First Tank! May Have Been A Bit Hasty...

[coleman11b]

Well, I just started dating a girl who has an aquarium. Her brother is quite knowledgeable with aquariums too. He has a 120 gallon tank. Anyway, I found a 10 gallon tank for 8 bucks at a pet store here in New Orleans and decided to try it as they were always talking about their aquariums. I got the tank and all needed accessories and headed to the store to get some fish. Well, the Rainbow Shark caught my eye immediately and I bought him. I also bought three Black Skirt Tetra's.

So, to keep it short I have since researched a bit and found people saying 55 gallon tanks are the minimum for Rainbow sharks. My question is this. I am perfectly willing to upgrade but it will be a month before I can. Will I be ok until then? Or, should I just change my stocking entirely.

Thanks

 

[Curiosity101]

It'll be fine for a month, but I only give that advice presuming you've learnt your lesson any will no research before buying anything! I would suggest NEVER going to a fish shop unless you've already decided what you're going for.

Also have you read up on cycling, a rainbow shark and 3 black skirt tetra will produce alot of ammonia and unless you have alot of mature media in your new filter you will need to take some serious action to avoid fish deaths.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, unless we're missing something, you're now in an emergency Fish-In Cycling Situation and you can begin to get up to speed on that topic by reading the Nitrogen Cycle, the Fish-In Cycle and the Fishless Cycling articles in our Beginners Resource Center.

A 55G would be quite a nice size but can involve some considerable expense if you get good equipment for it and significant space and work, so I would suggest that you may also be able to convince the LFS to take back the shark, leaving you with a wider range of first time tanks, including the 40G, 30G range if that makes a difference - not discouraging you, just making sure you see all the alternatives for your decisions.

Those decisions are all quite secondary though to the emergency going on in your 10G. You will need to learn and use good technique on what will probably be very large daily water changes until you can get a good test kit, use it and find out the real situation with the water as it develops.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[coleman11b]

Thanks for the replies. I have been reading up on the different cycles and also started changing about 20% water daily a couple days ago. I'll see if the shop will take the shark back this afternoon.

 

[fluttermoth]

If you could get some used filter media from your lovely new gf or her brother, it would save you an awful lot of hard work (and be better for your fish).

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, good idea from FM, and if you do consider talking to them about it, be aware that the guideline is to not remove more than 1/3 of the biomedia portion (sponge, ceramic gravel, whatever the bio part is) from their filter, and to have more fresh media (paid for by you) to replace that 1/3 sponge or ceramics section. That way their tank will not suffer a blip in ammonia or nitrite (the bacteria can make a full comeback from a 1/3 loss without a mini-cycle.)

~~waterdrop~~