Tank Maintenance?

[Miss_Donna]

Sorry for all the questions guys when i set my tank up a made a massive mistake of not rinsing the gravel first although the dirt has settled down i know its still there so im guessing i need a gravel cleaner ...BUT... which one is the best and easiest option because my fish are in the tank and ive got lots of other bits and piece's (plants ornaments driftwood) in there already.

 

[lana]

Sorry for all the questions guys when i set my tank up a made a massive mistake of not rinsing the gravel first although the dirt has settled down i know its still there so im guessing i need a gravel cleaner ...BUT... which one is the best and easiest option because my fish are in the tank and ive got lots of other bits and piece's (plants ornaments driftwood) in there already.

how long haas this tank been set up ?

did you cycle it first ?

what are you water reading? ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, ph ?

from your other post you do have fish in there.....

what size tank ? any tube syle with a siphon (sorry spelling) tube attached to it will work

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, Lana's questions are good and with the answers, she can help you get an idea of the kinds of things you will need to think about. Extra cloudiness can gradually be cleared via water changes, which you may be doing a lot of in the near future ( ).. Unless its really bad though, its not usually a big deal for the fish (the gravel dust, that is.) The thing that will be much, much more important to the fish will be whether you've got the right sort of test kit and whether they are trying to survive in toxins or not, which is where Lana's questions are leading.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Miss_Donna]

Right Ph 7.5 Nitrate 0.1mg (since i put the fish in there last week) it was 0.0 not sure of the othe nitrate as im waiting for my new testing kit the 6 in 1 tetra kit . Set up for 4 weeks using cycle weekly 20 % water change weekly using frest start ermm i've got a vacuum thing that i do the water change with will that clear it ??also my filter is the fluval 205 hope this helps lol

Theres no cloudiness at all now it all settled and is completely clear now unless we disturb it by planting

Oh and sorry forgot its a fluval roma 200 litre

 

[lana]

Right Ph 7.5 Nitrate 0.1mg (since i put the fish in there last week) it was 0.0 not sure of the othe nitrate as im waiting for my new testing kit the 6 in 1 tetra kit . Set up for 4 weeks using cycle weekly 20 % water change weekly using frest start ermm i've got a vacuum thing that i do the water change with will that clear it ??also my filter is the fluval 205 hope this helps lol

Theres no cloudiness at all now it all settled and is completely clear now unless we disturb it by planting

Oh and sorry forgot its a fluval roma 200 litre

ok so set up 4 weeks ... how many fish in there?

and by 6 in1 do you mean test strips... if so you really need a luqid api freshwater test kit, the strips are no accurate... and this is going to be very important
as you have enter the fish-in -cycle

what you have to be parpered for

major water changes up to 3 per day why you ask well you are looking to keep ammonia under 0.25 to start with and trust me it is gonna get out of hand on you...

second then nitrites will start to show up and them you are fighting ammonia and nitrites
the goal with nitrites is to keep that also under 0.25 , but closer to ZERO for both the better

get PRIME water cond it works great and you don't have to use as much casue with al these water changes you are in for can get $$$ om product and prime covers it all

the major goal is to have ammonia ZERO and nitrites ZERO with in 12 hours
but from my own fish-in cycle you are months away from that

so first things first get a good test kit api freshwater

test tap water and tank water post results here

test your fish tank every 12 hours more if you can anytime levels are over 0.25 do 50 % water change wait 1 hour test again and repeat if need

hope this make sence any questions please post them


good luck

 

[Miss_Donna]

OMG lol good job im a stay at home mum sounds like this is gonna be fun im gonna go on ebay and have a look for that kit thank you very much for your advice i will keep you posted as to how im getting on...

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, excellent advice from Lana. She knows what to look for from her own experience, lol.

Its important to be getting straight in your mind that nitrite(NO2) is very different from nitrate(NO3) and be careful in your observations and communications about it.

Agree that the strip tests are worthless and you will need tests based on liquid-reagents (bottles of drops dripped into a testtube of test tank water.) The API Freshwater Master Test Kit is probably the one most used by members here but the Nutrafin Mini-Master Test Kit is also good and a few others. Ammonia, Nitrite(NO2), pH and Nitrate(NO3) are then essential tests. Ammonia and Nitrite are essential to the survival of your fish.

~~waterdrop~~
edit: well, I should have said ammonia and nitrite *tests* are essential! (the substances themselves are deadly!!)

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Yes the advice above is great

have a read of the link in my signature 'whats cycling' which explains all this to you.

what you have to remember is that a filter is a bit of hardware, like a computer with no software on it. it's not capable of doing it's job (cleaning out the toxins from the fishes waste) unless you load up the 'software' onto it. This software is actually two species of bacteria oine of these consumes ammonia which is the main toxin from fish's waste and converts in to nitrite, nitrite is also a toxin though so you need a second bacterial species which converts it to nitrate which is a whole lot less toxic.

Now what cycle professes to do is to contain these bacteria species so you can pop it into your tank along with the filter and then it'll all miraculously work and keep the water clean. brilliant idea, just a shame that the products results are mixed at best with most people saying it works absolutely none of the time. I have to say my experience leans towards this as well.

You may have got lucky and actually got some bacteria in there, but for now it's safest to assume that it didn't work and take evasive action, then when you get a good liquid based test kit and confirm the results if it did work then you've not done any harm and if it didn't work then you've taken the right path and potentially averted disaster.

anyway i'll stop waffling for now, have a read through the link and then post back with any questions that you havce.

 

[Schmill]

The fact that the nitrIte reading is fairly low, tends me to think that the Ammonia level is probably very high and not being processed yet
As with all the advice above, your top priorities really are going to be getting the Liquid test kit and also start performing water changes NOW, (don't wait for the Test kit to arrive, if your ammonia levels are high it may already be too late by then), and of course Read Miss W's thread on Cycling, (linked in her signature )