New Here - My Stats ;]

[skyhook]

Hi everyone i'm new here, i have a 5 gallon tank with 4 neon tetras and 2 black mollies, 1 algae eater. they seem to be getting along and happy, although it looks like the mollies steal all the food and 2 of the tetras look anerexic because of it, not sure whats goin on there. i just bought a water test kit today ill post them below.


ph - 7.6 ( i know its high a bit but i want to get it to 7.0 to have a nice balance between the tetras and mollies since mollies like higher and tetras lower i read)

ammonia - 1ppm

nitrite - 0ppm

nitrate - 0ppm

my tank is 2 weeks old now any suggestions on what i should be doing would be greatly appreciated. thank you

 

[Puffdaddy]

Well first off welcome to the forum, you'll find all the help you need here and help is what you need. I'm affraid your tank is headed straight for disaster. I have a feeling you have not cycled your tank yet (hince the ammonia reading). So first thing your going to have to do is decide if your going to do a fish in cycle or a fishless cycle (check out the fishless cycling thread at the top of this section). Second is you have to return the Mollies they are a fish that is to big for your tank or will be soon and are also better off in brackish water. What kind of algae eater do you have, there is good chance you will have to return that as well. Also if you do a fish in cycle your neon are not likely to survive it. Soooo if I were you I would return all the fish and do a fishless cycle. While you are cycling that is a good time to research possible fish inhabitants. By the time the cycle is over you should have the perfect stocking list. Good Luck and don't be affraid to ask as many Q's as possible. Knowledge goes a long way in this hobby.

 

[ox5477]

With those stats, your tank is not cycled, and seing how its only two weeks old, it prob isnt. I woudl recommend taking the fish back to the lfs is possible and wait for the tank to cycle because Im pretty sure that tetras will not handle spikes in ammonia or nitrite. if you can't return the fish even for a week or two, then keep watching the stats and doing atleast a 10 to 20% water change everyday. this will draw out the cycle time but to make sure your fish survive the cycling, its neccessary. When ammonia and nitrite both are zero and you only see nitrate changing, then your tank is fully cycled and you can begin the normal weekly 25% water changes.

a note too, 5 gallon is a very hard sized tank to keep healthy as far as the water parms go. def if you can, look into buying a bigger tank, atleast 10G but 20 would be even better. Cycle this new tank using the Fishless cyclingmethod while trying to keep the current tank under control.

 

[skyhook]

thanks for your advice ox and puffdaddy i'll read into what you've suggested.

 

[-germ-]

Agree with Ox and PDaddy, in addition have you any pics of the tetras? How skinny is anorexic?
It may not be just a feeding issue....

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

You'd think that starting small would be easier, but unfortunately when it comes to aquariums that's not quite true.

It's good that you got a liquid test kit! That will come in really handy. ^^ As said before, if you can't return the fish you'll have to do water changes to keep them safe. Your goal is to keep Ammonia and Nitrite below .25 ppm! This might mean doing more than water change per day unfortunately, but as soon as the tank is done cycling you can drop it down to 25% per week.

 

[skyhook]

well i quickly returned the mollies thank god it was a no hassle process, and while i was at the store i picked up some products to lower ph and ammonia so i'mgoing to test it right now, i also did a 25% water change, i'll post the results as soon as i'm done. thanks everyone for helping out! btw i'll post pics of the tetras soon to get anyones take on why 2 of the 4 are pretty small. them little buggers make it difficult to take good pics though.

 

[skyhook]

I've gone through a lot of trouble to get on here my wireless cut out so I'm on my blackberry now lol. Anyway I just did some tests on the ph and ammonia I left out the nitrate and nitrite because they were zero last time. I bought some ammonia pills at the store and it has lowred it to .25 I only used half a pill. I then tested the ph after using some product to lower it and it was still 7.6 after that.

 

[DDeHavenII]

frankly, don't touch the Ph, yes it is high but unless you have a fish that is sensitive to Ph level, DON'T TOUCH IT. Contrary to popular belief most fish will accept a great variaty of Ph levels.