10 Gallon Tank I need some assistance with a Fish in cycle.

Hello Everyone!

I'm new to the forum and hope to become apart of this fantastic community. So I recently inherited some fish from a friend of a friend. 2 Golden Panda Mollies and 3 Female Guppies. They came with a 10-Gallon tank so I purchased a sponge filter, heater, and an air stone /w pump alone with some drift wood and fake plants for the fish to hide in. I did my research beforehand and found that the tank needed to be cycled before putting the fish in, but I also saw that you could do a fish in cycle using Seachem Prime & Stability which I got from my local pet store.

It's been three days since I got them and started to treat the water with the Prime and Stability. The Mollies seem to be doing fine, but the guppies are staying at the top of the water. The sponge and air stone are oxygenating the tank so I did a water test and saw that I was close to 1ppm Ammonia with 0 Nitrites. I thought the Prime would detoxify the ammonia up to 1ppm or is there soemthiing I need to do extra to ensure they all survive? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

Hi and welcome.
Do an emergency water change as soon as possible TheStebils.

Use prime on the new water and match the temperature to the same as the tank water temperature.

Our API test kit can’t tell the difference between ammonia and harmless ammonium. Don’t worry about still seeing ammonia in the test but still continue with water changes. Fish swimming at the surface COULD be a bad sign.

Change 45% of the water as soon as possible.

 

Hi and welcome.
Do an emergency water change as soon as possible TheStebils.

Use prime on the new water and match the temperature to the same as the tank water temperature.

Our API test kit can’t tell the difference between ammonia and harmless ammonium. Don’t worry about still seeing ammonia in the test but still continue with water changes. Fish swimming at the surface COULD be a bad sign.

Change 45% of the water as soon as possible.

Will do! Thank you for the tip. I will do a water change as soon as I get home during lunch!

 

Hello Everyone!

I'm new to the forum and hope to become apart of this fantastic community. So I recently inherited some fish from a friend of a friend. 2 Golden Panda Mollies and 3 Female Guppies. They came with a 10-Gallon tank so I purchased a sponge filter, heater, and an air stone /w pump alone with some drift wood and fake plants for the fish to hide in. I did my research beforehand and found that the tank needed to be cycled before putting the fish in, but I also saw that you could do a fish in cycle using Seachem Prime & Stability which I got from my local pet store.

It's been three days since I got them and started to treat the water with the Prime and Stability. The Mollies seem to be doing fine, but the guppies are staying at the top of the water. The sponge and air stone are oxygenating the tank so I did a water test and saw that I was close to 1ppm Ammonia with 0 Nitrites. I thought the Prime would detoxify the ammonia up to 1ppm or is there soemthiing I need to do extra to ensure they all survive? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Welcome to Fishlore!

Fish-in cycles require daily testing and frequent (possibly daily) water changes to control ammonia and nitrite levels. Prime will help to protect your fish while the tank cycles, but it doesn’t remove ammonia. . . Only water changes will accomplish that.

Test your water parameters daily and change enough water to keep the combined level of ammonia and nitrites at or below 0.50 ppm. Single dose Prime at each water change and match the temperature of the water you’re adding to the tank water temperature.

You have some work ahead. . . The cycling process can take 4 - 6 weeks.

 

As the tank is not cycled you will need to do another water change tomorrow as well. If you have time test the old water from before the water change. If you don’t have time just do water changes often.

Something to read

Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle

There is a ton of old posts and writing about the nitrogen cycle on this site TheStebils but feel free to ask questions as well as look stuff up.

 

Welcome to Fishlore!

Fish-in cycles require daily testing and frequent (possibly daily) water changes to control ammonia and nitrite levels. Prime will help to protect your fish while the tank cycles, but it doesn’t remove ammonia. . . Only water changes will accomplish that.

Test your water parameters daily and change enough water to keep the combined level of ammonia and nitrites at or below 0.50 ppm. Single dose Prime at each water change and match the temperature of the water you’re adding to the tank water temperature.

You have some work ahead. . . The cycling process can take 4 - 6 weeks.

Thanks! Honestly, I've never kept fish before but I always wanted to so I'm willing to do the work!

 

Hello Everyone!

I'm new to the forum and hope to become apart of this fantastic community. So I recently inherited some fish from a friend of a friend. 2 Golden Panda Mollies and 3 Female Guppies. They came with a 10-Gallon tank so I purchased a sponge filter, heater, and an air stone /w pump alone with some drift wood and fake plants for the fish to hide in. I did my research beforehand and found that the tank needed to be cycled before putting the fish in, but I also saw that you could do a fish in cycle using Seachem Prime & Stability which I got from my local pet store.

It's been three days since I got them and started to treat the water with the Prime and Stability. The Mollies seem to be doing fine, but the guppies are staying at the top of the water. The sponge and air stone are oxygenating the tank so I did a water test and saw that I was close to 1ppm Ammonia with 0 Nitrites. I thought the Prime would detoxify the ammonia up to 1ppm or is there soemthiing I need to do extra to ensure they all survive? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Don't worry too much about the guppies swimming at the top of the water, thats where guppies usually swim : )

 

As the tank is not cycled you will need to do another water change tomorrow as well. If you have time test the old water from before the water change. If you don’t have time just do water changes often.

Something to read

Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle

There is a ton of old posts and writing about the nitrogen cycle on this site TheStebils but feel free to ask questions as well as look stuff up.

Will do! I also heard that you shouldn't feed your fish every day during the fish in cycle. Would you recommend this?

 

Will do! I also heard that you shouldn't feed your fish every day during the fish in cycle. Would you recommend this?

Feeding less will result in less ammonia, so it can't hurt. Even when you aren't cycling a tank it's okay to skip a day or two. Most commonly kept tropical fish aren't harmed by fasting for a week, and maybe longer.

 

Only very very young fry need to eat a couple of times a day. Most tropical fish are better off only being feed 6 days a week.

I would suggest all beginners feed way way to much food.
Regardless of cycling or not try to learn to feed less . Having visited local club members who are successful breeders and keepers of fish l see the water boil when food goes in . All food is gone before any reaches the substrate. Gone in 30 seconds.

I saw a small handful of duckweed just disappear in 30 seconds in a guys tank . My fish hardly bothered with duckweed at the time.

 

One thing I noticed is that you mentioned fake plants. Live plants will help immensely with keeping the ammonia down. Both by absorbing it as a nutrient source, and because they will introduce beneficial bacteria into the system. I know plants can sound intimidating when you're new (at least they did to me). But they're really not difficult at all and the benefits of having them is impossible to overstate.

 

So I just did a water change about 2 and 1/2 hours ago and I tested the water. It shows a little bit greener in the picture but it looks to still be around one part per million

 

So I just did a water change about 2 and 1/2 hours ago and I tested the water. It shows a little bit greener in the picture but it looks to still be around one part per million

I’d do another water change in a couple hours to get the ammonia level down further. How much water did you change and have you tested your source water for ammonia?

 

Oww, that is something I didn't think about testing Dunk2. I will do just that. I changed about 45% of the water as Flyfisha suggested. When I get back home, I will test my tap water when I get home.

 

Good morning all,
Yes more water changes with that amount of ammonia and fish in the tank, most definitely.

As Dunk 2 writes check the tap water for ammonia.

 

I did my water test and yes my tap water's ammonia is .25ppm. I'm going to do another water change and see where how goes. I will say that two of the three Guppies are doing much better and are swimming around. One of them is still up against the surface though :-(

 

I'll reiterate the suggestion of live plants again, as it now goes double with ammonia in the source water. The effectiveness of the water changes is lessened, so having something to absorb it from the water column provides a big boost there.

 

A very good point mimo1088 plants do consume ammonia, especially those with their leaves in the air and only their roots in water.

Multiple pothos plants, 20 plus cuttings in each 20 gallon does lower the nutrients slightly.

While it can look scruffy I kind of like the look even in the lounge tank ?

 

I will see what kind of plants I can get for the tank at my local pet shop tomorrow! Hopefully the one Guppie pulls through like the rest.

Aww man. So I took a closer look at the guppie that was more lethargic than the others and I think I see why. There may have been a tussle with one of the Mollis and there is a chunk of her lower half open X(.

I don't even know when this happened, but I'm guessing it has been all day like that. Man, what do I do?! Should I post that under a different thread?

 

Nature is red in tooth and claw. Sorry you have to go through this.

 

It may not be enough, but adding some salt to the water will give the wound a better chance at healing and salt can be beneficial for guppies and mollies regardless. Make sure to use aquarium salt (not the same as table salt) . Follow the dosing instructions on the package but start on the light end.

 

Will do. I may need to hold off on the plants then since salt won't be too good for them, right?

 

Aquarium salt isn’t needed and is expensive. Un iodized salt works great and is much cheaper and easier to use. Start with 2 tbs in the 10g. Now when you treat with prime it neutralizes your ammonia but your kit will still read it as ammonia. Next the .25 your now reading from your tap may just be the kit giving you a false reading. What’s the ph of your tank and of your tap water? And can you put up a picture of your tank.

 

the PH level of the water is approximately 7.4. Here is a picture of the tank when I first set it up. There is a sponge filter and an air wall behind it, but they were not on at the time as I was working on getting them plugged in.

 

What’s the ph of your tap water.

 

What’s the ph of your tap water.

I'm sorry, no I mean my tap water is approximately 7.4