I'm the new n00b

i'm new to the forum,i just bought my first tropical aquariam 4 days ago,1 fish allready died becuase it was a bit overcrowded,i'd like tips about how to maintain a tropical tank,my fish are:2 catfish sharks,1 silver dollar,1 black angelfish,2 guppies,1 of those sucking fish and 3 snails.i have a L100 tank and saving for a L500 one.



P.S.I'm a GrAmEr Nazi which means i make a lot of spelling mestakes.

 

Hi Welcome to TASA!

You can just wait for a more experienced member to help you out, won't take long

 

hehe i commented on your post on MYBB, which is how u came across this site

BUT welcome, i wouldnt call your tank overstocked btw.

 

it might be a bit smaller than l100 since i don't count how much water i put in.

 

Me neither my tank is aswell a 100l and i have 6 fish in my tank, started off with 3 and slowly built up. Could be stress im guessing?

LxWxDX1000. Should give you how many liters if im not mistaken

 

Hi Dasher and welcome.

Ok so I take you took the advice of the petstore and bought the fish with the tank.
Your tank needs to complete a biological filtration cycle aka "cycling". You are going to loose a lot more fish if
This is not done properly. Use the search option and look for cycling and make sure you understand
The concept.
What kind of filter do you have? Do you mean you have a 100 litre tank?

 

the petstore didn't give me much advice
í didn't cycle it,will google it
i don't know what filter i have since it came with the tank and no label,cotton at bottom charcoal in middle and cotton above charcoal
yes,100 litre.

i'm not able to send PM's it seems.

 

Hi Dasher and welcome to TASA

We have really good threads right here on TASA which cover cycling of a tank. Get hold of some products which will help you out whilst this happens so that you don't lose any more fish - MicrobeLift is new on the market and BRILLIANT

As for your fish, if you have a 100L tank then it is a little overstocked at the moment. A word of warning, if you have any plants in your tank then expect them to disappear - the Silver Dollar will be having a feast of them. Your guppies may find themselves as food for your Angel, depending on the size of the angel at the moment.

There is so much to cover I would suggest asking your questions as and when you think of them and letting us answer or else I'll just waffle on and on and on and on

 

Hi and welcome dasher.

Could you please elaborate on the size of the tank. Saying it's a L100 is like saying I bought an AR108 radio. You have no idea what it is! Give us stats on how many litres it holds, what type of filter you are running, and what filter material is in the filter.

If your tank is only 4 days old, then you should still be waiting another 3 days BEFORE you could have put those fish in... but I'm guessing you already have the fish. I'd probably expect you to loose more fish.

Starting up a tank needs to be done SLOWLY! When you buy a tank, we do something called cycling the tank. I'd suggest you search the forum on how to cycle the tank. Familiarise yourself with the Nitrogen cycle. Your tanke is more than likely going through MAJOR ammonia and Nitrite spikes at the moment... both are EXTREMELY lethal to fish!!

A tank will take about 7 days to cycle... to give you a EXTREMELY broad idea what cycling is... full the tank with water, turn the lights on, turn the heater on, turn the filter on... let it run. Add a tiny bit of fish food. If you can get gravel from the pet store from their tanks, even better. Everyone here on TASA believe that cycling should be done with cycling chemicals. Seachem Stability is the best in my opinion. Nutrifin Cycle is also good. These products add beneficial bachteria to the filter.

I would suggest you get these products into your tank by 08h15 tomorrow morning. Be at the pet store at 08h00, buy it, and be back home by 08h10 to put it in.

I'm terribly sorry to say this... but almost NEVER take any advise from a pet store. All they interested in is making a buck. Your fish are more than likely not going to make it, and they know that you will be back to buy more fish.

I would also SERIOUSLY research the fish that you have bought I doubt what you have bought are compatible together. And if that tank is only 100litres, as I suspect, then ALL those fish, except the guppies will outgrow that tank in no time. The other problem is that a small tank for a big fish also stunts the growth of the fish, and results in very poor health fish. Diseases will continually outbreak, and you will constantly have problems with fish deaths.

As for going through the filter, the water should first go through filter floss, then through Ceramic chips. Activated charcoal can be used to polish the water... but generally speaking we only add charcoal when we want to take medications out the water. Very few people leave it in the tanks permanently. Pet stores will tell you to leave it in all the time, because they know it only lasts 6 weeks, and then they can sell you more!

Dasher... do yourself a MAJOR favour. At the top of this page is a search function. Search cycling, nitrogen cycle. Get some knowledge... take the fish back. Start again.

Oh, and if I didn't metion... welcome to TASA. We might be a bit harsh on you now... but trust us... we have seen too many people start the hobby, and then leave because they didn't get it right. We want you to enjoy the hobby as much as we do, so we will give you the harsh advise now!

Enjoy your reading tonight!

I found I had that problem with my post! didn't know where to start or stop

 

Welcome to TASA

 

Ok your filter will not do at all, bubble filter, you need a filter that will filter 2-3 times the volume of your
Tank in a hour. 100L x 3 = 300L/hour filter.

 

Zoom whilst I agree with a lot of what you have to say, I think it could have been said in a 'nicer, less harsh' way. :blink1: The guy is a Noob - he admits it and the damage is done, let's help him out to try and minimize his loss and let him use this as a rather steep learning curve.:bigsmile:

 

If it's one of those green cheap and nasty bubble filters... I'm surprized the fish are still alive. That tank will be an ammonia and nitrite BATH!

Admittedly I may seem a bit harsh... It was not my intention. I was just trying to point out the facts. Dasher... please accept my appologies if I came out as harsh. I don't want to chase you away or scare you are all.

I know when I started I was all excited, and made the same mistakes as we all did. I wish someone would have pointed out the harsh reality to me then, rather than letting me learn first hand experience.

Just trying to help the Dasher get things going right.

 

well i checked the compatibility of the fish and most can co-exist,the angel fish is still small,i'm getting a new tank in 2 months so i hope my fish can survive until then,i will upload pics of my tank so i get better information,you guys have been giving me great advice and i'm happy to be a part of the forum.i have no where else to put my fish so i can't cycle my tank,the temprature is at 28 celcius and won't drop because of the house temprature.

 

Dash,

What you can do in the mean time to assist with the cycling is get one of those products. The stability is usually pricey, so the nutrifin might be the way to go. Also do small Water changes every day. Take out 10litres, and replace with 10litres dechlored water every evening. This will help dilute the Ammonia and Nitrites, and shoudl prevent future deaths.

 

It's all good Zoom :blink1::bigsmile:

Oh goodie - we LOVE pictures

 

He will learn as we all did, but some serious help would not hurt

 

ok,i uploaded pics to my album,soz but i had to use my phone.

 

welcome to TASA dasher,enjoy your stay bud..we will help you out wherever we can..

 

hey,i didn't know you can have GIf avatars.,thaks for the welcome.