mikeyost12
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2017
- Messages
- 39
So as a lot may know, I had goldfish for 4 years or so and recently had switched over to warm water fish (freshwater). I didn't know exactly what I was doing and with me being impatient, I bought fish and put them in the aquarium. I was dumb and didn't read up on fish keeping first, not really thinking their would be so many fine details to keeping healthy fish. I was not testing my water, I was doing weekly water changes of 50 plus percent, I was cleaning my aquarium decoration under hot running well water, I was cleaning out my filter under hot running well water. Thanks to everyone here, I now know about Beneficial bacteria and how to go about keeping it in the tank, cleaning decorations once a month with fish tank water, not over feeding the fish, cleaning food off the substrate at the bottom of the tank, weekly water testing for Ammonia, Nitrites, NItrates, and PH Level, small water changes weekly, not cleaning media and so on.
Now to the bad news, because I was dumb about it the first time, I was adding a bunch of fish once a week, getting up to 20+ fish in the tank. I had a crazy amount of Nitrates which caused a major Ich disease in my tank. I tried to treat it but lost all of my fish but 4 Danios and 6 Albino Cats. The Ich is cleared up now.
so here are my questions:
1. I switched over to a Fluval 406 Canister and did water testing last night, PH was 7.8, Ammonia was .25 (I added Prime to the water), Nitrites 0, Nitrates 20. The filter has only been running in the tank for 2 days now so should I continue to do water testing daily to check parameters of the water and do WC when Nitrates start to increase?
2. So I don't make the same mistake again, when is it safe to start adding fish?
3. How many fish should I add at one time to be extra safe and how long should I wait between adding fish?
4. What is a safe amount of fish to have in a 55G Aquarium?
5. With the current fish I have, can I add Cichlids to the tank? (I wish I would have had a Cichlid tank right off the bat. I ask because the Danios swim at the top of the tank and are super fast, would I be able to put mid level cichlids in the tank?)
6. And last but not least, I get my fish from the LFS (Petco), what should I be looking for when getting my fish as far as trying to get healthy fish?
Now to the bad news, because I was dumb about it the first time, I was adding a bunch of fish once a week, getting up to 20+ fish in the tank. I had a crazy amount of Nitrates which caused a major Ich disease in my tank. I tried to treat it but lost all of my fish but 4 Danios and 6 Albino Cats. The Ich is cleared up now.
so here are my questions:
1. I switched over to a Fluval 406 Canister and did water testing last night, PH was 7.8, Ammonia was .25 (I added Prime to the water), Nitrites 0, Nitrates 20. The filter has only been running in the tank for 2 days now so should I continue to do water testing daily to check parameters of the water and do WC when Nitrates start to increase?
2. So I don't make the same mistake again, when is it safe to start adding fish?
3. How many fish should I add at one time to be extra safe and how long should I wait between adding fish?
4. What is a safe amount of fish to have in a 55G Aquarium?
5. With the current fish I have, can I add Cichlids to the tank? (I wish I would have had a Cichlid tank right off the bat. I ask because the Danios swim at the top of the tank and are super fast, would I be able to put mid level cichlids in the tank?)
6. And last but not least, I get my fish from the LFS (Petco), what should I be looking for when getting my fish as far as trying to get healthy fish?