Hi All, I've been reading a few of the topics and posts on the forum.
My daughter has always wanted a pet, and as we private rent it hasn't been possible. For her tenth birthday I contacted the landlord who agreed to let us have a fish tank and we've been stressed ever since!
It's a tropical fish tank, we bought a kit which I'm not too sure was probably the best idea... Included was two bottles of magic (sorry they're not near me so I can't tell you all the correct titles!), one for tap water and one for nitrite levels (or is it nitrates)
There is a heater and a stingray filter within the 38L tank.
By now the tank has been set up for just over four weeks. We introduced 4 danios at week two. We also put in two live plants.
We went back to our local pet centre who test the water levels for us, and they said our nitrites were too high - so we weren't allowed to buy any more new fish which of course caused upset with my daughter.
I'm certain we have been over feeding the four little fishies which has probably not helped with the high levels. And I know a water change will help take down the high levels, but at the moment one of the fish has a white fluffy growth on his back and I'm having to put medicine into the tank daily, at the end of the week that requires a water change anyway. As for feeding the fish, we were told to feed them once every other day. So we had been giving them a pinch of flakes, which could range from 5 or maybe even more, it's hard to tell. We haven't fed them since sunday and I was planning not to feed them until tomorrow, and give them smaller portions of food. Would this be fine, or should we feed them more often but even less food?
Also our two live plants weren't nice and green any more.. they were kind of brown looking, not slimy, but like they were dying, but the roots seemed to be fine and one of the plants had even wrapped its roots around some of the gravel so I can only assume it was settling in ok.. is the brown colour normal? is it another sign something is wrong in the tank?
I've been looking on ebay for a vacuum for the gravel, as I'm sure it could do with a little clean, but again I'm clueless about what I am looking for, they all basically look like a cylinder with a tube on, is that normal? How do you use them? is it just a case of starting off the water draining into a bucket and moving it over the gravel?
Sorry for all the questions, my local pet shop isn't that great a source of information, and the one which tests our water is a little too far away.
Oh and also, with the plants I bought, it turns out we had two little stowaways hidden amongst the leaves. Tiny little snails, whose speckled shell appears to be almost transparent. Are these harmful in anyway? And as my daughter is quite attached to them (taco and kebab) does anyone know if they eat specific foods? or will they just munch on what the fish leave..
It's all so confusing
My daughter has always wanted a pet, and as we private rent it hasn't been possible. For her tenth birthday I contacted the landlord who agreed to let us have a fish tank and we've been stressed ever since!
It's a tropical fish tank, we bought a kit which I'm not too sure was probably the best idea... Included was two bottles of magic (sorry they're not near me so I can't tell you all the correct titles!), one for tap water and one for nitrite levels (or is it nitrates)
There is a heater and a stingray filter within the 38L tank.By now the tank has been set up for just over four weeks. We introduced 4 danios at week two. We also put in two live plants.
We went back to our local pet centre who test the water levels for us, and they said our nitrites were too high - so we weren't allowed to buy any more new fish which of course caused upset with my daughter.
I'm certain we have been over feeding the four little fishies which has probably not helped with the high levels. And I know a water change will help take down the high levels, but at the moment one of the fish has a white fluffy growth on his back and I'm having to put medicine into the tank daily, at the end of the week that requires a water change anyway. As for feeding the fish, we were told to feed them once every other day. So we had been giving them a pinch of flakes, which could range from 5 or maybe even more, it's hard to tell. We haven't fed them since sunday and I was planning not to feed them until tomorrow, and give them smaller portions of food. Would this be fine, or should we feed them more often but even less food?
Also our two live plants weren't nice and green any more.. they were kind of brown looking, not slimy, but like they were dying, but the roots seemed to be fine and one of the plants had even wrapped its roots around some of the gravel so I can only assume it was settling in ok.. is the brown colour normal? is it another sign something is wrong in the tank?
I've been looking on ebay for a vacuum for the gravel, as I'm sure it could do with a little clean, but again I'm clueless about what I am looking for, they all basically look like a cylinder with a tube on, is that normal? How do you use them? is it just a case of starting off the water draining into a bucket and moving it over the gravel?
Sorry for all the questions, my local pet shop isn't that great a source of information, and the one which tests our water is a little too far away.
Oh and also, with the plants I bought, it turns out we had two little stowaways hidden amongst the leaves. Tiny little snails, whose speckled shell appears to be almost transparent. Are these harmful in anyway? And as my daughter is quite attached to them (taco and kebab) does anyone know if they eat specific foods? or will they just munch on what the fish leave..
It's all so confusing
but I will definitely be doing one as soon as the medicine has ran its course. I'd already read a few places about cleaning the filter in the old tank water so wasn't going to make that mistake. I guess I did make the mistake of not really knowing exactly how much alchemy is involved in a working tank, and yes maybe should have done a fishless cycle first
So now there are four, and yes, even without the over feeding I'm sure they will get out of hand!
so I unplugged everything, started to pull on the heater and the fish came with it, thought it had maybe malfunctioned and the fish had become melted to the bottom of it 
raised it some more and the little tail started wriggling, so I shook the heater and it swam free, it had only got itself wedged into a little gap at the bottom of the heater! Needless to say, I buried those little gaps under some gravel so it wouldn't happen again.
I bought a gravel cleaner and it definitely makes water changes easier too, and yup I was most definitely amazed by all the rubbish that came out into the draining bucket! 
We bought them on Sunday, but by monday morning one of the tetras had gone and gotten itself stuck behind the filter and didn't survive the night 
I'm a little concerned about the sole survivor as I know they survive better in groups, so at feeding time we make sure our greedy danios aren't hogging everything and making sure it does get fed. 
