richardh

My 5 year old daughter has been saving all her money the past 5 months to buy a fish tank. 2 weeks ago she had enough to buy the tank and I bought the rest of what we needed.

We just bought a starter 14 gallon tank with heater, filter, etc. and the instructions said in 3 days you can add fish. So after 3 days we went to petsmart and bought 2 Mickey Mouse Platy fish. A few days later we bought 1 Guppy, 2 GloFish, and 2 African Dwarf Frogs. I then found this web site and learned about cycling. I could not find Tetra Safe Start so I ordered it online and while waiting for it to show up, I have been doing 5 Gallon Water changes daily. I also bought an API liquid test kit. I want to make sure these guys live! I feed them once a day and I feed the frogs blood worms by using a turkey baster to put the food right in front of them which they eat. Everybody in the tank seems to be doing fine.

The Safe Start showed up today so I will now be adding it.

My Question

Since I have been doing Daily Water Changes, should I not do them for a week or so after I add Safe Start? What things should I look for or do after adding safe start to my tank.

Thanks.

Kitsune

If I am not mistaken the bottle says not to test the water for the first 7-10 days and to leave off the water changes for the same period of time. Might want to wait for a second opinion though.

Tell your daughter congratulations on the new tank and welcome to fishlore

Lucy

Welcome to FishLore
I've only used TSS when I added 12 new fish to an establshed tank but several members have had good luck starting tanks with it.

I'm pretty sure Kitsune has it right.
Check your ammonia level before adding it. If it's high (just a guess but say 1 or 2ppm or higher), I'd probably do a 50% water change before adding it to make sure that amount of ammonia doesn't overwhelm the bacteria in TSS.
If the pH from your tap differs greatly from the pH in your tank you might want to do a couple of smaller changes so as not to shock you fish.

Best of luck and post pics when you get a chance.

peacemaker92

WELCOME TO FISHLORE!

Great advice above. It's right not to test your water after adding TSS, if you do, the test would show crazy untrue results.

Best of luck and congrats to your daughter for the new tank!

jdhef

Welocme to FishLore

No, do not do any water change after adding the SafeStart for 7 to 10 days. After 7 to 10 days check your water parameters. If you have any ammonia or nitrites then the SafeStart didn't work, and you will need to do 50% water changes until the cycle finishes.

Also, I'm afraid your tank may be overstocked. There is a general guideline of 1" of adult sized fish for every gallon of water. I don't know how the frogs fit into that guideline though.

If indeed your tank is overstocked your fish can become stressed from being over crowded, which can make them either sickly or aggressive. The other problem is that more fish=more ammonia. More ammonia=more nitrites and more nitrites=more nitrates, so you will probably need to do more than one partial water change per week (once you are cycled)

Best of luck

richardh

Thanks for the help everybody!

I did a 50% water change just to be safe and then added the Safe Start. Here are my levels right after the water change but before I added the Safe Start

PH 7.6 (My tap water is 7.2)
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 0
Ammonia - .50

Thanks for the info jdhef

I guess right now with the fish I have it is at 10" if I figured this up right?

2 GloFish (2 inches at Adult Size)
2 Male Platy (2 Inches at Adult Size)
1 Guppy (2 Inches at Adult Size) Not sure if Male or Female

Plus the 2 frogs all in a 14 gallon tank.

My battery went dead so I will try and take some more photos but here are 2

These were the levels right after the water change before adding SafeStart

AlyeskaGirl

Welcome to FishLore and Congratz on the new tank!

Before adding TSS only use a dechlorinator when changing water. Using other dechlorinators that have ammonia removal, nitrite detox and nitrate detox like Stress Coat Plus, Prime and Amquel Plus can mess up the TSS and it wont work right. But after the tank cycles you can use them and/or if the the TSS fails you can use eather Prime or Amquel Plus with 30-50% daily water changes until the tank cycles. That can take 6 weeks or longer with fish. Good luck!

richardh

Thanks for the info! I did not know that! Luckily I have only been using Tetra AquaSafe since that is what TSS recommended. I almost bought some Prime the other day since so many people here recommend it but glad I held off. Once my tank cycles, I am thinking about using Prime.

richardh

Posted some more photos of my fish at

Newbie 14 gallon tank

1st Day with SafeStart. I am testing the water during the process just for fun to see what it does. Today it is

PH 7.6 (My tap water is 7.2)
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5.0
Ammonia - .50