New Tank

[supraking]

hi all, new to the site. a week ago i bought my first tank
i think it is a 10g tank (35 litres i think)
so only a small one but i do only have a small flat

when i got it, it came with a little bottle called 'cycle' i believe this adds bacteria and can start the cycle. so i added this when i first setup and then left it for 4 days with everything running, filter, heater, light. then on the 5th day i bought 2 fish, 2 mollies(sorry i no idea which sex). i left them in the bag in the water for 20minutes to let it heat up to my tanks temp, added abit of tnak water left them for a while repeated then finnaly let them out. all seemed well and i headed off to work. when i cam back from work i found one of them had died.
now i havent a clue why. i dont think it was something i could have done and it died between me going to work 4pm, and my girlfriend gettin in about 9pm. any body got any ideas

the ohter one seems fine i started feeding it 22hrs after i got it in, and now have had it 2 days and everything seems fine.
unfortunatly i cannot state how the cycle is going at the moment, as i dont have enough money to buy the test kits (first thing on my list when i get paid) but i dont see the amonia getting too high at the mo with only one fish and the 'cycle' stuff in it.
when should i start doin partial water changes and should i get another fish to help cycle it?

please dont flame, im new and got slightly impatient, i thought my tank would cycle better and quicker with a few hardy fish than without any

thanks for reading, ash

 

[Miss Wiggle]

the cycle stuff is rubbish i'm afraid, even with just 1 molly in a 10 gal tank your ammonia will be fairly high, you need to do 20% daily water changes every day until you can get a test kit and confirm that your readings are ok.

 

[loachman]

It is probably ammonia poisoning/stress. You tank is probably not cycled as the general concenses seems to be that all "cycle" does is "cycle" money through your wallet.

Read up on cycling with fish.

 

[supraking]

damn thats a fast reply i love this site. ok thank you for that, ill chuck that cycle crap then
and get right on to doing a water change

 

[Miss Wiggle]

good stuff, there's some more info on cycling in the links in my sig if you want any more info

 

[supraking]

thanks again, one quick question tho when changing water, would a normal bucket do the job? if not it might take me a while
i do have a gravel syphon thingy and will be cleaning the bottom of tank as i go, also will be using this the other way round for adding water back into the tank

 

[dwarfgourami]

thanks again, one quick question tho when changing water, would a normal bucket do the job? if not it might take me a while
i do have a gravel syphon thingy and will be cleaning the bottom of tank as i go, also will be using this the other way round for adding water back into the tank

A normal bucket will be fine, but if you are going to be pouring water back into the tank from it, it will have to be a bucket that has never been used for cleaning, in fact a new bucket.

 

[supraking]

ah, so my old car washing buckets a no then erm would i be able to add a few jugs of water then add a bit of tap safe? then more jugs and a bit of tap safe? or would that be daft?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

ha ha no, you need to have dedicated fishy bukets that are used only for fish stuff, it's best to get two, label one in and one out. then for things coming out of the tank you use the out one only and for water going in you use the in one only. then there's no risk of cross contamination if (for example) you get a disease adn need to do water changes, anything you take out of the tank isn't going straight back in with the new water.

you can add your tap safe either to the water before adding it to the tank, or directly into the tank then add the water

 

[supraking]

i would be able to use an old bucket for the out water tho shouldnt i? saves me buying 2
and i can add the tap safe to the tank, then add the water? sounds good

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i'd still get fresh ones to start with, when your siphoning water out the end of the vac will be resting in the bucket, it's quite feasible that this will at some point be inside your tank so your risking transfering cleaning products etc into the tank which can kill the fish.

anyway buckets are only 99p in B&Q

that's fine with the tap safe

 

[supraking]

ok thanks alot, uve been great. ill get on to it and let u know how it goes, also ill try and get some pics up soon and when i get a test kit ill no odubt have some questions

 

[Miss Wiggle]

good stuff

look forward to the pics

 

[supraking]

oo actually one more quick question about my filter, the outlet for it is at the top, and the instructions say keep it about 1-2cm below the top of the water, now this seems fine and i see it rippling th etop of the water on its way out. my question is would a riple be enough or would it need to actually break the water. i could just angle my filter slightly upwards so it flows out of the serface and then back in?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

surface agitation is a good thing, the warmer the water is the less oxygen it holds, having your filter breaking up the surface of the water will drive more oxygen into the tank and keep the tank relativley cool. This is very important coming up to the summer months when lots of us loose fish from the heat.

your fish will tell you if there's not enough oxygen in the water.... they hold up little signs asking for air .... sorry, if they are hanging out at the surface of the tank and appear to be gasping for air then you need more oxygen in the water so need to adjust the filter output. remember with more fish in the tank the oxygen will be used up quicker so while you might not have problems now when you get more fish and the weather heats up you may need to adjust it so just keep an eye on things.

bit of a crash course this isn't it?! lol