Hi donnabright2002,
Sorry for this, but exactly why I said on the last thread not to trust that the people at the petstore know what they are doing. Sometimes they just fake it until they make it, because maybe they are a cashier that needs a job, or they like dogs or cats, but know nothing about fish and get assigned to work that area.
As far as your tank goes, you have
tetras I believe, something like 13 tetras and 3
guppies?
16 small fish in a 20g.
It's good you are getting a
test kit but it has to get to you first.
What I will do is advise you of
fish in cycling water changing, that predates all this water testing.
What you'll need to do is a daily 25%-50% water change, every single day. Try to keep it routine, time in the morning or time in the evening, where you usually have 15mins to half an hour of time to push through a water change. Don't worry about cleaning or vacuum, just change out water and use
dechlorinator for the new water.
If you can check periodically, 25% is fine, if you can't check for a long stretch of the day like going to work or out for the evening 50% would buy you more time. You'd be looking for the fish to be acting normal, and if they aren't, and are sitting around lethargic or puffing or spinning in circles or bumping into things or at the surface only, do another water change.
It's how we used to do it. Daily waterchange and monitor, and when in doubt or fish acting strange, water change some more.
When you get your test kit you can find out the ammonia and the goal would be to keep it below 0.5ppm. You should also test and find out your pH.
Stick with me here this is a little complicated bit useful to know to take some of the mystery out of ammonia.
At pH6 nearly all ammonia that shows up is actually ammonium, like 97+%, and its a larger particle than ammonia that fish don't easily absorb, ammonia is a small particle fish can take it up easily and it hurts them.
At pH7 about 5% of the ammonia showing up on a test is as ammonia, the other 95% is ammonium.
At pH 8 about 10% of the ammonia that shows up on the test is ammonia, and not ammonium. At pH 9, 50% of it is ammonia and 50% ammonium. Higher than that, it's just all ammonia.
What I'm saying is pH matters how much of the ammonia on the test is actual ammonia which is easily absorbed by the fish and far more dangerous, and how much of it is ammonium which is far less dangerous to the fish.
Ammonia starts doing damage at 0.05 ppm and becomes deadly at around 0.10 ppm. Assuming your tank is somewhere between 6.5 and 7.5 pH like most peoples tanks are, roughly 5% of what shows on the test is as ammonia, so if the test reads 1ppm, the ammonia, as ammonia, is likely 0.05 ppm, the other 0.95ppm is ammonium which isn't anywhere near as toxic because it's not easily absorbed.
Because you can't test or trust what the store is telling you, when it doubt, water change, and water change 2x a day if the fish start acting strange later in the day. Water changes don't hurt the fish.
When you can test, you can know your ammonia level ( people all recommend keeping the ammonia test at 0.5 ppm and water changing by 1ppm... makes sense) and then test your pH and then set a water change plan that keeps you safe and reduces the amount of ammonia build up and doesn't just flat out waste water and time.
I wish you the best of luck. Sorry it's going sideways on you.
