Beginner- help neededBe ASAP

[vanisheDsaRah]

My son got s 5gallon tank for his birthday. I set it up and read all directions. It came with a packet of "new water conditioning", which was added at about 5pm. We went to the pet store, and he picked out 4 glofish. I put the bag in the water, and started researching taking care if them. I know I should have looked sooner, but it's too late to change that. I saw that you have to wait 24hrs after conditioning begore adding the fish, no where in thr many pamphlets that came put of the boxI did it say that, not even on the water conditioning packet. I read about setting up the tank and letting it sit for 6 weeks before adding any fish, which it's too late for too. Now, I have these fish in a bowl (I was worried about the suffocating in the bag) and my water has been conditioning for 5 hours almost. I'm worried about them staying in the bowl for 20 hours, that they'll end up dying anyway. I don't know what to do. My water tests at; Nitrate-0, nitrite-0, hardness-75, alkalinity -40, pH-6.8, temp-78. Where are they going to have s better chance for survival? I know I already totally messed up, but if I can come out if this without killing all of my sons fish, I'd be happy

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Hi, Vanishe. Put them in the tank! I have never heard of a water conditioner that takes 24 hours to work--most of them do their thing almost instantly. Either way, now that you have the fish, they're almost certainly going to be better off in the tank than in a bowl.

Since your tank isn't cycled and is rather heavily stocked, see if your local pet store has some Seachem Prime or similar--something that will detoxify (but not remove) ammonia. Add the recommended amount every day or two for a few weeks until the bacteria in your filter become established and start doing their thing.

By the way, four glow fish seems to me like a lot for a five gallon tank. Most glofish are either modified zebra danios or black tetras, both of which are very active fish that require quite a bit of space. You might be able to keep them alive, but they probably won't be really happy in a five gallon tank. If they do die or if you end up finding new homes for them, I would recommend freshwater shrimp, endler (feeder) guppies, or a betta for a tank this size.

Good luck and let us know how things go.

 

[Kevin Goldstein]

Welcome, firstly what kind of fish are they? (EDIT: I see now. For the kind of fish you have and amount you are leaving the bowl a bit over crowded.) Second, you should not leave your new fish in an unfiltered bowl. Your best bet is to tell your son the fish have to get there belongings together from their old home and to take them back. Explain to them that your tank has yet to cycle, if you got them from Petsmart they have a 14 day return policy. Let the tank sit for at least a few days then come home with the same types of fish and a couple of plants and decor as their "belongings".

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

You have a couple of choices.
1) return the fish and tank to the pet shop and get a refund on the tank and fish. Then buy a bigger tank, take it home and set it up. Wait 24 hours and then get some fish.

2) work with what you have and we will try to help you keep everything going. But the tank is a bit small for most fish so as mentioned by Whistling Badge, if they die then look for something more suited to that tank size.

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You normally set the tank up and let it run for 24 hours or more before adding fish and doing a fish in cycle. This is simply having fish in the tank while the filter develops beneficial bacteria to keep the water clean. If you do a fishless cycle then you have the tank set up and add a source of ammonia and wait about 4-6 weeks before adding fish. In this case you are doing a fish in cycle.

Keep the feeding down to a couple of times a week.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate 4-8 hours after feeding. Do the same water change and gravel clean any day you have an ammonia or nitrite reading above 0.

Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank. The best thing to do is get a couple of new plastic buckets and use a permanent marker to write "FISH ONLY" on them. Keep those buckets for the fish and do not use them for anything else.

When you do a water change you can fill up a bucket with tap water and add some dechlorinator. Aerate or stir the water up for at least a couple of minutes and preferably 30 minutes. Then use that water to fill up the tank. While that bucket of tap water is aerating/ mixing, you can use the other bucket to drain some water out of the tank. Leave the fish in the tank when you do this.

If you don't have a gravel cleaner, get a basic model like the one in the following link. Get the pet shop to demonstrate it if you have any concerns about using it. Or check out how to use a gravel cleaner on YouTube.
https://www.about-goldfish.com/aquarium-cleaning.html

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If you post a picture of the fish and filter we can tell you what fish you have and how to clean the filter.

 

[Essjay]

Looking at your test results, you seem to have strip testers. You don't give a reading for ammonia, and strip testers don't test for ammonia. Can I suggest that you get an ammonia tester asap, preferably one with liquid reagents and test tubes.
Ammonia is the first thing to appear in the water, and it is toxic to fish. You must be able to test for it. The first part of this link explains what happens in a fish tank, but ignore the second part - unless you return the fish and do a fishless cycle. http://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/