New Tank And Newbie(s) Here.

[Andy2908Laurasman]

Hi everyone

First time on this site, and just in the process of setting up our first tank together. Although my father kept fish for years, and I had a tank years ago, we are both prety much coming to this new, so any advice, tips and experience that you folks can pass along would be most welcome.

Made some mistakes already, in that we did what I guess many people do, which was to put the tank together fill it with water, run it for a few days and then put a load of fish in.

OK. So I guess in reality we made just about every mistake we could, and now we are paying for it. We have lost the majority of the fish and several of the few that remain are looking very poorly.

My good lady has since done a lot of research and reading and it appears we need to cycle the tank, and get nitrite levels etc sorted out 9from what she tells me anyway..lol)

The other mistake we made was that I bought a couple of Tiger barbs without realising that they did not mix well with community fish, and this has compounded the misery in the tank.

Quite a start to our new hobby eh? At least we can only get better from here I guess.

So please feel free to give us the benefit of your expertise here. We need all the help we can get it seems

 

[doresy]

Hi, well you have done the next best thing to doing it right the first time around and that is coming to these forums....plenty of good advice to be had here!

You need to research cycling, more of that in a moment. Is it possible to return your remaining fish stock to your LFS (local fish shop) or to a friend with an already cycled tank? If you can then you will be able to follow the fishless cycle plan which is the prefered option these days.

Read this pinned post....clik......HERE

If you cannot or don't want to return your fish then there is a way of cycling WITH fish providing you have the right fish and are prepared to do daily water changes. In that case I will leave others to advise you on that system as I do not go that way.

good luck and

 

[laurauk]

Other half logging in here, and waiting for all and any advice

 

[laurauk]

A little further info - I tested the water, and pH is about 7.2-7.6, ammonia 0.25, nitrate 40, nitrite 0.5. What do you think?

 

[evilchild]

tiger barbs can be in a mixed tank. they need to be a group to advoid an aggro. what fish do you have and what size tank you got? keep doing water changes that should help. but it will take time to get the reading s down.

 

[laurauk]

Atm we are left with one guppy, one cory and one mollie. Tank is roughly 13.5" x 13" x 30.5"

 

[evilchild]

ok guppys and barbs not a good mix. corrys like to be in with friends but sort that out at a later date. best thing you can do at the moment is try keep them alive. do water changes often and watch you water leavles, once they have dopped right down leave the tank for a few weeks then you start add fish very slowly or your end up where you started. once you have reach the stage of add more fish leave it about 3-4 week before add more, gives the filter a chance to build up. and just one more thing dont add to many fish. do you know about the inch per gallon?

good luck any way

 

[laurauk]

Hey I know Andy has said something about a maximum amount of fish we should have, but not specifically the inch per gallon thing...

 

[evilchild]

your not the only one to do what you have done and i'm sure you wont be the last. when i start it was quite hit and miss, i used the old fish flake method. (NOT recomended. lol.) empty tank left for weeks and put fish food in to build up a bit of backtria in the filter. didn't go to bad could have been a lot worse.

should be on the right track now

 

[waterdrop]

Hey I know Andy has said something about a maximum amount of fish we should have, but not specifically the inch per gallon thing...

Hi Laura & Andy,

Not sure if you were asking, but looks to me like you have a 87L/23G(US Gallons) tank, so, rounding to 20, this very rough rule would say for you to consider limiting your stocking to about 20 inches (fins don't count) of fish body as the maximum you might reach many months from now.

If you are really down to one guppy, one cory and one mollie then I would agree with dorsey and say it would be a great time to try very hard to find some other home for these 3 fish and save yourselves tons of trouble by starting over with a fishless cycle and lots of reading and studying here on TFF and on the web. You sound like you are in it to do it right this time around and personally I think knowledge and skills are just such a great baseline to more eventual enjoyment of the hobby. I'm big on that though, and many would probably say that's boring!

If you don't want to start over or can't find a way, then you are in for lots of water changes to try and keep ammonia and nitrite down to zero, as measured several times a day by a good liquid based test kit like the API freshwater master kit. Is that what you're using now? I noticed you posted some test numbers and it looks like you may be using a good kit to get these. Your pH looks good for growing bacteria (your goal for the next 2 to 6 weeks probably) but of course your immediate concern is to be doing enough water changes to get rid of the two strong poisons for those 3 fish, the ammonia and the nitrite, which you want to dilute down to zero as much as possible day in and day out.

Have you read up on the Nitrogen cycle as it pertains to aquariums or is that familiar territory for you? How are you performing your water changes? Do you know about Pythons and other helpful water change tools/techniques? You can do searches on Python. Keep talking to us.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[drsoda007]

Hi Everyone, I'm a begginer

Will this work?

20 Gallon Tank

Cardinal Tetras-3
Lyretail Dalmation Mollies-3
Sparkling Gouramis-3

Please answer ASAP

 

[ALW]

you should have IMO at leats 5 tetras so get some more cardinals

 

[OldMan47]

LauraUK, at the moment, if I am reading it right, you have a light biological load for a 20 to 25 gallon tank. With that as a starting point, your aim is to always have ammonia at less than 0.25 ppm (0.25mg/l) and nitrites less than the same values. To do this you will relace anywhere from 25 to 50% of the water with water of the same temperature that has been dechlorinated. Every time you get near one of the numbers, at first it will be ammonia, you do a change to lower it. After a few weeks, the ammonia and nitrites will stay below .025 ppm on their own. At that point you will need to start monitoring nitrates. Since you are no longer changing water to control ammonia or nitrites, the nitrates will start to be measurable. Because the nitrates are less poisonous than ammonia or nitrites, you will be able to let them get as high as 20 ppm (20mg/l) before doing a water change and the water change can be smaller. Often at that point you are doing 25% once a week on a well stocked tank. With your chemistry under control and the nitrogen cycle established you will then be able to think about slowly increasing your stocking levels.
As waterdrop suggested, you could easily allow a stocking of small fish to reach 20 inches of fish without overloading the tank biologically. As you have already discovered, that is not necessarily a good stocking as some fish are just not suitable together. I would suggest that when you have established your nitrogen cycle, you look at what fish you would like and return here to ask about compatibility. There are fans of almost any fish here so you will find someone who knows about the type you have chosen and can help you with them.

 

[drsoda007]

you should have IMO at leats 5 tetras so get some more cardinals

Don't worry talked to fish specialist

However whats that best way to clean out a 30 Gallon tank (BRAND NEW)