Rekord 600 Aquarium Needing More Air?

[JamieP]

Hi,
im new to this, so sorry for asking anything stupid or post this in the wrong place - ive looked on the net but couldnt find anything so thought i should ask and here looked like the best place to do so

Ive got Juwel - Rekord 600 Aquarium and all seemed to be going well for the first 6 weeks.

First 2 weeks: 0 fish - left to cycle
Weeks 2 - 6: 4 small neon tetras - all going fine with levels etc..

however yesterday, i added in a couple of bottom feeders and a male fighter and a very small red-tailed shark
This morning the poor things seemed to be gasping for air at the top a little bit.
So i did a 25% water change (i had the water in a bucket ready from the day before) and that seemed to sort them out a bit.

Ive not seen them do this before (the 4 neons) so i thought i should get an air stone or something added into the tank.

However after reading the manual again, it specifically says that getting an extra air stone is not necessary with my tank.

Am i misssing something or should i just ignore this advice and get a stone in ASAP?

 

[Marve99]

Hi,
im new to this, so sorry for asking anything stupid or post this in the wrong place - ive looked on the net but couldnt find anything so thought i should ask and here looked like the best place to do so

Ive got Juwel - Rekord 600 Aquarium and all seemed to be going well for the first 6 weeks.

First 2 weeks: 0 fish - left to cycle
Weeks 2 - 6: 4 small neon tetas - all going fine with levels etc..

however yesterday, i added in a couple of bottom feeders and a male fighter and a very small red-tailed shark
This morning the poor things seemed to be gasping for air at the top a little bit.
So i did a 25% water change (i had the water in a bucket ready from the day before) and that seemed to sort them out a bit.

Ive not seen them do this before (the 4 neons) so i thought i should get an air stone or something added into the tank.

However after reading the manual again, it specifically says that getting an extra air stone is not necessary with my tank.

Am i misssing something or should i just ignore this advice and get a stone in ASAP?

Hi

You have not cycled you tank yet, the 2 weeks without fish 'left to cycle' did not achieve anything, and now you have several fish prodcing lots of waste with no bacteria in your filter to control the harmful levels of ammonia and nitrites which will be building up

Read the following topic in the beginners resource cente topic to understand what you need to do next

[topic="0"]Fish-in Cycling, Now pinworthy?[/topic]
edit - my link doesn't work, I have never done this before, but hopefully you can find it yourself
In summary

Test your water and monitor the ammonia, nitrites and nitrates carefully
Perform regular water changes (almost certainly every day, possibly twice a day) to keep ammonia and nitrites below 0.25 parts per million. Use dechloirinator.

Regarding the air - I have the same tank and find that that the filter does not disturb the water surface greatly and believe aeration is low so have opted to put an air stone in also. I have since upgraded the filter so now have no need for it.

 

[JamieP]

thanks for the info, will get onto that then - different advice that the shop gave me

what filter have you gone for?

 

[Marve99]

From reading 1000's of similar topics, it seems many LFS give the same advice, but it will take a good few weeks with fish in the tank before you are cycled. In the meantime, you will be busy changing water to keep all of your fish alive.

I went for an external filter (tetratec ex600) which gives me a several times more filtration than the standard internal filter offered. Loads of water disturbance on the surface due to the spray bar.

Good luck taking in all of the information available on this site, I read and read and read until I understood how the cycle works - knowledge will save you fish (not forgetting lots of hard work until you cycle )

 

[OldMan47]

The fishless and / or fish in cycles can be easily reached from the links in my signature area. They are also readily available from links at the top of this forum section called Beginners Resource Center. In this situation, the fish-in cycling thread is really what is called for.