Newbie Help?

[chelseawinners]

Hello to you all..

Firstly can i say how great this site is i have been looking at a few posts and the answers and help you lot give are really great and so
i am hoping you may be able to help me out a little..

I have a 125 litre tank with 6 plants in it a heater and a filter which has been set up for 4 weeks,i added 4 danio's each about
0.5cm long 4 days ago now my first question is that i have noticed that one of the danio's is missing and eye? doesn't seem to affect him eating/swimming but it doesn't really swim with the others much,is this gonna be a problem with the fish? will it affect the tank and will it get picked on later when i add more fish?

the second well real question is that i have tested the water yesterday for nitrates,nitrites and amonia as well as ph and the result was as follows...

nitrates....40ppm
nitrites....0ppm
amonia....0.25
ph....7.6

now my tap water is 7.6ph and the nitartes form the tap is also 40ppm so i am not concerned about that as long as the nitartes doesn't go above 50ppm i should be ok right?
secondly although the amonia is quite high it should be kept under 0.2 is that right? untill the tank fully cycles i'm guessing?


i did a water change today of about 38 litres 35% i think,as i don't have a bucket or bin bigger then this,i treat the water in the bin and leave it to get to room temperature (my tank is at 26 degrees and the room temp is also between 24-26) before changing the water.
now would this be ok to do every day to keep the amonia levels down? i have been told that a 50% water change is necessary every day until the tank the tank matures but i don't have enough room to do that amount of water change at all..i could buy a new bin i suppose and have 2 ready,what do you guys do and use when changing the water?
would it be ok to test the water after changing the water or should i leave it for a hour first?

its quite long winded i know but i would be extremely grateful in any help you can give me in trying to understand what to do and if i
am on the right track seeing as though i am new to this i don't want to make unnecessary mistakes that could be avoided..

thanks again its so appreciated...

 

[WILDER]

Preform daily water changes.
Keep an eye on water stats.
Increase aeration.
Add two tablespoons of salt to the tank. Get a jug of tank water and add the salt. Stir till it dissolves then add to the tank. It will help the fish while the tank cycling.

Make sure the missing eye area is not infected and looks clean.
You really need good water quality with a fish that has lost an eye.
They shouldn't pick on him if he not stressed. But you never know with fish.

Best to test the water before you do a water change.
If you have to test the water after a water change make sure its about 4 hours later.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Chelsea.
Daily water changes are a very good idea during a fish-in cycle like you are doing. You might want to test your tap water for ammonia after you have added the dechlorinator. My local water company uses chloramine as a water treatment. It breaks down into ammonia and chlorine when I use water conditioner. The conditioner removes the chlorine but I find as much as 0.5 ppm of ammonia a few minutes following the water treatment.

 

[timmer21]

Hi,

Your tank is still new so every little thing you do is going to affected your test results, until the tank cycles. I would do daily water changes of about 10%, (50% is far to much) keep testing incase of any spike dont worry about cleaning your filter you should not clean the filter unless water flow is reduced, or there a problem with the filter. Try not to disturb the gravel as well as lot of the good bactira live in there also.
Don't over feed as the food just rots in the tank rise nitrates. If you do the daily 10% for a week or two. When you start getting regulare results then you can think about adding more plant/fish.
Your danio will be fine, i had a one eye sword tail that use to boss every thing about the tank even the fish twicw its size. Maybe get some more danios to spead any bullying between all the fish and not just one.

Cheers

 

[Assaye]

Hi,

Your tank is still new so every little thing you do is going to affected your test results, until the tank cycles. I would do daily water changes of about 10%, (50% is far to much) keep testing incase of any spike dont worry about cleaning your filter you should not clean the filter unless water flow is reduced, or there a problem with the filter. Try not to disturb the gravel as well as lot of the good bactira live in there also.
Don't over feed as the food just rots in the tank rise nitrates. If you do the daily 10% for a week or two. When you start getting regulare results then you can think about adding more plant/fish.
Your danio will be fine, i had a one eye sword tail that use to boss every thing about the tank even the fish twicw its size. Maybe get some more danios to spead any bullying between all the fish and not just one.

Cheers

50% is not far too much. With modern water treatments the risk of shocking the fish with a large water change is very minimal. The fish NEED large water changes to remove the toxic ammonia and nitrite in the water of a cycling tank. A 10% water change will make so little difference that there isn't any point in doing it.

There is also a very minimal level of beneficial bacteria in the gravel as it does not have access to good oxygen and water flow, unlss an undergravel filter is being used. The filter is where 99% of the bacteria is and not cleaning the gravel can lead to a build up of rotting food and fish poo that just makes matters worse.

OP, when changing water I used buckets. Just empty out the water into a bucket and if needed, empty the bucket a few times until enough water is removed. I do 25% water changes on a 290 litre tank using only one 10 litre bucket so it is totally do-able. If you need to get the water warmer, add some water from the kettle. Leaving the water to rise naturally is a waste of time - just make sure you have a good water conditioner that removes heavy metals! That prevents any contamination from copper pipes or kettle elements.