Hi, New Fishkeeper

[Paddski]

Hi everyone. Finally after years of wanting admiring fish I have finally got my own tank. I bought it over a week ago and considered carefully how I wanted to go about this as I want to ensure that before I leap into the hobby of caring for lots of fish in huge tanks, that I know I cans safely do so. So I have a 40 litre Askoll Pure M! It has it's own built in mechanical, biological and chemical filtration system with filter and a heater as I want to keep tropical fish.

I set the tank up over a week ago and have a couple of rocks and some silk plants with blue gravel stones.

After letting things settle for a week or so, I went to one of my local fish stores to buy some Biomature as advised on another forum for my 4 week fish cycle but ended up leaving the store with 6 fish and a me tank stability product called "Stability"

I expressed my concerns the store owner that I wanted to cycle the tank correctly and then introduce fish in a few weeks. He said you don't need to do that these days and showed me this Stability product which he said is totally safe.

So I thought about it and questioned him and went with it. My tank is only 40 litres so 5ml of this product on the first day followed by 7 days of half a capful 2.5ml.

FISH- I have put 4 small neon tetra in the tank with 2 Gourami, a female gold gourami and a male smaller blue gourami. All seems well and I am feeding them twice a day with JBL Novo color flakes. I have a couple of rocks in the tank with two fake silk plants and small blue gravel base. The neon tetra seem to want to hide all the time around the back of one of the rocks and will not come out even at feeding time especially if the light is on which does seem very bright. They will come out if the lights off but not very often. I think they are probably just a bit weary of the gourami and perhaps do not feel safe in a shoal of four?

To get the food flakes down to the tetra hiding down behind the rock I have to also put the flakes in at the end of my filter system where the water is being forced back down into the tank as this pushes the flakes down to them

The female gourami chases the male a lot especially at feeding time. Are they both going to be ok in this environment?

Would it be safe for me to introduce more neon tetra now to give them more support/strength in numbers or should I wait a while yet

I also bought my self a API freshwater master test kit which I have not used yet

 

[fluttermoth]

Welcome to the forum, Paddski.

Ok, you have multiple problems, I think, so I'll try and address them in order of seriousness.

First off is water quality. Your tank won't be cycled and the Stability is probably not going to do anything to help that (there are couple of products that may, in some people's experience, help cycle a tank but Stability isn't one of them). You need to get your test kit out (it's great that you have one, well done there!) and test for ammonia and nitrite. Don't worry about the other tests for now. If you get any reading at all for either of those things, do a big water change to get them as near to zero as possible. It is quite safe to do larger or multiple water changes, as long as your new water is warmed and declorinated.

Next is your fish. The gouramis are going to get far too big for your little tank, I'm afraid. You're going to have to persuade the shop to take them back, rehome them yourself or get a larger tank; sooner rather than later, as large growing fish produce a lot more ammonia than small ones, which will make your cycling harder work.
The neons are also not a good starter fish. They often don't do well in new tanks, even if they are properly cycled (the reasons for this are poorly understood but seem to be to do with the development of a 'biofilm' that forms on all surfaces of the tank after around six months).

I would really recommend you take all the fish back and do a fishless cycle, if at all possible. If you can't do that, buy some cheap live plants, as many as you can, for the tank, and then test for ammonia and nitrite every day and do as many water changes as necessary to keep them down. Don't add any more fish until you've had zero results for both ammonia and nitrite for a week, without needing to water change, but you'd be better off changing your stocking for something else, depending on the hardness of your water.

Best of luck; there'll always be someone around here to help you out, whatever you decide

 

[RedSandman]

  to the forum. There are a lot of experts around on this forum to help you out.

 

[kevingrods]

WELCOME! you def came to the right place!

 

[daizeUK]

Welcome Paddski!
 
It's very important that you don't add any more fish while your tank is uncycled, as Fluttermoth said.
 
From personal experience I'm glad you didn't get the BioMature.  I had a terrible time trying to cycle my tank with that stuff and eventually gave up on it.  It's far too easy to overdose with.
 
You might have a tough time ahead with these fish in an uncycled 40 litre tank.  It seems strange, but a larger tank can often be easier to start with than a smaller one!  I'd say that 60-120L are ideal for a first tank.  Whatever happens, don't get discouraged from fishkeeping.  to the hobby!

 

[Paddski]

Hi everyone and thanks for welcoming me to the forum. I am very annoyed with my local fish store now as it appears all he was bothered about was a few more pounds in his till. However I have just tested ( first time I have ever done this ) the water for Ammonia and Nitrite and I feel a bit better now as Ammonia is 0.50ppm and nitrite is blue, so 0!

Question is, whee do I go from here. Take all the fish back? Start again? With these test results maybe I can get the tank cycled after all?

 

[fluttermoth]

First thing is a water change; at least 75%, to get that ammonia down.
 
Personally, I would try and return all the fish; neons are very sensitive fish these days (they used to be quite hardy, but careless overbreeding in the Far East has changed that in recent years). A fishless cycle would be far easier.

 

[Paddski]

First thing is a water change; at least 75%, to get that ammonia down.
 
Personally, I would try and return all the fish; neons are very sensitive fish these days (they used to be quite hardy, but careless overbreeding in the Far East has changed that in recent years). A fishless cycle would be far easier.

Hi , wow 75% really. So just remove 30 litres of water and refill with another 30 litres of tap water and then add the water treatment to remove chlorine etc. do you have to warm the water also before it goes back in the tank

 

[fluttermoth]

Add the dechlorinator before you add the new water to the tank. Yes, you need to warm it; it doesn't have to be exactly the same temperature, just roughly.

 

[Paddski]

Add the dechlorinator before you add the new water to the tank. Yes, you need to warm it; it doesn't have to be exactly the same temperature, just roughly.

How long should you leave the water after you have added the dechlorinator, before you add it to the tank or does it take effect straight away

 

[fluttermoth]

It's pretty much immediate; a quick stir and it's ready to go

 

[Paddski]

It's pretty much immediate; a quick stir and it's ready to go

Ok it's late and I don't have big enough bowls or equipment to do 30 litres so will just do 4 litres now and continue at that each day until I have changed two third of the tank with fresh water. Thanks for your help

 

[fluttermoth]

Just keep on emptying your bowl. You really do need to change at least half the water
 
Don't forget that, until your tank is cycled, the ammonia will be going up all the time. You will not harm your fish by doing large or multiple water changes, whereas the ammonia and nitrite can kill fish or cause them long term health problems.
 
Doing small water changes will not reduce the ammonia enough to be safe for your fish; it needs to be brought down as soon as possible.

 

[Paddski]

Just keep on emptying your bowl. You really do need to change at least half the water
 
Don't forget that, until your tank is cycled, the ammonia will be going up all the time. You will not harm your fish by doing large or multiple water changes, whereas the ammonia and nitrite can kill fish or cause them long term health problems.
 
Doing small water changes will not reduce the ammonia enough to be safe for your fish; it needs to be brought down as soon as possible.

75% water change done last night. Will see about taking fish back to the shop but silly me does not have a catch net so need to go and get one

 

[Ch4rlie]

Hi and welcome! Sorry a bit of a late welcome from me!

Sorry to hear your LFS persuaded you to get fish before your tank was cycled. Lesson number one learned here, be wary of ANY advice given by LFS until you know they are knowledgeable and not just after your money!

Fluttermoth is giving excellent advice in saying to do large water changes and to return the fishes if you can (yes, a net will help! )

I'd also advise you to do things this way as well anyway and recommend to start afresh with fishless cycling.

You are also doing thing the right thing by asking lots of questions on this forum and heeding advice given. Doing some research will also help you.

We will help you as much as we can.