My New 48L Tank.

[Aqua Tom]

Here are a few piccys of my new 48l tropical tank.


It is a Fishbox 40 with stand & sits very niceley in its position.

here are my cyclers 4 x Golden Zebra danios

they seem to be quite happy

here is my wifes cat taking a bit to much of a keen interest

When the cycle has anded I am planning on getting a couple of male guppys, some cardinal or nean tetras & anything else that you guys could recomend.

I am also considering changing the backing to a black one to show of the fish a bit more, then again may just keep it blue.

 

[Timmy_Bee]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Have you read up about the fish-in cycle? I would make sure you search for that on here and have a good read. You may be harming your fish by having them in your tank before the filter has 'cycled' - but with the right maininance, you should be fine

Edit - to save you searching, have a look at the links in C101's sig below

 

[Curiosity101]

4 danios seems like quite alot to cycle a 48l with. What are your stats at atm?

 

[KittyKat]

I prefer black, myself. Brings out the fishs' colour nicely!

 

[Aqua Tom]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Have you read up about the fish-in cycle? I would make sure you search for that on here and have a good read. You may be harming your fish by having them in your tank before the filter has 'cycled' - but with the right maininance, you should be fine

Edit - to save you searching, have a look at the links in C101's sig below

I reaserched the nitrogen cycle quite extensivly. I didnt just jump in blind. I decided fish-in-cycle was the way to go because I want to keep my kids interested in the hobby & a fishtank with no fish in just isnt at all tranxifing for two sub 4 year old girls.

 

[Curiosity101]

I reaserched the nitrogen cycle quite extensivly.

I'd still be interested in what your levels are as although we have a very good fish in cycle guide I do think it needs adding too with regards too what sort of bioload should be added to 'x' sized tank.

From past experience 4 danios often produce alot of waste for cycling 60l or below.

 

[Aqua Tom]

I'd still be interested in what your levels are as although we have a very good fish in cycle guide I do think it needs adding too with regards too what sort of bioload should be added to 'x' sized tank.

From past experience 4 danios often produce alot of waste for cycling 60l or below.

I didnt use the information on this site to research, I used the local library plus a few books that I have purchased myself.

As soon as my master test kit arrives I will start testing & publishing the results.
Until then I cant really start changing water as i dont know what I am changing.

 

[chilli-spice]

if you aren't changing water, then you're fish are being damaged.
it's fine to fish-in cycle - as long as you do it properly.

properly means being committed to doing large water changes several times a day.

so you haven't changed the water at all yet?
you need to do a 90% water change now.
then do at least a 50% water change every day until your test kit arrives.

 

[Curiosity101]

Agreed.

Multiple large water changes wont cause harm, high ammonia will, and as I said 4 danios is quite alot for a 48l tank that is fish in cycling.

 

[Aqua Tom]

Ok, a bit of bad news, came downstairs this morning to find that one of the danios has poped his clogs. So I removed him & shot up the road to get the stuff for a water change.

I did a 90% water change & just as I was completing in my Nutrafin Master Kit arrived so I have done some testing.

Bear in mind this is AFTER the water change.

PH 7.5

NH3 0.6

Nitrate 20 divided by 4.4 = 4.545

Nitrite 0.8 divided by 3.3 = 0.242




The remaining fish arnt looking to good at the moment & i dont hold out much hope.

 

[frida]

I'm not sure what your numbers are but if they are values in ppm, I would say do another water change because anything above 0 for ammonia or nitrite really isn't good for the poor fish!
Good luck!!

Ok, a bit of bad news, came downstairs this morning to find that one of the danios has poped his clogs. So I removed him & shot up the road to get the stuff for a water change.

I did a 90% water change & just as I was completing in my Nutrafin Master Kit arrived so I have done some testing.

Bear in mind this is AFTER the water change.

PH 7.5

NH3 0.6

Nitrate 20 divided by 4.4 = 4.545

Nitrite 0.8 divided by 3.3 = 0.242




The remaining fish arnt looking to good at the moment & i dont hold out much hope.

 

[Aqua Tom]

I'm not sure what your numbers are but if they are values in ppm, I would say do another water change because anything above 0 for ammonia or nitrite really isn't good for the poor fish!
Good luck!!

Ok, a bit of bad news, came downstairs this morning to find that one of the danios has poped his clogs. So I removed him & shot up the road to get the stuff for a water change.

I did a 90% water change & just as I was completing in my Nutrafin Master Kit arrived so I have done some testing.

Bear in mind this is AFTER the water change.

PH 7.5

NH3 0.6

Nitrate 20 divided by 4.4 = 4.545

Nitrite 0.8 divided by 3.3 = 0.242




The remaining fish arnt looking to good at the moment & i dont hold out much hope.

Well Ph is just PH

nh3 0.6mg/litre

Nitrate 20mg/litre

Nitrite 0.8 mg/litre





the dividing bit was just to convert the chemical reading into nitrogen lvl

 

[Curiosity101]

So your ammonia was 0.6 ppm after a 90% water change... implying that it was 6ppm before. Same with nitrite 0.8ppm implies it was 8ppm before.

These values are plenty high enough to cause permenant damage (tbh 0.6 and 0.8 is high enough to at least cause some damage and shorten life expectancy). As I said... 4 danios is ALOT to cycle a 48l with, but at least you know that now and are hopefully armed with your test kit and a good brand of water conditioner.

You need to aim to keep levels of ammonia and nitrite to equal or less than 0.25ppm (mg/litre) at all times. So we tend to suggest you aim for a water change that lowers them further than this to allow for the time between water changes where it will creep back up.

Also don't feed the fish, you really don't need the additional ammonia and neither do they. Plus although the prognosis is bad for these fish, it's worth trying to save them as it's not their fault they're now in this situation.

How long has the tank been set up? (Just wondering how fast the ammonia and nitrite levels got to 6ppm and 8ppm respectively), this will help you to judge how often you need to do changes (although you will obviously still need to test to judge how big a change to do).

Good news (although it may seem meak in comparison to the bad news), you are getting nitrites showing which could indicate your cycle is well underway. Alternatively it could just be implying that the high ammonia promoted the growth of the wrong bacteria (that grow ALOT faster than the ones we want, but only at super high ammonia levels so they die once the levels come down).
Only time will tell... if once you get the levels under control you find your cycle stalls and you don't see much/any nitrites produced then it just means the wrong bacteria grew in the first place.

Good luck, don't loose heart. And if you do lose the danios then please don't restock with them as they really aren't suitable for a 48l tank anyways as they're a super active fish and don't tend to do as well in smaller tanks such as yours.

 

[Aqua Tom]

Thanks for the very informative post Curiosity101. I am down another fish now, only 2 left with one of those looking very weak, although the last one seems lively enough. A am feeling pretty bad about this. If i do loose them all i will be going the fishless cycle route as I dont want to be responsible for an animals suffering.
Just goes to show that you shouldnt listen to lfs employees. "yer mate, what u need is 4 danios to get a good cycle going". Pratt.

I am not going to do anything without consulting you guys first from now on.


Just glanced at my tank & can only see 1 Danio swimming now. arghhhhhh.

 

[Aqua Tom]

How long has the tank been set up? (Just wondering how fast the ammonia and nitrite levels got to 6ppm and 8ppm respectively), this will help you to judge how often you need to do changes (although you will obviously still need to test to judge how big a change to do).

I put the tank in about a two weeks ago, filled it & treated it then left it running untill saturday when I added the fish, so it has been fishyfied since Saturday & was running for a week before that.