I just got an 55 gallon aquarium

[thunderwaved]

I just got an 55 gallon aquarium yesterday, set it up. Today, I went to buy some tropical fish. I went ahead and filled the tank with water and that water conditioner. Then, I added some plants. Added the fish and Nutrafin Cycle.

This is my first time setting up a aquarium so I didn't know that I had to wait for the tank to cycle and then add my fishies.

What I have in my tank: 2 angelfish, 5 guppies, 5 danios, 1 catfish and a snail.

I'm really worried now, they fish seem to be doing fine. I do a Ammonia test every hour or so, I'm really paranoid that the ammonia is going to keep rising and rising with my poor fish inside.

The ammonia seems to be at a .5 at the moment and seems to be rising slowly. What should I do? Will the plants I added lower the ammonia levels?

Please keep inmind that this is a 5 hour old aquarium I'm dealing with here.

 

[Mark Hewitt]

I just got an 55 gallon aquarium yesterday

Very nice!! Maybe one day I'm hoping to have a tank that size.

set it up. Today, I went to buy some tropical fish.

Ouchness!

This is my first time setting up a aquarium so I didn't know that I had to wait for the tank to cycle and then add my fishies.

We've all done that. Well my LFS said leave the tank to settle for a week and you'll be fine. HA. Not much better than what you did...

I'm really worried now, they fish seem to be doing fine. I do a Ammonia test every hour or so, I'm really paranoid that the ammonia is going to keep rising and rising with my poor fish inside.

The ammonia seems to be at a .5 at the moment and seems to be rising slowly. What should I do? Will the plants I added lower the ammonia levels?

Please keep inmind that this is a 5 hour old aquarium I'm dealing with here.

First of all, can you take the fish back to the shop? That'll be the easiest way to proceed..

I assume you have your filter all set up and running? Assuming you can't return the fish. The most important thing here are water changes, while your filter is getting established you will be personally responsible for removing the waste in the aquarium, 0.5 is already getting quite high, above 1 is dead fish time.

You're doing right doing your testing, but you are going to have to do multiple 50% water changes to preferably keep your ammonia level below 0.1, you'll need to do this at the very least once a day, perhaps more often if your test indicate a bigger problem. I'd suggest first thing in the morning and last thing at night.

The plants won't lower the ammonia level. As you'll probably know it goes:
Ammonia -> Nitrites -> Nitrates, and plants help remove the nitrates which are the last in the chain. However at the moment if any bits of plants break off and decay they will add to your ammonia, so for the time being I'd suggest removing them and replacing them with fake plants if you can.

Good luck!

Keep in mind that it may take 4-6 weeks before your filter gets properly cycled.

 

[roadmaster]

Many have made the same mistake of adding fish before the tank has matured or (cycled). Do you have any friends with aquariums holding fish? If so ,borrowing some filter material from their tank and placing it in your filter will help the fish to survive the maturing process. Is important to keep borrowed material should your friends indeed have tanks running ,wet in aquarium water while you transport it from their tank to yours and it should happen relatively quickly (no more than three hours ).
if this is not an option, then your only recourse is to return the fish or,, perform daily to evry other day water change of fifty percent using a dechlorinator such as PRIME which detoxifys ammonia and nitrites.
you will need to feed the fish sparingly once each day about a half a dime size amount of food and no more . too much food will result in ammonia levels and nitrites becoming dangerous to lethal for your fish.
I would also google info on "cycling a new aquarium"
Test the water each day and perform water changes any time ammonia and or nitrites climb above .25/
Process can take four to eight weeks but considerably shorter if you know someone with established tank that will share a portion of their already established filter material. Patience.

 

[Mark Hewitt]

Do you have any friends with aquariums holding fish? If so ,borrowing some filter material from their tank and placing it in your filter will help the fish to survive the maturing process.

Yep, in the absence of filter material, some gravel from an established tank will help to put the necessary bacteria in your filter.

Think of it as a multiplication issue, the bacteria survive in the air and will populate your aquarium but they are only in small numbers so you're looking at
1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 etc..
But if you get some gravel it'll be more like
128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048,, you get the idea!

Some stores will give you a bit of gravel if you ask really nicely. There is a risk there that you'll introduce parasites too, however!

 

[thunderwaved]

Thanks guys. I'm going to change %50 of the water every morning and night. The ammonia level is 1 ppm now, so I'm going to lower the pH level.

 

[Mark Hewitt]

so I'm going to lower the pH level.

Don't bother with the pH level, unless it's massively high or low you're likely to cause more problems trying to 'fix' the pH than you are just leaving it alone. Concentrate on getting your tank cycled.

50% water changes in the morning and evening sound good.

Please come back and let us know how you are doing!

 

[roadmaster]

Thanks guys. I'm going to change %50 of the water every morning and night. The ammonia level is 1 ppm now, so I'm going to lower the pH level.

Would not worry about messing with pH level. While lower ph will render ammonia less toxic,the fluctuations with each water change if tapwater is not same as tank water will have negative effect on the fish.
Would change water as you have planned but would not mess with the pH.
You may only need to change 50 percent once each morning if not over feeding but a test kit will let you know when it is time for changes.

 

[mfdrookie516]

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...ady-have-fish-what-now-116287.html#post983258

 

[logansmomma1228]

Haven't read through the answers yet, but water changes. water changes. water changes! Do a 50% change once or twice a day, or 75% once a day, etc. to keep the levels down.

do you have the API freshwater master kit? Test strips= fail.

Good luck, I am so jealous and happy for you! I want a 55 lol. Welcome to AA

Glad you are doing the right thing!

 

[bengoshi2000]

First of all, can you take the fish back to the shop? That'll be the easiest way to proceed..

Keep in mind that it may take 4-6 weeks before your filter gets properly cycled.

+1

Twice daily water changes on a 55g are going to be a major PITA for that 4-6 weeks.

I can vouch for the "seeding tank with media from an established tank" approach. I'm doing that with my 29g and it only took a week to get a nitrite spike and for nitrates to start showing up. I expect the tank will have taken only 10 days to cycle.

But I've been where you are... a fresh uncycled tank with fish I just threw in. I ended up using Seachem's Stability and it kept ammonia and nitrites under control... but that little 5g tank took a loooong time to cycle.

 

[supradupafast]

I may get slapped for saying this, but to each their own...

I Cycled all my tanks using fish. Zebra Danios to be exact.
I must say this! Get ready for alot of PWC's.. I kept my Ammonia & Nitrites 0.25PPM the whole time! Required 50% PWC every couple days. Takes about 4 weeks to cycle a NEW set-up. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th Tank Cycle much quicker when you can borrow some Media from the established Tank(s).
I am a true believer in cycling with Fish, but that's because I can't stand looking at a empty tank. (That's me)...
For those who want to know, the Zebras are still kicking almost 2-1/2 years later...

Whatever you do, don't play around with your PH, and don't buy that crap the LFS tries to sell you to lower the Ammo (Such as Ammo Lock). It will do more bad than good..
As previous posts say, try getting some "healty" used media from someone / store you trust and put it in your filter / Tank... this will help accelerate the process.
Don't be shy asking questions. We're here to help.
Welcome to Fish Keeping

 

[supradupafast]

Oh, and if you don't have one already... Get a Python or some knock-off system. It makes PWCs so much easier, especially on bigger tanks.

 

[Mark Hewitt]

I can report some success with the way I set up my new tank. I had the new filter (which was a lot smaller than the main filter) running in my existing tank for 4 weeks. Then just before I bought my guppies I moved the filter across to the new tank, and it seems to be working just fine. Guppies have been in there for 4 days now and still zero ammonia.

 

[krap101]

I can report some success with the way I set up my new tank. I had the new filter (which was a lot smaller than the main filter) running in my existing tank for 4 weeks. Then just before I bought my guppies I moved the filter across to the new tank, and it seems to be working just fine. Guppies have been in there for 4 days now and still zero ammonia.

Did the same thing when setting up my 10 gallon. I ran the mini canister off the 29 for like a week before moving it over.