Some answers for Noobs

[Matt68005]

Okay so i see alot of people here are making the same mistakes that i made when i first started out on freshwater aquariums. so keeping this is sort an imformative as possible lets go,
white cloudy water-bad bacterial buildup. The result of uneaten food decaying in the gravel bed of your aquarium, and the aquarium not having enough "good" bacteria to handle it. The best way to avoid this is to "seed" a new tank with someone elses used filter floss, or use a cycled gooey filter to begin with. If it is your first tank and you have no access to this, you may have to wait it out, but do not throw away those filter cartariges, they are what keep a tank clear.
Amonia/nitrate/nitrite buildups. Change 25-50% of the water at least once a week, if it is a new tank and no way to avoid the cycle, they make a product called AMQUEL PLUS, that should be avaliable at most pet stores that neutralizes amonia and nitrates/nitrites.
Diseases- parasites and mouth fungus/tail rot (columnaris bact.) are the two that are deadly but easy to get rid of. I reccomend anti-parisite or anti-bacterial food, in addition, salt and raising the temps will help with parasites, one i like is Malachite Green. Any time you medicate make sure you do it for the full course of the treatment, and change the water after words (or follow the directions exactly) Do not combine meds. With colmunaris bacterial infection the fish will have little dots of white balls of fungus looking stuff on its fins then eventually body. There are several anti-biotics that treat this, just make sure they treat gram-neg rod bacterial infections( minocycline (maracyn-2) triple sulfa, binox, or Ampicillin and LOWER the temperature and DO NOT add an airstone, columnaris bacteria is aerobic. Another thing new people dont realize is that stress is what causes fish disease, along with poor water quality. The diseases are always present to some extent in water. The fish's slime coat protects them from disease, due to wounds or stress like netting and big changes in water types, the lose the slime coat and can get the diseases. Small feedings 3 times a day is better than one or 2 large ones, fish have small stomach's and the uneaten food will spoil a tank. The larger the tank, the more leeway you have. Smaller tanks can get out of wack within a few days. Hope some of this helps some of you avoid the mistakes that so many of us make.
matt

 

[BHead707]

Okay so i see alot of people here are making the same mistakes that i made when i first started out on freshwater aquariums. so keeping this is sort an imformative as possible lets go,
white cloudy water-bad bacterial buildup. The result of uneaten food decaying in the gravel bed of your aquarium, and the aquarium not having enough "good" bacteria to handle it. The best way to avoid this is to "seed" a new tank with someone elses used filter floss, or use a cycled gooey filter to begin with. If it is your first tank and you have no access to this, you may have to wait it out, but do not throw away those filter cartariges, they are what keep a tank clear.
Amonia/nitrate/nitrite buildups. Change 25-50% of the water at least once a week, if it is a new tank and no way to avoid the cycle, they make a product called AMQUEL PLUS, that should be avaliable at most pet stores that neutralizes amonia and nitrates/nitrites.
Diseases- parasites and mouth fungus/tail rot (columnaris bact.) are the two that are deadly but easy to get rid of. I reccomend anti-parisite or anti-bacterial food, in addition, salt and raising the temps will help with parasites, one i like is Malachite Green. Any time you medicate make sure you do it for the full course of the treatment, and change the water after words (or follow the directions exactly) Do not combine meds. With colmunaris bacterial infection the fish will have little dots of white balls of fungus looking stuff on its fins then eventually body. There are several anti-biotics that treat this, just make sure they treat gram-neg rod bacterial infections( minocycline (maracyn-2) triple sulfa, binox, or Ampicillin and LOWER the temperature and DO NOT add an airstone, columnaris bacteria is aerobic. Another thing new people dont realize is that stress is what causes fish disease, along with poor water quality. The diseases are always present to some extent in water. The fish's slime coat protects them from disease, due to wounds or stress like netting and big changes in water types, the lose the slime coat and can get the diseases. Small feedings 3 times a day is better than one or 2 large ones, fish have small stomach's and the uneaten food will spoil a tank. The larger the tank, the more leeway you have. Smaller tanks can get out of wack within a few days. Hope some of this helps some of you avoid the mistakes that so many of us make.
matt

IMO there should be no excuse to let the ammonia/nitrite build up during a cycle. if you don't have enough time to do water changes everyday then dont do a fish In cycle. DO FISHLESS

 

[absolutangel04]

IMO there should be no excuse to let the ammonia/nitrite build up during a cycle. if you don't have enough time to do water changes everyday then dont do a fish In cycle. DO FISHLESS

I agree with this. I am also going to add that I am not familiar with amquel, but I am not a fan of using products to fix water parameters. Seachem Prime is the only product I know of that temporarily neutralizes ammo in a way where it can still be used by the BB, but I don't personally use that either. Most products that are supposed to deal with ammo/trites/trates cause issues in the long run because they are only neutralized temporarily. Again, I have not used that specific product, but IMO/E water changes also take care of those issues and should be done more than once a week while fish-in cycling. If you have a huge ammo build up, do 50% pwc and then do another the next day IMO.

Good advice about stress causing illness.

 

[Manix]

I am currently cycling my tank and doing 50% pwc every 2-3 days. I am using Prime in my tap water.

Is it best to add Prime in the bucket of new tap water first? Before pouring it in the tank.

Or add Prime in the tank first and then pour in the tap water?

I always add the recommended amount for my 40 gallon. But I add Prime in the bucket with tap water first before pouring in the tank.

 

[GhillieSniper115]

Okay so i see alot of people here are making the same mistakes that i made when i first started out on freshwater aquariums. so keeping this is sort an imformative as possible lets go,
white cloudy water-bad bacterial buildup. The result of uneaten food decaying in the gravel bed of your aquarium, and the aquarium not having enough "good" bacteria to handle it. The best way to avoid this is to "seed" a new tank with someone elses used filter floss, or use a cycled gooey filter to begin with. If it is your first tank and you have no access to this, you may have to wait it out, but do not throw away those filter cartariges, they are what keep a tank clear.
Amonia/nitrate/nitrite buildups. Change 25-50% of the water at least once a week, if it is a new tank and no way to avoid the cycle, they make a product called AMQUEL PLUS, that should be avaliable at most pet stores that neutralizes amonia and nitrates/nitrites.
Diseases- parasites and mouth fungus/tail rot (columnaris bact.) are the two that are deadly but easy to get rid of. I reccomend anti-parisite or anti-bacterial food, in addition, salt and raising the temps will help with parasites, one i like is Malachite Green. Any time you medicate make sure you do it for the full course of the treatment, and change the water after words (or follow the directions exactly) Do not combine meds. With colmunaris bacterial infection the fish will have little dots of white balls of fungus looking stuff on its fins then eventually body. There are several anti-biotics that treat this, just make sure they treat gram-neg rod bacterial infections( minocycline (maracyn-2) triple sulfa, binox, or Ampicillin and LOWER the temperature and DO NOT add an airstone, columnaris bacteria is aerobic. Another thing new people dont realize is that stress is what causes fish disease, along with poor water quality. The diseases are always present to some extent in water. The fish's slime coat protects them from disease, due to wounds or stress like netting and big changes in water types, the lose the slime coat and can get the diseases. Small feedings 3 times a day is better than one or 2 large ones, fish have small stomach's and the uneaten food will spoil a tank. The larger the tank, the more leeway you have. Smaller tanks can get out of wack within a few days. Hope some of this helps some of you avoid the mistakes that so many of us make.
matt

Your are right exept for the cloudy water. It's not always bad bacteria and with daily water changes can help the process alont

 

[maxwellag]

Though this has already been covered in many other threads, I still think its general idea is good, but I don't agree with some of the points.

 

[BHead707]

I am currently cycling my tank and doing 50% pwc every 2-3 days. I am using Prime in my tap water.

Is it best to add Prime in the bucket of new tap water first? Before pouring it in the tank.

Or add Prime in the tank first and then pour in the tap water?

I always add the recommended amount for my 40 gallon. But I add Prime in the bucket with tap water first before pouring in the tank.

are there fish in the tank? anyway either will work. i personally use the bucket technique. but people with very large tanks that use a python water changer must put it into the tank because there is no bucket.

 

[eco23]

are there fish in the tank? anyway either will work. i personally use the bucket technique. but people with very large tanks that use a python water changer must put it into the tank because there is no bucket.

Right. If you add it directly to the tank, you should dose the Prime based on the entire volume of the aquarium, not just the water you're replacing. So if it was a 50 gallon tank, you'd add an entire capful even if you were only replacing 20% of the water.

If it's a smaller tank and you're not using a Python...I'd dose per bucket. On the bottle of Prime it says it CAN be added directly to the tank, but it's better to dose each bucket individually.

 

[Manix]

are there fish in the tank? anyway either will work. i personally use the bucket technique. but people with very large tanks that use a python water changer must put it into the tank because there is no bucket.

Right. If you add it directly to the tank, you should dose the Prime based on the entire volume of the aquarium, not just the water you're replacing. So if it was a 50 gallon tank, you'd add an entire capful even if you were only replacing 20% of the water.

If it's a smaller tank and you're not using a Python...I'd dose per bucket. On the bottle of Prime it says it CAN be added directly to the tank, but it's better to dose each bucket individually.

Cool. I dose by the bucket and up to the recommended amount for my 40 gallon. Just wanted to make sure I'm doing it the best way possible.


Thanks