Beginner - In Need Of Help.
- Thread starter Chazwick
- Start date
Yeah - i've gotten a PH Test today and just took it - Things are a little overbaord, so ill be getting a kit to lower it abit... its quite a good start though! It's at about 7.5 and i need to lower it to 6.5 - Because thats what Tetras like!! So - alls quite good for starter i also got a nifty air pump, really good and now all i really need is a heater and light.
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noooooo dont get any chemicals to lower pH, your tetras will adapt to that pH and unless you want to breed them then don't do that (breeding them is hard so wait till your tank is settled to do some research if you want to do this) also i'd like to say that you should stay away from most chemicals as much as possible and there are other more natural things to buffer your pH with but 7.5 is mroe then fine. Also do you have an ammonia tester? how about nitrite? and nitrate? if so then what are they at?
i doubt they will have babies but it could happen, i have another question for you, do you even know what cycling is? and are you doing it? i seriously seriouisly doubt you are even cycling your tank at the moment cause you do not even know what the ammonia test kits are and the nitrite and nitrates... if dont know what cycling is i would seriously reccomend you start reading about it cause tetras aren't the strongest fish and in an uncycled tank there is gonna be high levels of ammonia and nitrites that are poisonous to any fish and tetras aren't the strongest fish out there and they are sort of sensitive to that... so if you really aren't cycling your tank i would suggest you read up on fishless cycling and get some test kits to see your progress
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Cycling is the maturing of the tank, making sure all the water levels, etc, are great, right? And you need that.. stuff, soz - i forgot what it's called, Nigrine, or something.. I can't remember!! I've been given some conditioner stuff that says it will "help mature the tank" and it also recommends that you add a few fish flakes crumbled up (which i'll have to clean out before entering the fish) so i've done this, because it contains something.. i'll take all the other tests later in the week... I am doing right aren't i?
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Maturing is what they call cycling in UK and yes it is like making sure all the water levels are correct (meaning the ammonia and stuff is low instead of the pH and hardness of your water) because when you mature(cycle) a tank you are creating bacteria to change fish poop into ammonia then into nitrite then into nitrates and thats when you do your water changes to remove the nitrates and the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates are all poisonous to your fish but nitrates is the least poisonous in small amounts thats why you want to cycle the tank so you have the least dangerous of the 3 and when you do water changes you get rid of it also. heres an article telling why you would do it but i haven't read it myself but it should tell you how to cycle but if it doesn't go to the search option on the forums and search for iggy's cycling recipe and you should find an article that iggy wrote on how much ammonia to put into the tank
http://www.myfishtank.net/articles/fishlesscycle.php
http://www.myfishtank.net/articles/fishlesscycle.php