My first tropical freshwater tank! :)

Colin_T said:

No idea. But I wouldn't add iron fertiliser every day unless you monitor the iron levels in the water, or do a 100% water change before adding more fertiliser.

If you add a full dose of fertiliser every day and it doesn't get used, you will poison all the fish.

Just add it once a week until you get an iron test kit. Then monitor the levels in the tank and add more when the iron level is 0mg/L (0ppm).

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Colin_T said:

I recommend a double dose every day for a week when adding liquid bacterial supplements. You can add more if you like but a double dose every day for a week usually gets things going pretty quickly.

After a week I either pour the remaining bacteria into the tank or put it in the fridge until I need it for another tank.

You can't really overdose with the bacterial supplements because they don't affect fish or plants and only grow to a population that is big enough to convert the ammonia and nitrite in the water.

Some people just buy a big bottle and add the whole thing in one hit. Their filters cycle pretty quickly too

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Colin_T said:

You might want to look for another brand of liquid bacteria. That one doesn't seem very economical. Most of the brands I have used can treat a huge tank and don't use the entire bottle for one dose on a small aquarium.

If you can't find other brands then you can continue using that one but if it's expensive, I would look around for something else.

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Colin_T said:

You might want to look for another brand of liquid bacteria. That one doesn't seem very economical. Most of the brands I have used can treat a huge tank and don't use the entire bottle for one dose on a small aquarium.

If you can't find other brands then you can continue using that one but if it's expensive, I would look around for something else.

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essjay said:

I don't know if things have changed in recent years but the reason Tetra Safe Start is recommended so much is that it was one of only two products which contained the right species of nitrite eating bacteria (the other one is Dr Tim's One & Only which isn't easily available in the UK). All the others used to contain the wrong species, because the use of the right species was patented.

However, the other products may contain the right species these days.



If yesterday's readings were before the water change, the water change would have removed a lot of everything. Ammonia has crept up, but nitrite and nitrate are lagging behind.
What is the pH of the tank water? Ammonia in water exists in 2 forms, ammonia which is toxic and ammonium which is a lot less toxic. Our test kits measure total ammonia, which is ammonia and ammonium combined. The amount in each form varies with the temperature and pH. In tropical aquariums, there is little variation in temmperature, but the pH of the tank water can vary enormously from place to place. Below pH 7, most of the test reading is in the less toxic ammonium form; above pH 7 there is more in the ammonia form.

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Neon1977 said:

I also fed them a tiny bit but only waited 10 mins after feeding to siphon the sand and do a water change and finally I poured 50ml of tetra safestart in the tank!

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seangee said:

Just FWIW you should not feed your fish for 4 hours before a W/C. This is to ensure that the stress of a WC does not affect the digestive process. I usually feed as normal the night before a W/C and then don't feed on water change day.

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