Do I Need a PowerHead for My !0 Gallon Tank

[Sjsteveo]

well the powerhead situation, i was thinking do i need it? since i only have one puffer fish in my tank right now although i do plan on adding 2 for him to keep him or her or it comapny, but i was wondering do i need a powerhead? or is my filter good enough, and also do i need to buy a cat fish to clean out algeas? like those black ugly looking ones that eats algae

[Boxermom]

What would you need a powerhead for? If you aren't having an algae problem, you don't need an algae eater, ugly black ones or otherwise.

I have to ask, why do you keep fish? You really don't seem to like them much.

[Hilly]

I would say dont add one, it would create a lot of water movement which your puffer may not like.

Why do you think you need one in a 10 gallon tank?

[Sjsteveo]

well i had a FAT buttocks algae break out, it was disgusting my tank was so ugly, and i had like hair algae too like the stringy ones, so i decided to buy myself a ugly black algae eating cat fish, but ummm it's kinda huge, and ugly i wonder if it'll work, mabye i'll return it in a few days if i really hate it, but i was just wondering if i needed one since i did have a fat buttocks algea break out, and as for the powerhead, i went to the fish store and i'm like well i want to give some bubbles to my fishtank, and they're like oh well you can either get this powerhead or you can get the other ones, but they're like but if you use the power head it'll also be better for cleaning the gravel and blahblahbal help the water current yada da da, but ya or should i just go cheap and get the bubling making thing

[Hilly]

Powerhead cleaing gravel, thats a good one. Cant see how it would help control algae either.

If you want some bubbles in your tank, a small pump with an airstone is a better choice and probably a lot cheaper.

[Sjsteveo]

ya but i want to clean my gravel, but i was thinking is that even necesasry for a 10 gallon tank with 3 dwarf puffer and a ugly black pig algea eating catfish, no but i BOUGHT the cat fish to eat the algea that's what i was asking about, two different topic, and BTW do dwarf puffer eats ghost shrimp? cause my sister bought me 10 and she's like it'll look cool in your tank but i'm like UHHHHHHHH do they even eat it?

[Hilly]

If you want to clean the gravel, get a gravel syphon from your LFS and you can do it when you do your water changes and gravel syphons are dirt cheap.

[Sjsteveo]

oh ay i do have those syphon thingi, like a tube and ya i do that, but i was wondering if i needed an extra power head to keep my tank extra clean

[Hilly]

No powerhead required, just syphon and waterchange, and it should do the trick. If you've got excessive algae, does the tank get a lot of direct sunlight as that will not help, if you've got algae on your glass, an algae magnet will scrape it off.

[Dinsdale]

If you have an algae breakout it's probably from not cleaning the tank enough (something you have to do...no fish you buy will do it for you unfortunately). How often do you do water changes? You should be doing it at least once a week. You may also be overfeeding. It's also important to clean out uneaten food after feeding.

Adding more fish will only make the problem worse until you fix the root of the problem.

[Boxermom]

I would recommend tanking the fat black ugly catfish back, as its going to make your problem work and from the sounds of it is probably too big for your tank. You shouldn't buy ANY fish, ugly or otherwise, before researching it and making sure you have an appropriate home for it.

BTW, punctuation is your friend. Its very difficult to read your posts when they are just one huge run-on sentence.

[Sjsteveo]

ya i do a 50% water change every week, and i feed the puffer once a day but not like a big chunk, just enough tubefex to keep him happy, and ya my tank does get alot of sunlight, alright THANKS THE BUNCH GUYS I WAS HELLA DISGUSTED BY THE algae, as for the GHOST SHRIMP, should i leave em in there?

[Boxermom]

Are you vacuuming the gravel well whenever you do a water change? A single DP can create a lot of waste that's difficult to see until you start vacuuming, then you'd be surprised at how much there is.

[Sjsteveo]

ya i vacum the gravel really well, the water's gross after i do it, so GHOST SHRIMP should i leave them in there? cause the Dwarf puffer doesn't seem to like it at all

[cartoonbear]

hahaha. I love how boxermom said something about Sjsteveo's punctuation and he started using it excessively, and in the wrong places. At least he was using it

Where the shrimp are concerned, if your puffer doesn't like them in the tank, take them out.