Polluted Water

[eowyn]

HI - Recently, I set up a 16 gal tank which I stocked with 5 tetras and a cory (to start). The tank has only had fish for 4 days and the water is polluted with mostly uneaten food. My son decided to feed the fish on his own and I only just discovered how much food he gave. I removed some of the gravel and stirred the water around with the net. Will the filter catch most of this? I'm thinking I need to do a partial water change, but is it too soon since introducing the fish? Thanks.

 

[rdd1952]

The filter will catch some that is floating around in the water but most will settle back to the bottom. Best option is to do a gravel vac and vacuum out as much of the excess food as possible. Since the tank is only 4 days old, if you didn't clone the tank or do a fishless cycle, you will need to keep a close watch on the ammonia to prevent big problems and excess, uneaten food that can decay can lead to more ammonia.

 

[kim03333]

you say you stocked it with these fish to start? what exactly did you do i mean did you cycle the tank using ammonia before the fish were put in, or did you get the tank, and then get the fish straight away? the way i'm reading it is that you got the tank and then put in the fish straight away if you did you are likely to run into some problems regarding levels of ammonia and nitrite in the water. the way to test for their presence is with a water testing kit (don't get strips tho, get the liquid ones) if you've had the fish 4 days i would predict your ammonia will be too high, especially sinse you have excess food in your tank.

if i were you i would see about returning the fish to the shop and starting the tank again cycling correctly (i'm assuming you haven't fishless cycled but correct me if so). if you want to keep hold of the fish and do a fish in cycle, you need to sort out the water first of all. this seems drastic, but i would do a 90 % water change. it may stress the fish a little, but it's better than ammonia. also have you got a gravel vac? if so use that aswell. i boil up a kettle and mx the boiled water with cold water from the tap to keep stable temperature. don't feed the fish at all for a couple of days - they don't need it and it will only increase the ammonia.

the filter will collect the particles in the water, but the trouble with that is that they are likely to clog it and then it won't be working efficiently so you will have to clean that aswell. really in the cycling process you do not want to be messing with the filter as this is where the bacteria will be growing which you need to process the ammonia in your tank. only clean the filterif it is completely necessary. i dont know much about cories, but can i ask what tetras you have in your tank? if they are, for example, neons, they may not live long as they are ot suitable for new tanks.

be sure to get a testing kit and test the water daily for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. try not to let ammonia or nitrite get above 0.25

 

[Creature Seeker]

You need to remove all the excess food. It doesn't matter whether it is on the tank floor or in the filter as you don't have an established filter system to deal with the amount of waste produced.

Unlike the majority on here I don't see a need to do a fishless cycle as long as your very very careful and take the necessary steps to ensure things won't go wrong.

-request some old filter media from your lfs and add this to your filter as soon as possible. Keep it warm and wet in transit and leave it no longer than 30 minutes between filters
-do not feed for the first week, then feed every three days in the second week, then every other day in the third
-cycle with 2-3 hardy fish of the same species
-test for ammonia and nitrite every day

I have used these steps many times and the cycling is so gradual that I never even experience an ammonia increase.

Good luck!

 

[eowyn]

When I set up the new tank, I used media from my Betta tank. I'll vacuum the gravel and do a partial water change, probably removing most of it. I'll rinse the filter sponge in the bucket to remove whatever it has caught. I have a water test kit so I'll check the water levels everyday. I have 5 glowlight tetras and 1 albino cory. So far the fish are still looking healthy and are very active. Thanks for the advice.

 

[rdd1952]

Using media from your betta tank will help with a small jump start on bacteria but you have to keep in mind that a betta creates very little wasteespecially since there is eer any left over food to decay and you only have one fish in it so it will still take time for the bacteria to reproduce enough to handle the waste of 6 fish. At best, you moved half the media (probably much less than that) which means you have enough bacteria for half a fish meaning the bacteria have to double 4 times to cover 6 fish.

 

[waterdrop]

As RDD says, with 4 tetras and a cory in a 16G, the mature media will still have a ways to go to catch up from about a half-fish size to 5-fish size, so even though you are not too much past an ok load for a fish-in cycle, you'll still probably need pretty frequent water changes to keep the levels safe.

Have you got one of those "Python" type products to help with the gravel-clean-water-changes? Those can really help make it easier for the water changes in some cases. Also, have you got liquid-reagent based test kits rather than strips for all your tests?

~~waterdrop~~