Please Teach Me.

[Bullet Bob]

I’m new, so first things first. Hi every one.

Ok here is the story and questions together so if any one can give me some advice I say thank you in advanced.

I had a 10 Gallon tank I got the kids for Christmas. It had 5 or so fish in it. It was one of them change the filter and add water clean the glass when it get dirty.

Well 3 days ago I was looking through the paper and saw a 46 gal. Tank with stand and a Fluval 304 canister filter for $65.00. So I got it.



So I went to pick it up and it had 3 fish that came with it. One is pink and about 4” long. One is a bottom feeder he is black and is about 5” long and some small guy that harasses everyone he is 1” long.



I put them in a gallon bag and we emptied the tank and I brought it home and transferred them fish to my 10 gal. tank. The next day I cleaned the tank washed the gravel, cleaned the Fluval and the ornaments and set it up. It did have a water checker kit and I did that and the water was good all but the ph was 6.2 on the stick I used. I had 2 packs of water conditioner I put them in and also had some salt and put that in according to the directions.

I just did another test for this pose and it looks like.
Nitrate (NO3) = 30
Nitrate (NO2) = 0
Total Hardness (GH) = 150
Total Alkalinity (KH) = 100
PH = 7.2

I’m not sure but it looks to be ok. But the problem is.
I wanted to let the tank set for a week before I added the fish to it. But Albert (the big pink fish) looked as if he was in distress. He was sucking a lot of air from the surface. So after the water got to temperature I transplanted the fish in the large tank. I also took about a ½ gal. of water from the 10 gal. tank and added it to the large tank in hope that maybe there was some alge would help the bottom feeders.
The Fluval did not have any thing with it. Just the round white things and 4 sponge pads and some old charcoal in it. Today I did order some Fluval Zeo-Carb it will be here in a few days.

Now I’m lost. What do I do next?
1. I read something about water changes?
2. Ammonia buildup?

Is there any thing I need to know?

I like old Albert he is very inquisitive. Whenever anyone comes into the room he comes to the front of the glass and watches us.

Thanks, Bob

 

[Thyra]

Welcome! You came to the right place! First things first - Read the "Stickies" at the beginning of this forum. You will get a lot of info and be able to figure out your questions. Your goal will be to keep the water parameters at ammonia 0, nitrIte 0 and nitrAte about 20ppm. You do not need to be concern about pH, hardness, etc. in this situation. You will keep the parameters there by doing partial water changes - possibly daily at first, until things are stable. You will be using a siphon to do this which will also vacuum the debris off the gravel. Do not add any fish yet and first of all we need to figure out what you have. Capability is very important so just take your time until you know more and we all get a little more acquainted. Do not be cleaning the filter - more on that later, but what you are trying to do is get beneficial bacteria growing and they grow on surfaces and in the filter. Feed sparely once a day - make sure you aren't over feeding. Oh, and your temp should be in the 77 - 80 degree ranges and no sudden changes with your water changes. How's that for a start??

 

[OrangeCones]

Your 'Albert' is a Helostoma temminckii, commonly called a Kissing Gourami. If you post pictures of the other two, we can try to help you identify them so you will know what they are and can learn about them and suitable tankmates.

What about the 5 fish in the 10 gallon tank?

You are missing a vital part of your testing, which is Ammonia. This will be the first stage to monitor in a possible re-cycling of the new tank.

Welcome, Bob!

 

[skjl47]

Hello; If I read correctly you have an already set up tank (10 gallon) and a newly set up larger tank. You want to get the new tank going with the beneficial bacteria (bb) which consume ammonia as a part of their life process and convert it to a more harmless form which leads to the nitrate -nitrite part of tank cycling. The bb will show up on their own with enough time but should already be present in the 10 gallon. The bb will be on the surfaces of things in the 10 gallon. If you can move some objects from the 10 gallon into the new tank there will be bb on the surfaces of the objects. Examples of things people often move are gravel, plants, old filter media, snails, sponge filters and the like.
The bb in the new tank will need something that produces ammonia so the bb will have something to feed on and can grow more numerious. Live plants and snails will produce some ammonia. Some have suggested throwing a piece of raw shrimp in a new tank which will produce ammonia while it rots. others have suggested pouring small amounts of pure liquid ammonia from a bottle (I think the ammonia should not be from the cleaning kind that has other things mixed in, but 100% pure ammonia. Perhaps some other forum member can suggest a brand.)
I often use live snails and plants to establish bb in a new setup. I am setting up a new tank now and have had a sponge filter in an old setup for several weeks. I will fill the new tank and get the heaters, filters, lights and stuff operating properly for a few days. If no leaks or other problems show up, I will put some plants and snails in the new tank. The plants and snails will have some bb on them and will produce ammonia.
After a few more days I will likely put the sponge filter in the new tank and probably one fish. After a few days if the one fish is healthy I will add another fish or two. I slowly add new fish as this seems to give the bb colonies time to grow to handle the additional ammonia from fish waste and helps to prevent an ammonia spike.
It can take several weeks for a new setup to become established (cycled is the new term) and stable. The process is a bit confusing and I hope my take on it does not add to the confusion. I left some things out such as water changes.
Perhaps the most common mistake new fish keepers make is to over feed their fish. It took me a while to really get a good feel for proper feeding amounts. Overfeeding and over stocking shortens the time a tank setup can stay stable before it needs to be taken down and cleaned. As I have gotten older tearing down and cleaning a tank has become more of a difficult chore so I do what I can to postphone it.
Good luck and beware that there may be 16 year olds on the forum.