Journal: beginner 10g planted tank

[alter40]

Thank you sweetpickles. I do love the colors of the bolivian rams. I know the one LFS here doesn't have any, but I will have to check the other two and see what they have. I will be going to them later this week and hopefully get a better idea of what fish I will add to the tank after the cycle.
How often do you do water changes in your 10gal tank? I was thinking that I would probably end up doing about a 20% change once a week.

[sweetpickles7]

Yea thats about right, maybe 25%. Flame gouramis are great, i just got my first gourami and im not 100% sure what type it is i cant find it on the net? It is a dwarf but its mainly red with neon blue strips, and is kinda pearl white in the face? I mainly just stick with cichlids but i do like the occasional change.

[alter40]

Ok so I will do about a 25% change once a week then. Flame gourami is one of types that I was looking at getting. I was also looking at the blue dwarf gourami or one of the dwarfs that has the stripes going up and down on them. If I can find some of the bolivian rams though I'm going to have a tough decision to make

Does your flame gourami look like this? Flame Gourami

[sweetpickles7]

Well kind of? It has vertical stripes and is kind of speckled neon blue when u get back to the tail fin. Every once in awhile ill see it in one of the 5 pictures above where it shows tanks and all different types of fish.

[alter40]

Well just a quick update that got me excited haha. I just checked my tracking number and the estimated delivery date for my supplies is on Saturday. This is earlier then I expected it to get here

[d3sc3n7]

Sweet! So how long do we have to wait to see a tank with water in it?!?!

[sweetpickles7]

Yea heck u could of used ur old filter and started the cycling but ur not going to use ammonia now right?

[alter40]

Well if I get the stuff Saturday then I should have the tank filled with water by Sunday. I have to find plain ammonia though, I went to Walmart today and they didn't have just plain ammonia. If I can find that before the weekend then the tank should have water in it Sunday.

[alter40]

Originally Posted by sweetpickles7

Yea heck u could of used ur old filter and started the cycling but ur not going to use ammonia now right?

Well I was planning on using ammonia. Is that the best way to cycle a new tank with no fish or is there another way that I should be doing it?

[sweetpickles7]

O no, i just thought someone said u could just do it with plants instead. I have no idea how u could cycle it differently unless u have another tank setup somewhere?