Noobie Needs Some Answers

[Da_One]

Hi all,

Started to get into the whole tropical aquarium thing now.

Got an Elite Style 35 (50cm x 25cm x 30cm) - 35 litres.

Have 7 fish 1 Zebra Danio, 1 Guppy, 2 Silver Tips, 2 Glow lights & 1 Otocinclus.
3 oxygenating plants dont know the names. 1 plant seems to grow uber fast so needs trimmming every week.

Had the tank 16th October - cycled the tank, 1 week later introduced the fish 2 at a time, a week apart from one another.

Now levels of Ammonia, Nitrates are rising high.

Ammmonia @ 0.5 mg/l
Nitrites 0 mg/l
Nitrates between 5-10 mg/l
PH 6.8ish.

I've done partial water changes practically everyday for a week then LFS said put some ammonia remover in if that doesnt work so I did. Ammonia went away, now a week later the levels are back to what they are now. Back to water changes now as heard stories those chemicals just destroy the bacteria in the filter aswell.

Only feed the fish once a day about a few flakes then its all gone in 30 seconds.
Leave the light on for 12 hrs a day.

What am I doing wrong? How do I get ammonia to 0 & Nitrates to 0?
I cant be overfeeding surely? overstocked?

Cheers in advance for advice!

 

[SJ2K]

How did you cycle? Sounds like your not quite finished yet and ammonia locking products are only a quik fix.

 

[Da_One]

How did you cycle? Sounds like your not quite finished yet and ammonia locking products are only a quik fix.

Put water into tank, heater on, filter on.
Put fish food in for a week for it to decompose had water tested at LFS and the levels peaked so waited for another week got water tested again & levels for ammonia etc were 0 so were allowed to buy fish from that store.

 

[SJ2K]

Fraid that wouldnt of been sufficient, the bacteria might of grown enough to cope with a tiny amount of ammonia but going from that to a tank of fish is a big step

Your now doing a fish in cycle, check your stats twice daily and water change whenever ammonia and/or nitrite goes above 0 no way out, just work through.

 

[mark.w.jones]

Your tank is still cycling, that's why your ammonia and nitrite are still high. Take a look through the articles in my sig. and you'll find out why. You are poorly stocked rather than overstocked. All of those species live in large schools in the wild. This makes them feel more comfortable, less stressed and consequently they'll live longer. You've made the common mistake of wanting lots of different looking fish in your tank. However, your tanks not big enough to keep them in the group sizes that they really need. All of those species should be in a school of 5, minimum and are unlikely to do well as singles or twos. I would advise daily water changes of 15% for a few weeks. Daily testing of ammonia and nitrite levels with you doing a water change as soon as readings are above 0.25ppm. This may result in 2 water changes per day but will help dilute your ammonia and nirite.

Eventually you need to rethink your stock:

I would advise:

4 Otos
4 Glowlights
3 Shrimp

because (guppies are boring and breed like rats, silver tips and zebra danios need far more space as theyre very active)

 

[fry_lover]

if the one guppy is male you wont have the breeding like rats problem, i assure you

 

[SJ2K]

if the one guppy is male you wont have the breeding like rats problem, i assure you

True enough, im also fairly sure 2 male's wont result in too much although im almost certain mine have turned gay.

 

[fry_lover]

guppies are like drunk ugly chav's will try it with anything lol

 

[Da_One]

Was told at the store, Pets At Home.

that tetras do like to live in groups, but recommended that we got a shoal of different tetras and they be fine as long as we had pairs of types. Also to wait four weeks before we got any guppies.

so its daily water changes for the next month

how can I rethink my stock, I not purposely gonna kill the fish would just be wrong.

Although I was thinking of getting another tank lol but I will wait before I can sort this tank out 1st lol.

 

[mark.w.jones]

if the one guppy is male you wont have the breeding like rats problem, i assure you

I don't know. I wouldn't put it past that one to spontaniously change sex and pop a few out.

 

[SJ2K]

Was told at the store, Pets At Home.

that tetras do like to live in groups, but recommended that we got a shoal of different tetras and they be fine as long as we had pairs of types. Also to wait four weeks before we got any guppies.

so its daily water changes for the next month

how can I rethink my stock, I not purposely gonna kill the fish would just be wrong.

Although I was thinking of getting another tank lol but I will wait before I can sort this tank out 1st lol.

Ignore 99% of what pets at home employee's will tell you

Tetra's need to be in single species groups, its like asking 2 blokes and 2 chimps to live together haha, well not quite but its not the best option

To re-think your stock, just return the odd fish you dont want/sell/give to friends and add to the groups you already have

 

[Da_One]

Ignore 99% of what pets at home employee's will tell you

Tetra's need to be in single species groups, its like asking 2 blokes and 2 chimps to live together haha, well not quite but its not the best option

To re-think your stock, just return the odd fish you dont want/sell/give to friends and add to the groups you already have

SJ2K Ive probably done what you experts dislike & got my self another tank, even though Im still not sorted with my 1st tank. But the offer from Aldi was too good to turn down lol.

As the water in this tank has high ammonia & Nitrates if I do a partial water change, and move this water into another tank & do a fishless cycle in the new tank. Is this process any better or just go get some ammonia from a shop & do the fishless cycle properly.

I can think about restocking after my cycles ......

 

[lym]

As the water in this tank has high ammonia & Nitrates if I do a partial water change, and move this water into another tank & do a fishless cycle in the new tank. Is this process any better or just go get some ammonia from a shop & do the fishless cycle properly.

Moving water from your current tank to the new tank won't help cycle the new tank sadly. You'll be better of buying ammonia and starting the cycle from scratch in your new tank.

 

[mark.w.jones]

Agreed. Do this one by the book and fishless cycle it with ammonia using the add & wait method from the link in my sig. Keep up the daily 15% water changes on the first tank and hopefully in a month you'll have 2 well stocked tanks. I assume your 2nd tank is far bigger and that you plan to move the danios and silver tips to it and increase their school size.

 

[Da_One]

Agreed. Do this one by the book and fishless cycle it with ammonia using the add & wait method from the link in my sig. Keep up the daily 15% water changes on the first tank and hopefully in a month you'll have 2 well stocked tanks. I assume your 2nd tank is far bigger and that you plan to move the danios and silver tips to it and increase their school size.

Yeah that is the idea, move the danio & silvertips & possibly the guppy aswell into the bigger tank.

Where do I buy ammonia from? Just using flakes for now untill I can find some.