When can you start seeing things go wrong?

[daniel.voyce]

Hi,
I know this is probably a very ambiguous question but how long into the life of a tank can you see things start going wrong? and what things are likely to start going wrong?

I have had my tank operational now for coming up 2 months and so far so good - only one death of an already ill neon, but after posting on here it seems like a lot more could go wrong, im just wondering how I can be prepared for this / remedy it.

The water quality is really good in the tank, its crystal clear and the NH3, NH4 and nitrate levels are really low (ive not tested the water myself recently as our local shop does it for us properlu), I know its a bit risky mixing tropicals and fancies, but all of the fish we have chosen so far are well within their comfortable temperature ranges.

What kind of problems can i expect from my tank? as im relatively new to keeping fish any insight would be greatly appreciated

 

[leafs]

Once you get past cycling and your tank has been running for a few months you really shouldn't have any problems as long as you keep up with water changes and maintenance. Also maintaining a constant temp is very important. You also should be careful when adding new fish to your tank. It's best to quarantine them for a week or so to prevent any diseases. I had a few problems in the cyclying process, but once I got through that everything seemed to become very stable. Maybe someone else can add to this incase I'm missing something.

 

[daniel.voyce]

I could have been a lot more patient with my cycling - to be honest i jsut wanted it up and running, but my nitrate/ite and NH3 NH4 levels are really good, we did use a lot of stuff that we had in our previous tank so i guess that helped, guess we just need to wait and see.

If the ammonium levels spike is there a way to bring them down quickly to prevent damage to the fish?

 

[Fish_Mike]

If they spike, you should do a 30% water change, and rinse all filter media in some tank water. This should help. If not, keep doing smaller water changes everyday, but not more than 1 water change to keep from stressing out your fish.

 

[yvez9]

things usually don't go worng on there own

here are basic things that might cause fish sickness/death
lack of proper maintenance
forgetting to add dechlorinator when changing water
adding new fish without quarantining
overfeeding
feeding wrong type of food to the fish
heater problems (overheat)
then there is the unpredictable

if you keep to basics, everything should be fine
just watching your fish everyday and see how they act will show you everything is fine, or something is wrong

i've had little to no problems with all my tanks so far, except my 50 gallon that got columnaris and wiped out 3/4 of my fish last spring! but then again, this falls in the unpredictable category and there was not much i could have done to prevent it really!