in advance!!!

Tommy Gun

Hey stranded northern belle - welcome to the forum and congrats on the bigger tank!

IMHO you are doing pretty good with offering a varied diet, which goes a long way as far as offering a healthy diet. Whether or not you are over feeding would depend on how ofter you feed them and how much you feed them and possibly a couple of other things. So long as your fish are not letting your fish eat too much, the 'trick' would be to ensure a lot of food goes uneaten.

As long as it is within reason, I don't think you are changing too much water out. I would probably stop taking your decorations out to wash them though since they may be carrying some benificial bacteria. If you are concerned about algae growth on those decorations, I am pretty sure that you will only frustrate yourself by trying to keep the tank completely clean in that regard - and you can probably rely a little bit on your snails to help get at those smaller spaces in/on decor. (Although you might find out that having two snails may lead to having literally hundreds of them all of a sudden)

I also don't think your snails are all that messy and probably wouldn't/couldn't lead to an ammonia problem.

Do you have a lot of aggression in your tank? If not, I think this might be an extra step and you could probably avoid doing it until you do have a problem. If the problem is never ending, then I might think about removing the worst offenders and trade for another fish with a better disposition.
It does sound like you are on the right track and if anything, might be going slightly over board in some aspects. The thing to keep in mind here is that we are all trying to create a mini-ecosystem and it is not a sterile environment, and cleaning to perfection is probably counter productive.....make sense?

Again, welcome to the forum! Hopefully I can at least get you started here, but I am sure any number of members might come along and help you out ever more.

E46er

I agree with tommy and the benifical bacteria (turns ammonia to nitrite and finally to nitrate) doesnt live "in" the water its on everything in the tank ie substrate filter filter unit glass decor ect
so by scrubbing the decorations u may be scrubbing away bacteria that you WANT.
other than that when u wash your filters use the tank water you drained out and not your tap water

stranded northern belle

Thank you for the warm welcome Tommy! And for the speedy reply! I apologize for not responding as quickly. We have been busy plowing the 11 inches of snow we got on Tuesday!!! I am so ready for spring!!! And we're supposed to get another 12-16 inches this weekend! ARRGHHH!!! Anyway,

-

I've been pulling the decor due to a build up of white algea(?). My fish have been eating this white algea(?) stuff and when they, ahh, "poo", it looks like there are ramen noodles floating in the tank! Very frustrating! Any ideas to avoid this build up? p.s. I haven't had ramen noodles in my house since I graduated college 8 years ago!!!!

I'm not sure if it's considered agression, but I have 5 fish who have long fins. My tetras are the long finned black skirted type. Their "top and bottom" fins are black and about 1.5 to 2 inches with 1-2 inch white tails. My betta is just huge! I'm beginning to think he's a mutant! His body is at least 1.5 inches and his fins are 2 - 2.5 inches long. Okay, they were that long. When he was introduced to the family, he was subjected to the usual fin nipping "hazing" from the tetras. I acclimated him in the morning, and kept a close eye on the tank all day to check for agression, as he was the last to join. There were no signs of agression at all. However, when I woke up the next morning, he was almost bald headed!! Not really bald but his fins were half as long as they were the previous day. I honestly cried because I felt so bad. However, that is the only serious incident I have had. Bully (the betta) has claimed the log as his own, and chasing ensues the moment anyone else tries to "visit" him in there. The mollys have claimed the planted areas as their own, and chase others away as well. I noticed that when I aquascape, the squabbling subsides. Honestly, everyone gets along well, I just want to avoid any premature balding!!

I have had all three snails since early January with no eggs yet. (Yet being the key word.) I leave 2.5 - 3 inches at the top of the tank to allow for egg laying, but no such luck! My LFS is willing to take the molly and platty fry as well as any baby snails for instore credit, so I've been using my 20 gal as a fry tank.

I've got OCD, does it show??!!!

Thanks again for the welcome, as well as the responses!!!