New Tank Setup Issues

[FishMonkey]

Hi Everyone,
 
I am very new to keeping fish and have been having a few problems with my new tank setup and am looking for some advice if you wouldn't mind?
 
Here is my setup:

• Juwel Rekord 800 110L Tank
• Juwel Filter Bioflow Super
• Juwel 100 Watt Heater
• Tetra APS 100 Pump with 4" Air Stone
• 12.5KG of White/Blue Gravel
• Various Ornaments and Fake Plants
• API Freshwater Master Test Kit
• Fish Net
• Nutrafin Cycle
• Nutrafin Tapsafe

Fish:

• 4 x Glowlight Tetras

 
I thought i was doing the right thing by listening very carefully to my LFS on how to cycle and maintain my tank, but from reading all the posts from thousands of successful aquarists online and on this forum, it seems they were very wrong.
 
I was told to setup all my bits and bobs in my tank, fill it with cold tap water and add Nutrafin Tapsafe and Nutrafin Cycle, turn the filter and heater on and let the tank get to around 26 degrees and leave it for 2 days, then take them a sample of my water and they will tell me if my tank is ready for some fish. Bearing in mind that they had not told me i could do a fishless cycle, the word was never mentioned once in the 20 minutes or so we were talking, i was told that what i now know as a fish-in cycle was the only way.
 
I was also told that i can only start with Glowlight Tetras as they are the hardiest fish they have, that didn't bother me at all as i like them and want to have them as part of my community tank when the cycle has finished, i opted for 4 to start and they went in after they tested me water and said it was perfect.
 
When i got the Glowlights, i noticed that their top fins were all shredded and pretty much non-existent, i asked the LFS employee and the manager and they both said that this was perfectly normal as they had only had them delivered the day before and in Jersey (where i live) they obviously have to travel overseas and they can get nipped in transit, i accepted this as they both confirmed this theory, but am still unsure if they should be this bad, see picture below:
 

 
Can someone please advise if this is normal, they were shredded before, but this has now disappeared and the fins are short, i have only had them in there a week so am not sure if they are healing or not, or if i can do anything to help?
 
I tested my water 24 hours after putting my fish in and these were the results:
 
pH                               7.6 (Jersey water is around this as standard)
NH3 (Ammonia)       0ppm
NO2 (Nitrite)            0ppm
NO3 (Nitrate)       100ppm
 
I thought this was quite a jump in Nitrate from the 0 reading the previous day at my LFS, but as i was told not to worry about the chemical levels in my tank and just to measure them weekly and make sure that they are moving up and down, i was told not to do any water changes at all or touch the filter media until after the cycle is complete in about 6 weeks when all my levels have returned to 0. After reading several posts on here regarding fish-in cycling, i now know that i should be doing regular water changes of up to 50% at a time, and measuring daily, while i don't mind doing this, i simply can't on a lot of days during the week due to commitments, so i will have to stick to weekly testing for now. 
 
After the Glowlights had been in the tank for 3 days they started only swimming right near the surface of the water and looked like they were gasping for air, i read on here it could be due to several reasons, one of them being they are not getting enough oxygen from the water, luckily i have a Tetra APS 100 external pump and a 4" air stone that i installed, so i turned this on and sure enough they started using the whole tank again and seem fairy accepting of the current oxygen levels in there. With the Juwel Bioflow Super filter i didn't think i'd have an oxygen problem as i thought these were one of the better filters, and have only ever heard good things about Juwel equipment. I also don't like to leave it on all the time as it makes quite a current in my tank and the fish are constantly fighting it, but now know i should have movement on the surface of the water which i was not getting before, is it good for fish to always be fighting currents or should they be able to relax? I have been turning it off when i go to bed and back on when i get up so they have a break when it's dark, should i leave this on all the time or is what i'm doing ok?
 
Also in the last 48 hours i have noticed that my water has turned pretty cloudy and when you look at it through the side of the tank you can barely see through it, i have read this can be due to a bacteria bloom and i should do a 50% water change, is this correct? See below:
 

 
I tested my water again tonight, this is one week after getting my Glowlights:
 
pH                               7.6 (Jersey water is around this as standard)
NH3 (Ammonia)       0ppm
NO2 (Nitrite)       0.25ppm
NO3 (Nitrate)       120ppm
 
Do these look OK?
 
Sorry for all the questions, but as i said i am new to this, i hope that i haven't bored everyone too much with my first post and can get some answers to my questions as i don't want my fish to suffer unnecessarily.
 
Thanks all for reading and i'm sure you'll see many future posts from me, great forum!
 
Mike

 

[RRaquariums]

I will let someone more experienced with a fish in cycle answer those questions but my advice to you is never shop at that fish store again as you seemed to have stumbled upon one of those places with unscrupulous employes and a bad manager they told you what would help them sell fish fast and lied to you about what to do to prepare the tank then sold you fish that should not be sold since they just got them in.

 

[FishMonkey]

Hi RRaquariums,
 
Thanks for your quick reply and advice, unfortunately i live in Jersey in the Channel Islands which is only 9 miles long by 5 wide and has 3 LFS's, 2 of them don't look after their tanks and are disgusting and overcrowded, this is the only one where the fish are half decent, i'm afraid i'm stuck with them.
 

 

[RRaquariums]

Yeah I live in Spokane and I have three choices to luckily one of them is awesome.
Anyways if nothing else don't fallow there advice make your own calculated and researched decisions and then pick fish based on that.
Also in the forum there's a section on cycling new tanks there's some really good stuff in there and I'd advise doing some reading of it

 

[Ninjouzata]

Am not sure I understand...you say you're turning the filter off occasionally? Your filter needs to be on at all times.
I'd return the fish and do a fish-less cycle.

 

[FishMonkey]

Hi Ninjouzata,
 
I am not turning the filter off, that is always on, i am turning the external Tetra APS 100 pump off that runs my 4" air stone, i turn that off at night to let them rest, should i leave this on also? I had it on as i thought they needed more oxygen due to them swimming right below the surface and gasping.
 
@RRaquariums - i have read a great thread on here about cycling tanks, will follow that advice from now on.
 
Thanks for the replies.

 

[RRaquariums]

Yes always leave your air on that helps with oxygenation but I'd say your fish are at the surface because of high nitrates.
You should take the fish back to the store and then cycle the tank without fish.

 

[Ninjouzata]

Ah okay, no you don't need to leave the air stone on if you don't want to. Your filter should be causing enough surface agitation.
 
That is concerning about the fish gasping at the surface. Nitrite can cause this but I thought it happened with higher levels.
 
You can add salt to help with the nitrite but I really would suggest just taking them back to the shop and doing a fishless cycle. It's less stress on you and the fish.
 
"To add 10 ppm of chloride for every ppm of nitrite in the water, use the following steps:
 
1. Multiply your nitrite reading by 10. This will give you the needed mg/l of chloride to will need to add.
2. Calculate the actual volume in liters of water in your tank. If your volume is in gallons you must convert this into liters. (As a rule, using the advertised volume of the tank at about 85% will put you in the right ballpark.)
3. Multiply the number in #1 above by the number of liters of water in #2 above to get the total mg of  chloride you will need to add.
4. Because salt is roughly 2/3 chloride, you must multiply the number calculated in #3 by 1.5.  You now know how many mg of salt you should add to the water. Dividing this number by 1,000 will convert this amount to grams which are easier to weigh for most people.
5. Do not add salt directly to the tank. Remove some tank water to a container and mix the salt in that, then add the salt water to the tank spreading it around the surface.
6. The amount of salt needed is not very much compared to a brackish or salt water tank. So don't worry about the salt harming things, especially for the short time you would need it in the water.
 
You will need to continue testing for nitrite because any rise may mean that further salt additions are needed. Once the cycle is done, or even as nitrite drops, you can reduce or eliminate the salt from the tank via water changes."

 

[majerah1]

Welcome! 
 
If the current from the pump is too high, get a little shut off valve. Many pet stores will sell them. You attach it to the airline, and can turn the air flow up and down. As for shopping there for fish, dont. I personally would return the current stock, and do a fishless cycle, then shop around online at places such as Aquabid for fish. You will pay a little more, but in my opinion it is well worth it to have quality fish from someone who cares about the health and quality of their stock and not just the money. 

 

[AquaPit]

welcome! Hope those issues will be resolved! Nice looking tank btw!

 

[FishMonkey]

Thanks for the responses everyone and the advice, but like many that are new around here that trusted what their LFS said and now have their tank setup with a few fish, i am going to try the fish in cycle as detailed here by [member='rabbut']:
 
[post='1856332']Fish-In Cycling[/post]
 
I did a 50% water change yesterday and the cloudiness has dropped quite a bit, will see how it gets on today and if needs be i will do another 50% water change tomorrow, my results an hour after the water change were:
 
pH                               7.6 (Jersey water is around this as standard)
NH3 (Ammonia)       0ppm
NO2 (Nitrite)            0ppm
NO3 (Nitrate)         80ppm
 
[member='RRaquariums'] i read the setup instructions that came with my Juwel Bioflow Super filter and it advised to point the nozzle down towards the gravel, this was not making any surface movement at all, i have now got an extension on the nozzle and it is facing diagonally upwards and is now circulating the water nicely around my tank and causing some tiny bubbles to form on my ornaments which must be a good sign, that's with keeping my bubble wall off, so i will only have this on when i am home.
 
[member='Ninjouzata'] when you say add salt, are you just talking about normal salt from the kitchen, or specialist aquarium salt? I couldn't find any at my LFS yesterday, i was looking for salt or Sodium Chloride, but they had nothing, and do i need to use this now as my Nitrite levels are back to 0? I appreciate you say to fish-less cycle, but i have started now and want to carry on like many others on here.
 
[member='majerah1'] it isn't my pump that is causing too much of a current, it was when i had the pump and the external Tetra APS 100 pump on for my bubble wall that it throws my fish around a bit, but i assume this is because they are tiny, i do have a regulator valve for my APS and it is turned right down, it just must be in a good place to cause a current, is a current good for this fish all the time, or should they get a chance to relax?
 
I've also always wondered how tropical fish get shipped to places like where i live, is it not a bit rough for them in transit? Can't imagine they'd stay warm for too long, or do they put heat pads in with them or something?
 
[member='AquaPit'] and so do i. Thanks for your comment!

 

[fishman2014]

welcome to the forum nice tank