When do I do 1st water change

[phillippa42]

Hi,

I set a tank up on Saturday - 3ftwide, 1ft back and 18" high. Have a fluval 3+ filter.

I got 2 leopard danios yesterday.

I did a water test today and the ammonia levels were between 0 and 0.25. It was kinda hard to tell which colour it was nearest on the test kit.

Nitrite and nitrate was 0, ph was 7.8

So should I do a water change now as ammonia readings are there or should I wait a few more days?

Also when I do the water change what do I need to do to the new water b4 putting it in the tank. Treat it with a dechlorinator product? Can anyone recommed one in the UK? Should I heat the water a bit or just add it cold?

thanks a lot
pippa

 

[daza]

Hi phillippa42,

I am no expert on cycling a tank with fish, having never done it, but I know that if the ammonia gets too high then it can kill the fish. Somebody will advise shortly I'm sure.

I just read in a previous post of yours that you were waiting a week before adding four more danios. Is that still the plan? I do know that you don't want to add too many before the tank has cycled, which will probably take longer than a week.

Yep, dechlorinate the water before adding it. I use tetra aquasafe. It is quite a popular one and should be available in most LFS.

Personally I add water to a bucket and mix the hot and cold taps. Others boil the kettle and mix with cold water because they believe the hot water sitting in the hot water tank and pipes is bad. So have a read around and decide which method you prefer the sound of.



edit..because I can't spell today.

 

[phillippa42]

Hi Daza,

Thanks for the reply. I'm thinking I should wait a bit longer b4 getting anymore danios.

Although I have read about people cycling a tank with 5 or 6 danios. I know they're meant to be hardy but I don't want to push their luck!

 

[jay2jay99]

Hi pippa,
I'm new to fish, and have had my tank on a fishless cycle for 7 days now using 'Cycle' by Nutrafin, I don't really know too much on cycling with fish. But when I do a water change I fill a bucket with a mixture of hot and cold water, put you hand in the fish tank and then in the bucket as you fill it, I'm sure it doesn't have to be that close but you'll get it about near enough then I add the treatment, I use Aqua Plus by Nutrafin, then I mix it and add it to the tank. I recommend you get stuff like, treatment, equipment, filters, flake food etc from pets @ home, they were alot cheaper than all the aquatic centres I went to, I wanted a Master Test Kit, £24 plus at most places, £16.99 at Pets @ Home. Don't get your fish there though, I've heard stories that the fish are really unhealthy from there, it's worth going somewhere else and paying more for that.

Well hope that helps a bit.

Jay.

 

[phillippa42]

Hi Jay,

I've got that kit from pets @ home, seems good.

And yes, even as a novice I realised that their fish weren't in good condition and went elsewhere. I checked a few shops out b4 I found one that I liked the look of.

thanks
Pippa

 

[sylvia]

I cycled my first ever tank with 5 zebra danios (same species as yours). It was a 20 gallon and all 5 fish survived and lived long healthy lives.

When people are cycling tanks with fish, I always tell them that the fish should be the number 1 priority. Cycling the tank comes second to their lives. For this reason, I reccomend you do a large (50%) partial water change now and then do water changes every 2 days for the next couple of weeks until you see a nitrIte spike and the ammonia is at 0. Once ammonia is at 0, it is safe to decrease the water changes and only change the water if the nitrItes keep increasing. Once you see the nitrItes going down your tank will be nearly cycled. The nitrItes should go down fairly rapidly. At this point it'll be ok to reduce water changes to once weekly. You should keep these water changes up but you need not do very large ones. 20-25% will be ideal.

The whole cycling process (with fish) tends to take about 6 weeks. I wouldn't add any more danios until you have 0 ammonia/nitrIte. Even then, I'd only add 2 at a time to avoid any more ammonia spikes from the tripled bio-load.

Any de-chlorinator will do IMO. Make sure you add it BEFORE putting the water in the tank.

Temperature isn't too important but I reccomend you do as mentioned and mix the hot and cold tap water. I have never had problems with this method and have never boiled water in a kettle before using it.

Something else to keep in mind is that you should vacuum your gravel with every weekly water change. While the tank is still cycling, I would refrain from doing this but also make sure you don't feed too much. The reason I'm saying not to vacuum right now is because you'll desturb the beneficial bacteria colonising the substrate which are still, at this stage, quite fragile.

The same applies to cleaning your filter. It should be fine for the next couple of months anyway. If it does ever get clogged up or you feel you should clean it out, make sure you rinse the media gently in old tank water - NEVER tap water or water containing any form of chlorine! That'll kill off your bacteria and can cause a re-cycle. Also, if you ever need to replace any media, don't do it all at once. You shouldn't realy need to anyway.

Good luck