New all the way around

[Arkantex]

Hi guys. My name is Jeremy and I am new to the forum as well as aquarium life all together. My wife and I wanted to get our 4 month old son a fish tank for christmas. He just loves looking at all the fish at petsmart and we have been told that it will help him deveope his motor skills and what not. Not to mention my wife and I have always wanted one. So, we jumped in and bought a 36 gallon bowed front tank. Got it all set up properly (or so we were told) and put some fish and shrimp in it. That was sat. As of tonight (tuesday) we have 3 shrimp still living and no fish *SICK* So I found this site and plan on picking you guys brains for the next few days to get this stuff straightened out and going. I am in desperate need of some *SLEEPING* so I will start picking your brains tomorrow.

I am glad I found you guys. Hopefully you can steer me in the right direction and help me get our tank going properly. Who knows, I might even be able to eventually become a knowledge/experience contributing member! Looking forward to it

 

[lauraf]

Hey, welcome! Did anyone give you any info on cycling your tank? Here's a link to the basics of the bacteria cycle, in case you weren't aware. It's a good place to start. Cycling Your Aquarium, Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle: Start Cycling Aquarium Guide

Cheers,
Laura

 

[Arkantex]

Ok... I am off work and have some time to tell the whole story. When we went in to purchase the tank, we were told to set up our tank, fill it and run our pump, fliter and heater for at least 24 hours and then bring in a water sample. So, we did that and took the sample in on sat. They tested the water and told us it was great and we were good to buy some fish. We got 6 glofish and 3 ghost shrimp. We found 2 dead sunday morning, 1 dead monday morning and 1 dead yesterday. So last night we took the 4 dead fish back to petsmart because they told us that if the fish died that we could bring them back and they would replace or refund or replace. When we got there and started talking to one of the girls there and gave them another sample of water to test. After hearing our story, she told us that the girl we dealt with on sat had only been working there for a few weeks and didn't know what she was talking about. Well come to find out, our water is horrible. SHe refunded us our money, sold us some "prime", and told us to do a complete water change and use the prime when we did. I also bought a bottle of testing strips so I could test it myself. Well we did that. I tested the old tank water, our well water, and the new tank water after we used the prime (tested new water today after the prime had been in the tank for about 15 hours)... THey all tested the same. NitrAte 10, NitrIte 0, Total hardness 300, chlorine 0, Alkaline 190, PH 8.2 These are all approximations but the strips were the exact same colors. I have read about tank cycling, but I already had the fish and shrimp. Now that I just have the shrimp and our water is testing as previously stated, what should I do?

 

[Arkantex]

Oh yeah, when we got home lastnight the other 2 fish were dead...

 

[skjl47]

Hello; Did you do anything to the empty tank, such as cleaning it in some way before putting water in it?

 

[Arkantex]

I washed it with water and a wash rag before the initial filling and again when I drained it.

 

[lauraf]

Prime rocks. Good recommendation.
Does your test kit include a test for ammonia? You can have 0 nitrites at the beginning of a cycle, but high ammonia, a situation which is toxic to fish. Given that you have some critters in the tank now, you will have to do a 'fish-in cycle'. In order to do this you will need to be able to test daily for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Unfortunately the strip test kits can be really unreliable - the liquid test kits are way more accurate. But you could try with the tests you have.
What you want to do is test the water daily for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, and do water changes as needed to keep the ammonia and nitrite levels from killing your shrimp. Adding plants, or some used filter media or gravel from an established tank will speed things up greatly. As the shrimp don't have a huge bioload, so won't produce a lot of waste, you might want to feed the tank a little - the decaying fish food is similar to fish waste in terms of generating ammonia.
Alternately, you can just return the shrimp and do a fishless cycle by adding pure ammonia.
(There's also a product called Safe Start that purports to have all the beneficial bacteria needed to instantly cycle your tank.)

 

[OrangeCones]

Hello Arkantex, welcome!

If the store sells it, I'd get an 'Ammonia Alert' disk made by Seachem (the same manufacturer of Prime). It will tell you at a glance if there is ammonia in your tank, and you can use Prime to detoxify it so it doesn't hurt your fish/shrimp. Not sure where you are in the world (guessing Arkansas or Texas by your name), but they only cost about $6. I've used them in helping others set up new aquariums with great results, including a 1st grade 'class tank' for a school. The kids tend to overfeed and it can polute the water if you don't catch it!

 

[skjl47]

Hello; With reference to washing a tank with a wash rag. Sounds as if that is not a problem if the wash rag was clean to begin with. (Not used with chemical cleaners or soaps prior to using it on the tank) A method of cleaning glass aquariums that I have used for many years is to make a paste of table salt (the kind that does not contain iodine.) with a little water. I use something soft to rub the paste on the glass surfaces. This is good for cleaning the old algae and crud when you empty a tank that has been is use for a while. I have a 30 gallon tank purchased used that was cleaned with something that scratched the glass. I did not check close enough before buying. (Be careful that bits of gravel or any sort of abrasive does not get into the paste. ) You can rinse the salt paste off right away or leave it as a coating on the glass for a while if there is ever a fear that disease has infected a tank.
The current chemical methods of setting up a tank (cycling) were not available when I started keeping tropical fish. I have set up scores of tanks without chemicals. The main thing is to let the water sit for at least a week with a filter running. This gives the stuff that the water company adds to tap water time to not be a problem. I also put a bit of some floating plant under light during this period. You will need a heater and a light. After a minimum of a week put one fish (such as a zebra danio) into the tank and wait a few days to see how it does. (I always have an established tank around to get a fish and plant from, but it sounds as if you are starting from scratch. I can write more details if you are interested.
You may have unsuitable source water or some sort of contamination problem. I am careful not to put my hands in a tank if I have been working with chemicals until they get a good washing. I also am careful about using pesticides and cleaning materials around the area where my tanks are located.
The chemical cycling methods are posted in detail on the forum if you wish to search and the folks who post will likely help you thru the process. Good luck.

 

[Arkantex]

As to my where abouts, I grew up in arkansas and now live in west texas.

We are not on city water. We live 4 miles out of a small town and we have a water well. I occasionally add a little chlorine to my 1550 gallon storage tank but I haven't done that in months. Our water is chemical free. We do have extremely hard water though. I wasn't sure if that could cause a problem or not.

When we set up our tank, we put in 2 java ferns and 2 umbrella plants. When we brought the fish and shrimp home, we also bought a drift wood with a live plant in it that came out of one of thier fish tanks.

Could I use the safe start with the shrimp in there? We have to go to odessa in an hour or so to pick up family from the airport and so we will go back to petsmart and see what they have to say again.

 

[OrangeCones]

Well water often contains other particles that can be harmful to fish. When I lived in Texas, I was on well water, but the amount of heavy metals in the water (while safe for us to drink) was harmful to fish. Seachem's Prime is an example (there are many) that dechlorinate, can bind harmful ammonia, and also bind heavy metals.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; Your "safe start" question can be answered by someone else as I have never used it. Well water has the advantage of going directly into a tank without treating or, as I do now, letting several gallons sit around for a week or so. I was on well water for a number of years and enjoyed that feature. I allowed a new well water tank to set up for a few days to get the temperatures stable and give the filter a chance to work the water. (Also to make sure it did not leak.)
The plants you have should be fine in a new tank. There are fish that tolerate hard water fine and others that will not. I have seen several posts on this forum that refer to a fish guide. The guide will give the particular conditions required by the different species of fish. You may want to pick fish that do well in hard water.
Even if you go the chemical cycle route, is may be less expensive (and fewer fish will be lost) to go with one or two fish to start with. The starter fish will produce the amonia in it's waste that will feed the beneficial bacteria and eventually balance the water. The hope is that they will thrive and you can add new fish a few at a time.
Another thought is the equipment used around a tank. I have buckets, sponges, tubing and other things that are used only for my tanks. I do not carry aquarium water in the same bucket that is used for other things. Also a dedicated aquarium bucket is handy if you need to put fish some place in an emergency.
one more thought. Did you allow the fish to float in the bag for a while (20 or more minutes) so the water temperatures can equalize before releasing them?

 

[randomletters95]

if i were u i would not have put the glofish in right away i would have started with a hardier fish such as tiger barbs to get the cycle started use a safe start like aqua safe idk what prime is but i know from experience aqua safe works, also check your water tempurture,if that is off it could lead to a bad start.

 

[Arkantex]

Hey guys. Its been a few weeks since I have been on here. All is well with the fish tank now! We got it cycled and now have 3 ghost shrimp, 3 mickey plattys, 3 wag plattys and 1 dwarf gourami. Everyone is good and healthy!

I get paid every 2 weeks and so that's about how often we go to midland/odessa (closest towns with petstores). We plan on bringing home a few fish every time we go until we get the tank stocked up. Next week we are probably going to get a few more gourami's and then we will probably start getting neons and tetras. Oh, and if the petstore ever gets some blue plattys we are going to have to get some of those as well.

We have all these orange/red fish and were wondering if you guys could suggest any fish that are other colors? Of course the will need to get along with the ones we have now. We just want tons of colors for our son to look at when we are in front of the fish tank. He loves it by the way!

Needless to say all is going well for the fishies over this way! Thanks for all the help. I will try to post some pics later on.

 

[lauraf]

Congrats - sounds like things are going well!
I'd caution about adding more gouramis with that one dwarf already in there - dwarf gouramis are notoriously nasty. He is probably best as the only gourami in the tank.
Neon or cardinal tetras will add a nice splash of electric blue, or you could do five congo tetras (They are quite a bit bigger). Congos may look underwhelming at your lfs, but they colour up beautifully in a good home aquarium . . . . .

 

[Arkantex]

You think we should just stick with one gourami? We brought two home and one got stuck in our air bubbler castle and died. I would like to get some more of them because they are bigger and easier for our son to see. The other died about 2 days ago and we are going to get some more fish on friday. Is that long enough for the one that we still have to become aggressive towards others?

 

[lauraf]

Dwarf gouramis are just kinda mean, IME. You can try him with other dwarves, and sometimes they will be okay with other kinds of gouramis, but be prepared for it not to work out . . ..
Actually, with gouramis you are usually best to pick one varietal and only have multiples of that kind. Pearl gouramis make a great choice for a community tank . . . . And if you want distinctive fish for your son, platies, swords and mollies are often solid coloured or block-coloured and really easy to see swimming around. A big bright yellow apple snail would also probably fascinate him!!!

 

[sue hernandez]

new to your forumn

Hi My name is Sue and I am new to your site. Like it so far.

I have 5 running tanks.

(1) 125 gal tank set up in 2006 a variety of fresh water fish, large plecos, catfish of all kinds, skirts (9), neons (7), rubber lipped pleco (sm), and again a lot of different varieties of cories (I love cories).

(1) 30 gal tank set up in 2003 have one 7 inch fantail goldfish. I had this same gold fish since 2000. He is doing fine, but having a drop in ph. PH dropped to 6.0 but ammonia is 0.0, nitrite 0.0 and nitrate 0.0. Temp is 68. No new changes anywhere in tank, so unsure why drop in ph and so drastic usually runs 7.2.

(1) 20 gal tank set up 2009 with a 5 inch plec, 2 cories, 1 male platy, neons, 1 male guppy, black neons and one danio because he refuses to be moved.

(1) 10 gal breeder tank for guppies set up 2009. currently 4 females with one male. Will be rotating male guppy from other tank soon

(1) 10 gal breeder tank for platyies set up 2003. currently 1 female who is on 4th batch of babies. will be introducing a different male platy in a couple of months.

I don't l use chemicals in my tanks, so I am interested in feedback on how to natural increase my ph and what would cause it to drop so dramatically in the first place. I did do a 25% water change, and ph is still the same. I have not changed the filter pad but I don't believe bacteria will effect the ph but don't want to change much just in case. Also Goldie looks fine, he doesn't seem to notice the change. His eating patterns are the same as usual.

Nice site, Sue*GOLDFISH*