about as new as one can be

[adancr]

I am new to the whole experience and making some newbie mistakes. I am looking for some help with water testing and stressed fish. Thank you, Wanda F living in South East USA

 

[Mr Miagi]

Hey, hope you have fun fish keeping like i have. U will learn with experince. Ive been keeping fish for four yrs and im still learning lol. If ya do have stressed fish etc. increase the amount of oxygen in the tank by way of an airstone, this might help a bit.

Goodluck

 

[SMSBrunetteGirl]

Welcome!

 

[keane]

to the forums.

am new myself and you've found the best place you could for advice and guidance. These guys know their stuff.

post any queries in the beginners section and you should get a pretty good response.

have fun.

tbr

 

[jimbooo]

Hello and welcome.

thats a lot of water for a first tank, youre gonna have fun... LOL

feel free to ask anything you like on here. users range from 10yrs old to 110 so no question is too silly to ask (and you can hide behing a PC screen anyway so who cares..)

 

[jflowers]

to the forum Wanda

Jon

p.s. whats a corky cat?

 

[Sasha]

Hi Wanda and to the forum!

 

[FoundMoney]

Welcome Wanda. I'm pretty much a newbie, too, but these folks got me started on the right track, so much so that I feel confident giving you a little free advice. Of course, you have to take that for what it's worth. You get what you pay for!

So what do you mean by water testing? Do you have any test kits? I have test kits for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. I don't know how much you know about tank cycling and the like but basically, you want to get your levels so that ammonia and nitrite are zero and that nitrates are less than 40. If this seems at all complicated, it isn't. I think it's harder to make microwave popcorn than to do water testing. If you don't have test kits, I recommend you buy the kind that use liquid chemicals to change the water color to indicate water quality. All it takes is putting some drops and some shaking then you match the colors. This is a pretty good explanation of what needs to be tested and the type of test kits available.

http/badmanstropicalfish.com/testkit.html

I think for most hobbyists the color change kits are accurate enough.

You say you have stressed fish in the tank. What makes you think they're stressed? If you have high levels of ammonia and nitrites in your tank then your fish will be stressed. What kind of fish and how many do you have? I'm more than happy to help (even if I am a newbie). I also suggest reading some of the pinned posts on this site.

Good luck!

 

[jflowers]

I agree with the above, in particular, using liquid test kits and most importantly reading the cycling pinned topics, very informative.

Jon