New To The Forums, Here To Learn

[Bruno]

Hi all. Had a tank when I was younger and thought I had done well, but am learning that I was lucky mostly and probably didn't give my fish the best environment. That is the past, but now I have a 8 year old son who is interested in aquariums so we are going to do it together and hopefully do it right.

He has limited space for a tank and mom is skeptical about having it out, so we have started with a 20 Gal tank in his room, out of direct light. We have a LED light, though I still have much reading to see if that is good or will need to be replaced. We started 4 weeks ago and filled it with gravel, some plastic plants, a couple of ornaments with hiding places, a heater, a marine land penguin bio wheel 150 and some air diffusers.

We filled it up with water, treated for chlorine and the next day bought 5 kyathit danio to start cycling it. We are vacuuming the gravel and taking out about 5 gal water a week and replacing it with fresh, dechlorinated water.

I bought a simple water testing kit and have been checking for ammonia and nitrite at each cleaning as well. So far we have been at zero but the ammonia started to rise yesterday.

So for now we are waiting for the tank to cycle and I am doing some reading, and found this site which looks to be quite helpful. Thanks in advance for any help you may offer, and I am open to suggestions based on the above.

Bruno

 

[Chad]

Welcome! You've found a great forum to belong to.

 

[Mamashack]

 to TFF, Bruno and son!
Can I direct you to the Beginners Resource Centre which has lots of interesting articles that will be of interest to you - in particular the Fish-in cycle one.
You'll see lots of terms like cycling on this forum - the articles explain it far better than I could ever do. If you have any questions after reading the articles, post them here and someone is bound to be able to help. It's difficult to give concise, general advice without specifics - information like what type of filter and heater you have for instance and as much detail as you can. Happy reading and good luck with the tank!
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/277264-beginners-resource-center/

 

[fluttermoth]

Welcome to the forum, Bruno.
 
The most important thing you need to do right now is to  make sure the ammonia doesn't get too high, or it'll make your fish sick, or even kill them. Test the water every day and keep the ammonia to as near zero as you can. Don't be scared to do big water changes; as long as the new water is warmed and dechlorinated, you won't hurt the fish.
 
Do the same if you see any nitrite show up.
 
Best of luck, and don't be shy about asking questions, even if they seem silly to you (although our search facility is pretty good); believe me, we've heard it all here!

 

[Bruno]

Thanks for the tips and the links. So much for doing it right, but the links and guides will hopefully get me moving that way. I did another water test tonight using the Hagen Nutrafin test kit it uses vials, some reagents and color matching charts. My ammonia is the same as yesterday, .6 mg/L while nitrite and nitrate are clear so are at zero. My ph is 7.5 to 8.0 (my eyes had a hard time deciding). The fish have been in there just over 4 weeks so I don't know of the low levels mean the filter is working and my tank has cycled or if I should expect levels to jump yet?

I will go back to reading to see if I can figure that out from current posts.

 

[Mamashack]

If the tank was fully cycled you would see a +ve nitrAte reading and anything up to 40ppm is acceptable. There is debate about higher levels than that, but that's a whole different ball-game. The water changes will slow the process down so what might take a few weeks the fishless way will probably take 2-3 times longer with fish in the tank as you are diluting the bacteria's food source i.e. ammonia and you have to do that for the sake of your fishes' health. So stick with it a maybe in a month or two you'll be cycled. It will be a test of your patience and endurance, but you'll get there in the end!

 

[the_lock_man]

Welcome Bruno.