New Guy - Kind Of !

[johnnyjohnson]

hello all.
i have kept fish as a younger person with much success, got married sold everything but have now got back into it. I may have jumped the gun on this new aquarium and i would like some advice. here is what i have done so far. tank size is 120 gallon, filled it up with tap water , conditioned it and let the tank run for about 24 hours or so. i also added some stress lyme and ph nuetral stuff and natural water clarifier. i already added the fish and the water is still pretty cloudy, when i was younger all i would do is fill it up and let it run overnight and dump the fish in the next day and never had a problem. is there anything i can do for the cloudiness of the water or will this go away on its own? i have tested the water for everything and it all appears to be ok. i know you are all thinking "idiot"i am sorry. i need help. thanks in advance. oh, tank size is 120 gallon, two emperor 400 filter, two power heads. fish i have added; 3 pictus cats, two oscars, one medium pleco and a handful of ghost shrimp. any advice on getting the water cleared up would be great. thanks

 

[arobinson1984]

Cloudy water is quite common in new tanks and it can also be a sign that ammonia is present and the cycle is starting. It will clear up itself.

You are now in a "fish-in cycle" situation so you will need to read the link I have posted below and prepare yourself for 1-3 water changes a day for the next 4-6 weeks.

Fish-In Cycling

Andy

 

[johnnyjohnson]

Cloudy water is quite common in new tanks and it can also be a sign that ammonia is present and the cycle is starting. It will clear up itself.

You are now in a "fish-in cycle" situation so you will need to read the link I have posted below and prepare yourself for 1-3 water changes a day for the next 4-6 weeks.

Fish-In Cycling

Andy

ok, i will start this today. thank you Andy

 

[waterdrop]

Yup, agree, Andy's put you in the right direction. In fact, lots of that reading in the beginners resource center is quite fascinating and a really good way to kick off your questions as you begin here as a "Re-Beginner" That's what I am too and I've been finding it lots of fun. The members here are great!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[arobinson1984]

Johnny, the first thing you will need if you havent already got one is a good liquid based water test kit. The API freshwater master kit is highly recommended. Stay away from the test strips as they are very inaccurate.

You can't perform a cycle without a test kit really so make that a priority.

Andy

 

[johnnyjohnson]

Johnny, the first thing you will need if you havent already got one is a good liquid based water test kit. The API freshwater master kit is highly recommended. Stay away from the test strips as they are very inaccurate.

You can't perform a cycle without a test kit really so make that a priority.

Andy

i do have a test kit, liquid based. not sure of the brand it may be the API, it was called the master freshwater test kit, paid like 40 bucks for it? it test for ammonia, nitrates nitrites, and ph. the biggest issue i have is that i am color blind and it is hard for me to read the results, have to rely on the kids to tell me. lol

 

[arobinson1984]

lol, the easiest way to check would be to hold the test tube infront of the correct card, about an inch away from it. Even with colour blindness you should be able to match the colours, or do all the colours look the same? My dad is colour blind and I know he sees certain colours differently. I think grass looks blue to him lol.

Yes the freshwater master kit is the preferred choice and your right, it is the API one.

You will need to test the water twice a day to check your levels. You need to be keeping your ammonia and nitrIte levels down below 0.25ppm by performing water changes. After a water change, wait an hour, then test again. If the levels are still high then do another water change (about 50% each time)

Make sure you are adding dechlorinator to the fresh water whenever you do a water change.

Andy

 

[waterdrop]

You may have a rough time of it with big fish like that (are they big yet?) as they may be able to produce a lot of waste, sending the ammonia levels up rather quickly. Are you aware of the Python type products? Hopefully you aren't trying to use buckets?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[johnnyjohnson]

You may have a rough time of it with big fish like that (are they big yet?) as they may be able to produce a lot of waste, sending the ammonia levels up rather quickly. Are you aware of the Python type products? Hopefully you aren't trying to use buckets?

~~waterdrop~~

the fish are all still small. i use a gravel vac attached to the garden hose to drain it and 5 gallon bucket to fill it back up. takes about a hour to change 30%, not to bad i guess.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, you can look around the python site to investigate what I'm talking about if you haven't seen it already:

Python web site

~~waterdrop~~

 

[johnnyjohnson]

Yes, you can look around the python site to investigate what I'm talking about if you haven't seen it already:

Python web site

~~waterdrop~~

well i did two water changes last night, about a hour apart. Ammonia was at 1 ppm initially and was down to .5 this morning. Plan on doing two more tonight when i get home. i did lose my pleco yesterday but unsure if this is due to water quality. i am changing approx. 30 % of the water at each change. do i need to check anything other than ammonia?

 

[waterdrop]

Unless you have unusual problems with your tap water stats, your water changes need to be much larger. The safety derived from small-percentage water changes like 30% is completely nullified by the danger of the fish being in ammonia or nitrite(NO2) above 0.25ppm. The human analogy would be "here's a blanket to keep warm while we figure out how to get you out of this carbon monoxide filled garage."

So the water change should be perhaps 50-70% but also should be done with good technique, as in 1.5x conditioning and rough temperature matching via your hand. Hopefully several of these large ones will get you down to looking like zeros and then it won't take so much maintaining it - it often works that way.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[johnnyjohnson]

ok, i wasnt sure about how much water to change. what do you think about doing 50 % and then a hour later doing another 50%? and are you saying to use 1.5 times the conditioner?

 

[arobinson1984]

Yes that would be fine. If you have ammonia readings of say 0.50 then theoretically speaking a 50% water change should bring the level down by half, wait an hour, re-test and if need be do another 50% change

Yes use 1.5x the water conditioner on new tanks to ensure all harmful substances are removed.

Andy

 

[waterdrop]

My guess would be that the bigger the tank you have the more likely you would be to do a 50 rather than a 70 just because you'd need the break, lol! I tend to throw those larger percentages around rather easily but I know it can be not a laughable matter if your tank is big!

~~waterdrop~~