Fuego
New Member
Hello, everyone! Sorry this is so long for a first post, but I really need help. I'm including this much information so that all the questions you might have might be answered ahead of time! 
My wife and I started our first new freshwater tank about 2 1/2 weeks ago. Most of our fish are doing well, but I'm worried about our nitrite levels from our API Freshwater master test kit.
Here's our setup and our fish:
- 15 gallon tank
- over the back powered filter (with new filters & old filter media from a mature tank)
- heater (the water has been at a pretty steady 78 degrees farenheit for 2 1/2 straight weeks)
- two thermometers to monitor water temperature
- air stone bubbler
- three live plants, inclduing one from a mature tank (the roots rotted on two other plants we'd bought, since removed from tank)
- 2 platys, a sunburst and a green tuxedo firetail
- 2 neon dwarf rainbows
- 5 glowlight tetras
- we HAD 2 metae corycats, no longer in tank (more on this in a sec)
We set up the tank with the filter and heater running, put Tetra AquaSafe Plus into the water to dechlorinate it, and let it run for a couple of days. The local pet store (in business for over 40 years, employees we spoke to say they've been working w/ fish for 20 years) sold us the two platys first and said put them in the tank for a day or two first to make absolutely sure that we hadn't done something horribly wrong. They were fine after two days so we went back to buy more fish.
Against my better instincts, I let the guy talk us into buying the 5 Glowlight Tetras, the 2 Neon Rainbows AND the 2 Metae Corycats. It seemed like a lot of fish to cycle a tank with, but the guy said that it wasn't too much. The first few days, everything was fine, then we started noticing the Corycats were lethargic and not swimming up and down the tank like before, and stopped moving along the bottom. They'd just sit there not moving, sometimes on the rocks and sometimes on a leaf of one of the plants. I went back to the store and had our water tested at the store (this was 5 days after the 9 fish were added in) and the same salesman said our ammonia was 1.0 ("a little high"), ph was 7.5, nitrites and nitrates were both 0. He said we needed some bacteria from a mature tank and gave me a big hunk of filter material from one of their tanks. (In addition, around this time, we got a plant from a friend's mature tank.) The guy also told me we didn't have to do any water changes for "at least a month or two".
By the way, we were feeding the fish twice a day at this point, with some food settling on the bottom, but not too much in my opinion. One of the reasons why the guy sold us the corycats was "first time tank owners tend to overfeed their fish".
The next day, one of the catfish died. I brought both back for store credit since the second one was increasingly lethargic, like the first one before it died. I don't know if the second corycat made it or not. (The store has since told us that the "batch" of fish they got that week may have been "weak" and it might not have been anything we did that caused the cats to weaken and/or die.)
This weekend, exactly 2 weeks after adding the 9 fish to the tank, we went into a second store to have our water tested. (We've grown increasingly concerned that the tank was overstocked for cycling, mainly because of a friend of ours who freaked out when she heard how much fish we had in the tank. We went into the store that she goes to.) They tested our water, and the first thing out of the guy's mouth was, "Are your fish dying?" We said no. They are just as healthy looking and active as they were the day they put them in the tank. The only difference we've noticed is that we would swear that the silver Glow Light Tetras have kind of a yellowish tint to them now which they didn't have at first.
He said that our Nitrite levels and one other thing (I thought he said Nitrate levels, my wife thought he said Ammonia levels) were both dangerously high. He panicked us, saying that he would do HOURLY 30% water changes and vacuum out our rocks for at least the next 5 hours AND highly recommended that we reduce the number of fish in our tank. He said we had way too many fish to cycle a tank, that he would have started with maybe 2 danios or 3 tetras or maybe just the two platys that we started with.
We purchased a water testing kit and a small bottle of FRITZ-Zyme Turbo Start Freshwater 700 (that needs to be refrigerated) to add bacteria to the tank. We raced home to start doing the water changes, panicked that we were killing our fish.
By the way, to outward appearance, the fish seem fine. They are all active, chase each other around the tank, eat healthily, and the Glow Light Tetras mostly school together around the tank.
I called the first store back, and specifically made sure that I spoke to someone different than the guy who sold us the fish. The lady I spoke with acted surprised when I told her what the guy at the second store told us. She said that we DON'T have too many fish to cycle the tank and we shouldn't have any problems. She seemed surprised when I said that there were two tested levels that were so high. She explained the tank cycling process to us again (I have had it explained several times and read about it in books and online). She said that a tank about two weeks into the cycle should have peaked on the ammonia levels and she would expect to see lower levels of ammonia; that the nitrite levels should probably be pretty high; and she wouldn't expect to see nitrate levels at all yet.
I tested our water again at that point (the first time, I'm embarrassed to admit, that I've tested it myself):
ph: 7.4
ammonia: .25
nitrite: 5.0, or higher, this was very purple
nitrate: around 0, possibly a smidge higher
I called the first store back, and she said everything is exactly where she would expect to see it in a tank that is two weeks into the cycle. She said everything is fine, that if the fish are active that is a good sign. Suggested I keep checking the water but recommended AGAINST doing any water changes -- the complete and total opposite of what the second store told us! Said that all that would help is the nitrate levels, and we don't have any nitrate yet.
The only thing the two stores agree on is that we were probably slightly overfeeding the fish. They both suggested we go back to feeding them once a day instead of twice, and only giving the fish a very small amount of food, a very small pinch, and MAYBE some more if the fish eat it quickly and none of the food settles to the bottom.
In the meantime, I've read on your forum and others, reread what our books have to say about cycling. Many people, it seems, do not like cycling a tank with fish. Too late for us to do it fishless, however! I've read some places saying that if either ammonia or nitrate are above .50 that we should be doing 30% water changes daily!!! And yet the first store and one of our books said that first ammonia and then nitrites in a naturally cycling tank would naturally reach 5.0 and then come down again, and not to worry.
Questions:
(1) Do we have too many fish in the tank, and should we insist on the first store taking back all of the fish they sold us except for maybe the two platys? (We are more emotionally attached to the platys than the other fish.)
(2) Should we be doing 30% water changes or not? And, if so, how often? Will it help the nitrite level (the only reading I'm overly concerned about right now)?
(3) Should we at the very least get a vacuum and clean out the rocks of any rotting food particles, assuming we were overfeeding the fish before?
(4) Should we just continue letting the tank cycle naturally, or should I add the FRITZ-Zyme Turbo Start Freshwater 700? Could that stuff harm the fish in a two-week-established tank? Or is it only intended to jump-start a fishless tank cycle?
(5) Should we add more plants? We have only two small plants and one medium-ish plant in the tank right now. We'd like more anyway, but will adding more right now hurt (or help) the tank's cycling?
(6) Is our filtration enough, or should we consider adding another in-the-tank / below-the-rocks type filter?
My wife and I started our first new freshwater tank about 2 1/2 weeks ago. Most of our fish are doing well, but I'm worried about our nitrite levels from our API Freshwater master test kit.
Here's our setup and our fish:
- 15 gallon tank
- over the back powered filter (with new filters & old filter media from a mature tank)
- heater (the water has been at a pretty steady 78 degrees farenheit for 2 1/2 straight weeks)
- two thermometers to monitor water temperature
- air stone bubbler
- three live plants, inclduing one from a mature tank (the roots rotted on two other plants we'd bought, since removed from tank)
- 2 platys, a sunburst and a green tuxedo firetail
- 2 neon dwarf rainbows
- 5 glowlight tetras
- we HAD 2 metae corycats, no longer in tank (more on this in a sec)
We set up the tank with the filter and heater running, put Tetra AquaSafe Plus into the water to dechlorinate it, and let it run for a couple of days. The local pet store (in business for over 40 years, employees we spoke to say they've been working w/ fish for 20 years) sold us the two platys first and said put them in the tank for a day or two first to make absolutely sure that we hadn't done something horribly wrong. They were fine after two days so we went back to buy more fish.
Against my better instincts, I let the guy talk us into buying the 5 Glowlight Tetras, the 2 Neon Rainbows AND the 2 Metae Corycats. It seemed like a lot of fish to cycle a tank with, but the guy said that it wasn't too much. The first few days, everything was fine, then we started noticing the Corycats were lethargic and not swimming up and down the tank like before, and stopped moving along the bottom. They'd just sit there not moving, sometimes on the rocks and sometimes on a leaf of one of the plants. I went back to the store and had our water tested at the store (this was 5 days after the 9 fish were added in) and the same salesman said our ammonia was 1.0 ("a little high"), ph was 7.5, nitrites and nitrates were both 0. He said we needed some bacteria from a mature tank and gave me a big hunk of filter material from one of their tanks. (In addition, around this time, we got a plant from a friend's mature tank.) The guy also told me we didn't have to do any water changes for "at least a month or two".
By the way, we were feeding the fish twice a day at this point, with some food settling on the bottom, but not too much in my opinion. One of the reasons why the guy sold us the corycats was "first time tank owners tend to overfeed their fish".
The next day, one of the catfish died. I brought both back for store credit since the second one was increasingly lethargic, like the first one before it died. I don't know if the second corycat made it or not. (The store has since told us that the "batch" of fish they got that week may have been "weak" and it might not have been anything we did that caused the cats to weaken and/or die.)
This weekend, exactly 2 weeks after adding the 9 fish to the tank, we went into a second store to have our water tested. (We've grown increasingly concerned that the tank was overstocked for cycling, mainly because of a friend of ours who freaked out when she heard how much fish we had in the tank. We went into the store that she goes to.) They tested our water, and the first thing out of the guy's mouth was, "Are your fish dying?" We said no. They are just as healthy looking and active as they were the day they put them in the tank. The only difference we've noticed is that we would swear that the silver Glow Light Tetras have kind of a yellowish tint to them now which they didn't have at first.
He said that our Nitrite levels and one other thing (I thought he said Nitrate levels, my wife thought he said Ammonia levels) were both dangerously high. He panicked us, saying that he would do HOURLY 30% water changes and vacuum out our rocks for at least the next 5 hours AND highly recommended that we reduce the number of fish in our tank. He said we had way too many fish to cycle a tank, that he would have started with maybe 2 danios or 3 tetras or maybe just the two platys that we started with.
We purchased a water testing kit and a small bottle of FRITZ-Zyme Turbo Start Freshwater 700 (that needs to be refrigerated) to add bacteria to the tank. We raced home to start doing the water changes, panicked that we were killing our fish.
By the way, to outward appearance, the fish seem fine. They are all active, chase each other around the tank, eat healthily, and the Glow Light Tetras mostly school together around the tank.
I called the first store back, and specifically made sure that I spoke to someone different than the guy who sold us the fish. The lady I spoke with acted surprised when I told her what the guy at the second store told us. She said that we DON'T have too many fish to cycle the tank and we shouldn't have any problems. She seemed surprised when I said that there were two tested levels that were so high. She explained the tank cycling process to us again (I have had it explained several times and read about it in books and online). She said that a tank about two weeks into the cycle should have peaked on the ammonia levels and she would expect to see lower levels of ammonia; that the nitrite levels should probably be pretty high; and she wouldn't expect to see nitrate levels at all yet.
I tested our water again at that point (the first time, I'm embarrassed to admit, that I've tested it myself):
ph: 7.4
ammonia: .25
nitrite: 5.0, or higher, this was very purple
nitrate: around 0, possibly a smidge higher
I called the first store back, and she said everything is exactly where she would expect to see it in a tank that is two weeks into the cycle. She said everything is fine, that if the fish are active that is a good sign. Suggested I keep checking the water but recommended AGAINST doing any water changes -- the complete and total opposite of what the second store told us! Said that all that would help is the nitrate levels, and we don't have any nitrate yet.
The only thing the two stores agree on is that we were probably slightly overfeeding the fish. They both suggested we go back to feeding them once a day instead of twice, and only giving the fish a very small amount of food, a very small pinch, and MAYBE some more if the fish eat it quickly and none of the food settles to the bottom.
In the meantime, I've read on your forum and others, reread what our books have to say about cycling. Many people, it seems, do not like cycling a tank with fish. Too late for us to do it fishless, however! I've read some places saying that if either ammonia or nitrate are above .50 that we should be doing 30% water changes daily!!! And yet the first store and one of our books said that first ammonia and then nitrites in a naturally cycling tank would naturally reach 5.0 and then come down again, and not to worry.
Questions:
(1) Do we have too many fish in the tank, and should we insist on the first store taking back all of the fish they sold us except for maybe the two platys? (We are more emotionally attached to the platys than the other fish.)
(2) Should we be doing 30% water changes or not? And, if so, how often? Will it help the nitrite level (the only reading I'm overly concerned about right now)?
(3) Should we at the very least get a vacuum and clean out the rocks of any rotting food particles, assuming we were overfeeding the fish before?
(4) Should we just continue letting the tank cycle naturally, or should I add the FRITZ-Zyme Turbo Start Freshwater 700? Could that stuff harm the fish in a two-week-established tank? Or is it only intended to jump-start a fishless tank cycle?
(5) Should we add more plants? We have only two small plants and one medium-ish plant in the tank right now. We'd like more anyway, but will adding more right now hurt (or help) the tank's cycling?
(6) Is our filtration enough, or should we consider adding another in-the-tank / below-the-rocks type filter?
Here are a few rules of fish keeping
