vin

Try using Snickers Bars....That should bring you down to 2 candy bars.....Because Snickers satisfies.....

tan.b

i wonder this too!! my sis and my hubbys brother in law just got fish, got tank, put fish in tank and that was it! : i dont what their death rates are though . my sis was baffled when i mentioned the words nitrogen cycle and water change! yet other friends who see my tanks think i need to empty each tank completely every week, wash the gravel, then replace water and fish etc! that would take days to do and the plants would be ruined not to mention the stress to the fish moving them about! - and the stress to me too! and are surprised when i say i just change 20% of the water every week and rinse out the filter every week. sometimes i miss a week on the filter in the understocked tanks ! i do believe though that a thorough understanding and proper care will lead to less disease and prolonged life expectancy and of course happier fish! tan

Luniyn

Don't do the 50% change more then just once to get your ammonia levels down. And if you get Prime (or Amquel+) you don't need to do one at all because the Prime will detoxify the ammonia. In your tank a 1 or 2 gal water change each day till things get under control should be more then enough while using Prime to keep the total ammonia down in the tank.

As to your algae, no sorry as was mentioned, the green stuff isn't a sign of a cycling tank. You can get that stuff just in a cup of water that you leave sitting in the sun for too long. Less food in the tank, less light in the tank, etc. as listed above will all help keep this stuff at bay. As to the oto's definitely do not get them until you have fully cycled your tank. They are kind of picky about water quality, but you could get away with 2 in your tank as they only get to be 2" long max. So they would be 4" of your total and with the 2 balloon mollies you already have that would be all the fish your 10 Gal could hold (they get to 3" I believe).

Yeah I don't get it either other then just plain luck. Though I have a fish farm locally that has an acre field full of rectangular concrete ponds (pictures on their site here). No filtration, no aeration, just a pond full of algae, leaves, and whatever else wants to fall into them. And you walk around and find the fish you like and they come by with big nets and scoop up a bunch for you to get a good look at. I'll tell you, these are probably the hardiest fish you will ever meet. They will be resistant to so many things growing up in those conditions that they would probably last forever. However, I didn't buy any because even though they might have built up immunities to various bacteria and such doesn't mean they aren't infected and adding them to my tank wouldn't cause all kinds of problems. But still its an interesting place.

COBettaCouple

Those sound like pygmy otos if they only get to 1". They can get nervous around bigger fish, so you want to watch what kind of fish you add. Regular otos get to 2" like Luniyn said so they aren't as nervous as the pygmys.

It really does seem like luck when tanks that aren't cycled or maintained do well.. maybe REALLY hearty fish or the right balance of wrong conditions or the fish aliens.. and i can buy the theory that fish aren't as hearty as they used to be due to inbreeding and other breeding practices that maximize profits, but weaken the fish genetically.

susitna-flower

Luniyn

You could certainly do 50%'s as long as it's every single day. A 50% by itself can be stressful because it changes the quality of the water so drastically. Even if the fish are in bad quality water, at least it's a stable bad quality. Going from bad to good quickly is a change that can cause more stress then just staying in the bad. Change over time is normally suggested, but if you keep doing the 50% changes everyday then it will always be close to the quality of your tap water... i.e. stable.

The only reason I suggested smaller is so the changes are more gradual. While using Prime, none of the ammonia in the tank will be toxic, so getting your total level down to around 0 isn't as critical. When I cycled my tank I did 25% water changes every day during the ammonia part of my cycle and 25% changes every 12 hours during the nitrite part of my cycle. I was using Prime though the whole process and kept my ammonia in the 0.5ppm range almost the entire time. The nitrites were harder to control, however, and those would get up to 2.0ppm every now and then. But on the plus side I didn't lose a single fish.

Use either method, or find your style that suits you. Though parts of this are an exact science, there is a lot of it that is trial and error. Unfortunately this isn't a simple put water in tank A, add fish B, and enjoy. But then again if it was that easy, I don't think it would be as much fun . Good Luck with whatever you decide to do!

Amnagrla

Okay. Friday... here are the results.

Ammonia 1.0 (same)
Nitrite 0 (same)
Nitrate 0 (same)
pH 8.0 (down from 8.2)

I haven't done the water change yet today. I do it at night. I wanted to know, is there a general rule of thumb how long to wait after doing a water change to test the water? Or how long after adding the prime?

Luniyn

Add the Prime to the new water, and only enough to treat that amount of water. There will be parts of the chemical that won't be used and sit in the tank to wait till it can be, except what is removed through water changes. So it doesn't matter when you test in regard to the addition of Prime. Note that because of the binding action of the Prime chemicals, the bound up ammonia will take longer to be eaten by the good bacteria. This will eventually lead to a sort of "false" reading of ammonia in your tank. It's still there but it's non-toxic. This will usually be seen while in the nitrite part of the cycle. You will eventually get down to 0.25ppm and that will seem to last for a very long time even once your nitrite has started to taper off. It will eventually get to 0 but might take a bit of time depending on how much toxic ammonia you had in your tank to bind up in the first place. Nothing to worry about, but just thought I would mention it.

As to after a water change, it's generally thought to take a few hours before the test will be all that accurate and even then it's dependent on your water circulation. I usually wait till right before I'm going to do a water change to test my water. Yes even if it's been 24 hours since my last water change and things will have increased by then, I still figure it's the best bet that the water has had a chance to mix fully. But that's just me over thinking it 4 hours should probably be enough.

Amnagrla

Everything is slowly coming down.* :-)* Thanks for all the help!

Ammonia 0.50-1.0
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
pH 7.6

Luniyn

Looks good! Do your best to keep it in that range. The nitrites will start soon and then it will become hectic for a bit again while you go though that phase. Keep up the good work!

tan.b

good luck with the nitrites. they will become present soon as your ammonia drops, but you need to keep them as low as possible too. below 1, but the lower the better!
keep us updated!
tan