Suitable Companions

[Inchworm]

Hi Lucy1

This is a common thing to happen. Unfortunately, that's just the beginning of the story. The rest of it is cultivating the bacteria that will keep your fish safe from the harmful ammonia and (shortly) nitrites that will soon appear on your water tests. Most products that help grow bacteria are useless, but there are a few that actually work. Which one do you have?

This dealer made a few dollars from you already. If you use well water you don't have to test for chlorine. If you have city water, every time you do a water change you should use a dechlorinator/chloramine remover. This is to remove heavy metals and neutralize the chlorine or chloramine that was added to kill bacteria in the water supply. It also kills the beneficial bacteria in your tank.

Unless you live in an area where the pH is extreme, your fish will adapt to it. This is safer for them then having in go up and down and this will happen when you use products to alter it.

Chances are that he will also try to sell you replacement media for your filter on a regular basis. This is another thing that you shouldn't do. Most of the beneficial bacteria will live on it, and since you don't want to kill them off or throw them away, just remove your media when it looks like the water is not flowing through it freely and rinse it out in a little used tank water when you are doing a water change. Never let it dry out or stay exposed to air, and it can be used until it literally falls apart.

Then too, he will also make more money when he sells you new fish.

I suggest that you test your water daily and do water changes as necessary as soon as the ammonia starts to rise. Soon the nitrites will begin to rise and then you must keep it up until eventually the ammonia drops to 0, the nitrites drop to 0, and the nitrates start to rise. At that point it will be safe and "cycled."

Some of the members like to start a separate "cycling" thread to monitor their progress and get help from the other members, and you are welcome to do this too, if you would like.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome Lucy. I think if you read the label carefully, you will find that the stress-zyme is a dechlorinator with other things added to it. That should be all you would need to treat new water. Inchworm and WD have put you onto the right path to get your tank's water chemistry under control. Unless things are very abnormal, you will not want to use any of that pH modifying chemical. Even if it is way off, there are much better methods than pH UP to raise pH when it is really needed. Where you are now is in a fish-in cycle. There is a link in my signature area that will take you to a thread where fish-in cycling is explained. It would be a good idea to read through it before you go much further. We all seem to focus on one or another aspect of cycling but that thread gives a fairly balanced view of the whole subject.

 

[Lucy1]

Thanks again for your helpful replies

So whats the best way to go from here to get the tank properly cycled while the fish are in it?

Should I buy more accurate liquid testing kits and test the levels daily?

How often do I need to do a water change and of what percentage?

If I can get all the basic information I need, I'll act on it straight away as I don't want to harm the fish.

I wish I'd known all this before, but all the different advise has left me confused. I never knew fish keeping was so complicated!

 

[rabbut]

OK, yes, you need a more accurate liquid based testing kit. Any time ammonia or nitrite read anything other than zero, do a 20-30% waterchange, more then 0.25, 50% and more than 1, 75%

HTH
Rabbut

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yes, to summarise, your goal now is to keep both ammonia and nitrite as low as possible by doing water changes, you really want them at 0, the highest you should let them get is 0.25ppm.

so test your water and then do a water change roughly proportional as rabbut has advised above, then an hr after the water change test it again and make sure it's below 0.25ppm, do another water change if necessary.

then keep doing that every day until they both hold steady at 0,0 by themselves.

there's some more info in the link in my sig 'whats cycling' which may help you out.

 

[simplysim]

Hi Lucy

I am also New to the hobby and like you I got a 30l biorb, I have had mine since Oct and after getting some really crappy advice from the shop i bought it from, i lost alot of fish in the 3 months of having it. I cannt offer any advice as im as in the dark as you with a little knowledge that i have gained on this great site, but i can tell you what fish i have in mine.. and im not telling you that its correct but i thought you might like to hear from someone who has a 30l biorb and I am well awear they dont get very good reviews.

I was told that i could probably have 1inc of fish per US Gallon so i have worked out a 30l is roughly 7 or 8 Gallons... I have gone by this rule and my tank is running lovely with no problems and no dead fish.

In my tank i have:

2 guppys
3 Neon Tetras
1 platy
1 danio
3 algee eating shrimp
1 red cherry shrimp.

The only reason I have 1 danio and 1 platy is because when i first got my tank and had it cycling for 4 weeks we originally had 2 danio and 2 platys, the femal platty had babies then died and then we lost a danio.. but my danio seems fine even though the advice was to take him back to the shop i feel quite attached to him.

Hope this helps
Thanks

 

[Lucy1]

Brilliant - Thanks guys

 

[Lucy1]

Thanks guys - you've all given me helpful advice which I'm grateful for

I've got a liquid testing kit now- did a test and the ammonia level was slightly high so I did a water change, waited re-tested and then did another water change.

Just re-tested and ammonia and nitrite are both pretty much at 0 now. P.H is 7.2 and nitrate was 5 (though the tap water tested 5 as well - is that normal?).

I'll re-test every day and change the water accordingly and hopefully will be successful at the "fish-in" cycling - thanks to everyone's help.

Also, I don't have any live plants in the tank - should I get a few (I heard they were good for guppies?)

Thanks again to everyone!

 

[Lucy1]

Hi Simplysim - I've only just seen your reply, I must have missed it before.

I got my Biorb off the internet and got advice from a local tropical fish dealer who only sold me a bottle of de-chlorinater, so it's not like he was even trying to get me to do it wrong so could sell me more stuff! The advice he gave me was just totally different to what everyone on here has said which is why I was confused initially as I wasn't aware I was doing anything wrong.

Glad to hear your tank is running well - how are the tetra's doing? As I read they should be in a group of at least 6? Also someone replied here saying that they can nip the guppies fins. Have you had any problems with that happening?

I wanted to get a few varieties of small fish in the tank eventually but for now I'm just sticking to keeping the water at the right levels to keep the guppies happy. Someone also suggested that I just keep the guppies on their own for now so I'll have to see how it goes.

It's good to know someone's got a Biorb up and running well though - and with a variety of fish in so good work

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yup perfectly normal for the tap water nitrate to be 5ppm, comes out of the taps in london around 40ppm most of the time so 5 is certainly nothing to worry about.

the guppies will appreciate some cover, but they don't give a stuff if it's live plants or a bright pink plastic ornament, decorating the tank is asthetic so do it how you like it!

 

[simplysim]

Hi Lucy

My tetras seem to be doing fine, we did buy 4 of them but over night we lost one, someone has said that its normal to loose one or two.

I have not had any problems yet with my tetras nipping at my guppys tails, I did however have our Koi shordtail try and bully one of our guppys but that has stopped now, they all seem to be getting along fine unless its the calm before the storm i hope not.

Good luck with your tank Lucy be good to see how you get on with yours, I would love to get a bigger tank but for now im enjoying my biorb

 

[Lucy1]

Thanks Miss Wiggle - I'll not worry too much about the nitrate level then. I've got a plastic plant and an ornament in the tank already, and they seem to enjoy swimming around those so I'll leave them to it!

Thanks Simplysim - I'll let you know how I get on. I'd like a bigger tank too but I thought this might be a good starting point. Though after the reviews I've read I'm thinkng I should have just jumped in at the deep end with a big tank - seen as people are saying they're easier to maintain.

I'm happy with the Biorb so far though - it looks nice in the corner of my front room