Beginner With A 33 Gallon Tank.

[sasmcpot]

Hello all!

Firstly, let me say im quite happy I have found a good tropical fish community! From browsing the boards it seems alot of you know your stuff and are very helpful to newbies like myself!

I bought a fish tank at the local fish shop (A used, large one he had in the back). From an online calculator I found from measuring it, it appears to be 33 UK Gallons, but in truth it looks even bigger than that! This came complete with an Undergravel Filter, a Pump, 2 Lights (The beam type ones) and a heater.

The owner told me to put water in the tank, add some Goldfish Tap Safe to the water that I already had from my Goldfish (Although there wasnt enough in the whole bottle to do my tank!) then come back the next day and get some fish to put in it. I chose 6 Guppies, 6 Neon Tetras and a Plec to start off with. I also ordered an internal tank themometer online.

Ive put the fish in today, and then had a look on the internet on ways to keep my fish happy and healthy, and from reading, it sounds like I have done everything wrong! I really wish I had checked on the internet beforehand now.

Anything else I will need to purchase to make my fish's lives easier?
Just really wondering what you guys would do from here?

Many Thanks!

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Sasmcpot.
I would immediately return the fish and do a fishless cycle on that new tank. It would make a nice tank for the fish that you have if it had been cycled before stocking it. If you cannot return the fish for some reason, you can also do a fish-in cycle but it is a lot more work to do one right. Something you will need either way is a decent liquid reagent type test kit. Many of us use the API master freshwater test kit. There are links to both the fish-in cycle article and the fishless cycle article in my signature area. Please read through them to decide which way you would like to go and then come back and we can answer any remaining questions you might have.

 

[sasmcpot]

Perfect! Thankyou very much!

Unfortunately returning the fish isn't really a viable option so I guess it'll be the fish-in-cycle.

I'll get a test kit tomorrow. Thanks again for the help!

 

[K-Holed]

A quality test kit is worth its weight in gold when starting a new tank. You can cycle a tank blind, but it's so much easier when you know exactly what's going on.

 

[ZebraDanioFan]

i think ull run into problems with the undergravel filter...i would buy a new external filter because undergravel filters tend to build up wastes and make water conditions bad...they are hard to clean as well...also u might have problems with the pleco being in too small of a tank

 

[Wills]

Yeah I think I agree with Zebrafan the under gravel filters are a bit old school now. In a 3 foot most internals are well suited or if you can afford one an external is a fantastic option. An external filter sits bellow your tank and has one pipe going in to the tank and an other pipe sucking water out the tank but the canisters are big usually so it allows for much more room to polish your water.

With the plec I think he was right again - do you know which type it is? The ones you often see unfortunatly are whats known as the common plecs, gibbiceps and sailfins. The common plec will reach 12 inches quite quickly and the other 2 have the capability of reaching 18-24 inches! So as you can see its an unfortunate fish that is oversold far to often, however there are a lot of suitable plecs. Recently there have been so many types of plec discovered they have started numbering them and these are known as L numbers for example I have an L135 which is a wormline peckolita and will grow to 5 inches and there are many other similar sized plecs out there. You sometimes have to pay a bit more for them but its worth it

Good luck with the cycle! Guppies and Neons are known to be a bit soft when it comes to water quality so they might not make it through the cycle but there is always a chance they might! Hope it goes smoothly
Wills

 

[OldMan47]

Although I can agree with the preferences the others have expressed, a fish-in cycle can be done with good success if you stay on top of your testing. I have also used undergravel filters with success but do prefer to use a canister or a sponge filter these days.
A well maintained undergravel filter is one of the best biological filters that can be had due to its enormous media volume. In essence it uses the entire substrate as a bio-media. It does filter well mechanically but that is where the maintenance part comes in. The way you clean the mechanical filter aspect is with a gravel vac and because you want even flow through the gravel when you are done, you must smooth the gravel bed after your regular cleaning.
A sponge, basically a bit of open celled sponge with a way to circulate water through it, is a great biological filter and a decent but not very good mechanical filter. When I use a sponge, I need to be more meticulous with how I do a gravel vacuum.
A canister is out of sight below the tank and holds a large volume of the filter media of your choice. It can be a very good mechanical filter, a good biological filter and can have media added to become a chemical filter when it is needed.

 

[sasmcpot]

All the replies from everyone have been very helpful!

Current status is I have ordered a testing kit on Ebay and am waiting on the delivery of it. Im also going to be taking a trip to the a large aquatic shop to look at some other form of filtration, and if I decide to stay with the undergravel, to get a gravel vac (I didn't know I needed one until now!)

Ill also check out those canister filters as they sound great!

The plec, unfortunately I have no idea what type it is, although I can attatch pictures (When I can find my old digi cam ) if anyone wants them! Hes around 5 inches at the moment, but in truth im as blind as a bat and could be well off! Although he does really like sucking on my heater...

As soon as I get my testing kit delivered, ill post results! Thanks again all!

 

[waterdrop]

Hello Sasmcpot and Welcome to TFF.

You're in good hands with OM47, KH, Wills and the others. If you're in a fish-in cycling situation and haven't yet received the testing kit then it would be best to begin doing daily 50% water changes with good technique. You'll need to condition the water to remove chlorine/chloramine and since you've run out of the goldfish dechlor it would be a good opportunity to pick up some Seachem Prime, which is not only very concentrated but is also especially good at helping out with the more difficult fish-in situations like you've got coming up. As well as conditioning, you'll need to roughly temperature match (your hand is good enough) the return tap water.

Once you receive your testing kit you'll be able to test ammonia and nitrite(NO2) and determine whether the 50% daily changes are a bit too much or not enough. The goal is to keep both ammonia and nitrite(NO2) below 0.25ppm, so what is usually done is to test morning and evening and adjust the percentage and frequency of the water changes such that you start close to zero ppm right after the water change and such that the toxic levels don't rise above 0.25ppm prior to you being able to get back for the next test and potential water change.

The problem is that ammonia, even in small amounts, causes permanent gill damage, leading to a shortened life or causing the fish to die. Nitrite(NO2) attaches to the hemoglobin molecule of fish red blood cells and causes them to break down, causing a loss of oxygen being carried to other cells which first shows up as brain and nerve damage, leading to shortened life or killing the fish. Without a "biofilter" having been cycled, the fish are left with *you* being their "manual" filter.

Go ahead and enter your location (unless you don't want to) in your profile but I'm going to assume you might be in the UK since you mentioned UK gallons. In the UK there are nice external cannisters, the Tetratec EX600 and EX 700 available, along with the other major contenders: Rena, Eheim and Fluval. Personally I'd be looking at a Rena, Eheim or Tetratec model that calculated out to be a small amount larger for the 33UK/39US/150L than you might originally think it would need.

If cost is going to stop you from getting a new filter now and you are willing to put in the effort then you may be able to get the undergravel up and going and maintained with the help of the tips from OM47. Getting the maintenance just right on them can be difficult and live plants can be a problem.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[yhbae]

Do you know anyone around you who keep aquariums? If you can have access to some of their mature filter media or even some squeezed water out of their dirty filter media, it will accelerate your cycling process significantly. Usually, cycling the first tank is a pain in the (you know what) but the ones after that are real easy because you can seed bacteria this way.

 

[sasmcpot]

Thanks for all the help guys! Its been very helpful!

I purchased a water testing kit, and according to the chart on the side, everything is ok!