Bunch of Questions About My First Tank

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robby

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
May 21, 2011
Messages
39
Hi everybody,

I am setting up my first fish tank. I was wondering if I could get some advice on a number of issues.

For reference, today is day four. It is a ten gallon tank. I have five real plants. I added a water conditioner but not any bacteria starter. My readings as of today are as follows:
pH: 7.6
Ammonia: 0.25ppm (may be a hair towards 0.5, hard to tell)
Nitrite: 0.75ppm
Nitrate: 5ppm

1) How do these levels sound for day 4 of a 10-gallon planted tank? Anything I should be worried about?

2) I have a sample of bacteria starter. Should I add it?

Here is a photo:
photo2bqr.jpg


3) Can anybody ID the middle plant in the back? To the left are ribbon plants, to the right is a java fern. Front right is an Anubias. But I'm not sure what the back center plant is.

4) Can anybody ID the fish. I believe the red one is a guppy but I'm not positive about either of them. Sorry, I know it's a bad photo, I'll try to get a better one later. The guy at the pet shop recommended them because they are hardy, but I totally forgot what he said they were.

5) My water has gotten noticeably cloudier over the last day or two. It is not green or brown, just kind of white. I am using Floramax for my substrate, which I know is naturally cloudier, but I'm not sure why it would clear up and then get cloudy again. Any thoughts?

6) My lighting is two 18-watt CFL bulbs (36 watts total). How many hours/day should I leave them on?

7) I'd like to get some shrimp at some point. What kind and when would be a good time to get them? (I'm in no hurry at all).

And of course, any other advice you have for a beginner would be much appreciated. I have read tons of stuff in the getting started forum, but any tips with particular regard to my setup would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
 
robby said:
Hi everybody,

I am setting up my first fish tank. I was wondering if I could get some advice on a number of issues.

For reference, today is day four. It is a ten gallon tank. I have five real plants. I added a water conditioner but not any bacteria starter. My readings as of today are as follows:
pH: 7.6
Ammonia: 0.25ppm (may be a hair towards 0.5, hard to tell)
Nitrite: 0.75ppm
Nitrate: 5ppm

1) How do these levels sound for day 4 of a 10-gallon planted tank? Anything I should be worried about?

2) I have a sample of bacteria starter. Should I add it?

Here is a photo:

3) Can anybody ID the middle plant in the back? To the left are ribbon plants, to the right is a java fern. Front right is an Anubias. But I'm not sure what the back center plant is.

4) Can anybody ID the fish. I believe the red one is a guppy but I'm not positive about either of them. Sorry, I know it's a bad photo, I'll try to get a better one later. The guy at the pet shop recommended them because they are hardy, but I totally forgot what he said they were.

5) My water has gotten noticeably cloudier over the last day or two. It is not green or brown, just kind of white. I am using Floramax for my substrate, which I know is naturally cloudier, but I'm not sure why it would clear up and then get cloudy again. Any thoughts?

6) My lighting is two 18-watt CFL bulbs (36 watts total). How many hours/day should I leave them on?

7) I'd like to get some shrimp at some point. What kind and when would be a good time to get them? (I'm in no hurry at all).

And of course, any other advice you have for a beginner would be much appreciated. I have read tons of stuff in the getting started forum, but any tips with particular regard to my setup would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

1. Ur ammonia and nitrite are High Especially the latter. Both of these will stress ur stock and eventually kill them.

So I recommend u do do a huge water change about 50-60% using prime will help to detoxify ur ammonia and nitrite while ur Beneficial bacteria can still use it. Just make sure ur water temp and ph is about the same before adding them into ur tank.

2. No, they don't do anything. If u have it may as well. But it ain't gonna do much if anything.

3.I'm no good with plants :p

4. Ditto 3.

5. Its normally, this means ur filter is "producing" beneficial bacteria. It will clear up eventually depending on ur filter. Nothing to be alarm about at this point

6. Depending on ur plants. Here's a good link plantgeek.net I leave mine on for about 10-11 hours.

7. Whats ur ph? Depending on ur ph, for a successful colony it varies. But generally red cherry shrimps (RCS) is a beginner shrimp. Here's a link http://www.planetinverts.com/

And I recommend u do daily pwc to keep ur parameters in the safe zone.
 
They look like fancy guppy's from the pic. If you can get a better close up i would be able to know. I have fancy guppy's myself and yes they are very hardy.
 
Thanks everybody. Just wanted to say I am changing the water regularly and keeping the levels down.

One more question: this Floramax substrate that I used is a huge mess and I'm really regretting it. Every time I change the water it gets super cloudy for like 20 hours. Is there anything I can do about this. I pour water over a saucer to lighten the force but it doesn't seem to matter.
 
Did you rinse the substrate a little before putting it in your aquarium? All the cloudiness may have come from parts of the substrate that had rubbed together during packaging. I'd say just keep doing your water changes and hope that it clears up within a week or so. Or you could try those bottles that say it clears cloudy water fast... Just a thought. Anyways, good luck with the rest of your tank!
 
The cloudiness from your substrate should clear up with time and it won't harm your fish. However, it could damage your filter. Put a sponge over your filter intake to keep any large bits from getting into your impeller.
 
Did you rinse the substrate a little before putting it in your aquarium? All the cloudiness may have come from parts of the substrate that had rubbed together during packaging. I'd say just keep doing your water changes and hope that it clears up within a week or so. Or you could try those bottles that say it clears cloudy water fast... Just a thought. Anyways, good luck with the rest of your tank!
I was advised not to for the sake of keeping the nutrients for my plants. I realize now that was bad advice but I don't have another tank so rinsing and re-adding would be difficult at this point.
The cloudiness from your substrate should clear up with time and it won't harm your fish. However, it could damage your filter. Put a sponge over your filter intake to keep any large bits from getting into your impeller.

Will do, thanks.
 
I think I screwed something up... my numbers aren't making any sense.

Last night I had:
Ammonia: 0.1ppm
Nitrite: 5ppm
Nitrate: 5ppm

I did a 60% water change before bed, woke up this morning, and did a 70% change.

Just a couple hours later my readings are:
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrite: 5
Nitrate 0

How did my Ammonia go up and my nitrite not go down at all?
 
The water is also staying cloudy much longer than it did before, even after those two big water changes. Is this still because I used Floramax and the sediment keeps getting kicked around? If so is there anything I can do about it?

Before:
smugshot9389771-M.jpg


After:
smugshot8074875-M.jpg
 
robby said:
The water is also staying cloudy much longer than it did before, even after those two big water changes. Is this still because I used Floramax and the sediment keeps getting kicked around? If so is there anything I can do about it?

Before:

After:

How long has the tank been setup for? Do you know your ammo, nitrIte and nitrAte levels?
 
How long has the tank been setup for? Do you know your ammo, nitrIte and nitrAte levels?

About 8 days.

Levels yesterday, after a water change were:
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrite: 5
Nitrate 0

The numbers are a little perplexing to me as explained in post #8. I just did another water change and am waiting for things to settle, then I will take more readings.
 
Your numbers are perplexing. People often get false reading with the nitrAte test (from not shaking bottle #2 enough) but the nitrIte test should be pretty straightforward. You might want to check the expiration date on your test kit just to be sure.
 
robby said:
About 8 days.

Levels yesterday, after a water change were:
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrite: 5
Nitrate 0

The numbers are a little perplexing to me as explained in post #8. I just did another water change and am waiting for things to settle, then I will take more readings.

The cloudiness you are seeing is the bacterial bloom that signifies that your tank is beginning to cycle. Are you familiar with cycling your tank? It is extremely important to understand the process and keep parameters below a certain level from prevent your fish from being exposed to ammonia and nitrIte poisoning (which is occurring right now). You need to do two back to back 50% water changes (pwc's) and keep the ammonia and no2 levels below .25 at all times!

I see you only have a couple fish in the tank. Is it an option to return the fish or house them with a friend who has an established tank? If so, you can do what's called a fishless cycle to prepare a safe home for your fish. Having them in there during this process is extremely detrimental for them.

Check out the link in my signature and read a little bit about fishless cycling.

In the mean time, follow this article and make sure you constantly keep your levels below .25 by doing daily water changes
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...-but-i-already-have-fish-what-now-116287.html

We'll be happy to help you along the way...but we've got some serious work to do and quickly to help keep your fish from suffering.

Good luck!
 
Randi said:
Your numbers are perplexing. People often get false reading with the nitrAte test (from not shaking bottle #2 enough) but the nitrIte test should be pretty straightforward. You might want to check the expiration date on your test kit just to be sure.

The numbers are correct for a newly set up cycling tank. The numbers are just very dangerous for the fish at this point. We're not at the point in cycling yet where we would be seeing any nitrAte.
 
Hubert90 said:
It's normal. Ur filter is breeding lots of bacteria ATM. Hence the cloudiness. It will clear itself. It's not harmful so don't worry

You think nitrItes of 5 are not harmful? I'd recommend reading the same articles I linked to the OP.
 
Thanks everybody.

Your numbers are perplexing. People often get false reading with the nitrAte test (from not shaking bottle #2 enough) but the nitrIte test should be pretty straightforward. You might want to check the expiration date on your test kit just to be sure.

I don't see an expiration date, just a lot #.

The cloudiness you are seeing is the bacterial bloom that signifies that your tank is beginning to cycle.

Wouldn't it be odd to see increased bacterial bloom with new water though? It would make sense if it came back slowly but if anything, wouldn't replacing the water increase its clarity by reducing the proportional amount of bacteria, at least temporarily?

Are you familiar with cycling your tank? It is extremely important to understand the process and keep parameters below a certain level from prevent your fish from being exposed to ammonia and nitrIte poisoning (which is occurring right now). You need to do two back to back 50% water changes (pwc's) and keep the ammonia and no2 levels below .25 at all times!

Yep - and believe me I am on it. Yesterday I did 60% and 80% because of how dire my readings were. Today I have already done one and I will be doing a second. Plan is to do it every morning and evening for as long as I need to.

I see you only have a couple fish in the tank. Is it an option to return the fish or house them with a friend who has an established tank? If so, you can do what's called a fishless cycle to prepare a safe home for your fish. Having them in there during this process is extremely detrimental for them.

Unfortunately, no. I don't have friends with tanks and the pet store won't take them back for fear of disease. If I knew then what I knew now I would do a fishless cycle; at the time I was just going on other advice which was to start with two hardy fish.

In the mean time, follow this article and make sure you constantly keep your levels below .25 by doing daily water changes
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...-but-i-already-have-fish-what-now-116287.html

We'll be happy to help you along the way...but we've got some serious work to do and quickly to help keep your fish from suffering.

Good luck!

Thanks! And yep, all over that article and doing lots of water changes.
The numbers are correct for a newly set up cycling tank. The numbers are just very dangerous for the fish at this point. We're not at the point in cycling yet where we would be seeing any nitrAte.

I still can't really make sense of those numbers but I'm glad to hear they don't sound way off the mark to you.
 
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