I need help and advice about my new neon tetra tank!

[sharkweek178]

The thing to understand about fish store employees is that if they tell you to come back in 6-8 weeks, the thinking is that you might not. You might lose interest in fishkeeping or you might go to another store. So they have a financial interest in not giving the best advice. Even if the employee knows better and wants to give you good advice, they probably have a manager who would chew them out for sending away a sale. They might also tell you to feed your fish 2 or 3 times a day which is way too much for adult fish. But that means they sell more food. Or they try to sell you unnecessary and ineffective chemical solutions to problems because they don't make a profit when they tell you to deal with algae by cutting down your lighting time.
All this is to say that they have a financial incentive to give you bad advice.

 

[Essjay]

I was wondering if I should do a water change !! A lot of info online says that a new tank shouldn’t have any water changes for at least two weeks, but if it’s best to do that then I certainly will. Thanks again. X

The beneficial bacteria that you're trying to develope live on surfaces, particularly filter media, not in the water itself. Water changes won't hurt your cycle and will help your fish.

Cycling with fish is a balance. Water changes will lower ammonia and nitrite so it will take longer to cycle. Not doing water changes will harm the fish and possibly kill them. I prefer to do water changes and limit harm to the fish, but others may regard fish as disposable and prefer a faster cycle.


There are ways to do fewer water changes and still keep the fish safe, but this involves doing calculations which many people prefer to avoid.
Ammonia is less toxic at low pH, so if the tank is has a low pH, it is safe to allow ammonia to build up slightly. The calculation here is because our test kits test both ammonia (toxic) and ammonium (less toxic) so we have to use the pH to work out how much is in the toxic form.
Nitrite blocks the oxygen receptors in the fish's blood. Salt stops this happening, but you have to calculate how much salt to use.
There is a sticky in the cycling link which gives details, if you feel up to the calculations.