New To Keeping Fish

[Marto666]

The Angels in the shop tend to be small so it didnt really occur that they could be aggressive - will they eat anything bigger than Neons?

Will red cherry shrimp or red crab get on with most fish? Do they need any special requirements?

Cheers coldcazzie

 

[coldcazzie]

Yeh but they only babies. They can get 4 inches across the body. That compared to a shoal of 1 inch neons...? it's like an all you can eat buffet to an adult angel!

Pretty sure cherry shrimp get on with everything. I've just got some this morning in my tank. No idea about red crab.

There's a species index on this forum. It's got most things on it. Have a gander through the fish listed and see what suits each other. Google it - there are other forums and websites too. There is bound to be some information somewhere. Then you'll have a better idea on what might go. Then come back with a prospective stocking list and ask whether it would work with your tank.

 

[Marto666]

Thanks coldcazzie

I will have a trawl thought the list and see what I can find.

I'm learning slowly!

 

[maisy12345]

Hi everyone,went down to pets at home to buy a testing kit,and whilst there the man checked the ammonia in my tank water which he said was lethal at 0.5 Ammonia,told me to do a 20 percent water change once weekly and add ammonia remover to the water straight away and to check for dead fish ,told him I was doing 50 percent changes daily,he said that this was too much as it would get rid of the bacteria ,to be fair though he wasn`t aware that the tank had been set up for a week and a half only ,what does everyone think of that ammonia level.?

 

[Tizer]

You need to halve it, which means you need to do a 50% water change and the guy in the shop is a pleb. You will have read, or should have read, several times on this forum that bacteria is held in the filter, not the water. Carry on with the 50% changes and you will keep it close to 0.25ppm

While 0.5 isnt instantly toxic, is has the potential to cause stress, and under stress, fish can develop all sorts of problems. i.e. disease, white spot, fin rot etc etc.

If he tried to sell you ammonia remover, hes just making a fast few quid out of you, probably not on purpose, but because he doesnt know any better. The ammonia doesnt get removed, it gets converted to a non toxic form. It should, still get processed by your filter even in this form, but it can potentially disrupt the natural colonisation of bacteria and cause your cycle to take longer.

If you can keep it to 0.25 or below, your fish wont suffer, it will cycle quicker and you wont waste money on these products.

The only bottled product you need is something to dechlorinate the fresh water you are putting into the tank. If you dont remove chlorine, it will kill your filter bacteria and you will never cycle it.

Hope that helps.

PS, hope you got a decent test kit, it will help to give you some idea how much water to change and it will be worth keeping a log of your readings.

 

[coldcazzie]

Hi everyone,went down to pets at home to buy a testing kit,and whilst there the man checked the ammonia in my tank water which he said was lethal at 0.5 Ammonia,told me to do a 20 percent water change once weekly and add ammonia remover to the water straight away and to check for dead fish ,told him I was doing 50 percent changes daily,he said that this was too much as it would get rid of the bacteria ,to be fair though he wasn`t aware that the tank had been set up for a week and a half only ,what does everyone think of that ammonia level.?

The guy's method of thinking is 20 years out of date. It used to be believed that the bacteria was in the water. But if it's in the water, why do you need a filter at all?! You wouldn't, because the bacteria would process the ammonia in the water! As previously said - the bacteria are in the filter, not the water. Removing the water does nothing but keep the levels of ammonia below those toxic for fish. Anything above 0ppm is bad. Ideally you need to keep it as close to 0 as possible, but under 0.25 is acceptable. As I said, the bacteria will multiply anyway, ragardless of whether the ammonia level is 0.01 ppm or 1ppm. So why keep it at 1 where your fish will die, when you could keep it at 0.01 where your bacteria will grow, AND your fish will live?

Ammonia remover is a waste of money. Why buy ammonia remover when you can remove the ammonia by changing the water for fresh stuff?? The only thing you need is dechlorinator, and if you find with teh daily water changes that you're going through it too fast then there are different ones we can recommend for you that are more cost effective (with Seachem Prime you would only need 1ml to change 100% of your water - bet you're using more than that with the dechlor you're using at the moment, aren;t you?)

Sorry if it sounds like this is slightly bitchy, but you're being fed a big pile of crap by the fish shop.

 

[maisy12345]

Thanks for that advice Tizer,have just done a test with -Master-test-bought from pets at home ,and my test comes out at 0.25 and is yellow ,whereas the man at pets at home said his test was 0.50,and his was green ,so does this mean I still do my 50 percent water changes and if so for how long?

 

[coldcazzie]

Yes. You test your water every day. If your levels show ammonia, you change the water. If they don't then you don't. There is no magic number for how long it takes. For some people it takes 4 weeks, for some it takes 12, or more. You can't predict at this point, and anyone who does is just making it up.

Did they give you some media while you were in there today? You said they were going to?

 

[maisy12345]

Hi Coldcazzie,
no he didn`t was different person on,so i`m going to try my local fish stockist tomorrow,thanks for the advice yet again,but my test only shows colour codes for 0 ,or 0.25 in ammonia,so that means it`s not very accurate doesn`t it ,quite annoyed as it cost me £33?And yes I`m on my second bottle of dechlorinator.

 

[maisy12345]

Have just looked at tank with tank light on ,and noticed it had gone a milky white,like it was going through a bacterial bloom ,but i`ve already had one of those ,help!!!

 

[coldcazzie]

Hi Coldcazzie,
no he didn`t was different person on,so i`m going to try my local fish stockist tomorrow,thanks for the advice yet again,but my test only shows colour codes for 0 ,or 0.25 in ammonia,so that means it`s not very accurate doesn`t it ,quite annoyed as it cost me £33?And yes I`m on my second bottle of dechlorinator.

If you can find seachem prime (it will have to be on ebay) that will last you over a year. My latst bottle lasted a year and I have a 240l tank - nearly 10x the size of yours!

Yes the colour codes are not very accurate. They can't be for a home test kit - your home is not a lab after all. But they are better than nothing. If it's not very obviously yellow, then water change. Do as large as you possibly can. No offence but your tank is tiny - you can easily do a 90% water change on a 28L tank. Imagine doing one on a 240L tank, or one even larger than that...

 

[maisy12345]

Hi Coldcazzie ,do you think that a 90 percent water change is too much daily?

 

[coldcazzie]

No.

If your tank needs it then it's not. This is what I mean by testing to see how much you need to change. If your ammonia is 1ppm then you would need to do 2 large water changes 1 straight after the other to bring the ammonia level down as close to 0 as possible. If it's at between 0.25 and 0.5, then a single water change of about 70-80% would suffice.

I've done daily 70% water changes on my tank for 3 weeks solid. It was not fun believe me. But we do what we have to to keep our fish alive and healthy.

 

[maisy12345]

Hi ,Coldcazzie,what water test kit do you use then?

 

[coldcazzie]

The API one.

I don't actually test my water very often, but my tank has been up and running for several years. If I spot a problem it's one of the first things I do. The other is a water change. At the weekend I added 17 fish. I only had 11 before that. I did 12 hour, 24 hour and 36 hour ammonia tests. All of them were 0. If they had shown any hint of ammonia I would have been water changing like there was no tomorrow!

I am planning on setting up a new tank in the next couple of months, once I have all the bits for it, and have finallised where it's going. I'll be fishless cycling it, and then I'll be very carefully adding fish. And, being a new tank with new inhabitants and plants, it will be gettin daily water changes for the first couple of weeks, then every other day, and slowly work it down to once a month.