Newbie needs big time help!

[USFveggie]

I am a school teacher and was given a 3gal JBJ Pico tank about a month ago. Being completely ignorant about fish keeping I just took the fish, its gravel, and live plants and put water in the tank and threw in some fish. Well the students named them and got attached, and one of the gold gouramis died. I tested the water yesterday and ammonia, hardness, and ph were all high. I filled it with spring water when I got it. I vaccumed the gravel yesterday before I left for the weekend, and I am praying the fish are alive when I get back on Monday. School gets out this Thursday. After that I plan on taking the entire tank apart and cleaning it out. Replacing filters, and replacing gravel and plants (snails are starting to reproduce again).

What else should I do and what can I do about the water and its high levels/hardness? I really know pretty much nothing about keeping fish so any advice is welcome.

 

[mom2reds]

read the post on top that is cycling for dummies. But don't be hard on yourself we have all made the same newbie mistakes.

 

[USFveggie]

Okay I will definitely read that. Another question I have is, the pico manual says to not change the white bio filter. Should I never change this? Even when I cycle it?

 

[Yellow Eye Tang]

It will eventually take hold of benificial bacterias that your tank needs. One that small shouldn't take too long to cycle but you still need to let it cycle before placing life into it. Also you need to make sure not to overstock it with fish and also make sure that you treat the water you put in it for chlorine and such. You never know sometimes what might be in the spring water. Fertilizers, waste - Ammonia needs to be at zero and the Ph should remain around 7 - 7.8 Certain fish like a lower PH but some will adjust to a bit higher. What were the types of fish you put in?

 

[USFveggie]

I put in two gold gouramis and one black skirt tetra. But one of the Gouramis died on Wed and I had to replace it (I didnt want to tell 18 6 year olds that their fish died, I know I am a coward). I know I should not have replaced it, but I panicked. This tank came from a friend, and it had been used for a year or two before she gave it to me. She had problems with her fish too so she didnt have any in the tank when she gave it to me. I read the cycling thread, but I am still not really clear what to do.

Can I cycle the tank with fish in it? Do I need to buy another tank to put the fish in while I cycle it? I am confused all around.

 

[atomiclord]

As for the hardness you can dilute the dissolved minerals in the water using more pure water (ask fish shop or battery shop). The dilution is fairly straightforward eg 50% pure water gives 1/2 the hardness basically. Try this web page from the krib. Just be careful if using water from a reverse osmosis (RO) unit, which your local fish store (LFS) / enthusiast may do; you will have to aerate this water by using a small air pump + air stone for a few hours because it won't have a lot of dissolved oxygen. The water softeners attatched to some household taps aren't suitable because they exchange the calcium and magnesium in the tap water with sodium, which your fish also won't enjoy.

The easiest thing to do is instead select fish that can handle the harder water. I'd stay away from anything from an 'amazonian' background. However, most fish can survive in very hard water, but are unlikely to breed in it.

My personal suggestion would be to get some some nice Danio Rerio, aka Zebra Fish next time. They're hardy, very active, schooling, fast-breeding fish and also cheap as an initial purchase. And the longfin danios are quite pretty really

 

[Yellow Eye Tang]

You technically CAN cycle with fish but it takes longer and you have to watch your water perameters closely. You'll need to do 25% water changes daily or every other day. Treat tap water with a de-chlorinator and make sure to keep the temperature as close as you can so as not to shock the fish. Test for nitrITes as they will spike for a period of time. When they start to go up,... do a water change of 25%. Hopefully that will help ya a bit and others here on this forum are awesome and will help you as well. Good Luck!

 

[beglely]

The best advice I can offer is read, read, and read. The info on the web and this website in particular is very helpful. I too have made your mistake as well (lucky for you its only been 1 fish and not the 11 or so I went through). Read up on cycling and water changes for now and that should get you started. And dont hesitate to ask questions. Also, have you considered a larger tank possibly? Even a 10gal is an upgrade from the 3gal. Its something to think about later on.

 

[USFveggie]

Thank you to all who have helped. I feel really really guilty about all this. I usually dont advocate anyone get an animal without proper research and whatnot. I am very involved with animal rescue for goodness sakes! I dont know what I was thinking. Next week I will try to do a cycle with the fish in the tank. I will research that. So you wouldnt suggest replacing the biofilter? Or even cleaning it out? And I want to replace all gravel and plants because I dont want the snails to overtake the tank. Should I move the fish into a temporary tank, and do the "deep cleaning" and then move them back and start the cycle?

 

[Joker741]

This might help you:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...-but-i-already-have-fish-what-now-116287.html

 

[Joker741]

Thank you to all who have helped. I feel really really guilty about all this. I usually dont advocate anyone get an animal without proper research and whatnot. I am very involved with animal rescue for goodness sakes! I dont know what I was thinking. Next week I will try to do a cycle with the fish in the tank. I will research that. So you wouldnt suggest replacing the biofilter? Or even cleaning it out? And I want to replace all gravel and plants because I dont want the snails to overtake the tank. Should I move the fish into a temporary tank, and do the "deep cleaning" and then move them back and start the cycle?

Don't replace the biofilter, just leave it alone. When you replace the gravel and plants, your tank will cycle again because you are losing the benificial bacterias from the gravel. I would move the fish to a temp tank to do the cleaning. If you have the temp tank set up, you can leave the fish in there till the other has cycled. Of course, the temp tank will have to be cycled also. You can cycle a tank with fish in it, it just takes some work. Look into Seachem Prime to treat you water.

Happy fish keeping.

 

[USFveggie]

I dont have a temporary tank )-: So should I still remove plants/gravel or should I leave it alone? I would really like to replace these things to get rid of the snail infestation the previous owner had, and I need to replace the carbon and other filters (not the biofilter I know).

 

[Joker741]

Do you know someone who has a tank that can hold the fish for you? The best thing would be to get the fish out, clean the tank, cycle it and then put them back in. I know there is a product that will kill the snails, but not the fish, I will see if I can find it. I think it is called "I had snails" or something like that, I will look. If you can't take the fish out, read the link I posted and cycle the tank with the fish in it, leave the gravel and plants. It will be some work, but it can be done where the fish will survive.

 

[Joker741]

What you could also do, is remove half the water in the tank into a bucket, put the fish in the bucket, put the rest of the tank water in there, clean the tank, put it back together, add in 50% old water and 50% new water, put the fish back in and do a cycle with fish.

 

[USFveggie]

I bought Hadasnail at Petsmart, but I read some negative reviews and decided not to use it. The woman that gave me the tank has another tank. But I am not sure she would want me to put them in hers. I could get another tank, but that one would need to cycle too. Hmm. I dont know what to do. I did read through the link you posted, and I probably could cycle with the fish in the tank. But I really wanted to give it a good scrub down and replace the gravel/plants so the snails dont overpopulate. But maybe I just need to not overfeed the fish and the snails wont overtake the tank.

 

[USFveggie]

What you could also do, is remove half the water in the tank into a bucket, put the fish in the bucket, put the rest of the tank water in there, clean the tank, put it back together, add in 50% old water and 50% new water, put the fish back in and do a cycle with fish.

This sounds like a good idea. But do you think that if I replaced the gravel/plants and put them back it would be to much of a shock for them?

 

[Joker741]

Give the bucket idea a try, just watch your water perimeters.

 

[Joker741]

Oh, and I forgot, welcome to the site.

 

[jsoong]

I am unsure of why you want to take the tank apart ... Your cycle have started with the fish, and if you do a tank teardown, you would have to start from square 1.

Now that you have fish, you basically have to do a "fishy" cycle. That basically means doing daily water changes to keep the ammonia & nitrite levels down until the bacteria in your biofilter (& gravel & plants) catches up & remove those for you.

you might want to do a good gravel vac to remove as much detritus as you can, but I would not do a total teardown. You will prob need to do daily 50% water changes (monitor your ammonia & nitrite levels & do as much as need to keep levels under 0.5), and you can have a pretty clean tank with daily vacs & water changes.

Snails reproduce because of excess food in the tank. If you feed very sparingly, that should take care of the snails (and it would be much easier on the cycling, as lower food = lower waste & lower need for pwc's.)

BTW, I would not worry about the pH or the hardness unless it is way off. Most fish can do fine in a wide variety of pH as long as it is stable. <And your fish will be fine. I kept gouramis in my water of pH 7.8.> It is far more likely to do harm if you doctor the water, esp. with a small setup, than to leave things alone.

 

[USFveggie]

Okay so I went to a locally owned aquarium store yesterday and they helped a lot. He told me to just leave the tank alone for the week and then he told me to bring it in to him on Saturday. He said he will keep the fish while he helps me cycle my tank. He gave me some drops to put into the tank, but to otherwise leave it be and we will sort it out on Saturday. He explained that he could also teach me how to cycle the tank with the fish if needed. He was very nice and educated and I wish I had gone there first.

And to answer the question about the tank, I had read online that to get rid of snails you must get rid of any substrate and also any plants because of the eggs. But I dont mind the snails as long as they are not taking over my tank. So I have no problem with just leaving them be and trying to just feed the right amount of food to the fish, etc. Thanks for all the suggestions.