Newbie Questions Sorry

[Gary-S]

Hi everyone

I bought a 95l fishtank that came with a light, filter ,and heater,two weeks ago.I've got a few questions i need clearing up ,
when i bought it from a pet chain store i wasn't told about cycling the tank or anything else. all i was told is i should leave the tank set up for 1week before adding fish, so i did, got 4 guppies two yellow and two flame tail, the two yellow died that night,the other two are doing fine one week on. so i got on the net and found this place. great site btw

so the questions
i need a test kit are the 5in1 strips sold on ebay any good?link to test kit
it doesnt test for amonia so would this be good link for ammonia test kit
i would also like to get some corries i know i should get 5+ but would it be fair to get 3?
any tips on removing the sharp gravel and anything i should do with the 10mm to 40mm sand , i read here that bad stuff happens in sand above 10mm deep.it is fairly coarse sand if that makes a differance.
i just found two snails in the tank today one is tiny the other about the size of a pee, is there any reason i should get rid of them, and what should i do to feed them if its fine to keep them,
my heater is set to 23.5 to get the temp on thermometer to sit at 26 is this normal, i changed the thermometer incase the first was faulty.

thats all for now, thanks for reading

gary

 

[puppyjess123]

Hey,

Try the api freshwater master kit. Liquid tests are more reliable than the strips
Also it comes with everything you need to test; pH, ammonia, nitrate and nitrite.
The more the better but i'm sure they would be okay in a three.
?
Is it a strip thermoter? These can be inaccuratte sometimes...
Iwould get rid of the snails, these are pests and can quickly overun your tank if you are overfeeding.

Lucy

 

[lil-x-me...x]

im sorry about your loss, guppys dont tend to last too long and arnt really hardy, but great for first timers if you are one

your best of getting a master kit, its about £18 however strip test kits can be unaccurate and tell you there is a problem when there isnt or the other way round.

you can get master kits of ebay i believe, if not you can get them from local pet stores or of the internet

i have no idea on the snails, personally if they are ok and well, then id keep them
cories should be fine in a 3, but much better getting 5+, any reason you dont want any more? if you have just 5 guppies in you will have plenty of room.


im afraid the reason, just read your thread again, that the reason your guppies may have died would be most likely due to your tank not being fully cycled, usually it takes up to about 2-3 weeks. not 1, usually. dont get anymore fish in the next week or so.

hope i helped x any more q's feel free to pm me or add a reply. x

puppyjess. we replied at the same time

i did the same thing last night, strange lol x

 

[Gary-S]

im sorry about your loss, guppys dont tend to last too long and arnt really hardy, but great for first timers if you are one

your best of getting a master kit, its about £18 however strip test kits can be unaccurate and tell you there is a problem when there isnt or the other way round.

you can get master kits of ebay i believe, if not you can get them from local pet stores or of the internet

i have no idea on the snails, personally if they are ok and well, then id keep them
cories should be fine in a 3, but much better getting 5+, any reason you dont want any more? if you have just 5 guppies in you will have plenty of room.


im afraid the reason, just read your thread again, that the reason your guppies may have died would be most likely due to your tank not being fully cycled, usually it takes up to about 2-3 weeks. not 1, usually. dont get anymore fish in the next week or so.

hope i helped x any more q's feel free to pm me or add a reply. x

puppyjess. we replied at the same time

i did the same thing last night, strange lol x

thanks for your reply, i have only got the 2 guppies just now, the reason i only want 3 corries is so i can get more of a differant kind later, plan on having 6 neon tetras,the 2 guppies,3 small corries , and one maybe two of something else, i read here that 1inch for 1 gallon is about right that lot will be about 21inches of fish

think i need a bigger tank allready

away to get the master kit on ebay

thanks again

 

[Gary-S]

found this but it doesnt test for nitrAte, or did i miss something?tetra laborette
or this one but it doesnt test for generla hardness and carbonate.api test kit

what tests do i need and which can i do without ,if any.

sorry i know the info is here on the site ,but there is too much info to take in lol, can someone tell me here

thanks again

 

[Truck]

snails are fine in a tank! they do more good than bad

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Gary. For general fish keeping, a GH / KH test kit is not really needed. Yes I have one but I'm a bit of a fanatic. I use the API test kit when cycling a new tank and filter because it has everything that I need for that. The KH and GH can sometimes come in handy for diagnosing problems but are generally only something a serious plant person or breeder would use.

 

[Gary-S]

i've ordered the api kit, thanks again for all the replies

 

[waterdrop]

Great that you've ordered the API kit, that's the right one for what you need.

It sounds like you are two weeks in since filling the tank and starting the filter. If that's true then you are sure to be in what we call a fish-in cycling situation currently. If so then you need to be changing maybe 25% a day (since only 2 guppies in about 25g water) until you can get your kit in and get some feedback on your water situation.

Once you get your kit, practice the instructions by testing your tap water and posting up the results here for the members to see. By the way, a couple extra things that are handy with liquid kits are a syringe that's got measurements marked on it and a small electronic kitchen timer that hangs around your neck so you can do other things while the tests are being timed.

The goal in a fish-in cycle is to figure out a frequency and percentage of water changes that keeps ammonia and nitrite always below 0.25ppm as measured by your kit tests. For most people this means finding a time of morning that will put the second test 12 hours away at an evening time when you are back home to test. Then you test twice a day at these times and do ammonia, nitrite(NO2) and pH (you watch pH because the nitrate(NO3) and other products will drive the pH downward and stall your cycle if you let it.) You want the daily water change(s) to bring ammonia and nitrite down to zero or just a trace such that the next test 12 hours later has not been able to climb above the 0.25ppm.

It usually will take several weeks of this (a month on average) for the filter to cycle. You'll know you're almost done when you are able to go two days without doing a water change and still have "double-zero" readings the whole 2 days. Then you'll be able to just keep testing and watching it another week for a setback and if it stays ok you are "cycled."

With 2 guppies in 25g, you're ammonia load will be light, so you should find that a heavy water change schedule won't be necessary, but you need to still test frequently to confirm this, you can't slack off.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Gary-S]

waterdrop thanks for the indepth reply, its appreciated,
I ended up getting a test kit from the local store, i didnt want to wait on delivery.
it tests wide range ph amonia nitrite and nitrate, did the first test today, before the test was done i had only done 1 20% water change, i have done one after the test.

the results were
amonia under 0.6 maybe 0.4 the colour charts lowest colour is 0.6 and it was lighter than it
ph 7
nitrite 0.1 or below
nitrate under 5 probably 2

the test kit is nutrafin mini master kit.feel i maybe should have waited for the api kit as all those readings are at the lowest on the colour chart accept for ph.

readings possable on colour chart
ph 5-9 going up in 0.5's
amonia 0.6 1.2 2.4 4.9 7.3
nitrite 0.1 0.3 0.8 1.6 3.3
nitrate 5 10 20 50 110

hope all that makes sense

the tank has been running for two weeks, the first week with live plants the second with 2 guppies (sadly 2 died within 24hours)

thanks
gary

 

[RedeyesUK]

Gary,

The nutrafin kit is fine, I wouldn't worry too much. I don't think there's really much between the two, it's just a matter of preference really. The nutrafin will tell you just what you need to know - what you're looking for with ammonia and nitrite is zero (clear liquid!) anyway, so if you have any readings at all, it's time to do something.

Your readings as they stand aren't too bad for a cycling tank, but you're not quite there yet. What sort of a water change regime do you have at the moment? From the looks of it, you need to increase that a bit for the time being, although how much will depend on how long it's been since your last change.

 

[waterdrop]

Yup, agree with red!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Gary-S]

hi again,

the tank is going well, 0 amonia, 0 nitrite, 7 ph. around 5 nitrate.

so i have just added 6 cardinal tetras, they seem to be doing ok.

i've also got a second piece of wood for the tank and some java fern.

the questions for this week are how can i get the wood to stop floating, will it stop floating when its been soaked for long enough? i was thinking maybe attach a slate to the bottom.

and what is the best method to clean a sand substrate .
I'm considering changing the substrate , at the moment it is sand with patches of sharpish gravel,after learning more here, i'd like to take out the gravel and put a clay based substrate in with the sand and some rounder gravel. to help with plant grouth and more oto and cory friendly, has anyone done this with fish in the tank ?

i would also like a grass type plant, but i dont want it to cover the whole tank which one would be best and how do i stop it spreading to far ? will corys,otos keep grass clean, i can imagine vacuming it could be difficult

the snails in the tank,Bladder/Tadpole/Pouch Snails - Family Physidae
i have to do something about them, i think the way they multiply i will have 200 in a month .i would like to keep the two bigger ones , is there a fish that would do a good job of eating the eggs? i was thinking about getting some otos or julli corys would either of them eat the eggs?and any small snails that they miss as eggs?

the filter instructions say i should replace the cartridge every month, from what i've read here this isnt nessacery , can any one just confirm that, it is a plastic container with black and white stones in.

thankyou for reading any advise would be apreciated

gary

 

[vinylman]

Hi Gary, it's a little early to be thinking of Otos or Corys yet; they both do best in tanks that have been cycled AND matured (a good three/four months). Same goes for Cardinals and Neons too, I'm afraid. Lots of fish these days have been bred until they're fairly weak, unlike several years ago, when most fish were generally hardy. Always do plenty of research when you're thinking of buying a particular fish. It saves money and disappointment later on.

 

[Gary-S]

thanks for the advice,
the fish shop guy didnt ask any questions just sold me the fish, i had read that the otto and cory would do better in a mature tank, didn't realise the same for the cardinals.