10G Tropical Fish Tank

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beginner_fish

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Hi, I am a beginner to this and have started a 10G tropical fish tank and this is around the 8th day. Perhaps due to the lack of enough knowledge, I am doing a cycling with fish started with Tetra Aqua Safe Start and fish - 2 serpae tetra and 1 Long fin gold Danio. In a few days I noticed that my tap water being used for partial water cycle seemed to have ammonia even after Tetra Aqua Safe so after reading I started using Seachem Prime. Recently I bought the Seachem Ammonia Altert. I currently have the Jungle Dip Kits for other tests.

Observations:
The test observations with test strips are Nitrate around 0 Safe, Hardness 150 Hard, Chlorine Safe 0, Alkaline Ideal 180, ph Alkaline 7.8 +
Free Ammonia Alert at Alert 0.05 ppm

The Danio kept chasing the tetra's quite often moving them to a corner whenever the would come out . So I moved the Tetras out as I would prefer active but peaceful fish - not chasing each other / troubling each other majorly . I am doing a daily partial water change 15-20-25% by removing older water with a cup and pouring in similarly recently taken tap water treated with prime (not suction).

Being a beginner am I doing something wrongly, is there something I need to change? I can't do a major change like move to fishless cycling but if some smaller changes would help - please advise.
Also any suggestion on colorful fish if possible. Thanks.
 
Firstly, I would suggest you purchase a Freshwater Master Test Kit, they are around £20 on eBay. Liquid tests are considered to be more accurate than test strips, and 1 kit tests for all the important parameters. Also, 1 kit will last you a long time.

As for your cycling queries; try and get your Ammonia readings down to 0, any amount of ammonia is harmful to your fish. A large water change is necessary.

But as I am still somewhat a newbie myself, I'd wait for the big boys to come and give some long term advice.

As far as I am aware, Danio's are shoaling fish and should ideally be kept in groups of around 5+.
 
Firstly, I would suggest you purchase a Freshwater Master Test Kit, they are around £20 on eBay. Liquid tests are considered to be more accurate than test strips, and 1 kit tests for all the important parameters. Also, 1 kit will last you a long time.

As for your cycling queries; try and get your Ammonia readings down to 0, any amount of ammonia is harmful to your fish. A large water change is necessary.

But as I am still somewhat a newbie myself, I'd wait for the big boys to come and give some long term advice.

As far as I am aware, Danio's are shoaling fish and should ideally be kept in groups of around 5+.

Thanks for the suggestions. I am worried that how much is the maximum water change fine - currently I stick to no more than 8 L i.e. around 20% of 10 Gallon a day afraid that a major water change would adversely impact the fish. Currently the tank has 1 Longfin gold danio.
 
Firstly, I would suggest you purchase a Freshwater Master Test Kit, they are around £20 on eBay. Liquid tests are considered to be more accurate than test strips, and 1 kit tests for all the important parameters. Also, 1 kit will last you a long time.

As for your cycling queries; try and get your Ammonia readings down to 0, any amount of ammonia is harmful to your fish. A large water change is necessary.

But as I am still somewhat a newbie myself, I'd wait for the big boys to come and give some long term advice.

As far as I am aware, Danio's are shoaling fish and should ideally be kept in groups of around 5+.

Thanks for the suggestions. I am worried that how much is the maximum water change fine - currently I stick to no more than 8 L i.e. around 20% of 10 Gallon a day afraid that a major water change would adversely impact the fish. Currently the tank has 1 Longfin gold danio.

With the current level of ammonia in the tank, a large water change wouldn't have an adverse effect on the fish, It would make the water quality better.

A water change of at least 50% if not more is advisable to get the Ammonia levels down.

As you only have 1 Danio in your tank, i'm not sure what to suggest. Rehoming the Danio and starting a fishless cycle seems to be a valid next step. Although, I'd wait for the big boys to help you out.
 
Hello & welcome to our fishy world.

Here is my 2penath

As it is only a 10 gallon tank I would up the waterchanges to 50% per day for a week or so. This will dilute the toxins & give your fish some breathing space.

Smeggbert has already sugested getting a liquid based master test kit & I agree. We mostly use the API master kit. It is around £20 from Ebay but will last an awful long time.

Do not add any more fish untill your cycle is finished.

~Tom~
 
Thanks a lot Tom and Smeggbert!

Any issues with my doing the water cycle changes with just a cup or do I need to do the suction cup thing thus touching the gravel any time or at a certain frequency till cycling completes?
I guess till cycling gets over No algae cleaning or any other tasks to be done except water change, temp check, feed and test water?
 
Hi,

I got my API test kit and seachem free ammonia, total ammonia test kit so wanted to share the scores, request guidance and had some specific questions too.
To refresh your memory this a fish-in cycling 10 Gallon tank with 1 Long fin gold Danio (1 moved out the Tetras a week back) using Prime on the tap water changes:

Aquarium water
day number since cycling and time; api scores - ph, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate; seachem scores free ammonia, total ammonia; any changes done after test

day 13 10 PM; 8, 0.5, 0,0; 0.1, 0.5; changed 8 ltr water treated with prime, fed
day 14 11 AM ; 8, 0.5, 0,0; 0.15, 1; none
day 14 9 PM; 8, 0.5, 0, 0; 0.15, 1; fed

Tap water before prime api score ammonia 0.5; seachem scores free ammonia, total ammonia 0.2 , 0.5 to 1

Tap water after prime api score ammonia 0.5; seachem scores free ammonia, total ammonia 0.1 , 0.5


1. Since my free ammonia is below 0.25 (0.1, 0.15, 0.2 range ) I should not do partial water change more than once weekly for 10-15% unless it exceeds 0.25 or
does the total ammonia need to be kept in check too with water changes - then to how much max?
In the last week I am doing daily changes of 12 L almost 30-40% as I was waiting on my test kits. I guess this is slowing my cycling so didn't do any on Day 14.

2a. Do I need to add prime as then I can't rely on salicylate based ammonia test kit like API test and need to depend on Seachem's test for free ammonia (which is not salicylate or Nessler based). The problem I see is their color card is a big box with changing shades - not clear separate boxes of different color so I find reading it accurately difficult perhaps just because I am a beginner. If my free ammonia is almost same in tap water, prime treated and aquarium water with the seachem test - I can just use just a regular dechrolinator which would not effect ammonia reading and thus go by api tests?

2b.Is it Ok to then switch from prime to a non ammonia effecting decholrinator to make measuring ammonia easier or I need to continue treating the ammonia in tap water by prime etc?

2c. Why is API showing 0.5 ammonia on tap water (free and ionized). Given this Prime or a similar product would be necessary to use my tap water?

3. Any suggestions, advice in general for my cycling situation.

Thanks.
 
Hi,

Just wanted to share that I think my tank seems cycled and wanted to thank this forum and to responses guidance on on my post.

To share my experience, I saw start of nitrite around Day 23 and started seeing Nitrate around Day 27. Ammonia dropped to near Zero from Day 37. Now at Day 43, my only observation is Nitrates hit near 40 in 5-6 days. I am considering now to switch to twice a week check for Nitrate from the more intense monitoring till now.

My total no of days is also high perhaps due to a low bioload for quite a few days in between where I had decreased fish count from 3 to 1 (since the 2 Tetra seemed bullied by the first Danio).

I do have some fish challenges about the right fishes for my 10 gallon tank but will start a separate post for it.

Thanks.
 

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