New To Keeping Fish

[coldcazzie]

The clarity is a different issue. It's still caused by the ammonia, but it isn't the ammonia visible in the water. Your water will look clear even if it's got loads of ammonia in it - that's part of the problem with it - you can't see it!

Also "fine" is a very vague term. If you take some water back in you can ask for them to do the tests in front of you, and write the results down. Basically, anything above 0.25ppm of either ammonia or nitrite is bad, and you should water change to remove it.

The other thing about the water changes is that the size is kind of determined by the ammonia/nitrite reading. If you have 1ppm of ammonia and you remove 20% of the water, then you have removed 20% of the ammonia. Your test kit will probably still read 1ppm (they are only accurate to a certain degree), and you'll come on here saying "I've done a water change but it's made no difference!" Whereas if you did a 90% water change then you'd remove 90% of the ammonia, your test kit would read close to 0ppm and you'd be alright to leave the tank for a while. Do you see? Just saying "I'll do 20% each day" isn't enough. Sorry to pee on your fire!

 

[maisy12345]

Hi Coldcazzie,
thanks a lot for the offer,you`ve been really helpful ,but will phone pets at home up first see what they say ,meanwhile i`ll buy a test kit and do daily 20 percent water changes.
One last thing though,will i need to clean the gravel at the same time,i know not to clean the filter until the tanks been set up a month ,but what about cleaning the gravel with a gravel vacuum ,if so how often

we`ve replied to each other at the same time,aaaarrgh!!!!
I`LL think about you`re latest advice over a cuppa

 

[Tizer]

That tetrasafe start will make your water more cloudy for sure. Its a mechanical method of locking the toxic substances into a safe form. Easier and cheaper to do a water change. Do more than 20%, try for 40%, its a super small tank, very quick and easy to do water changes. i would buy a Jerry can from pets at home, they hold 25 litres of water, then get an siphon. You could empty the tank in 3 minutes flat if you needed to.

Dont buy any bottled crap, its all there to make a pretty penny out of the unsuspecting punter. water changes, daily, tests, daily, few weeks and job done.

 

[coldcazzie]

Yes do the gravel cleaning every time by cleaning the gravel you'll be removing the built up poo etc, that's the stuff that decays and produces the ammonia. So clean clean clean! You can't clean enough! The bacteria in the filter will grow at the same rate regardless of whether there is 0.01ppm or 1ppm ammonia. The bacteria will grow regardless of what you do, it's just whether or not you want to keep the fish healthy while they do it.

As for advice, think about this: if you fish shop give you advice (about what to buy, when to buy it etc) what do you do? You buy stuff from them. You put money in their pockets. As a business it's in their best interests to tell you to come back for fish 3 days after you've bought the tank, and then a week later for more fish, because that's how they make money. And if your fish die because of ammonia poisoning, what do you do? You go back and buy more fish. you mention about cycling and they say "ooh that bottled stuff over there", which is more money for them, again, and you've wasted time and money on advice and a product that doesn't work.

I gain nothing from giving you advice about test kits, water changes etc etc, apart from the knowledge that there's a group of fish in your house being looked after properly, and will live a long and happy life because of it. And that makes me happy

 

[nigsy]

Pets at Home are terrible for this.
Big sign up over the fish section "Allow 3 days for your tank to settle before adding fish", they should really be taken to task over this - to many people being caught out and being given bad advice, then falling into forums when it is to late.

You have been given good advice here to reiterate 2 good points:

1. 20% changes in your situation are worthless.
2. Try and find a friend or a local shop that will give you (or sell you) some mature media, this will cut the cycle time right back, and with full media and a small tank you may find your cycling issue sorted.

On fish choice -
4 tetras is a minimum amount.
Corries like to be in shoals of 4 or more (of the same type, not 2 panda and 2 albino etc)
Shrimp are also social animals, so again 4 is a good number.

Keep the guppies out of the tank..if you think you have an ammonia problem now see what 2 of them will do to levels in a week!

 

[maisy12345]

Thanks for all your advice again ,but wouldn`t 4catfish ,4 shrimp and 4 tetra be too much for one 28l tank,and i wanted guppies to add some colour , would any other fish be suitable.?
Also if ammonia isn`t causing my cloudiness what could be?

 

[Tizer]

Hard to say, but do the water changes and see if it disappears, you cant solve everything instantly.

 

[nigsy]

Thanks for all your advice again ,but wouldn`t 4catfish ,4 shrimp and 4 tetra be too much for one 28l tank,and i wanted guppies to add some colour , would any other fish be suitable.?
Also if ammonia isn`t causing my cloudiness what could be?

The corries and shrimp will compete for food so, I think it's one or the other for your current tank, hard choice both great in their own way, but corries are more visable.

You could get away with 4 black widow tetra and 4 leopard dannios as well as the corries - That would probably be about all I would put in a 28 litre tank max. This would give you fish at all levels - corries bottom feeders, Tetra mid tank (Widows like plants to hide amongst) and dannios mainly at the top - but they really are a barking mad fish so you could find them anywhere!

 

[maisy12345]

Thanks Nigsy,
but really wanted corries and shrimps ,couldn`t i feed them with pellet food as well,and whats your stanceon just having two of each?

 

[nigsy]

Thanks Nigsy,
but really wanted corries and shrimps ,couldn`t i feed them with pellet food as well,and whats your stanceon just having two of each?

The world won't end if you have 2 of each!!

Fish just act more naturally in bigger shoals, corries in particular exhibit much more relaxed behavior when there are more of them (I have 8 Albino's)

Corries and Shrimp get on well together (I have 4 shrimp with the corries) so if you decide on 2 of each they will be fine. Shrimps like places to hide when they shed their shell's so don't be surprised if they disappear for a day or 2!

Another thing with shrimps, they are very inquisitive and tend to like filter inlets (guess its where food debris can be found), when they are small you may neet to put something across the filter to stop them getting in.

 

[maisy12345]

Thanks Nigsy,for the advice,made me feel better about choices,so,so far 2 corries ,2 shrimp ,4 glowlight tetra,and one more fish ,just got to decide what, wanted three colourful guppies but have been advised against these as they release loads of ammonia into water though

 

[nigsy]

Thanks Nigsy,for the advice,made me feel better about choices,so,so far 2 corries ,2 shrimp ,4 glowlight tetra,and one more fish ,just got to decide what, wanted three colourful guppies but have been advised against these as they release loads of ammonia into water though

Guppies will also very quickly outgrow your tank - How about some Rasboras?

 

[maisy12345]

Hi thank Nigsy ,i`ll look at them ,sorry to be pain but when i do my daily water changes ,as well as tap conditioner ,do i add liquid bacteria every time?

 

[coldcazzie]

Well, there's little proof that it works, but if you want to add it then sure. Just don't add too much.

As for the cloudiness, it's probably algae. Ammonia + light = algae. You could turn your light off for a few days, see if that helps? Mostly all you can do is wait it out. I'm not totally sure as I've never had cloudy water for anything other than having kicked up muck out of the substrate. Did you give your gravel a really good clean before you put it in? I guess it could be that...

You could get a single honey gourami, they are quite pretty, especailly if you get a male, but you should check in the gourami section to make sure they are happy to be kept singly. Or a single male betta *may* work (I emphasise may because it depends on the betta - some are happy to be in communities, some are not. Not sure about anything else - the tank is very small so you're limited in that respect.

Again, where are you? There may be someone locally to you who can give you some mature media for your filter.

 

[maisy12345]

Hi Coldcazzie,thanks i`ll look into that fish,i live in Birmingham ,but I`ve phoned pets at home up and they said they`d give me some,thanks all the same.