Newbie Who Has Not Made A Good Start!

[danny_sims]

great news guys
i went to pick the goldfish tank up and i was really shocked. its 2 x 2 x1 feet.
had two goldfish which have been re homed. its got a wavy front to te tank with open top. the tank came with

fluval u3 filter with 2 and a half guarentee still in tact
Air pump with twin outlet.
loads of plastic plants
few little bits of rocks etc....
loads of different chemicals.(treatments)
3 x bottles of water treatment
gravel cleaner
magnetic glass cleaner
tank has a light built on the top

Comes with everything and more and the guy gave it me for free.

i have put the following in my 300 litre tank
The filter and the very dirty filter sponge from it. (running two pumps is this ok?)
all of the plants and rocks etc....
and i have filled two tights full of gravel hanging in the tank. along with what i gotf rom pets at home already in my flter....
will thiswork and what do i need to do now?

 

[danny_sims]

bump

 

[fluttermoth]

Yes, it will work.

All you need to do now is keep up your small water changes to be on the safe side until you get your test kit

 

[danny_sims]

i have also got a nitrite kit with the new tank and it shows <0.1mg

the fish seem to be very lively and keep trying to eat the rocks and plants (they have algea on them)

I hve also got some plant fertiliser balls. do these actually make plants grow?

 

[danny_sims]

here we go again.

1 x sailfin molly has now gottwo white spots on her tail. ICH?
i think this is due to the change in the ph its gone down to 6.6 so i have just done a 25% water change.

and after this i have noticed that the tank is leaning from the back towards te front slightly (seemed level on the spirit level) only noticed because the glass bars that run from front to back are just touching the water at the front and the rear sde is not touching nothing. could these be out?

i am staying up as late as i can tonight to keep checking the ph level and nitrite levels
can i put ph up in if it keeps dropping or are water changes te bst way?

 

[Katch]

stop putting chemicals in the tank to alter pH.

 

[Shaman]

Don't worry about asking loads of questions! I keep asking them!

My LFS advised me to use a few "hardy" fish and monitor the water stats (rather than fully stocking). The daily water changes are a bit of chore but the tank looks rather good.

According to other people on here, as long as the pH is stable then it's not really a problem.

What's the pH of your tap water? I was using pH6.5 leveller/conditioner then when I tested the tap water, I realised this was 6.8 so ditched the leveller (on advice from here) and bought Seachem Prime water conditioner (which also helps to remove ammonia and nitrite from the tank which helps during cycling).

As for the tank, are the bars moveable? Might just be that your spirit level or floor is out! I know the floor where my tank is has an ever so slight bias "downhill" from left to right that the spirit level didn't pick up! (It's a concrete floor).

Shaman Dan (just up the road in Sunny Blackburn!)

 

[danny_sims]

i have not put any ph up in yet. (i wont now)
my ph level is 7 now after the water change.
the local water is a darker blue than te 7.5 on the colour chart so i would say 8???
i should hompefully be cycle very soon due to all the media i have got in there now.

the bars are not moveable but i have measured and its out by 2mm from back to front. is this a problem? also a concrete floor with carpet on top. do i need to do a 25% change tomorow and then remove as much of what is left in the tank to my other 120litre tank which is next to it empty? and then put something under the front of the stand to raise the front or is it ok to live with?

well im not so sunny leigh
Going talking the dog for a walk in a minute in the rain.....

 

[Shaman]

It may just be the weight of the tank compressing the carpet slightly. Unless it's leaning massively and seems unsteady when you touch the tank then I can't see it being a problem.

Have you got a high pH tester to test above 7.5?

Your quite lucky getting some used media! I've had to plod on changing water for 5 weeks now! Mines nearly at an end now though

 

[danny_sims]

i tough i was not going t get ay used media as i had tried everywhere and last pets at home gave me a little bit of half dirty sponge. but then i got a free goldfish tank 120litre which to be honest was filthy but dirt=happy days.
so should be don within the next few days.
i really want a trio of albino BN's, and a another rainbow shark, a few clown loach, platies.
but as soon as this tank is cycled i will be cycleing the 120litre tank to get ready for illness or breeding.... or maybe just another tank.

 

[fluttermoth]

Much as I hate to rain on anyone's parade, Danny, you can only have one rainbow shark per tank; they get very aggressive to others of their own kind (that includes red tailed black sharks too).

And your tank's not big enough for clown loach!

There are plenty of other things you can have; and the platies and the BNs will be fine

 

[OldMan47]

I am glad to hear that you have yet to use a pH up product. Mollies are quite particular about their water in only one respect, they do not prosper in low mineral content water period, end of discussion. Mine thrive in pure fresh water with a tap water pH of about 7.8 and other people have great success with them in pure salt water, yes you read that right, with a typical pH over 8.2. Pet shop mollies will not thrive in low mineral content water regardless of the pH. With all of that said, your fish may be suffering from a weakness induced by low mineral content water but it cannot cause ich. Ich is a parasite and it is caused by the presence of the parasite only, not by temperature, stress or similar environmental factors. I have a link in my signature area to a good article on ich and its life cycle. Once you have had the chance to read through that article and digest it, you will understand the ich parasite better than 90% or more of the typical fish keepers you will encounter. At that point, if you still believe that your fish have ich, please treat them using the salt method. For a molly, that has an added benefit, it increases the mineral content of your water while killing off the parasites. That mineral content requirement may well mean that mollies are a bad idea for you in your local area. If you live in some place like Scotland where the water is almost mineral-free, you would be better off keeping something like tetras and corydoras than trying to adjust your water for mollies. Each of us must examine the water that is readily available to us and decide whether or not to use fish that thrive in our water or face continuous adjustment of the water going into our tanks. I have a single tank that contains fish who need low mineral content water. Those fish get mostly RO water with a small addition of tap water. All other tanks, 26 at last count, get tap water and have fish that tolerate hard water with a high mineral content. My fish are always healthy with little or no interference from me because they are well matched to the water I have available. I did things differently in the past and was constantly treating my fish for this or that disease. Now they all thrive because I have given them the water they really need and I feed them the high or low protein foods dictated by the diets they would eat in the wild.

 

[danny_sims]

sorry for late reply
i have not had chance to read through that yet but thenks for the post.
i have had another problem of the filter leaking (external) so i have sealed up every gap apart from where the top splits from the bottom.
so i am currently only running one filter whilst the sealent dries overnight (so glad i have a spare pump now even though its not quite big enough but it should do the job)
the ph has settled at around 7ph so thats good. not had chance for a water change yet tonight will do it first thing in the morning.


fluttermouth

i thought that even though its advised to not have more than one, that you could have more as my uncle use to have 2 albino and 2 standard rainbow sharks in a community tank and they were around 6 years old when he sold his tank.
he also had two 4 inch clown loach along with a common in a 3 1/2 foot tank.

whats the minimum size tank for clown loach?

 

[Katch]

http/www.loaches.com/species-index/clown-loach-chromobotia-macracanthus

 

[danny_sims]

update.

api kit did not arrive today so awaiting that tomorow.

have lost a mollie (died sometime last night) cant find any reason why

had major problems with the external aqua one cf1000 filter. leaking from the stop tap on out pipe. and lso the cannister leaking itself. so i have had to turn it of and hope the fluval u3 pump will manage untill my new taps and seal arrive (ordered today so hopefully be here tomorow)....

and then we had some baby mollies withing the lst couple of hours.... the mollie started to give birth so i rushed to pets at home for a breeding tank and when i had got bak she had finished... i then runded all the babies up and got them in the breeder. i retrieved 11 in total... the shark and angel fish where flying around th tank. and are now swimming past the breeder....