Just Got A Tank With...

[ArnieStinger]

I just got a new fish tank, i have my eheim filter working and filtering right now, it came with dirty medium and when I put water in the tank it went a bit yellow, the ehiem has carbon inside of it and the colour is clearing up alot, theres a live plant in there.

I dont have the heater inside yet, because the tank I got the guy from CAME WITH FISH ,I have no idea what species the fish are, one inch fish looks like a black mollie and i have 5 x tiny 1-1.5cm fish that look like they are all siblings.

Ill upload some pics soon because I need help identifying them

I've added dechlorinator to the water, I have a bunch of everything, medicine, treatment, nutra cycle, brine ship eggs and lots of test kits (job lot)

I'll test the water for ammonia in a second, but firstly what do i need to be doing daily? Its a 95 litre tank with eheim 2215 filter 2x course pads, half a litre of activated carbon and a sponge pad.

I have kh/gh tests kits, shall I use them now and see whats going on since it had a bit of old fish water in it?

 

[ArnieStinger]

Ammonia Nitrite (N02) Nitrate (N03) pH GH KH
2.00 0 0 8 18 drops 14 drops



I have messaged the person I got the tank from, apparently the fish are called Assassins/Assasins ?

 

[Mike_Syr]

I can tell you any ammonia reading is too much. I am new getting back into tropical fish after many years. My tank has Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 10, ph 7.8. I am not sure what water properties your fish want for ph, hardness, and alkalinity. You should not be able to detect any ammonia or nitrites. I think some water change would be necessary daily or more often if you continue to detect ammonia.

I am sure someone with more experience will be giving you the advice you need soon.

 

[OldMan47]

If your ammonia reading is at 2 ppm, it is time for a very big, over 75% water change to get it coming down. After you get the ammonia down below 0.25ppm you can back off a bit. Your GH / KH suggest that you should be able to do very well with mollies once you get that tank cycled. Your pH should be as steady as a rock no matter what you might try to do to move it.

 

[Mike_Syr]

I have heard of Assassins snails but, not fish.

Molly's are livebearers. So I think if you have what you think is a black molly and a bunch of babies then you are probably right.

 

[BigIan]

If your ammonia reading is at 2 ppm, it is time for a very big, over 75% water change to get it coming down. After you get the ammonia down below 0.25ppm you can back off a bit. Your GH / KH suggest that you should be able to do very well with mollies once you get that tank cycled. Your pH should be as steady as a rock no matter what you might try to do to move it.

Can`t agree more there are many articles on this forum about cycleing and the nitrogen cycle and i may suggest reading up on them.

 

[ArnieStinger]

I have heard of Assassins snails but, not fish.

Molly's are livebearers. So I think if you have what you think is a black molly and a bunch of babies then you are probably right.

Thanks for all the suggestions, I just need some advice for the really small things.

I dont think it is a molly, firstly because the 5 baby's have nipped away so much, its fins are in a poor state, ill upload some pictures in a minute to show you all.

My GH/KH suggests I could get puffer fish? That would make me very happy.


I also need advice on my spray bar/flow in the tank, the flow looks like its way too much for the fish and they are swimming against the flow all the time, ive taken the cap off the end of the spraybar and thats made things a little better.

Ill get that ammonia right down, it came from the filer gravel that was in the tank, the guy washed it but it was still yellow water and alot of dirty at the bottom, thanks to my eheim cleaner a lot of dirty is gone, i love this little gadget.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, agree about the emergency water changes (with conditioner and rough temperature matching) as its clear everything is not settled from the disturbance of the substrate and move of the filter etc. What sort of water test kit are you using to get those numbers?

If its the wrong sort of kit you may still need frequent very large water changes. If its the right sort of kit then you will need to hone in on the narrow range of zero ppm to 0.25ppm for ammonia (and nitrite, if it were to appear.)

Is all the media in the filter old and mature or is some of it new?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[ArnieStinger]

completely new filter, the ammonia came from the gravel, the bottom layers were covered in dirt

Im using API test kit, also have tetra kits and random N02/N03 80 use test kits

 

[waterdrop]

Ah, ok then. This means you could consider putting some of the dirtiest of the gravel into one of the baskets of the filter. Are you already doing that or do you think you could make it work? Gravel can work fine as a filter layer as long as the filter has the right sort of tray to hold it. In fact if what you're saying is that its a brand new Eheim 2215 with new media then I'd definately replace that carbon with some of the dirty gravel. Dry the carbon out and store it. Carbon is an optional "chemical" media that is used to remove medications after they are finished and a few other things like yellow tannins from wood and the odd odor of unknown origin that's a rare occasion. When carbon is used properly for these things, it does its job in a max of 3 days or so and then should be removed and tossed. This is why we rarely use it on an ongoing basis, although it can be nice in prep for special occasions.

Getting back to your fish-in cycle: The goal is to be a bit of a detective and figure out what percentage and frequency of water changes will actually accomplish getting the ammonia and nitrite down to zero or near zero ppm such that it won't go over 0.25ppm before you can be home again to change more water. People's situations vary wildly with the amount and type of fish and the tank. For some it is easy to acheive what I've described whereas for others it can be impossible. You never know until you do the water changes, do the tests, log the test results and keep a close eye on all that is going on. Its good to test twice a day at first until you know whether ammonia or nitrite is going to come back on you that quickly.

~~waterdrop~~