New Tank Problems

[cambspaul]

Hi
Think im being given bad advice from the shop i brought my tank from and have come here in the hope of learning the right way to do things.
The story so far

About 3 weeks ago i purchased a fluval venezia 350 tank {294 litres} with a fluval 405 external filter. The top 2 trays in the filter are the biomax tube looking things and the bottom 2 trays were carbon, was told to add water polishing pads to the bottom 2 trays . Gravel base properly cleaned ,couple of stones and filled it up . Was told to add a full bottle of nutrafin cycle and nutrafin water conditioner .Left it for 7 days then took a sample in and was told it was fine . Brought a 30 cm common pleco and 10 minnows , put them in and everything seemed fine . The water was crystal clear and all looked good . Have about 10 real plants in there aswell and was told to add api root tabs to help them grow . All of the above was done due to the advice from the shop . Took another sample in a week later and was told had a nitrite problem so needed to water change 15% and to change bottom tray in filter to fluval clearmax to sort problem . When i brought the tank i was told you dont really need to change the water more than once every 6 months . Whilst doing change someone came round and the media ended up being left out on the draining board for about an hour . After reading on here i now realise i might have killed my bacteria by doing this , my fault i know . At this point 4 of the minnows have died . Took another sample in 4 days later , told the nitrite is now fine but the ph is to high so have to add api ph down . The next day i awake to find a tank i cant see through , heavilly clouded and 2 more dead minnows . I have been very careful to measure the amounts of everything i have added to the tank as the instructions on the bottles .
At this point went back in to the shop and couldnt get a real answer out of them . My tank looks worse than it did the first day i filled it . So i looked online and found this forum. I realise it is my fault for leaving the media out and now want to learn how to maintain my tank properly . I have no test results to tell you but have ordered a nutrafin master test kit that should be here tomorrow . Want to test for myself so i can get this problem sorted.

Also, the plec keeps ripping up the plants . Is this normal ?
The lights are left on for 10 hours a day and the heater is set to 23 degrees c .

I know ive been a mug,but want to learn how to run things properly and avoid anymore fish from dieing .

 

[Gvilleguy]

You've come to the right place for help! We can get you straightened out, but it might require a bit of work. I doubt that you had very many bacteria to kill when the media was left out. It had not been cycling for very long, so it would not have had time to grow much bacteria. That fish shop gave you bad advice all around, from what I can tell.

Where to start?

1. Go to this forum:

Beginners Resource Center

And read up on "Fish-in Cycling", because that is what you are doing now.

2. Use your test kit to test for levels of ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. You will carry out large water changes to keep these chemical levels down. (as you will read in that thread) You should also monitor temperature and pH levels.

3. Start a new thread in the "new freshwater tank" forum with a title "cambspaul's fish-in cycle log", or something like that. Put all of your major tank stats in there (tank size, current stock, filter brand and capacity), plus update the tank measurements every few days in the log, along with any water changes you perform. There is a fishless cycle log in my signature that you could reference as an example.

There are very experienced members of the forum that will look at your log and make suggestions for tweaking your cycle as it progresses.

4. Leave your tank pH alone. It is easier for your fish to adjust to your water source's natural pH level than for you to try and keep changing it with chemicals. It will be a constant struggle, and it is more stressful for the fish if pH fluctuates rather than remaining constant.

5. Regarding your Fluval 405 filter - I would recommend you remove the carbon media and replace it with something else like "Fluval pre-filter" pellets. The carbon media is useful for taking care of medicine that need to be removed from a tank. It is NOT useful for day to day use for one reason: the carbon packs become saturated after about 30 days and need to be replaced. But when you replace it, you are throwing out a bunch of helpful bacteria that have colonized the mesh on the carbon pack! So I would ditch the carbon since you are at the start of your cycling.

6. Regarding "changing the tank water once only every 6 months" - not really true. Regular water changes are the best way to keep levels of nitrates under control, and also the best way to clean your tank (you use a water siphon to vacuum the gravel while removing water at the same time).

That's all I can think of to get you started - I hope this is helpful to you! Please report back with questions or concerns.

 

[cambspaul]

Thanks for your advice , i will look in to the media change . I ordered a gravel cleaner pump with the test kit so i should have that tomorrow . Should be alot easier than scooping the water out with a mug like last time . I will do tests tomorrow when the kit arrives and post them like you said .
Is it normal for the plec to be ripping out the plants?

 

[Gvilleguy]

I don't have any experience with the Common Pleco. Is it possible the guy is just ripping up the plants when trying to suck on the leaves??

 

[hillmar77]

I think the tank could be too small for a common pleco to when they start to grow.

 

[cambspaul]

Thanks for the advice , have done tests and started a topic like you said .

Regarding the plec ill have to find out about what size he will grow to . The shop said it wouldnt be a problem, but they have already proved to be a bad source of info .