Newbie .. Water Change Question

[Itfcgadgetboy]

Hi guys

I am very new to having an aquarium and my first water change is due next week, therefore sorry in advance for what will appear a silly question, but... Is it possible to make up a large batch (3-4 weeks) of water and treat it with aquasafe, and just use what i need and leave the remaining for next time. I have just bought a large container for the water and was wondering is this ok, or whether I should prepare the water for the 'change' every week.

Thanks in advance

 

[sadguppy]

You can store the water if you want to, but it is just as easy to treat it as you go.

By the way, you say your first change is due - what size tank do you have and which fish? Is is properly cycled? The reason I ask is that if you are in a fish-in cycle, you may have to change more water more often than you realise. Refer to the stickies in the newbie section for more extremely important information.

 

[Itfcgadgetboy]

Thanks for the reply, I must admit this aquarium malarkey has been so confusing its unbelievable. All the aquarium shop owners have given me different advice, which now I am investigating have contradicted each other and thus confused me.

Basically I have had a juwel vision 180 as an early Xmas prezzie as I have always wanted to keep tropical fish. The gravel was washed and placed in it and advised to put in water, add aquasafe, and then a day later was told to put in safestart, then I was told I should wait 2 weeks before putting my first 5/6 fish in. Then after a few days and reading up on the nitrogen cycle I realised how can the bacteria grow if they have nothing to feed on. so I contacted the aquatic centre again, who told me I should have added fish at the same time as the safestart and I should take a water sample to them. I did this, they tested for ammonia, nitrate, nitrite and ph and all the tests were good and was told to put in 5/6 fish to keep the bacteria fed.

Therefore it has been 1 week with 5 guppies in it, I was going to do a 10-20% water change every week (which is what I was told also). I am starting to get a bad vibe after your reply, I was going to buy some test kits tomorrow to check the water.

 

[JenJ]

Hi, have a look at the beginners resource area - you're now in a fish-in cycle, and need to be doing big water changes at least daily.

Your water tested perfect before you bought fish, as there were no fish in there to change the parameters.

What you were told is a common fish shop response unfortunately.

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/277264-beginners-resource-center/

 

[Yanks15]

Unfortunately, you have fallen victim to the same thing most of us have at the beginning. You should take back the fish and read up on doing a fish-less cycle. If not, you will have to do water changes every day to keep the ammonia and nitrite at safe levels. Make sure to get a good liquid test kit, I prefer API. And if you don't do it, you run the risk of having ill or dead fish. That my friend is a PAIN!!!! Good luck.


Thanks,
Steve

 

[Itfcgadgetboy]

Hi again, hope everyone had a nice Xmas day.

Ok, I bought the api master test kit and the readings today are

Ammonia - 0.25
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 20 ppm

Still have the 5 guppies swimming around. Not sure about results, but I might leave the water change for a few more days.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

You need to do a water change to get the ammonia reading to 0.

 

[Itfcgadgetboy]

Will do, thanks for the helpful advice.... It's very stressful this fish keeping malarkey lol.

 

[MBOU]

It will probably seem awful getting into the hobby, especially with unfortunate advise to set you up, you might even find the next few weeks are really difficult but I promise that as you get the hang of it, you will find it is a fantastic hobby where you can learn as much as you want, there is no limit to how much you can learn!!

There is honestly so much you can do and so many different types of fish and tank set ups you could possibly go for that most people end up with Multiple Tank Syndrome!! And generally it starts a few months after they were cursing the day they got their first aquarium

Keep at it and don't give up, if you can get over the first few weeks of getting your tank to stabilize, you will find it gets a lot more fun and you will have outlasted a lot of people already lol.

I would as has been said, do a 25% waterchange to decrease that ammonia and tbh, lots of people disagree with me but certainly with fish in their, I would be adding a biological supplement like API QuickStart (or any one to an extent) which uses the fish waste to quickly feed colonies of bacteria to break down ammonia.

Keep testing your water each day, feel free to share the results and we can all help you make sure your tank gets off to a better start!

Good luck and hang in there!!

 

[Philip.]

My neighbour is in the same position as you, after me telling him to do a fishless cycle he succumbed to the pressure of the LFS and came back with some Black Phantoms, one died after 5 days which is when he asked for help.

I made him test the water daily and do 20% water changes every day until the ammonia and nitrite readings were 0. This took about 5 weeks, he then made sure the readings were still 0 for a further week before he added a few more fish.

He was lucky he only lost one fish!

I also find having live plants in the aquarium helps with the cycle too.

I wish you good luck in our brilliant hobby, but don't be tempted to rush things or cut corners, it's not worth it.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

Second that... when I cycled my second tank the plants made a HUGE difference to how smoothly that went. I went with hygrophilia polysperma and hornwort because they were cheap and filled the tank quickly and feed off excess ammonia really well (especially the hornwort).

 

[Scates11]

You need to do a water change to get the ammonia reading to 0.

I am about 30 days into a similar cycle...(similar story by the lfs as well) but for the last 2 weeks I have never been able to keep my amonia below .25 no matter how many water changes. I understand that this was fairly normal and keeping it below .75 should be the goal becuase as the cycle continues the ammonia is required to start in with the nitrites.....any truth to that information?

 

[PrairieSunflower]

I am not an expert on cycling so I think someone else had better chime in. I personally do silent cycling using plants then fish added halfway through and, for the most part, the plants have absorbed that excess for me. Your fish will also always produce ammonia, you just want to be sure that it doesn't grow too much. I forget the amount that should be measured and processed during a certain period.

The problem with fish in cycles that any amount of ammonia can harm your fish.