1 Week Into Aquarium

[moomin07]

Its been one weeks so we got advised by lfs to have water checked, took sample in and they told us before we went via phone this service was free, so happily we took down sample
they checked it and nitrite0.2
ammonia 2
then charged us £2!!!! its only if buying fish, would be too bad to buy more fish at this stage after only recently thanks to you guys that we learnt about cycle
we got adviced to do 10% water change

so in a week we have changed 20litre of water
10lt because of filter problem ( juwel filter we removed)
10lt cos the lfs said too
they also said feed once every 2-3 days? is thi right?
i have 3 neon and bristle nose left.

 

[rabbut]

All those fish are sencitive to ammonia and nitrite, so an advanced warning to expect the worse at this stage.

Ammonia at 2 is a massive concern. It will do damage through short-term exposure above 0.25, and damage over long-term exposure at any detectable level, so that needs pulling down, right down. I'd change as much water in there as passible, 10% certainly isn't enough here. If you can get close to 90% that would be ideal. Yes that larger waterchange will be stressful, but with ammonia on 2, there won't be many fish left in there to be stressed if you leave it, or just do a small waterchange The minimum you need is 85%, assuming zero ammonia in the tap, to get that down to 0.25ppm. Leave just enough water in to cover the fish pretty much.

Have you ordered your own liquid drop test kit? If not, you need to. If you have, when does it arrive, or do you already have it?

Cutting feeding back to once every three days is the only good bit of advise I can see that the LFS has given out to you so far. Follow that one to the letter for the time being What volume of water are we dealing with here? (doing the maths I get 100l)

With nitrite showing, ammonia is starting to process, so the cycle has started. That is promicing at least

After the large waterchange, do 50% daily waterchanges at least untill you get your test kit. Once you have the kit, you can then monitor how much or little is reguired. You need to keep ammonia and nitrite below 0.25 for while cycleing.

HTH
Rabbut

 

[OldMan47]

I agree with Rabbut on doing lots of large water changes until you can get that test kit. There is no reason to get more fish at this point as it will make keeping the water good even harder. Anyone who would charge me £2 after telling me there would be no charge would not see me in their shop again. It sort of happened to me yesterday when the clerk at my LFS told me that I could not choose which guppy I wanted because she wouldn't be willing to try to get the right one for the simple price of a guppy. Since I only wanted that particular one and had no interest in the rest, it became no sale and I fully intend to use the other 2 LFS instead of that one from now on.

 

[moomin07]

that test was done on saturday we tested again sunday and got same reading, we got own test kit now and did another water change today. results showing ammonia at 1 and nitrite under 0.3
according to our test kit we got

 

[smegforbrains]

Your title says 1 week into aquarium.


Have you cycled the tank previous to this? How long for?

 

[rabbut]

That ammonia is still dangerously high. You need another big waterchange.

Do you have any ammonia or nitrite in your tap water? If so, we need to take this into account in our advise

Assuming you have zero from the tap for both, you will need to do a 75% waterchange, to get the ammonia in check, or two 50%'s I'd prefur personally to get all the work and stress on the fish over and done with in one go.

All the best
Rabbut

 

[moomin07]

yes week one into cycle. i didnt know u had to cycle tank and lfs said nothing about this too us when we paid £100 for tank and extras. we spent £140 so far and now totally confused

 

[petertr]

LFS's do seem to only care about the sale, from all of what I've read on here over the last few months.

 

[LauraFrog]

They're all the same pretty much, the problem is that if they tell people what's required to cycle a tank (a fair bit of complicated chemistry to fishless cycle, and a LOT of work to fish in cycle) they usually lose interest.

rabbut is right, do more water changes. Do a lot more water changes. How big is the tank, what fish did you originally put in it and are the three neons and bristlenose still alive?

Can you give us the stats for your water as it comes out of the tap?

 

[dcarmor927]

I agree, no one at my LFS said anything about a cycling process, i had to find it all out for myself, I'm still in the ammonia phase of cycling, doing water changes 2 times a day, 1 the next then back to two, like everyone said, keep the ammonia down

 

[waterdrop]

Hi there moomin07,

If you picked up a test kit you need to tell us what type (going through dozens of beginners a month, the members tend to get picky!) Also, now that you've got it, it would be great to post up all the results of testing your tap water, since that's what's going to be going into the tank on water changes.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[moomin07]

ok peeps all going fine, ammonia is coming down and nitrite is still at lowest it can be . bf did water change everyday and tests water from tap its fine the liquid test thingy stays yellow.
will write what make of test later as im upstairs and fish down stairs
they are fine swimming around and stuff.

 

[vinylman]

ok peeps all going fine, ammonia is coming down and nitrite is still at lowest it can be . bf did water change everyday and tests water from tap its fine the liquid test thingy stays yellow.
will write what make of test later as im upstairs and fish down stairs
they are fine swimming around and stuff.

Bear in mind, though, that fish that are exposed to Ammonia will have permanently damaged gills. They MAY survive the cycle, but it will shorten their lifespan. Neon Tetras rarely do well in uncycled and unmatured tanks, too. Like Cardinals, waiting at least three months to introduce them would be the ideal. If your LFS tells you something, come back here and check first before you act on their 'advice'.