Drunk!

[stucolls]

ok so now im drunk, been sat infront of computer (as well as going to feed my baby mollies) all day (havea broken thumb due to rugby so no work)!!

What I want to know is.........

my 5 foot tank, which is about 60inches long? by 18 wide by 20 high? I think?

whats some good stock for it? I like variety, colour, and and a busy tank.

Also my stats in myt current 80 litre are high after messing up my cycling, high nitrite and nitrate, although I added some aqau start ammonia removing pelet things to filter today, so whats my next course of action?

btw love this forum, only had my fish (well tank not fish) for 3 weeks, just wish I found this site before this week

All suggestions appreciated (before the GF gets in from work and moans at me again for being on here)

 

[RiiCKYOMD]

Im real new to this but my friends have aquqairums and id defo say neon tetras

fast darty good to look at

But then again platys are real nice to
Up to you

 

[stucolls]

i agree only that I think Neons (as they are so small) either need a pretty damn big shoal or a small ish tank too look at their best, so I guess I could have a load of them say......20? with a load of other fish who dont fancy a neon supper, thats another thing you gotta look for, I have read about a fair few medium to big fish who like the taste of the odd tetra lol

cheers for reply

 

[rdd1952]

although I added some aqau start ammonia removing pelet things to filter today, so whats my next course of action?

Next course of action: Take those out of your filter ASAP. You have bacteria to process the ammonia or you wouldn't have nitrite. Adding those pellets to you filter will remove the ammonia before the bacteria can process it which means you tank will return to a completely uncycled state and you will be back to square one.

Instead, do water changes to lower the levels. What are the exact readings for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate (a high level of nitrate isn't necessarily a bad thing as it means the tank is cycling at least partially)? You want to do water changes up to several times a day if needed to keep ammonia and nitrite as low as possible, preferably under .25ppm. Depending on how high the levels are now, I would do up to a 50% water change immediately (if the levles are above .5ppm).

If your measurements are correct, that's about 93 gallon. You have lots of options from cichlids and other aggressive fish down to smaller community fish. Best bet is to go to the LFS and look at what they have. Write down the names of the fish you like and go home and research them to see which ones are compatible with each other, such as only one shark species to a tank. Then if you have questions on exact stocking limits and compatibility, post your wish list and people can tell you if it will work or not.

 

[stucolls]

ok so I have the API 5 in 1 testing strips and the results are as follows

GH - 120
KH - 80
PH - 6.5
No2 - 5
No3 - 80-160
Temp - 27

Lowest readings for all are respectively

120
40
6.5
3
80
24

Highest readings are

180
80
7.0
5
160
28

Tank been running

fishless - 1 week
with fish 2 weeks

Chemicals used - Stress zyme (in all water changes as well as added periodically), accuclear and now the aquastart ammonia remover (which I will now remove....oops)

So go on....tell me how bad I set it all up, but more importantly tell me how to put it all right lol

 

[-SPB-]

i agree only that I think Neons (as they are so small) either need a pretty damn big shoal or a small ish tank too look at their best, so I guess I could have a load of them say......20? with a load of other fish who dont fancy a neon supper, thats another thing you gotta look for, I have read about a fair few medium to big fish who like the taste of the odd tetra lol

cheers for reply

I agree with the neon thing. Had a small tank years ago and got some, thought they were awesome. Stopped keeping fish for about 10 years then just jumped in the deep end and got another one a lot bigger and thought, i'll get some neons, now hardly ever see them!!!!!!

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

Keep:
Ammonia < .25 ppm
NitrItes < .25 ppm
NitrAtes < 10-40 ppm

You may want to test your tap water since many people have some level of NitrAtes in their tap water. The less NitrAtes the better, but there is no point in trying to achieve something impossible! So for example if you have 10 ppm of NitrAtes in your tap water then try to keep the NitrAtes in your tank less than 20.

Keeping Ammonia and NitrItes low is your number one priority atm. Unfortunately those little test strip things don't show Ammonia, nor are they extremely accurate. I would recommend getting a liquid test kit. API makes a very good one.