Beginner in fish tank hobby and I’m confused

[Beginner_Sam]

I need you guys help badly.
I went fish store today and did my water test (water was on my 37 gallon tank been one day and filtered 24 hour)
Ph 7.2
Nitrate 0
Kh 40
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0
Chlorine 1.0
Gh 75
employee told me wait couple more days and after that I can get small kind off fishes. I went different store and every employee give me different ideas some told me this fish is ok for me then others told me the same fish isn‘t good for my tank It’s sensitive. I’m so confused in this point and I never have fish before. In this point I really need help from you all. You guys are my last hope.
Some question: What fish should I get ?
Is it possible to get medium size goldfish and then a year later upgrade my tank?
(I want fishes that I can see grow like I bought a fish is 3/4 inch and after a year later it will be 6/7 inch.)
I know my tank is small but I’m a beginner I don’t want to spend a lot of money now.
2) should I let the filter run on my tank everyday 24/7 ?
3) After I got fish on my tank can I put my hand bottom of the fish tank for like fixed the air pump or decoration?
4) what should I do or how can I take out the fish is dead on my tank ?
5) suggest me some fishes ( I don’t want tiny fishes like 1/2 inch)
6) Do light matters for fish I‘ve one led light and it’s change light slowly every sec.

 

[Stefan3289]

Hello!

I am not an expert there are a lot of better people on the forum but I’ll answer some of your questions:

1) in terms of your cycle, everything is perfect except for chlorine. You should get a dechlorinator such as prime or APA water conditioner as any amount of chlorine is harmful. How long has the tank been running since you set it up?

2) In terms of fish, you have soft water, so types of Tetras, barbs, and cichlids is what you would go for. In terms of actual stocking, it depends if you wanted a community tank, ex: mixing tetras with peaceful cichlids, or all tetras/all barbs/ all cichlids. If you will upgrade your tank and want to watch the fish grow, there are a lot of amazing South American cichlids (I have a 75 gallon community with them)

3) for heater and filter, yes you should keep it on 24/7

4) for putting your hand in, just make sure it is clean and when you clean it that there’s no soap left, otherwise yes. Be careful not to mix the substrate too much especially if you haven’t cleaned it yet as you’ll have a lot of gunk come up.

5) If your fish unfortunately dies, use a new to get it out and I would recommend doing a water change as soon as you can as any dead organism, like fish or plant, releases ammonia and other bad stuff into the water the longer it degrades.

6) In terms of lighting, it does matter. If your tank isn’t planted, you don’t need to have a schedule but just like us, they should have lights on and lights off time

Hope this helps!

 

[Obsessed with fish]

How big is your aquarium, have you cycled your tank and if so how long did you do it for.

 

[Colin_T]

You need to dechlorinate the water in the aquarium and any new tap water to get rid of the chlorine.

If you are doing a fish in cycle (fish live in the aquarium while the filter develops beneficial bacteria), then you can add fish in a few days if there is no chlorine in the water. However, doing a fish in cycle puts the inhabitants under a lot of stress and some fish might die during the cycling process.

If you plan on doing a fishless cycle (no fish in the tank while the filter develops beneficial bacteria), then you need to start adding a source of ammonia and let the tank run for about 4-6 weeks so the filters can develop lots of good bacteria that help keep the water clean. The tank won't have any fish in it during this time.

A fish in cycle allows you to have a few fish in the aquarium during the first 4-6 weeks. After that time the filters have usually developed colonies of good bacteria and then you can start adding more fish.

To do a fish in cycle, you add a few fish and feed them 2-3 times a week. You monitor ammonia and nitrite levels each day and do a 75% water change any day there is a reading above 0ppm. You continue doing this until the ammonia and nitrite levels have gone up and come back down to 0ppm, then you can feed the fish each day an add more fish.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/chloramine before it's added to the aquarium.

You can contact your water supply company by phone or website and ask if they use chlorine or chloramine. They are treated slightly differently in aquariums.

 

[Beginner_Sam]

How big is your aquarium, have you cycled your tank and if so how long did you do it for.

37 gallon tank. can you explain how to do the cycled ?

 

[sharkweek178]

37 gallon tank. can you explain how to do the cycled ?

Cycle Your Tank! A Complete Guide For Beginners

Fishless cycling https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/ Silent or plant cycling https://www.fishforums.net/threads/planted-silent-cycling.470400/ Fish-in cycling...

www.fishforums.net

 

[Essjay]

When the store said to let the tank run a couple more days then get fish, they were telling you to do a fish-in cycle which is hard on the fish and the fish keeper.


Fish excrete ammonia. This burns their skin and gills and makes it hard for them to take in oxygen through the gills. In a fish tank, a type of bacteria slowly grows which 'eats' this ammonia, and they 'poop' nitrite. Nitrite is also toxic - it binds to the fish's blood so oxygen can't get in. A second colony of bacteria grows which 'eats' nitrite and 'poops' nitrate which is nearly as toxic.
These bacteria are present in our tap water in tiny amounts and it takes weeks for them to multiply till there's enough of them. And the second ones can't start until the first ones make some nitrite.

The process of growing the bacteria is called cycling.

When fish are put in an uncycled tank, first ammonia starts to build up in the water. So the fish keeper has to test every day and do a big water change every time ammonia reads more than zero. This usually means a big water change every day. After a few weeks, ammonia won't go up as fast but then nitrite shows up. Again, daily testing and water changes every time nitrite reads more than zero.
This is hard work, and between water changes the fish are exposed to ammonia and nitrite which harms them.


The alternative is fishless cycling. Here, ammonia is added from a bottle to simulate fish waste and get the bacteria to multiply. There is a step by step method for doing a fishless cycle in the link sharkweek gave. Yes it does sound complicated but it is straight forward to follow the step by step guide. With this method testing is done on certain days and no water changes need to be done till the end.



The reason the tests in the first post look perfect is because that's plain tap water. There are no fish in the tank yet making ammonia. If you follow the store's instructions, within a day of getting fish the water will not be perfect.

Do light matters for fish I‘ve one led light and it’s change light slowly every sec.

What exactly does this mean? How does it change every second?

The tank lights should be on for the same length of time at the same time every day. A simple timer will do this.
The room should be in daylight or the room light should be on for at least half an hour before the tank lights turn on and after they turn off. It is stressful for fish to go from darkness to tank light on then tank light on to darkness. Having some light in the room makes a sort of dawn and dusk for the fish.

 

[Beginner_Sam]

When the store said to let the tank run a couple more days then get fish, they were telling you to do a fish-in cycle which is hard on the fish and the fish keeper.


Fish excrete ammonia. This burns their skin and gills and makes it hard for them to take in oxygen through the gills. In a fish tank, a type of bacteria slowly grows which 'eats' this ammonia, and they 'poop' nitrite. Nitrite is also toxic - it binds to the fish's blood so oxygen can't get in. A second colony of bacteria grows which 'eats' nitrite and 'poops' nitrate which is nearly as toxic.
These bacteria are present in our tap water in tiny amounts and it takes weeks for them to multiply till there's enough of them. And the second ones can't start until the first ones make some nitrite.

The process of growing the bacteria is called cycling.

When fish are put in an uncycled tank, first ammonia starts to build up in the water. So the fish keeper has to test every day and do a big water change every time ammonia reads more than zero. This usually means a big water change every day. After a few weeks, ammonia won't go up as fast but then nitrite shows up. Again, daily testing and water changes every time nitrite reads more than zero.
This is hard work, and between water changes the fish are exposed to ammonia and nitrite which harms them.


The alternative is fishless cycling. Here, ammonia is added from a bottle to simulate fish waste and get the bacteria to multiply. There is a step by step method for doing a fishless cycle in the link sharkweek gave. Yes it does sound complicated but it is straight forward to follow the step by step guide. With this method testing is done on certain days and no water changes need to be done till the end.



The reason the tests in the first post look perfect is because that's plain tap water. There are no fish in the tank yet making ammonia. If you follow the store's instructions, within a day of getting fish the water will not be perfect.




What exactly does this mean? How does it change every second?

The tank lights should be on for the same length of time at the same time every day. A simple timer will do this.
The room should be in daylight or the room light should be on for at least half an hour before the tank lights turn on and after they turn off. It is stressful for fish to go from darkness to tank light on then tank light on to darkness. Having some light in the room makes a sort of dawn and dusk for the fish.

Its like a led light it’s just change the light colors every sec

 

[Obsessed with fish]

37 gallon tank. can you explain how to do the cycled ?

Other peoplw beat me to it, but you should not follow advice pet stores give you, non of them know what there talking about

 

[Essjay]

Its like a led light it’s just change the light colors every sec

Is there a setting where it can stay on white all the time? That colour changing isn't good for fish, I'm afraid, so if it can be set to be on white all the time, I would change it to that.
If there is no setting for constant white, I would think seriously about getting a different light.

 

[sharkweek178]

Other peoplw beat me to it, but you should not follow advice pet stores give you, non of them know what there talking about

They have a financial incentive to give bad advice. If they tell someone to come back in 6-8 weeks after the cycle is done, they're afraid that the customer might lose interest or go somewhere else.

 

[Essjay]

Not to mention that if your fish get sick, you'll buy medication from them; if your fish die you'll go back and buy more fish.