Newbie Help!

[cuthy123]

Hi Guys, Have just bought and set up a fluval roma 125l Aquarium it has being setup just a little over 1 week. I have only just put in 5 zebra Danio's which the lfs recommended, But now after reading these forums realise it could be a mistake. Please Help !!! Also my water is cloudy since about day 3 and doesnt seem to be clearing was going to do a 25% water change would this be recommended or not???.

Many Thanks

Ben

 

[shelaghfishface]

hia ben.. have a look here.. theres so much to get your head round, but in the meantime dont panic

http/www.fishforum...esource-center/
ps a water change never hurts, but at this point youre gonna need the ammonia to get your cycle boot started.. so it would literally just need to be a small WC x

 

[Aqua Tom]

Change the water, i didnt until to late

 

[Mo1959]

Hi Cuthy and welcome. As you have already purchased fish you are going to have to try and cycle your filter with fish in the tank rather than the fishless cycle as discussed in the resource centre in the forum.

At least the danios are supposedly one of the hardier fish to do this with. However, to keep them safe you are going to have to invest in a water test kit asap. The API freshwater master test kit is the one most often recommended on here rather than the paper strip variety which are not as accurate.

You are going to have to be prepared to carry out water changes on your tank most days to keep levels of ammonia and nitrite extremely low for your fish's health. Until you get your test kit I would suggest at least 10% daily.

There are plenty of people on here who will give you advice and talk you through things so don't worry.

 

[cuthy123]

Thank You all for your help seems a very friendly forum.

I have purchased the nutrafin mini master test kit dont know if its as good as API freshwater kit but its the only one lfs had.
These are the results i got:

Ammonia is between 0-0.6 (Looks nearer to 0 than 0.6) The test kit only seems to give you ranges rather than exact figures is this normal
Nitrite is between 0.1 - 0.3 (looks nearer 0.3 than 0.1)

Iam i right in thinking the Nitrite is quite High??
Followed with a 10% water change

 

[fluttermoth]

The Nutrafin kit is perfectly fine. Most kits only test for within a range; it wouldn't be feasable to produce one that gives exact values and that level of accuracy isn't really needed.

You want to try and keep ammonia and nitrite as close to zero as possible; your filter will still cycle with an amount of ammonia that's too small to show up on your test.

 

[cuthy123]

Right just want to check this is fine:

I am going to do a 10% water change daily ( I dont know if this seems a bit excessive)
Test water every other day
If levels of ammonia, nitrite or nitrate are excessively high, immediately do a 50% water change & retest

If people would let me know there views on if this is the correct way to go about it???

Also how long roughly would you expect for the filter to be fully cycled( its a fluval u3 ) ???

Looking long term i was wanting a community setup again any views or suggestions on fish would be much appriciated, iam was hoping to include: Clown Loach
Red tail black shark
Maybe a Betta but have heard these can be agressive
Guppys
Neon Tetra's
CoryDoras

Hope to hear all you views

Many Thanks

 

[waterdrop]

Hi cuthy123 and Welcome to our beginners section!

During Fish-In Cycling (which is what you are doing) you can trade off between frequency versus percentage of water changes (more of one can mean less of the other if that helps.) Your goal is to be observant and figure out which pattern of this sort works for you such that you never have ammonia(NH3) or nitrite(NO2) go -above- 0.25 or 0.30ppm(0.30ppm is easier to judge with the Nutrafin kit I believe) before you can be home again to do another water change. Zero ppm to 0.30ppm is a very narrow range and can sometimes take some fairly frequent attention to stay within, however your number of danios in your size tank may be considerably easier than smaller tanks or larger fish load would be.

It usually takes about a month of this to achieve a cycled filter. The way you know you're about there is when you go two whole days (testing twice a day as is usual) without having to change water but without seeing any traces of ammonia or nitrite. At that point you've started your "qualifying week" where you just hope it repeats that performance for a whole week! A well-cycled filter is a dream machine for fish!

~~waterdrop~~