oops

[Fuj]

So I have achieved Noob Mistake Numero Uno.
I half *** did my research and now have a new tank with new fish in it. I bought a 10g tank kinda did a cycle. Filled the tank added some tank water from the store put in some additives let it run for 3 days and bought 4 fish and added them(last night). Found this site and said "oops". I would like to keep them alive. I will purchase the better test kit today and start doing 25% PWCs everyday to try and accomplish this. Can anyone give any advice on how to keep my little friends alive? how high should i have my filter running?

10g tank
AC 30 filter
Plants
2 Spotted Cory
2 Rosy Barb


also do you think i need a heater i live in hawaii

 

[meegosh]

I'd get a good liquid test kit so you can test for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. Post your readings once you get them and we can offer some better advice. When you say you put in some additives, what did you add? Adding some water from the LFS is a bad idea. The water can contain parasites and other diseases. The bacteria that you are after resides mainly in the filter media and the substrate. You should see if the store would give you some used filter media or some gravel.

I'm not sure about the heater but your fish would like a constant temperature. Any large swings in temperature can shock/stress the fish. As far as the filter, I would turn it up as high as you can without making your fish float all over the place.

 

[Sombunya]

And do water changes treating the new water with PRIME. If it is a small tank and you are doing large water changes, watch the temperature, trying to keep it close.

If the water is properly treated you can change it as often as you like. I was doing 50% changes daily on one of my tanks while it cycled.

 

[Fuj]

On the first day I added API Stress coat and Stress Zyme. Yesterday after I posted I did a 30%+ PWC. I added water from my uncles koi pond
I wasn't able to test it right after b/c I had a birthday dinner to attend. Six hours after the change the results were GH 11, KH 1-2, PH 7.0+, NO2 <.3, NH3 0. Today it was PH 7.0+, GH 10, KH 2, NO2 .3, and NH3 0. I probably won't change the water again today. Thanks for all of your advice and input. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

 

[marchmaxima]

I would recommend adding fresh water rather than water from another tank or pond. Fresh water is your friend! Fish love it. No need to be afraid of it.

All you need to do is make sure that your ammonia/nitrITE levels stay under 0.5ppm. You really want to aim for 0.25ppm. If your levels are higher, do a change. When you change, add a good dechlor (I use Prime) and that's all you need.

Eventually (may be weeks, so be prepared) your ammonia and nitrITE will drop to 0ppm and stay there. At that point, NitrATE will be detectable. If this your situation for a few days in a row you can be pretty confident your tank is cycled.

Meegosh said to buy a liquid test kit. That's good advice and I echo that. Strip tests are inaccurate.

Good luck and do keep us posted on your progress. Plenty of people here to help you! We were all newbies once Welcome to AA!

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I agree, add fresh water. Water from the pond will not have any benefit and could actually cause harm from contamination or spreading of disease.

 

[HooKooDooKu]

Your "oops" just means it will now be more work... as you say, daily water changes. When I suddenly became the owner of carnival gold fish, it took a month of daily water changes before the tank cycled.

Now would be a good time to look into a Python. Using buckets and such, it used to take 30 minutes to do water changes. With the Python, I cut that to 10 minutes (and that included setup, water change, and return to storage).

 

[Fuj]

So I have been doing daily pwc with the help of a python device. I had to get a few more barbs since just the two were acting up. The nh3 level has been sitting at 1.5 prior to the daily changes with very little nitrite. Every one seems happy. The only problem I'm having is one of the live plants is getting slot of alge growth. Thanks for all the advice so far. Hopefully the tank will cycle soon.

 

[gzeiger]

Don't be disappointed if this takes some time. People have seen cycles take over a month when they start without filter media, and that's without fish! Yours will take longer now, because of the need to keep the ammonia level low so the fish survive. The lower ammonia level you need will stunt the growth of the bacteria and make it take longer, so be prepared for that.

1.5 is fairly high for ammonia. Many fish can survive that for a time, but few will survive it in the long run. I would really suggest changing a little more water each time to try to get that down below 1.

Nitrite will spike fairly suddenly, and needs to be kept below .5 or so, so keep testing that. You can skip the nitrate test for now, as it isn't expected to change while you still have ammonia and no nitrite. Start testing nitrate as soon as you see nitrite.

 

[Fuj]

Hey AA folk. I have been doing 30% pwc 5 times a week. I stoped testing as often. Then yesterday I see my nitrite a lot higher than before and my ammonia down. So I guess it's starting to cycle. All the fish seem fine. There was a little white mouth fungus a week ago on the alpha barb, but it cleared up. Tonight I put the carbon back in and I notced the filter pretty dirty. Should I clean the filter?

 

[joy13]

Rinse the filter in tank water. When I do a water change I rinse the filter off in the bucket of tank water and put it back in.

 

[An t-iasg]

At this time, while you are cycling, I would not clean the filter. After the cycle, and then every 4-6 weeks, you can rinse the filter gently in tank water that was removed during a water change.

 

[gzeiger]

You don't want it to look clean though. The bacteria you're trying to cultivate give it that brown mucky look. As long as the flow through it is good and it isn't putting particles back out into the water there's no need to even rinse, really.

 

[Fuj]

Thanks for all the help guys. It looks like my cycle is complete.