Im New To Fish Keeping Please Help

[smithyif]

Hello all

I have had my tank about 6 weeks so it all still a bit new to me. To make matters worse every shop I go into for guidance gives me a different answer !!

I have just tested my water and the ph is 6-6.5, amonia is below 0.6, nitrite is 0.1 and nitrate is below 5.

My tank is 95 litres or approx 20 gallons.

I have 1 red tailed shark, 2 guppies and 10 tetras (small) and I am feeding mini granules every other day.

Are these water tests acceptable, as the fish seem lively and well, and I have had them about 2 weeks now with no deaths.

I have been to several stores who have offered me everything from buffer, salt, and various chemicals - but I can not be certain if it is needed or whether it is just a ploy to get me to buy items knowing I am new to the fish keeping game and everywhere offers something different and tells me not to use what the previous store told me was essential!

Regards

Ian

 

[Mozely]

Those readings are not OK. Your tank is not cycled yet. Amonia needs to be 0.0

There are threads on fish in cycling, please read them. The longer your fish stay in water that is not right the longer you risk sudden deaths, other illnesses and generally unhappy fish.

Good luck.

 

[aly_starh]

Welcome to TFF!

Your tank has not reached a fully cycled stage as of yet. Also depending on what cycle you did, that much fish should not have been added.

As ^ said, your test readings are not acceptable atm. Ammonia and Nitrite should be 0. To get this result, i suggest you do a 75% water change really soon, then take your water stats.

Also, try this link Fish-In Cycling

Hope that helps, any more questions, just ask

 

[drobbyb]

Firstly, Welcome to TFF!!

The only chemicals you should add to your tank are the ones contained in water conditioner. Everything else (carbon included) you simply don't need to have a healthy tank.

I have used Seachem's Prime for many years now. Although it appears to be a little more expensive, it actually is one of best and cost effective conditioners on the market. One ml treats 10 gallons, so it goes a long long way. A few more benefits of Prime are it's abilities to detoxify ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. This gives you a "safety" factor in case of an unexpected ammonia spike or other unforseen event.

As the others have said, you haven't finished your "cycle" yet and are at risk of permanently harming your stock. I'm not sure what you are using to test your water, but a good quality liquid test kit (the kind with the test tubes) will help you alot. What this gives you is an accurate snapshot of your tank status and also will show you when your cycle is complete. Seeing as how you are showing nitrites I would say that your cycle is somewhere in the middle.

Fish-in cycles require many large waterchanges, sometimes 50% to 75% 2 times a day. This is necessary because it will remove the toxic ammonia and nitrite. You are aiming for a reading of less than .25 ppm on both ammonia and nitrite.


Hope that helps!

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum smithyif.
I must agree with what DRobbyB is advising. It looks to me like you are near the beginning of your nitrite spike. That means that ammonia, your current problem, will soon be replaced by nitrites, another big problem. Either chemical can cause significant damage in concentrations as low as 0.25 ppm. Right now you are badly in need of a 50% water change using closely temperature matched water and a good dechlorinator for the new water. Once you have that water change done, try reading the fish-in cycle thread in the New to the Hobby section of the forum. It will explain things better than we are likely to ever do here with just these quick answers. I have a link to it in my signature area.