My New Tank--Please Help

crumpybumpy

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Hello. New to this forum and revisiting this great hobby after a 20 or so year hiatus...

My wife got a tank set up for my 9 year old son--I had fish waaay back when I was his age through college and it has rekindled my interest...anyway this is what she got I attached a pic):

A 7.9 gallon square-ish Fluval EBI Nano Shrimp Habitat. But she got it to use for tropical fish! This set-up includes a Fluval Nano Filter that uses a Bio-Foam. Back when I was doing this it was those bubbly charcoal filters so this is all new to me. So we set it up and the store gave us 7.5 gallons of water that was from their tanks.

There is no heater included. The temperature is at 78 deg F.

We got one of each:

White Molly
Beta
Fancy Guppie
Neon Tetra
Sword Tail
Trapdoor Snail
Sunkist Shrimp

and three live plants.

The Beta and the White Molly have been living there for a week and seem ok. We just got the others today.

My concerns:

The guppie, sword-tail, and the white molly spend a lot of time at the surface of the water their mouths almost as if gulping air. The beta does that intermitantly but I know for them that is normal. Is that a problem for the others?

The water is a little cloudy but not too bad...but we've only had the tank for a week. I don't have any testing equipment. What do I need? The only thing included in the kit was "Shrimp Safe" with is to remove Chlorine and chloramine from tap water. Should I use that when replacing the water which I've read should be 10-25% per week?

So what things do I need? Siphon for water change, what testing kit? Do I need a heater? The manual that came with the Fluval Nano filter mentions about a Carbon Cartridge A458 available separately...do I need that?

Too many live plants? See pic....

Thanks!
 

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Welcome to the forum - at the top of this section of the forum there is a beginner's section. There is a lot of stuff in there about tank design etc however the key thing that you need to read up on is "Fish in cycling". Whilst you are printing that off etc also buy yourself a liquid based tast kit so that you can keep an eye on the water chemistry - API Master Fresh Water is popular and not too expensive.

Why? I hear you ask :)

Fish excrete ammonia which is toxic to them. To get rid of this you need to build a colony of bacteria in your filter to metabolise that ammonia into Nitrite. Sadly this is also toxic to fish so you also need to grow another colony of different bacteria to eat that and turn it into Nitrate which is not toxic. This cycling business can take some time (anywhere from 4 weeks to 4 months - I've just managed it and it took around 100 days but my cycle was stupidly long so don't be disheartened). There are two ways of doing the cycle - Fishless where you add the ammonia to the water and there are no fish involved and Fish In which is what you're doing where the fish provide the ammonia.

Until your filter comes up to speed you are the only thing that can remove the ammonia and nitrite which will slowly rise and gradually poison your new fish. In the best case their lives will be shorter and they'll suffer some gill damage etc and in the worst case they'll all die quite quickly for no "apparent" reason. To prevent this you need to use Water Changes to remove the toxins. How much water you need to remove depends upon the readings that you're getting from your liquid test kit (the paper strips don't have a good reputation). Basically you need to keep the toxins to below 0.25 parts per million (ppm). You can safely remove all the water to the level which is just slightly higher than your tallest fish - i.e. so that all the fish can still swim upright. Whilst this seems odd and should be distressing to the fish it seems not and it is a darn sight better than swimming in poison :) When refilling with water ftry to ensure that it roughly the same temperature as the tank + add de-chlorinator. If you're using buckets to refill the tank add the correct amount for the bucket to each bucket or if your using a hose add the amount for the whole tank. If your toxin levels are high you can do a big water change, run the filter for 10 mins and then do another water change.

The 10-15% water changes are for a cycled and mature tank. This is where you will be in a few months. For now you will need to have a much bigger and more frequent (daily) water change routine.

I don't know about the lack of heater and stocking levels - I will let others comment on that.

Your specific questions:
The Carbon cartridge is only needed when you have put some medication into the water and need remove it. Don't put this into the filter for now.
Shrimp Safe = the e-chlorinator I mentioned earlier - I haven’t heard of it before. I use Prime which also locks away heavy metals etc.
Don't worry about the cloudiness - that will clear.
Live plants are good - especially as they also have a role in removing Ammonia etc

Read the beginners stuff, keep asking the questions and urgently get a water test kit and you'll do fine + your first fish will not become the "suicide squad"

Regards

Miles
 
I'd imagine the fish are gasping because there is quite a lot of ammonia in your water - the tank is VERY small for all those fish and the filter is not established yet so they're basically sitting in their waste :/

First off, get a testing kit for ammonia and nitrite ASAP. Test your water and if any ammonia/nitrite shows, change as much water in the tank as you can (80% or so), retest, keep doing so until your parameters are under 0.25 ppm as has been said.

The beginners resource centre has great info on fish-in cycling which is what you're doing now, so reading that would be useful.

And unfortunately in the long term it seems like you might have to rehome some of those fish as they aren't really suitable for such a small tank, sorry :( But lets at least deal with your water conditions first and see what we can do for the ones already in there!:)

EDIT - oh and yes, you really do need a heater. There are a few heaters around that are suitable for nano tanks, I'm sure someone with a bit more knowledge about nanos can suggest one.
 
Hello. New to this forum and revisiting this great hobby after a 20 or so year hiatus...

My wife got a tank set up for my 9 year old son--I had fish waaay back when I was his age through college and it has rekindled my interest...anyway this is what she got I attached a pic):

A 7.9 gallon square-ish Fluval EBI Nano Shrimp Habitat. But she got it to use for tropical fish! This set-up includes a Fluval Nano Filter that uses a Bio-Foam. Back when I was doing this it was those bubbly charcoal filters so this is all new to me. So we set it up and the store gave us 7.5 gallons of water that was from their tanks.

There is no heater included. The temperature is at 78 deg F.

We got one of each:

White Molly
Beta
Fancy Guppie
Neon Tetra
Sword Tail
Trapdoor Snail
Sunkist Shrimp

and three live plants.

The Beta and the White Molly have been living there for a week and seem ok. We just got the others today.

My concerns:

The guppie, sword-tail, and the white molly spend a lot of time at the surface of the water their mouths almost as if gulping air. The beta does that intermitantly but I know for them that is normal. Is that a problem for the others?

The water is a little cloudy but not too bad...but we've only had the tank for a week. I don't have any testing equipment. What do I need? The only thing included in the kit was "Shrimp Safe" with is to remove Chlorine and chloramine from tap water. Should I use that when replacing the water which I've read should be 10-25% per week?

So what things do I need? Siphon for water change, what testing kit? Do I need a heater? The manual that came with the Fluval Nano filter mentions about a Carbon Cartridge A458 available separately...do I need that?

Too many live plants? See pic....

Thanks!

Welcome, Just wanted to add that i have pretty much the same tank too (the fluval flora). Its pretty stupid that the tank doesnt come with a heater but its best if you get one. My tank is in a warm room where the water temp is always 24-26C howver i do have the heater on 22-24C just in case of tempeture fluctuations

The shrimp safe is a good dechlorinator, same as others out there but just makes water extra safe for shrimps

Good luck!
 
You may find that the Betta takes a dislike to the Guppy. Male Bettas fight with each other, and they're often confused by the male Guppy's tail into thinking it's another Betta. It might not happen, some Bettas are as docile as anything, but it's not recommended to keep the two in the same tank.
 
single neon tetra is a little mean to the fishy who will have no buddies of his own kind :(
 
Wow you have a lot going on! Is it possible to return the fish and upgrade to a bigger tank and then cycle it before you add fish (or at least cycle the one you have and in the meantime research proper fish to keep in a tank that size)? That would be the best route for you and for the fish.

Otherwise, the first course of action is to keep the tank safe for fish. Get the API test kit and test your water daily. Keep ammonia and nitrite under 0.25 and nitrate under 20 (you prob won't see nitrates for a while yet), with that many fish in a small tank though you're probably going to be doing a LOT of water changes, which is why I recommend taking them back.

Unfortunately the fish stores don't tell you about cycling and they'll sell you anything you want whether or not it's proper for your tank.
 
Unfortunately the fish stores don't tell you about cycling and they'll sell you anything you want whether or not it's proper for your tank.

Unfortunately SOME fish stores are bad, but there are also some very good ones. Just depends if you want to travel and find out :)
 
Unfortunately the fish stores don't tell you about cycling and they'll sell you anything you want whether or not it's proper for your tank.

Unfortunately SOME fish stores are bad, but there are also some very good ones. Just depends if you want to travel and find out :)


But what about in this instance where the store gave me their water that has already cycled? Isn't that done already?
 
Water doesn't and can't cycle; it's the media (sponges or ceramic rings or whatever) in the filter that cycles, by growing a colony of good bacteria on them.

The bacteria cling very strongly onto surfaces; there are virtually none loose in the water column, so that might give you some clue as to how 'reliable' their advice is...
 
But what about in this instance where the store gave me their water that has already cycled? Isn't that done already?

That would be a best an ignorant waste of time and at worst an extremely cynical sales trick. Sorry, but you've got to cycle the filter - the water is only a transport mechanism to pass waste from the fish to the bacteria which live in your filter (and basically only in your filter). Good luck, at least water changes will be a very quick and easy thing for you to do so you'll be able to keep your fish healthy :)
Miles
 
Good luck, at least water changes will be a very quick and easy thing for you to do so you'll be able to keep your fish healthy
 
Your stoking only 1 Neon Tetra? You should at least keep them in groups of 5 or 6.
 
Here's my water test using that API Master Test kit after the tank being in operation for 2 weeks. All fish are still alive and seem to be happy with good appetites.

pH: 7.6
High pH: 7.6
Ammonia: 1 ppm
Nitrite: 5 ppm
Nitrate: 15 ppm

I haven't done any water changes yet.
 

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