skaxx_cagera

My husband bought me a 29 gallon fish tank kit for Christmas. We rinsed the tank, the gravel, ornaments, and filter. We added the gravel, ornaments, water, filter, heater, and Neutral Regulator. After the tank was full of water we noticed little air bubbles everywhere on the tank. They're on the sides of the glass, on the gravel, and ornaments. Is there a reason for this?


Also if you look up at the top of the water you can see little fibers floating (hair, dust, and particles from the gravel). How do we get rid of this? We turned the filter on as soon as the tank was full of water which has been running for about 4 or 5 hours.

TedsTank

Hello shaxx...and Welcome to FishLore

Those little bubbles will go away...it's normal on a tank full to tap water new ornaments and gravel. Thre Floating things shoud also disappear if not you can take a bowl and skim the stuff off the top...or...take a paper towel lay it quickly on the surface of the tank and lift it off....it will pick up particles too. Be sure its an unscented type.

mathas

Tap water is pressurized, and any gasses within the water often eventually form bubbles once the water exits the tap and enters a lower-pressure environment, such as your aquarium. They should dissipate in a day or two, and are nothing to worry about. You may also see the same bubbles (though in smaller quantities) after each water change.

skaxx_cagera

ok thanks =)

Rhan

I just set up a new tank a few weeks ago, and it took over a day of filtering for it to look clear. The gravel took a while to settle, longer than it thought it would, but I'd say give it at least another day to do it's thing, then see how it looks Someone with more experience will probably have their own input

And as for the bubbles, I have no idea. I have noticed air bubbles on ornaments that I have just put into the tank, but they don't usually stay very long.

Meenu

Welcome to FL, Skaxx.

What a fun gift from your husband... he sounds like a keeper.

TedsTank

Hi again!!!
Also if you don't mind, would you please fill out your tank information under "my Settings" at the top of the page. That info is a great help to us all if you have anymore questions.
As mine is now....why are you adding neutral regulator??...isn't that for pH?

skaxx_cagera

When we went to the pet store to ask if we needed to use bottled water or straight from the tap they recommended the Neutral Regulator, that way we didn't have to buy bottled water.

flyin-lowe

I think what you meant to say was "that way they could get some more of our money"
I would do all of your research on here and any other sites you like, then go to the pet store knowing what you are after. You have to remember their number one goal is to make money. I am surprised you didn't come home with a bunch of fish the day you got the tank. They normally don't want you to know it takes several weeks to get ready because they want to make the sales.

skaxx_cagera

They did tell us to let it filter 3-5 days before adding any fish, and to add the Neutral Regulator to the water if we were using water from the tap so that it would remove any chlorine in the water.

Meenu

Is neutral regulator the brand? Can you read the bottle and see what it does? If it is a pH regulator, that's bad. If it is a water conditioner, that's probably okay.

Have you had a chance to read about the nitrogen cycle? The link is in my signature.

edit:

Okay, never mind, I found it:
Neutral Regulator™ adjusts pH to neutral (pH 7.0) from either a low or high pH and maintains it there. It softens water by precipitating calcium and magnesium while removing any chlorine, chloramine, or ammonia. The use of Neutral Regulator™ makes other conditioning unnecessary. To lower pH below 7.0 use Neutral Regulator™ with Acid Regulator™ (or Discus buffer™). To raise pH above 7.0 use with Alkaline Regulator™. All of these products will enhance and stabilize the freshwater aquarium environment

source: http://www.seachem.com/Products/prod...Regulator.html

I think in general, you don't want to use a chemical that will mess with your pH. This is bad because it can create spikes in your pH, it works too fast. That's extremely harmful for fish, and people have reported to waking up to an entire aquarium dead.

The other problem I see is that this product removes ammonia. You don't want to remove ammonia, you just want to detoxify it. It's the food source to build up your beneficial bacteria colony in the nitrogen cycle.

I think the best conditioner for you is Prime, also by Seachem, who makes the product you have now. That also removes heavy metals, chlorine, and chloramine from tap water. It has the added benefits of detoxifying ammonia and nitrites (both lethal to fish, harmful in any quantity), and it is concentrated, so you can use very little.