New 10-Gallon Setup

[CantCookToast]

Hey everyone!

New guy here...started a new 10-gallon tank recently (my first one!). I did 3 days of Nutrafin Cycle before adding the fish, as well as obviously conditioning with AquaPlus and neutralizing with a PH puck.

I have:

• 1x Silver Molly
• 2x Glowlight Platy
• 1x Coral Platy

My filter is an AquaClear 20 with the non-stock Ammonia filter (not the ceramic cylinder one that comes with it).

Here's a picture before I got the background on:

And after:

(Kinda blurry, the fish are swimming pretty fast).

At first, ammonia was around 1.0 to 1.5ppm in the tank according to my jungle test strips (not sure how accurate these are). I stopped feeding for 2 days and left the lights off, continuing to add ~5ml of cycle daily. Ammonia is testing around a pretty steady 0.5ppm. The folks at Big Al's said that will go down with a water change, but not to do one for another 4 weeks while the tank's cycle gets started. Temperature is at a constant 78 with the heater I have in there.

Anyway - my main problem is that when the light is on, the fish chase what seems to be their reflection very rapidly and swim all around the tank extremely quickly. I hear this has the potential to stress them out.

Is there anything I can really do to prevent this? My fish otherwise seem to be quite happy - no weird markings on their scales and they're fairly active.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

PS. Yes, I realize the fake orange and green plant is hideous. I'll be replacing it with a live one once the tank cycles a bit more

 

[waterdrop]

Hi CCT, You are in what we refer to here as a "Fish-In Cycling" emergency. You've not had access to the information that fish ideally shouldn't go in to a tank until it has a working biofilter and that "growing" that biofilter often takes as much as two months!

Several things need to happen. First you need to try to save the fish via large water changes with good technique. I'd start at 75% per day. You need to gravel-clean as the water goes out and use conditioner and rough temperature matching on the incoming water. The water changes are the most urgent thing.

The next most important thing is to get a good liquid-reagent based test kit. Most of us like and use the API Freshwater Master Test Kit. Paper strip tests are worse than useless, they are misleading and can lead to wrong actions.

The third most important thing will be to remove what I believe might be zeolite ammonia remover. This is a chemical resin material that removes ammonia until it becomes saturated and suddenly stops removing it. It will remove ammonia so effectively that it will stop your fish-in cycle as no "food" will be provided to the two species of bacteria you need to be growing in the filter. Ironically, the best thing to replace the removed zeolite with would be the original ceramic cylinders that come with the AC20 as they are an excellent biomedia.

Your "homework" is to read 3 articles in the Beginners Resource Center. First the one on the Nitrogen Cycle, then the Fish-In Cycle, then the Fishless Cycle. Ask further questions here.

~~waterdrop~~
ps. Welcome to TFF!

 

[CantCookToast]

Hi CCT, You are in what we refer to here as a "Fish-In Cycling" emergency. You've not had access to the information that fish ideally shouldn't go in to a tank until it has a working biofilter and that "growing" that biofilter often takes as much as two months!

Several things need to happen. First you need to try to save the fish via large water changes with good technique. I'd start at 75% per day. You need to gravel-clean as the water goes out and use conditioner and rough temperature matching on the incoming water. The water changes are the most urgent thing.

The next most important thing is to get a good liquid-reagent based test kit. Most of us like and use the API Freshwater Master Test Kit. Paper strip tests are worse than useless, they are misleading and can lead to wrong actions.

The third most important thing will be to remove what I believe might be zeolite ammonia remover. This is a chemical resin material that removes ammonia until it becomes saturated and suddenly stops removing it. It will remove ammonia so effectively that it will stop your fish-in cycle as no "food" will be provided to the two species of bacteria you need to be growing in the filter. Ironically, the best thing to replace the removed zeolite with would be the original ceramic cylinders that come with the AC20 as they are an excellent biomedia.

Your "homework" is to read 3 articles in the Beginners Resource Center. First the one on the Nitrogen Cycle, then the Fish-In Cycle, then the Fishless Cycle. Ask further questions here.

~~waterdrop~~
ps. Welcome to TFF!

Hey!

Thanks for the quick reply.

RE: Ammonia

This is what I got for the ammonia remover:

I still have the bag with the ceramic ones, but its been in a dry garbage bin for a day or so and has dried out. Are they useless now? I will go to Big Al's tomorrow to pick up the API test kit. I'm surprised, because I was told by them that the AquaClear Ammonia Media Insert + those Jungle Test Strips were the best I could do.

RE: Water Change

I've obviously never done one yet. Should I take the fish out in this process and put them into another container with the aquarium water I removed? I've seen it on here where people just put it in a five gallon bucket and attach their filter to it. Is this the correct way?

I'll definitely read those articles.

Thanks for your help! Please post back with some more feedback.

 

[fatheadminnow]

Remove the ammonia remover packet, as it will do more harm to the cycle then good. Strip test kits are no good and inaccurate. The API one is the one you want to get if you have that one available.

Put the ceramics back in, as this is where the bacteria are going to colonize the most. The ceramics provide a good surface for the bacteria to colonize on.

There is no need to remove fish when doing a water change.

-FHM

 

[CantCookToast]

Remove the ammonia remover packet, as it will do more harm to the cycle then good. Strip test kits are no good and inaccurate. The API one is the one you want to get if you have that one available.

Put the ceramics back in, as this is where the bacteria are going to colonize the most. The ceramics provide a good surface for the bacteria to colonize on.

There is no need to remove fish when doing a water change.

-FHM

Done. Thanks for the help. When I was at Big Al's, I didn't see any of the ceramic ones for sale. What do I do when it comes time to replace them?

I'll be picking up the API kit along with a siphon/gravel cleaner thing today.

 

[waterdrop]

Excellent! The siphon and test kit are going to be two of your most powerful tools to learn on as a beginner and the best two tools with which to maintain your tank well, other than knowledge, that is!

If you haven't already thrown it out too, then just set the "ammonia remover" (they're zeolite chips, you can see them in the picture on the box) aside to dry out and then store it in a cabinet with your other fish supplies. It may come in handy some day during an emergency. Meanwhile, FHM has already correctly advised you to re-use the ceramics. Just rinse them off well from being in the trash so you don't get unknowns in the tank.

You can mostly ignore the things the manufacturers write about constantly replacing media. Sponges will last decades before they fall apart and all you'll do is gently squeeze the debris out of them in old tank water, to free up the water flow inside the sponge. The beauty of ceramics is that they literally can last a lifetime (your lifefime, lol) and all they get is a rinse in old tank water when you do your monthly (or whatever your own amount of time turns out to be) filter clean. Remember, the important thing about your sponge and ceramics will be the yellow or brown "stain" you see on them over time. When you see that stain you are actually seeing the biofilms and millions of bacterial cells that you will have so preciously grown on your media!

Now if indeed you ever -do- go in search of ceramics to buy, there are plenty of competing brands to choose from and those chunky cylinders from aquaclear are nothing great (although they're going to be just fine for you and your AC20 right now, so don't change your plans!) Its ironic but if your LFS is the big Al's I'm thinking of, they have a great web site with tons of choice. There are all sorts of ceramic "rings" or "noodles" as people sometimes call them and there are little round crunchy looking balls like those from Seachem called "Matrix." The Matrix (which actually be sintered glass, I can't remember) has even greater surface area and the ring/noodle designs have the special function of "randomizing" your water flow at the early stage of filtration (this just means that because they are heavy and because their little pipelines fall randomly at different angles, they will divert and slow the incoming water flow, allowing large debris to settle faster.) All this is academic right now as your AC20 is not that complicated but its good stuff to be learning. ( we have this great hope that all our beginners read lots of threads here and learn all sorts of random stuff in doing so, so speak up you all you members who came across this randomly )

OK, that should be more than enough for now, I probably forgot the question (!) so let me know what else...

~~waterdrop~~

 

[CantCookToast]

My closest LFS is extremely overpriced, so I usually go to Big Al's. I've done alot of reading here, and it seems their employees definitely took me for a ride and didn't give me 100% truthful information, but it seems that is fairly common. I got the fairly standard speech about "let your tank run fishless for a few days with the Nutrafin Cycle & the filter on, then add some hardy fish and you'll be fine". Although I don't think my problems are too serious, I'm definitely glad I found this site! You guys are super helpful.

Since I obviously can't trust the folks at my LFS, I have a few more questions if you don't mind. I've tried to read as many of the BRC threads as I could, but feel free to link me if it's been answered elsewhere.

• I put the AC cylinders back in, and stored the ammonia remover pack as you suggested. Should I really *ever* be replacing my foam, carbon, or cylinders?
• When doing a 75% water change, that really wouldn't leave the fish too much water to live in while I change it. I understand it's a pretty quick process, so I assume they should be OK?
• How long should I keep using the Nutrafin Cycle for? Don't know where you're from, but it's pushed fairly heavily here by LFS' as something that helps build beneficial bacteria.
• I also have Nutrafin Waste Control. Is this stuff useful or a "waste" of money At what point, if any, should it be used?
• I obviously don't have an algae problem yet. What small algae-control fish/snails should I look at (for a 10-gallon)?

I feel like I should be paying you for the amount of questions I'm asking. I really appreciate your help with getting into this awesome hobby.

I'm heading down to Big Al's now to pick up the API test kit and siphon. Will post back tonight with before/after test results.

 

[CantCookToast]

API test results before water change:

pH - 7.6
High Range pH - 7.5ish
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0.25
Nitrate - 5

How do these look?

 

[fatheadminnow]

Do a water change to bring nitrite back down.

-FHM