Ok My Tank Is Running And It Was Showing All Bad Things At Zero..how D

[shaolin95]

Hi all!
I brought my tank home Sunday.
It is a 55 gallon that has been running for some time and at least a month with the previous owner, a very nice lady that took good care of it.

We left aprox 10 gallons of the previous water in the tank with the sand thingy they have for substrate untouched.
We also kept all the water inside the Fluval 305 filter.

When I got home we added the water, installed the filter, added API Stress Coat and API bacteria thingy to speed up the Cycle.
Then we had to put the fish in as one died on the way probably due to lack of oxygen (sorry).
All fish seem to be fine after that which made me happy.
Next day I afraid to look inside the tank but nothing to fear all was fine and they were very playful.
I bought the API testing kit and test all yesterday and everything was perfect.

I want to keep it that way before I add an elephant nose fish so.

Questions:
1) Do I need to test this daily until a certain point?
2) Do I put more API bacteria liquid on the 7th and 14th day as instructed in the bottle?
3) How long before I can buy my elephant nose?
4) Any tips you want to add I will appreciate a lot. All the stories about Ammonia spikes and the likes are scaring me.
I bought this to have some nice peaceful hobby not to get stressed out with dying fish.
5) I have 3 small live plants...should I get at least 3 big ones to put on the Back of the tank?

 

[fatheadminnow]

The API bacteria liquid is no good, all it is, is snake oil. You can continue on using it if you like, but it really does nothing.

I would keep testing for a while, just to make sure nothing happens, and if it does you will know right away.

I would wait at least 1 week before adding anymore fish, that is to say your ammonia and nitrite levels remain at zero in the 1 week period.

The best thing to prevent ammonia spikes is: makes sure the tank is cycled first... and use a gravel vac when you do the weekly water changes to try to suck up any fish poo and other rotting debris at the bottom of the tank.

-FHM

 

[shaolin95]

The API bacteria liquid is no good, all it is, is snake oil. You can continue on using it if you like, but it really does nothing.

I would keep testing for a while, just to make sure nothing happens, and if it does you will know right away.

I would wait at least 1 week before adding anymore fish, that is to say your ammonia and nitrite levels remain at zero in the 1 week period.

The best thing to prevent ammonia spikes is: makes sure the tank is cycled first... and use a gravel vac when you do the weekly water changes to try to suck up any fish poo and other rotting debris at the bottom of the tank.

-FHM

I do not have gravel though is like a sandy thing...I will take some pics today.
I added to Bushy nose plecos...I hope they help.

 

[fatheadminnow]

Poo and other debris will still settle on the bottom, and you should use a siphon (gravel vac) to remove that debris and other what not.

-FHM

 

[shaolin95]

Poo and other debris will still settle on the bottom, and you should use a siphon (gravel vac) to remove that debris and other what not.

-FHM

ok I need to get one of those I guess.
Will check that tonight.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, any time you bring a new tank into your home like that I'd say to begin good habits with it. Start an aquarium notebook where you just make yourself record at first some daily notes. Write down all that you did for the move and what fish started in the tank. A year or two down the road you will thank yourself for this info. I'd suggest twice daily tests at first: ammonia, nitrite(NO2) and pH for one set of tests, then just ammonia and nitrite(NO2) for the other set. The tank is still an unknown to you and you want to be seeing if any traces show up. Then, since its more annoying, I would do nitrate(NO3) tests a number of times when I had the time to do it. You want the nitrate(NO3) result to help you get a feel for where things stand with respect to the cleaning out of the end of the nitrification process and your maintenance process. Start by determining if there is any NO3 in your tap water. Then see how much higher your tank NO3 level is. Ideally it should be not more than 5 to 20 ppm above whatever your tap water NO3 is. If its lower that's fine, it may not be giving understandable readings yet because of the move and all the water changes. If its higher then some extra gravel-clean-water-changes may be in order when you have time to do them. (of course if you see any traces of ammonia or nitrite(NO2) then that would call for more significant water changes.) I'd be settling and watching all this for a couple weeks before worrying about any plants yet. But then I'd be reading up on plants and getting ready for that so you can do it right.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[shaolin95]

Yes, any time you bring a new tank into your home like that I'd say to begin good habits with it. Start an aquarium notebook where you just make yourself record at first some daily notes. Write down all that you did for the move and what fish started in the tank. A year or two down the road you will thank yourself for this info. I'd suggest twice daily tests at first: ammonia, nitrite(NO2) and pH for one set of tests, then just ammonia and nitrite(NO2) for the other set. The tank is still an unknown to you and you want to be seeing if any traces show up. Then, since its more annoying, I would do nitrate(NO3) tests a number of times when I had the time to do it. You want the nitrate(NO3) result to help you get a feel for where things stand with respect to the cleaning out of the end of the nitrification process and your maintenance process. Start by determining if there is any NO3 in your tap water. Then see how much higher your tank NO3 level is. Ideally it should be not more than 5 to 20 ppm above whatever your tap water NO3 is. If its lower that's fine, it may not be giving understandable readings yet because of the move and all the water changes. If its higher then some extra gravel-clean-water-changes may be in order when you have time to do them. (of course if you see any traces of ammonia or nitrite(NO2) then that would call for more significant water changes.) I'd be settling and watching all this for a couple weeks before worrying about any plants yet. But then I'd be reading up on plants and getting ready for that so you can do it right.

~~waterdrop~~

Thanks for the comments.
Yesterday's readings were again:
PH 7.6 (it seems Utah is about 7.8 or so the pet shop people told me)
Ammo 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5

One thing I noticed is that feeding the fish the food goes down too quickly due to the bubbles thingy I got and it seems they dont bother to look for it on the floor (except one molly and the plecos that is).
Should I turn off the bubbles while feeding them so the food stays floating longer preventing accumulation of waste?

 

[fatheadminnow]

Yeah, that would be just fine, to turn the bubbles off.

Or, just don't feed them as much, wait until they ate all that you fed them, and feed them a little more. This will allow them to eat everything that you gave them, if you give the food to them in smaller quantities.

-FHM

 

[shaolin95]

Yeah, that would be just fine, to turn the bubbles off.

Or, just don't feed them as much, wait until they ate all that you fed them, and feed them a little more. This will allow them to eat everything that you gave them, if you give the food to them in smaller quantities.

-FHM

Yes I am giving them very small quantity but boy they are lazy LOL
If the things drops they barely bother to go down for it they just leave it there and look for more near the surface...except that fat black molly and my two plecos which love the bottom food!

 

[fatheadminnow]

Yeah, that would be just fine, to turn the bubbles off.

Or, just don't feed them as much, wait until they ate all that you fed them, and feed them a little more. This will allow them to eat everything that you gave them, if you give the food to them in smaller quantities.

-FHM

Yes I am giving them very small quantity but boy they are lazy LOL
If the things drops they barely bother to go down for it they just leave it there and look for more near the surface...except that fat black molly and my two plecos which love the bottom food!

Yup, make sure you are allowing food to sink to the bottom for the Plecs.

I would recommend you go out and buy some algae discs for you Plecs, that is if you have not done so already, or have a lot of algae in your tank.

-FHM

 

[shaolin95]

Yeah, that would be just fine, to turn the bubbles off.

Or, just don't feed them as much, wait until they ate all that you fed them, and feed them a little more. This will allow them to eat everything that you gave them, if you give the food to them in smaller quantities.

-FHM

Yes I am giving them very small quantity but boy they are lazy LOL
If the things drops they barely bother to go down for it they just leave it there and look for more near the surface...except that fat black molly and my two plecos which love the bottom food!

Yup, make sure you are allowing food to sink to the bottom for the Plecs.

I would recommend you go out and buy some algae discs for you Plecs, that is if you have not done so already, or have a lot of algae in your tank.

-FHM

Thanks, will do that.
I saw some multi food stuff like shrimp, bloodworm, etc, do you recommend using that or just normal flakes (I am actually not using flakes but the more solid ones to create less of a mess).
Any brand recommendation and type is welcome too.
Thanks again, you are helping a LOT!