New Tank In Fish In Cycle

[donald110]

hello all, i got a second hand tank about a month ago, i got it running and added fish about a week ago, i have got baby fish appearing. not lost any fish yet, hope i won't. i do daily water changes with a decorator which bring my ammonia down below .25. oh the fish in the tank are 6 platy (2 mickey mouse, 4 hi fin). little confused why my cold water tank feels warmer than my tropical. is there anything else i should be doing, how long till i can add more fish.

i want to stock my tank with
6 x mollies
12 x guppies
5 x cherry barbs
2 x some kind of cory cat (not sure which breed yet)
and maybe some neons

please keep simple i am dyslexic.

 

[mattlee]

i hope the decorater doesnt charge you too much.......

 

[donald110]

sorry for the spelling mistake, as i said in my post i am dyslexic

just done my water test

ammonia - below .25
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 0

 

[mattlee]

sorry for the spelling mistake, as i said in my post i am dyslexic

just done my water test

ammonia - below .25
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 0

sorry just having a laugh, i didnt read that bit

ok, if your tank has ammonia readings then dont add any more fish. you are doing the right thing by daily water changes to keep the ammonia levels down, ideally it should test at 0 as any trace of ammonia isnt good for the fish in the long term. check morning and night and do the relevant change needed to get it to 0. it sounds like you are in a fish in cycle so this routine could last for a month or longer im affraid, just dont give in when the tanks filter has matured enough to cope with the current stocking then leave it to keep the ammonia levels at 0 for 2 weeeks then slowly you can add more fish, say 2 at a time and keep an eye on the ammonia and nitrite levels just incase it causes a mini spike. then after another week if the tank can handle the new bioload then add another 2 and so on until your stocking is complete and you are happy with it. dont be tricked by lfs selling fish in deals like 6 neons for £5 as the money you save on fish you may well use up on dechlorinator because you have added too many fish at once. alsodont worry about fish needing to be in minimim group they will be fine for a week until you can get a couple more.

keep up the water changes and good luck with the fish, and again i appologise

 

[donald110]

hi thank you for your reply its nice to know i am doing thing right. and don't worry your forgiven, i get it all the time.

ok how would i get ammonia down to 0, because even when i do 100% water change it made no difference, it was still between 0 and .25 .

this might seem a stupid question how often should should you clean the filter media, i know to clean it it the water removed from tank. but how often.

thank you again

 

[Mo1959]

Hi Donald. Just as an aside, when you say you can't get your ammonia back to zero, I read of someone else on here that actually had a slight ammonia reading from their tap water so it may be worth checking.

 

[BigIan]

Hiya Donald, being dyslexic sucks (i have it too) download Mozilla Firefox its great it works like Microsoft word and if you spell something wrong or haven't punctuated correctly you get red wavy lines underneath words, i find it really helpful for using forums.

now back to your original question. sounds like your doing everything ok, as to how long before you can add more fish, you need your ammonia reeding to be at 0 and to stay at 0 with no water changes.

This means that the bacteria colony in your filter is large enough to deal with the fish you have in your tank now.
so you want the colony to be taking care of the load it has now before you add more load to it.

how this helps

Ian

 

[donald110]

i will get and test the tap water asap, but need food first, will post test results as soon as there done. thank you, hope it is that.

hi Ian i use goggle chrome does the same thing, but i must not been anywhere the real word. and it does suck being dyslexic. and thank you for your suggestion.

 

[Tolak]

You also may have a situation where your water supplier is using chloramine along with chlorine. Chloramine is more stable than chlorine, and is composed of chlorine an ammonia. Your dechlorinator splits this bond, takes care of the chlorine, leaving you with a slight ammonia reading. Check your tap water before and after dechlorinating.

 

[donald110]

sorry for taking so long to post tap water test results but here we are

before adding dechlorinate - between 0 - .25
after adding dechlorinate - between 0 - .25

so no change, but it does look like i have ammonia in my tap water, but i thought aqua safe change it into something else. i do use the pond version, my local pet store could tell me no difference. and it would last me longer.