New Setup 36 Gallon Bowfront

Just want to say love the site with lots of information to consume which I am trying to do. Anyhow we just started a 36G Bowfront. I asked the employee at the lfs what I need to get the process started and was told to use API Quick Start and then come back in 2 days to test water. I ran for the 2 days and wound up with high PH. Now I was told I can try API Proper PH 7.0 and with that do a 35% water change. Done that went back the next day and all the levels were good and said I can add fish. I have now added 5 neons, 5 Rasboras, and 2 Peppered Cory catfish. After some ore reading here I went and bought the API Freshwater Master Test Kit. The fish have been in the tank for about 30 hours and just tested. Here are the results.

High PH-7.4
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5.0

The fish seem to be loving life. I also ad keeping the temperature at 78 degrees and am running a Fluval 306. Water is a tad cloudy but not too bad. Should I be concerned? last question is where should I have the output flowing? Right now is back right corner shooting across the back wall of tank and the intake is in the left back corner. Anything specific I should use when doing water changes? sorry for all the questions. Thx

 

WELCOME to Fishlore!!!

So you have stocking problems and you did not cycle your aquarium!!! Cycling your aquarium takes 1-2 weeks. You might experience problems! The first day the readings will seem cycled but the ammonia level will rise so I would carefully watch the tank. So all schooling fish should have a minimum of 6! Neons and the peppered corys are cool water fish and <74F! 78F is really high for them and will shorten their life span by a couple of years if you don't lower it.

What filter do you have?

 

Thanks for rhe quick resonse. I have a fluval 306...I will adjust the heat down a bit

 

Welcome to the forum

It appears the store gave you some bad information unfortunately. First of all, adding live bacteria to the tank will need an ammonia source or it dies off. Second, API Quick Start is just snake oil. It does nothing to effectively cycle a tank. Third, there is absolutely no reason for you to use a pH altering additive. Lastly, that will have been too many fish to have added to the tank at one time. You may not be showing any traces of ammonia/nitrite yet because all those fish were just added, however, I imagine you will start seeing spikes.

Can you test all your parameters out of the tap? I would pick up a bottle of Seachem Stability and a bottle of Seachem Prime. Stability will help you cycle the tank in about 2-3 weeks and Prime will help detoxify ammonia and nitrite up to 1ppm for 24 hours, keeping your fish safe during cycling.

 

I will test my tap first thing tommrw. Btw I have well water and we run a uv light and have a water softener. I will also pick up stability and prime. Thx el337

 

I just tested my tap water and here are the results. I also picked up stability and prime this morning. Should I test my tank again this morning?

 

Definetly do a water change, our nitrates is really high, you want <20ppm!

 

Al913 that is the results from my tap water not my tank. Should I also test fish tank now? thx

 

Strange that your tap nitrates are much much higher than your tank results from your first post. Yes, please re-test your tank.

 

Ok, here are the fish tank results

 

I'd dose Prime for the full tank volume to detoxify the trace of ammonia you're seeing as well as add your dose of Stability. Test daily, any time your ammonia+nitrite add up to 1 or above in the tank, do at least a 50% water change to bring them down. If they're under 1, dose Prime for the full tank volume. Dose Stability daily.

Still wondering about the lowering of nitrates in your tank. Do you have any nitrate reducing media in your filters by any chance?

 

Thx for the response el337. Filter is fluval 306 running it just the way it was out of the box.

 

Ok, just watch the nitrates esp now that you have fish in the tank (along with the ammonia/nitrite). If they climb higher due to the combination of the tap nitrates and the bioload from the fish, you can look into adding live plants and/or nitrate reducing media like API Nitra Zorb or Seachem Matrix. Keep in mind these products don't replace the need for water changes so you will need to stick with those at least weekly.

 

Ok...thx for all your help. Addled the dose of Prime and Stability.

 

It's been about 3 weeks and I think I am getting close to being cycled. Maybee a few more days? I did have bad PH spike a few days ago but it has gradually been going down. I also did a water change which helped it a bit. My readings have looked like this for the last few days since the PH spike with no ammonia or nitrites, but the nitrates are slowly coming down. They have been just a bit over 40 but now seem to be a tad under 40. Is there anything to help with the nitrates or just let them gradually come down.

 

looks like you're cycled! congrats. you remove nitrates with water changes, so they won't go down on their own, no.

 

It's been about 3 weeks and I think I am getting close to being cycled. Maybee a few more days? I did have bad PH spike a few days ago but it has gradually been going down. I also did a water change which helped it a bit. My readings have looked like this for the last few days since the PH spike with no ammonia or nitrites, but the nitrates are slowly coming down. They have been just a bit over 40 but now seem to be a tad under 40. Is there anything to help with the nitrates or just let them gradually come down. View attachment 275284

That looks like it's at 80ppm to me and you really will want to get some nitrate reducing media like API Nitra Zorb or Seachem Matrix as mentioned. Adding pothos with just the roots submerged will help a lot as well. You want to keep your nitrates under 20 ideally.