Hey guys I recently got a new starter kit 10 gallon tank and my water got really dirty in only 2 days, i have a filter and I use the aquasafe product. I have 12 fish in the tank and most are the size of neon tetras. any info is good
Keeping The Water Clear?
- Thread starter prada
- Start date
Torchwood~Mindfreak
Fish Fanatic
Sometimes It just takes a couple days for the water in a new tank to clear up, I know it did for mine anyway.
BettaBoysGirl
Fish Fanatic
Yea, especially with the filters included, it can take a few days for it to clear up. What color did it turn the water? Cloudy? If it stays persistent, you could always look into a new filter. I bought the Tetra aquarium kits, the 5 gallon with a betta works fine, but the 15 gallon one i bought with a 5-15 filter, yea... couldnt get clear water (no fish in tank, just cycling) and it eventually died on me three weeks later. I ended up getting an aquaclear based on recommedations. LOVE IT! I loved it so much ended up getting an aquaclear on my 20 gallon Betta condo!
roadmaster
Fishaholic
How long has the ten gal tank been running with the twelve fish? If the 10 gal tank has been running for less than a month or two,it is possible bacteria bloom which usually clears on it's own after a few days to a few weeks.
Would keep an eye on ammonia levels and feed sparingly if this tank has been running less than two months with the numbers of fish you have.
waterdrop
Enthusiastic "Re-Beginner"
Hi prada and Welcome to the TFF beginners section!
I agree with the others that we'd like the know the exact number of days since you first filled the tank and since the fish were first introduced. Do you have a water test kit and if so what make and model?
I'm going to speculate that you may have introduced the fish before the biofilter was created as you probably had no information on the biofilter aspect of aquarium filters. Obviously I could be wrong and you may have dutifully prepared your tank by cycling prior to the fish introduction, so just let us know.
If you have filled the tank and introduced fish quickly then you are likely in what we call a "Fish-In Cycling Situation" and it may be a significant one with 12 fish in a 10G/38L tank, even if they are still young fish. When we think about the ammonia and nitrites that fish give off (we sometimes call this the "bioload") we can tend to think smaller fish will make us safer from trouble, but small young fish make up for their lack of size with a higher metabolism and faster cell growth, so they can sometimes be a bit more load on the filter than we at first think.
Continuing with my speculation that you are in a Fish-In Cycling Situation, you have several urgent tasks: The most immediate one will be to begin large daily water changes with good technique. Good technique means that you use a gravel-cleaning siphon to stir up and clean the gravel as you remove water. The tap water that replaces the removed water needs to be conditioned with your Aquasafe at a dosing level 1.5x to 2x what the bottle tells you, but not more than 2x. You can use your hand to roughly temperature match but with larger water changes it would be a good idea to temperature match and not just dump in freezing cold water. If you do not yet have a good testing kit then I'd being with daily water changes of 50% (halfway down the tank.)
Next most urgent will be to begin the hunt for a good liquid-reagent based test kit if you don't already have one. Many of us like and use the API Freshwater Master Test Kit. The tests we use are for ammonia, nitrite(NO2), pH and nitrate(NO3) and they are performed in little test tubes. It helps also to have a couple of graduated squeeze-bulb syringes (squirters with milliliter measurements on the side.)
Meanwhile there are some homework assignments: I suggest you find our Beginners Resource Center here in the freshwater beginners subforum and search for several articles. First read the one on the Nitrogen Cycle by BTT, then the one on the Fishless Cycle by RDD, then the one on the Fish-In Cycle by rabbut. Also you can look for a couple of more general articles on tank startup by Miss Wiggle and Alien Anna - not sure if one or more of these might have been moved out to some more general introductory section elsewhere in the forum?
Please bring your questions back here and we'll pick up on them. The Nitrogen Cycle and the "magic" of the "biofilter" that handles the nitrogen cycle in our aquariums is a fascinating subject (at least to some of us!) and its not always easy getting up to speed fully understanding it right away. But its core to the hobby and its one way our forum can help take you beyond the usual experience of beginners who simply buy a tank and rely on the LFS for information. Good luck!
~~waterdrop~~
I agree with the others that we'd like the know the exact number of days since you first filled the tank and since the fish were first introduced. Do you have a water test kit and if so what make and model?
I'm going to speculate that you may have introduced the fish before the biofilter was created as you probably had no information on the biofilter aspect of aquarium filters. Obviously I could be wrong and you may have dutifully prepared your tank by cycling prior to the fish introduction, so just let us know.
If you have filled the tank and introduced fish quickly then you are likely in what we call a "Fish-In Cycling Situation" and it may be a significant one with 12 fish in a 10G/38L tank, even if they are still young fish. When we think about the ammonia and nitrites that fish give off (we sometimes call this the "bioload") we can tend to think smaller fish will make us safer from trouble, but small young fish make up for their lack of size with a higher metabolism and faster cell growth, so they can sometimes be a bit more load on the filter than we at first think.
Continuing with my speculation that you are in a Fish-In Cycling Situation, you have several urgent tasks: The most immediate one will be to begin large daily water changes with good technique. Good technique means that you use a gravel-cleaning siphon to stir up and clean the gravel as you remove water. The tap water that replaces the removed water needs to be conditioned with your Aquasafe at a dosing level 1.5x to 2x what the bottle tells you, but not more than 2x. You can use your hand to roughly temperature match but with larger water changes it would be a good idea to temperature match and not just dump in freezing cold water. If you do not yet have a good testing kit then I'd being with daily water changes of 50% (halfway down the tank.)
Next most urgent will be to begin the hunt for a good liquid-reagent based test kit if you don't already have one. Many of us like and use the API Freshwater Master Test Kit. The tests we use are for ammonia, nitrite(NO2), pH and nitrate(NO3) and they are performed in little test tubes. It helps also to have a couple of graduated squeeze-bulb syringes (squirters with milliliter measurements on the side.)
Meanwhile there are some homework assignments: I suggest you find our Beginners Resource Center here in the freshwater beginners subforum and search for several articles. First read the one on the Nitrogen Cycle by BTT, then the one on the Fishless Cycle by RDD, then the one on the Fish-In Cycle by rabbut. Also you can look for a couple of more general articles on tank startup by Miss Wiggle and Alien Anna - not sure if one or more of these might have been moved out to some more general introductory section elsewhere in the forum?
Please bring your questions back here and we'll pick up on them. The Nitrogen Cycle and the "magic" of the "biofilter" that handles the nitrogen cycle in our aquariums is a fascinating subject (at least to some of us!) and its not always easy getting up to speed fully understanding it right away. But its core to the hobby and its one way our forum can help take you beyond the usual experience of beginners who simply buy a tank and rely on the LFS for information. Good luck!
~~waterdrop~~
Hi prada and Welcome to the TFF beginners section!
I agree with the others that we'd like the know the exact number of days since you first filled the tank and since the fish were first introduced. Do you have a water test kit and if so what make and model?
I'm going to speculate that you may have introduced the fish before the biofilter was created as you probably had no information on the biofilter aspect of aquarium filters. Obviously I could be wrong and you may have dutifully prepared your tank by cycling prior to the fish introduction, so just let us know.
If you have filled the tank and introduced fish quickly then you are likely in what we call a "Fish-In Cycling Situation" and it may be a significant one with 12 fish in a 10G/38L tank, even if they are still young fish. When we think about the ammonia and nitrites that fish give off (we sometimes call this the "bioload") we can tend to think smaller fish will make us safer from trouble, but small young fish make up for their lack of size with a higher metabolism and faster cell growth, so they can sometimes be a bit more load on the filter than we at first think.
Continuing with my speculation that you are in a Fish-In Cycling Situation, you have several urgent tasks: The most immediate one will be to begin large daily water changes with good technique. Good technique means that you use a gravel-cleaning siphon to stir up and clean the gravel as you remove water. The tap water that replaces the removed water needs to be conditioned with your Aquasafe at a dosing level 1.5x to 2x what the bottle tells you, but not more than 2x. You can use your hand to roughly temperature match but with larger water changes it would be a good idea to temperature match and not just dump in freezing cold water. If you do not yet have a good testing kit then I'd being with daily water changes of 50% (halfway down the tank.)
Next most urgent will be to begin the hunt for a good liquid-reagent based test kit if you don't already have one. Many of us like and use the API Freshwater Master Test Kit. The tests we use are for ammonia, nitrite(NO2), pH and nitrate(NO3) and they are performed in little test tubes. It helps also to have a couple of graduated squeeze-bulb syringes (squirters with milliliter measurements on the side.)
Meanwhile there are some homework assignments: I suggest you find our Beginners Resource Center here in the freshwater beginners subforum and search for several articles. First read the one on the Nitrogen Cycle by BTT, then the one on the Fishless Cycle by RDD, then the one on the Fish-In Cycle by rabbut. Also you can look for a couple of more general articles on tank startup by Miss Wiggle and Alien Anna - not sure if one or more of these might have been moved out to some more general introductory section elsewhere in the forum?
Please bring your questions back here and we'll pick up on them. The Nitrogen Cycle and the "magic" of the "biofilter" that handles the nitrogen cycle in our aquariums is a fascinating subject (at least to some of us!) and its not always easy getting up to speed fully understanding it right away. But its core to the hobby and its one way our forum can help take you beyond the usual experience of beginners who simply buy a tank and rely on the LFS for information. Good luck!
~~waterdrop~~
Yep, you are right, I dumped the fish in the tank about a day after I set it up (I did not know about the cycle
). Another thing I did yesterday was 2 water changes cause it was to cloudy almost to half tank. For how long I have to do the daily changes? Also I will check for the test kit and thanks for your response!
The first thing I would do with your heavy stocking is expect to do daily water changes of at least 50% for well over a month. Next up is to go get a liquid type testing kit. It may well tell you that 50% daily is not enough. 12 fish in a 10 gallon tank is going to make fish-in cycling quite labor intensive. I have a link to the fish-in cycling information in my signature area if you haven't read it yet.
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