Kids tank

[mommy2girls!]

a friend gave my kids a 10 gallon bow face tank. We went to store to get air and filter but instead was coerced into buying fish and QuickStart also. Now I’m here learning as much as I can so that I don’t hurt these poor animals. I am very upset with the fish store guy and myself for letting this happen.

 

[Rocky998]

Yah... A lot of times stores don't really care about the fish and just want to sell stuff.
Do you have an API master test kit?
How big is your tank LxHxW?
What fish did you get? If you don't know please post pictures.
How hard is your water and what is the PH?

I've heard quickstart is alright but what you really would want is tetra safestart. It has the proper species of aquatic bacteria to start the nitrogen cycle which you can read about here:

Cycle Your Tank! A Complete Guide For Beginners

Fishless cycling https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/ Silent or plant cycling https://www.fishforums.net/threads/planted-silent-cycling.470400/ Fish-in cycling...

www.fishforums.net

Do you have a water dechlorinator?

 

[biofish]

This way of starting tanks may not be the best way but I’ve had very little deaths the couple times I’ve done a fish-in-cycle:
1. Dechlorinate the water
2. Dose daily with Stability. You can do it for every day for a week or everyday till the bottle is out. I typically do it everyday until I’m certain the water is cycled.
3. Put some sand/pebbles/decorations/plants from another tank in the new one to help speed up the bacteria cycle. In your case it might be good to buy a plant from your local fish store and put it directly in your tank without rinsing it.
4. Have a few hardy fish in there but not many so while the bad-stuff (nitrate and nitrite and ammonia) starts collecting I’ve never had it get to an actually dangerous level before the cycle starts finishing and the levels of bad go back down.
5. If the bad stuff gets to a high level then do a 25% water change every other day till it’s good again. I recommend these:

For a cheap and nonfussy water test system since your just beginning! *OR* most fish stores will do a free water test if you take a sample of your tank water in store. *AND* new tanks usually have visual indication in the form of algae. When the cycle is starting your tank will become covered with gross ugly brown algae. You can clean if it you want to but you don’t need to. It will slowly fade as the tank cycles and be replaced by a bright green algae bloom as the cycle nears its end. You can wipe it off or have put snails in to eat it (and they will help keep the tank clean in general)
6. Research the fish you got and make sure they are suitable for your natural water parameters (hardness, alkalinity, and ph)

Im assuming the person gave you a complete tank set but here’s a quick checklist:
Substrate: sand, pebbles, or gravel. Sand is the most universal one for fish.
Hang on filter
Well fitted lid
Lights: usually already on the bottom of the lid
Heater: unless your temperature where you live doesn’t ever get too cold, but fast temperature changes can kill fish so a heater just keeps the temp stable. Plus you can change the temp if needed for treatment/different fish requirements.
Air stone and bubbler: gives fish oxygen. keeping the water level a little low so the filter splashes into it can suffice if you can’t get one right away but it’s a bit loud. Real plants also help
Decorations: fish appreciate having plants (real or fake) or caves. It gives them a safe place if they feel scared as well as just giving them things to explore.

 

[mommy2girls!]

The tank is acrylic bow face flat back. I measured 10 gallons to fill. Also have blue gravel, fake plant, airstone, decorations, lid with led light. Back length is 17.5, widest width in center is 11 inch and 19.5 tall. I have 10 gallon aqueon over the back carbon filter. I added an extra sponge filter a few days ago but the fish hated the turbulence that it created so I unhooked the air hose but left the sponge in the tank. I bought an algae covered Java fern 2 weeks ago trying to get some bb but doesn’t seem to have done anything. I have 3 neon 1 rio orange and 1 ember red tetra. My baby named all neons blueberry, my middle child named the ember phoenix and my oldest named the rio orange Cheeto. My girls will be devastated if I don’t save them. I have the api master plus gh/kh and chlorine strips. My tap reads 7.2ph 2gh 2kh 0nitrites 0nitrates 0ammonia very low chlorine. I always check new water for chlorine after adding aquasafe before adding to the tank. My tank after 50% wc reads exactly the same all values except ammonia which would be .25ppm. Within 24 hours all kh is depleted either <=1 since test doesn’t measure 0 and ammonia raises a little. If I skip a day with no wc ammonia hits .5ppm. As soon as I see .5ppm ammonia I panic and do 50% water change. Fish fight each other a bit. Especially at feeding because I guess they real hungry. I was told to cut way back on food. Otherwise no lethargy no gasping look fine. I know kh is too low but coral won’t work because of large and often water changes and I don’t know how to raise kh without raising ph. I read neons like low ph. Also have a preset heater but it doesn’t run. Tank is 79-80 degrees just from room temp. I’ve been running for 3 weeks and still no trites or trates. Only ammonia. I only add aquasafe for dechlor and api QuickStart. If I’m doing something wrong or omitting a step please tell me. I welcome all help. My baby just said “don’t worry mommy you got this” bout made me cry. Thanks everyone

 

[mommy2girls!]

The sponge filter was solely to add media for the bb. I got scared and bought lots of testing materials and also bought seachem alkalinity buffer and equilibrium but scared to use it. My thought was a quick fix until I’m cycled then could sub in crushed coral or aragonite. But then I wasn’t sure if low gh and kh would stall the cycle. I don’t want to hurt these fish.

 

[KiwiGal77]

I have 3 neon 1 rio orange and 1 ember red tetra. My baby named all neons blueberry, my middle child named the ember phoenix and my oldest named the rio orange Cheeto.

Fish fight each other a bit. Especially at feeding because I guess they real hungry. I was told to cut way back on food. Otherwise no lethargy no gasping look fine. I know kh is too low but coral won’t work because of large and often water changes and I don’t know how to raise kh without raising ph. I read neons like low ph. Also have a preset heater but it doesn’t run. Tank is 79-80 degrees just from room temp. I’ve been running for 3 weeks and still no trites or trates. Only ammonia. I only add aquasafe for dechlor and api QuickStart

Sounds like you're pretty onto it with the water testing, water changes and using dechlorinator & safestart Feed them every other day to help keep ammonia down. I would personally do a 50% water change any time you get an ammonia level reading above 0, that will possibly be daily. Better safe than sorry.

Definitely do not do ANYTHING to try and adjust pH or water hardness. Tetras all like soft water, so there's no need to try and raise the GH anyway, and the pH is fine for them. Mucking around with water parameters can often cause a lot more harm than good.

All of these fish are schooling fish and require at least 6 as a bare minimum of their own kind, ideally for them to thrive it would be 10+. Your tank wouldn't be large enough to house a school of each, so the best thing to do would be get the kids to choose their favourite and then take the others back (getting a refund as you were given bad advice). Buy however many more of the remianing fish type to get the little school of 6, then after a couple of months once the tank is fully cycled and you know everything is ok, grab another few to up the school to 10.

 

[Rocky998]

You are doing great with water changes and testing. Definitely keep that up.
But don't try to alter your KH at all. You will cause other issues that may harm the fish.

 

[emeraldking]

Hi and welcome to TFF...
Well, a tank cycle with fish is absolutely possible but not preferable. So, you can justify being angry at the store for not being informed correctly. But overhere you're already been given some good pointers to have a good start of getting the kids' tank running.