Hello All!

[KT21]

Hello, newbie here!

I recently brought a new tank and cabinet and all the lah de dar the shops sell with it as a package..filter, heater ect.

Got it set up, left it to settle for just over a week or so, tested the water at the fish shop and it was perfect. So...we brought some fishies!

We got x2 Dwarf Jewels, x1 Chocolate Chiclid and x1 Jack Dempsey. Also got some live plants in there aswell.

Been testing the water everyday and the nitrite levels have been through the roof! For approx just over a week they have been sky high. (Around 1.6 to 3.3 at times!)

Ive had to keep doing 20% water changes nearly every day... even some days nearly 50%!...poor water bill!

When we change the water we always make sure we put some of the bio-safe stuff in.

Im at my witts end...does anyone suggest a way to get the levels down? I dont get it

Thanksyou! x

 

[oswoldy]

Hiya,
Welcome to the Forum, looks like you have got fish too soon you need to cycle your tanks here are two articles on how to achieve this:

Fish-In Cycle

Fishless Cycling - The Safer (for fish) and preferred method

The Nitrogen Cycle - For Background Info


Regards
Mike

 

[lyotim88]

well it sounds like you've never actually cycled your tank. Just letting the water sit does not change a thing. You could either do heavy water changes with your fish in, or ask your LFS to take back the fish you bought and do a fishless cycle, which is your best bet. How big is your tank btw?

 

[KT21]

Tank is 240 litres.

Typically asked the fish place was it ok to put fish in...he said no reason why not, your waters fine.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum KT. I t sounds like you are into a fish-in cycle, as others have already stated. I hope you got a very large tank for your fish. All of your fish can get to be quite large and anything much less than a 45 gallon tank will probably become overcrowded as the fish grow to their adult size.

 

[vinylman]

Tank is 240 litres.

Typically asked the fish place was it ok to put fish in...he said no reason why not, your waters fine.

Oh dear; it looks like he's expecting you to go back and spend more money with them when you have to replace your fish. Believe me, the only thing that leaving the tank running for a week does is to make sure everything is working; filter, heater etc. It's not your fault; you're not the first and won't be the last. The best thing you can do is contact the shop, tell them you've been given poor advice, then ask if you can return the fish. Then - and I know it's hard to wait and watch an empty tank - take the time to read the pinned threads here about fishless cycling or (at the very least) see if there's anyone near you who can supply you with some mature filter media. I don't really like the term 'noob' ( it somehow sounds a bit condescending to me), but it does happen a lot to newcomers to the hobby. Get onto the shop, try to return the fish, then take some time to read the newbie threads here; that will give you some idea of how many people get the same LFS advice as you. But please, read as much as you can here then get back to us with any questions you have. Don't hesitate to ask anything. And WELCOME. So sorry you've had a bad start, but things will improve now; no one here will want a single penny of your money.

 

[KT21]

Thanks everyone!

We're now actually very cross...after spending a good £40 on the fish (typically my other halfs birthday money) and then a further £50 odd on plants and rocks ect i feel quite 'taken for a ride'.

Would it help if i used one of my friends 'used' sponges from his tank? I really dont want to hurt the fishies but i want to avoid taking them back, i certainly wont get my money back and then it'll be another £40 quid down the pan!

 

[vinylman]

Thanks everyone!

We're now actually very cross...after spending a good £40 on the fish (typically my other halfs birthday money) and then a further £50 odd on plants and rocks ect i feel quite 'taken for a ride'.

Would it help if i used one of my friends 'used' sponges from his tank? I really dont want to hurt the fishies but i want to avoid taking them back, i certainly wont get my money back and then it'll be another £40 quid down the pan!

Hi KT,
You've every right to be cross. But they'll probably be giving the very same advice to some other poor sod this afternoon. Some shops simply don't know or, even worse, don't care as long as the till is ringing. In the circumstances, the best thing you can do is to get that mature filter media, BUT: is the friend near you?. You really need to keep the filter sponge in a bag of his tank water, and transfer it to yours as quickly as possible. Put as much of the sponge into your filter as you can without blocking the water flow in yours. You'll need to buy a liquid test kit to test (at least) the Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates. The only acceptable measurement for the first two are zero, while nitrates are present in most tanks. You'll need to do regular water changes to keep the readings of Ammonia and Nitrites as low as possible for now, but the mature filter media from your friend will stop your fish suffering too badly. I should also mention that filter media can be used until it's almost falling apart; the manufacturers would love you to keep buying new sponges, but that would just keep them in profits and your tank continually cycling. At least you've got a second-best method now to save your fish, but the test kit IS important, for the reasons I've mentioned. Don't fall into the trap of buying everything the shop tells you to, either - so much of what they want you to buy in bottles is next to useless and most of it isn't needed, anyway. Once you're sorted out, all you should need to buy is fish food, dechlorinator and (possibly) liquid fertiliser for your plants. If in doubt, ask here. Try to get the used filter media as soon as possible. Please don't forget to dechlorinate the water at every change, too. Anything else, ask away. BTW, is there another LFS near you that you could use?. Where are you exactly?.

 

[KT21]

Im in Swindon, Wiltshire. (UK)

My friend only lives 2 miles away so can give him a call and see about using his with some tank water.
I have x2 test kits.. Nitrite..which is the one thats sky high, and Ammonia which is showing 0.

We always put the measurement of the bio safe in when water changing..i can see a rather heavy water change happening this evening. Done a 20% one this morning but dont think thats gonna be enough.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, a welcome from me too KT!

We often get several newcomers a week in your situation! The shops I guess just can't afford to lose the customers that they would if they explained what it really takes to prepare before fish.

An aquarium environment, for a brand-new beginner, is not normally ready to support fish until its been running without fish for a month or two and has had attention to the filter that is based on some processes one has to learn about from somewhere. The main piece of equipment that makes an aquarium possible is a device called the "biofilter" (which is one of the functions of a filter) and except in special cases, its simply not ready for action usually for the first month or two.

Rarely do you find a shop person who will explain (if indeed they know, and many of the part-timers probably don't) the whole somewhat weird set of information that lays out how a biofilter works. We go through this long tedious process to grow two specific species of bacteria (two specific ones we want to encourage out of many species that will be present, including some we don't want!) on the "biomedia" (biomedia consists of sponges, ceramic rings, ceramic gravel, bioballs or other things that are optimized to provide tiny crevices and surfaces that these bacteria like to live on) in the filter box.

When fish are introduced to a glass box of water that doesn't have a functioning biofilter, they are basically sloshing around in a sea of toxins and the poor owner is forced to become a "manual life support provider," lol. We usually call this a "fish-in cycling situation" and its not a fun place for either the fish or the fishkeeper! But the critical thing is access to knowledge and help and you've found that in the experienced members here who'll help you through it!

If you can't re-home the fish, then your goal in a fish-in cycle (its referred to as "cycle" because of the "Nitrogen Cycle," one of the main cycles outlined in the Environmental sciences, which explains the bigger picture of what's going on).. anyway, your goal is to keep the toxins ammonia and nitrite(NO2) -below- 0.25ppm at all times. To do this you first need a good liquid based testing kit (forget if you've said you've got this yet, its actually the first most basic piece of equipment a store should send you out with!) and practice using it. Then you need to establish a pattern of percentage and frequency of water changes that will be effective at maintaining the 0.25ppm goal. In your situation the members might want you to start with 50 to 70% water changes (always with conditioning and rough temperature matching, as you're doing) at least daily, until you can figure out your pattern. Set your testing times 12 hours apart, perhaps one in the morning such that 12 hours later is a time in the evening when you will usually be home and could do a water change if necessary. So what you want is to find upon testing 12 hours later that the toxins have not climbed above 0.25ppm and if they have you up your pattern to higher percentage change or more frequency.. make sense?

Anyway, there's lots of great members here and I'm sure some of the will say it in a simpler way than me, but hope this possibly helps you with picturing it all in your mind.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[vinylman]

Im in Swindon, Wiltshire. (UK)

My friend only lives 2 miles away so can give him a call and see about using his with some tank water.
I have x2 test kits.. Nitrite..which is the one thats sky high, and Ammonia which is showing 0.

We always put the measurement of the bio safe in when water changing..i can see a rather heavy water change happening this evening. Done a 20% one this morning but dont think thats gonna be enough.

So, you're a Swindonian; XTC country - fabulous!!. Never heard of 'Biosafe', is it a genuine dechlorinator, or is it a 'filter supplement'?. As long as it says 'dechlorinator' and, ideally, 'dechloraminator', it'll be fine. Your friend's filter sponge will be fine; the tank water is only needed to keep the sponge wet whilst you're transporting it, there's very little bacteria in the water itself. If you can get the sponge today, I'd do a 40-50% change tonight, then start testing, as WD says, a good 12 hours later. I'd have several new buckets handy!. If you already have some in the house, just make sure they haven't been used before; any trace of detergents will make your fish ill. If you have to buy new ones, make sure you write FISH on them and make sure they're never used for anything else. I bought mine at Tesco and they cost about 70p each. The more you have, the easier water changes will be. The mature filter media combined with regular water changes will certainly make life MUCH easier for them.

 

[KT21]

Sorry blonde brain came into motion... its bioactive Tapsafe? Adds beneficial bacteria and aloe vera lol

I certainly am a Swindonian! Dont know wether thats a good thing or a bad thing! LOL

 

[vinylman]

If it's 'Tapsafe', it'll be fine. If you ever see API dechlorinator, you only need to use three drops in a 10ltr bucket. I bought a £5 bottle over a year ago and still have loads left; I change around 40% in my 40-and-a-bit Gallon tank every ten days, so it's literally pennies every water change. BTW, when you do a water change (particularly a large one, as you'll be doing in the short-term), as long as the fresh water going into the tank is close to that in the tank, there's no problem. Just test it by hand - close is close enough.