In Need Of General Advice?

[Lavinder]

Also when testing water with the API testing kit should I hold it againt the white or in sunlight? I was holding it against the white by the window.

 

[Rummynose]

You can't go only by the inch/gal rule. You have to take into consideration if the species you want is a schooling fish, they will feel a lot less stressed in groups of no less than 6, the biggerf the group the better for them, and the more schooling behaviour you will see.
You have to take into consideration if the are fast swimmers, they will need longer tanks.

Tetras are schooling fish, and they are fast swimmers. Neons and smaller tetras are ok in normal lenghth tanks. Danios are fast swimmers too!

The smaller the tank the more limited your choices are. A Betta would love to be in the size tank you have. Or a few of the smaller tetras, dwarf rasboras, endlers, do a search on small freshwater aquarium fish species...

While you are cycling your tank you can spend some time making a plan. That can be a lot of fun too....also do you want to add some live plants in there?

Also when testing water with the API testing kit should I hold it againt the white or in sunlight? I was holding it against the white by the window.

I always have the light source (window) at my back and hold a white card behind the test tube.

 

[Lavinder]

Cheers for the advice - will have time to think about it about Christmas while I try and get the water to settle down anyway

 

[Mowbz]

Also when testing water with the API testing kit should I hold it againt the white or in sunlight? I was holding it against the white by the window.

Any light as long as its very bright, but daylight is best. Its been found that trying to read the Ammonia chart from the API Master kit in poor light gives a false positive of about 0.25ppm.

I was "hit" by this two nights in a row and promptly started doing 85% water changes on the 340ltr tank, both nights. The third night i thought something must be seriously wrong, for a fully cycled tank to be peaking everyday like this.

I read the test under the fluorescent lights under the kitchen cupboards, and ti was clearly 0ppm.

Felt like a right idiot.

 

[the_lock_man]

Felt like a right idiot.

[Tizer_Mode] You looked like a right idiot too. [/Tizer_Mode]

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Must not have cycled my tank properly then - to be honest I jumped in to it quite a bit.

I feel quite stupid now, the person that gave me the tank said it was 25L so I presumed that that was the actual size. I've just mesured the tank and actually it's 34l so I've been calculating medications completely wrong .

There's no need to feel stupid. Many people fall victim to this. Fish care gets such little fanfare compared to other pets. The good news is that with the bigger tank, you have more options.


The most important thing right now though is to get your ammonia down. Have a read through this link on fish in cycling. Feel free to post your numbers as you go and folks around here with guide you through. The biggest key is to keep ammonia (and later nitrite) as close to zero as possible through a series of water changes. Large (and frequent) water changes are needed early on, but eventually this will decrease to a standard weekly maintenance water change of 30% or so. It takes time and a lot of hard work, but it is worth it in the end.

 

[Lavinder]

I've been doing 25% water changes every day and the ammonia is still budging at 0.25ppm. I did a full test on my tank today before I did another 25% water change and I got these results:

7.4 Ph
0.25ppm ammonia
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 20ppm

The only thing that has changed is the nitrates which was 40ppm before.

When I did a water change I added tapsafe and decided to do an ammonia test on the tap water which is reading 0.25ppm which is probably why I'm struggling to lower the ammonia at this point?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Well, there is something to be said about the tap water having some ammonia causing you trouble with lowering the ammonia, but you also aren't doing large enough changes to drastically lower it anyway. A 25% water change won't matter much with ammonia at 0.25ppm. I'd suggest doing at least 50% and then testing.

 

[Akasha72]

shout at me if I get this wrong but my common sense is saying that if the tap water has 0.25 ammonia then taking out 50% of 0.25 ammonia filled tank water only to replace it with 50% 0.25 ammonia filled fresh water is a complete waste of time? Surely she's replacing bad with just as bad only fresher ...?

Common sense also suggests to leave things alone for a couple of days and keep testing. If the ammonia goes above 0.25 then change 50%-75% bringing it back down (hopefully) to 0.25 (as that's what the tap water reads) but to look also for a product that assists ammonia to convert. I used King British Safe Water. Yes, there are issues with whether these things work or not but with levels of ammonia in tap water it makes sense to try adding a product to help deal with it ...?

So sorry if I'm giving you wrong advice Lavinder but I never ignore my common sense when it starts shouting at me

 

[eaglesaquarium]

True, but not necessarily the same. First, cleaner water will always be better for fish than the water they have been swimming in. (Remember, most fish in the trade come from rivers and streams that have a fairly decent current and fresh water coming constantly.) Second, the process of adding a dechlorinator that deals with ammonia (and converts it to ammonium) is a benefit to the fish as it puts the ammonia into less toxic form.

This is more effective than just dosing the tank with dechlorinator, because you don't want this stuff to build up in the tank. Sodium thiosulfate can actually slow a cycle (it disrupts the n-bacs in too high a concentration), so removing the old tank water helps to keep everything in balance.