My new 30g tank!

[LtGtR2]

Hi, i will start off by introducing myself! My name is Mike and i live in New Hampshire. I just started getting into owning freshwater fish and i have been looking around this site for a couple of days now and i am amazed at some of the tanks people have and i envy them!

My first question is i filled up my tank with regular tap water and let the tank filter and run for about 2-3 days before i bought fish and i purified the water as well as adjusted the pH. Everything seemed to be fine but now it almost seems like from the rock i purchased that produces air for the fish creates a lot of bubbles on top of the tank and the water its self is not so clear almost looks as if it is foggy or murky!

So my question is the air supply makes the top of the water BUBBLY! and the water looks murky! anyone help or know whats going on!

 

[Whiskers]

Hi Mike and welcome to MFT. here comes some questions for you Mike.

the first is did you do a fishless cycle with your tank ? what size is your tank and how many and what kind of fish did you put in ? how did you adjust the ph and do you know what that reading was ? do you know what your level of ammoina, nitrite, and nitrate is. is the murkyness white ?

one of the pro's on here will correct me if i'm wrong but from what i read is that you didn't cycle your tank and it's now having a bacteria bloom. wouldn't worry about the bubbles i don't think it will cause a problem. if you can supply us with as many answers as you can, so we can help you the best we can.

 

[FishGeek]

I agree with what you said Whiskers. But he/she did say it was a 30G tank Anyway, you can get a check valve to reduce the bubbles if you still want them in your tank, but they really arent needed for air, they are just more for the look. Also NEVER USE CHEMICALS IN YOUR TANK UNLESS YOU HAVE NO CHOICE. No Im not yelling at you but chemicals are your last resort and you should try other methods first. Your pH doesnt need to be changed unless its below 6 or above 8. Fish will adjust to it if you acclimate them. Think about it, how steady do you think a pH is in a the wild??? If you know your pH is off from the stores (its always good to ask where their pH is kept) then just put the fish in a bowl or container and slowly add some of your tank water into it over a period of about 20-30 minutes for freshwater. The longer the better though and some people like to go as long as an hour. Also a water change is your new best friend. A water change can help bring your tank back into specs (for lack of words) without causing harm to your fish. Where as a chemical will attempt to make the change quickly and may or may not be effective for a length of time; therefore, your levels will fluctuate again until you add the chemical again. See why I dont like them.

 

[LtGtR2]

Thank you! At first i expected no one to answer me for days and i was getting a little nervous. But within hours i got 2 replies! Shows that some people still like browsing and helping out the beginners kudos for you both!

I used those pre-measured "Watch em' fizz" tablet things.

Jungle Laboratories Corporation <--- this for the getting my tap water free from Chlorine & Chloramine

Jungle Laboratories Corporation <-- I used this for the pH and have a different pH only drop tester that says my tank is around 7.4 ~7.6

Today i am going to wal-mart and i am going to get a gravel vacuum and a painters bucket and i am going to start doing some water changes. the only thing is do i need to condition the water before i put it in again and whats a good way to go about this? Adjust the pH of the water coming in? so on and so on.

Also while i am there or probably running around to find a place to get a tester that will do all four pH Nitrate Ammonia Nitrite. (I think thats the big major 4 =/)

 

[LtGtR2]

About cycling my tank! i am not going to lie i let it run for about 3-4 days... with only 2 chemicals going in the ones i stated above. The only test i was running was a pH test as thats all i though really existed. the tank was beautiful and was crystal clear. But i am sure you all can agree that does not mean the water is safe. Now after reading a few topics i now know there are silent killers and i have no way to detect them. Hence why i am going to get a better test kit and give you guys the readings! hopefully being more knowledgeable you can help me out and we can find a solution!

 

[LtGtR2]

Okay this is getting ridiculous i should probably just edit the posts i have already made but... I just glanced over some one talking about something i have been meaning to ask!

stand back...

I WANT TO GET SOME PLANTS IN MY TANK! (this is an excited voice because what i have seen in other peoples tanks.)

Seems kind of early seeing how i might have already screwed up my tank but! maybe the plants will help fight the nitrate nitrite battle!?

Now by plants i mean i want a few maybe 2-3 nothing like the forests i seen in peoples 40gallon tanks although that would be fun! i believe i want to start small and work my way up... I asked my girlfriend to leave my digital camera so i could get some pictures of my tank but she forgot! I am thinking of getting a nice huge piece of driftwood from a local store called "Sea-World" they sell them pre-soaked... random thought... maybe the natural balance in there tank could help mine?! anyways.. i have a gravel bottom can plants grow on that and how do i even start growing plants.

 

[MatthewLaw]

Before putting 'real' plants in, I would wait until the tank is cycled.

What exactly do you mean by the driftwood being 'pre-soaked'?

 

[emmanuelchavez]

Before putting 'real' plants in, I would wait until the tank is cycled.

What exactly do you mean by the driftwood being 'pre-soaked'?

Plants can help during the cycle, they'll take in the Nitrogen in the Nitrite and Nitrate (even ammonia!). Fast growing stem plants like Hornwort, and several others are good for this.

By the wood being pre-soaked... he means, it was previously soaked, so it would sink. Once taken out of the water though, if left to dry - there will be no beneficial bacteria to help speed up a cycle, and there's the chance of it floating again.

 

[FishGeek]

As far as water changes the best thing to get is a Python. Walmart does carry them. They hook to your sink and make water changes much easier. Right now I would only do very small water changes. You really dont want to change too much of the water right now but since you have fish in the tank small ones are needed for their benefit. You can add the dechlor to the water before you add it to the tank or if you use a python as the water is going into the sink.

 

[LtGtR2]

Well i got my freshwater master test kit so i can check that off the list now i am going to go check all the levels and hope they are okay!

 

[LtGtR2]

*BOUNCINGS Good news! nitrate and nitrite levels are both ZERO! as for the ammonia... when i tested that the water just remained blue =/ not sure what went wrong there i repeated the test and it remained clear still! here are some pictures!!

(from my camra phone =/)
this is when the tank was first set up!

This is one of my little fish!

Nitrate Level

Nitrite Level

the ammonia test

What the tank looks like now, little foggy, but it makes me nervous being a first timer!

So what do you all think?

 

[FishGeek]

Ok next issue. What fish did you buy??

 

[epond83]

On the ammonis test i think there are two bottles, probably shake them well. I belive the first bottle makes the water yellow then the second is the indicator. I would read carefully and try again, Nitrates and nitrites aren't going to show up until the ammonia is converted, so that the only one that will show up now, which oyu need to know your level because it can climb fast ....especailly if you have a messy gold fish

 

[LtGtR2]

I have 2 of these guys (Columbian Shark)!
this is the link
Tropical Fish for Freshwater Aquariums: Columbian Shark

and 2 African Cichlid
One The Orange(yellowish) Peacock Cichlid
And another just yellow and black striped one!

And i am going to perform the test again! on the ammonia now thank you for letting me know the 2 bottle thing, i though they were the same one was a back up!

Heres the new reading

now what to do =(

 

[FishGeek]

Ok so did you by chance look at the size that the Columbian Sharks get?? Waayy to big for your tank. Can you take pics of the cichlids??

 

[LtGtR2]

It reads about like .75 ~ 1 on the color card my fat thumb is on the 1 btw

 

[LtGtR2]

Those sharks are only 2 inches as of right now and the orange cichlids is included in the picture up top, said to grow 4-6 inches both of them.

 

[Platypus]

It's a bacteria bloom caused by the tank cycling. I got my first fish tank almost two years ago and was instructed to put a small amount of flake food under the substrate to "cycle" the tank. I don't remember how long it took but one day the whole tank was cloudy white. I removed the food and bam the next day my tank was crystal clear. You can read about cycling your tank on this website. I have a 30 gallon tall square tank with a penguin biowheel setup rated for tanks up to 70 gallons. Here is what I came up with to cycle the tank based on the guy telling me to put flake food under the substrate (gravel). He meant just stick it under the substrate without using my patented bag method .


1. Cut the corner off a plastic sandwich bag big enough to hold about 50 flakes and tied it shut with a rubber band.
2. Punctured small holes in the bag so the food would rot and release into the water.
3. Buried under the gravel a bit and waited for super white cloudy bacteria bloom.
4. Removed the bag o' flake from the gravel.

Once you remove the flake this is how you find out whether or not the "good" bacteria you need in your tank have established themselves. Removing the flake stops the excessive generation of the nutrients the bacteria thrive on.

Don't get me wrong your tank is cycling and that is why your water turned white. Those fish may or may not die during the process I don't know much about the hardiness of fish so can't help you there.

Here is a link on white cloudy water you can check out.

Cloudy water in the aquarium. What causes cloudy aquarium water? - Algone.com

 

[LtGtR2]

Well it seems that i just jumped the gun and did not let the tank cycle all the way i am going to cross my fingers and hope the fish live while also cleaning the tank everyday taking atleast 10% of the water out seeing if that helps.

One question is though what is a dangerous ammonia level that the fish could die from.

 

[Platypus]

Anything above .50 ppm from what I have read and what my test kit says. If it is over that you should do a 30% water change and test again after 24 hours. Repeat that process until it's acceptable.

Ooops that don't sound right. You should not do 30% water change again after 24 hours. You should probably wait a week or so.