keeping tropical and cold water fish.

covlass

May sound like a silly question but is it normal for the water to go very slightly cloudy ? I know its only day 2 but it was crystal clear yesterday ! Also what temp should I look at gettinng the water, looking at the type of fish I like?
Hopefully water testing ket should arrive tomorrow s I can do my first test

Mankysteve

Perfectly normal some clam it caused by a bacteria bloom but I don't how true it is but usually goes down in couple of days.

Willow92

I have two black moor fancy goldfish in my bedroom

I remember when I went away for a couple of days once and I left my mum and her partner in charge of feeding them. I came back to find uneaten food floating on the top, cloudy water and something growing on my fish. Turns out the food pellets were too big for them to eat so they just disintegrated in the water. I got some anti fungus and finrot stuff from Pets at Home, I keep it next to the tank at all times. Until I could afford some more food I used to grind up the bigger pellets between two teaspoons and sprinkle the bits in. Now I get the tiny pellets in the clicky dispenser (like the sweetener dispensers) from Pets at Home.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

covlass wrote: »

May sound like a silly question but is it normal for the water to go very slightly cloudy ? I know its only day 2 but it was crystal clear yesterday ! Also what temp should I look at gettinng the water, looking at the type of fish I like?
Hopefully water testing ket should arrive tomorrow s I can do my first test

not a silly question at all this happens allot. some may say its a bacteria bloom, some will argue the white milky cloud is millions of airbubbles starting to disperse in the water, i you like you can grab a clear tumbler glass and get a sample sit the glass on the work top, if the cloud sinks after a while its a bacteria bloom and will be filtered in cycling if they rise and dissapear it air bublbes

covlass

Ok did first water test

PH 7.6
Ammonia 0.25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10

is this about right for day 4

Froglet

Covlass.You are doing everything right but you won't find experts on here like you will on this site http://forum.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/

On there they will know exactly what the readings should be.I honestly cannot think of a better way to be sure of giving your fish a good start.I only wish the internet had been around when i started instead of taking my stupid father in laws advice,who thought he knew best and sadly he did not.

On there i am Margaret and i will look out for you,give you a welcome etc.

louisdog

Hiya

Have you been feeding the tank with ammonia, you do need to add some ammonia source in order to cycle it.

Ideally you want the ammonia to reach about 5.0ppm, once it does then you can stop testing for ammonia and monitor nitrite instead. When nitrite reaches zero, your tank is cycled and ready to go, but before adding fish you need to do a really big water change in order to remove the nitrates that will have built up during cycling (and ensure you use water conditioner to remove the chlorine etc from the water as otherwise your bacteria will be damaged).

I recently cycled two tanks and they each took a couple of weeks or so to cycle. I used Waterlife Biomature as my ammonia source which I bought off Ebay. Apparently you can speed the cycling process up by increasing the temp to 28C or 30C but I didn't bother.

In terms of what the water should be once you are up and running with fish, ammonia and nitrite should be zero and nitrate levels vary depending on how sensitive the fish you keep, ideally close to 0, 10-25 ok but anything more is bad. If your tapwater has 20ppm you will struggle to get below that but plants may help reduce it. Unfortunately nitrate feeds algae too.

From your list of fish you like, I'd recommend that you try Zebra danios to start with and then maybe add some platys. I wouldn't have a siamese fighter with danios. I currently have some celestial danios and they are really shy and didn't do well in my community so I have put them in a tank on their own, they are still really shy though. Have you thought about some bottom dwellers such as Corydoras? They'll add some interest at the bottom of the tank. Do you like white cloud mountain minnows, they look nice with zebra danios I reckon.

If you have any questions, let me know and I'll try and help

Cheers
Alex

covlass wrote: »

Ok did first water test

PH 7.6
Ammonia 0.25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10

is this about right for day 4

covlass

No I have not put ammonia in as I was using [FONT=&quot]Nutrafin Cycle even though it said I could put fish in straight away I decided against it. So for the last 4 days the heater and pump have been on Planted with real plants added [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Nutrafin Cycle and tap water was treated with [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Nutrafin Aqua. [/FONT]

louisdog

Unfortunately this won't Cycle your tank, as the bacteria need a food source in order to multiply. Some people use household ammonia, some recommend a good pinch of fishfood added to the tank each day, and your tank is ready for fish once the ammonia and nitrite levels have spiked, i.e. rocketed and then reduced.

If you don't do a fishless cycle, then the first fish that you add have to try and survive the spikes which is stressful and dangerous for them, and many people think it's also unethical/unacceptable.

It's confusing and also seems to take forever but patience pays off in the end!

covlass

OOps forgot to mention i added a pinch of fish food on day & day 2