Newbie - Glofish

Hello everyone,

I'm a complete beginner and feel setup by a Petco rep, but after reading online, that seems normal. My daughter (5 year old) wanted a fish for her birthday, when we went in, she really wanted the Glofish. We were only planning on getting a betta fish, needless to say we ended up getting a tank for Glofish. After discussing with the rep he recommended a 10 gallon tank and to fill it for 5 days and come back. So, as instructed, we filled it and waited 7 days and went back to get 3 Glo Tetras. Took them home and let them sit in the bag in the tank and added a cup of water every 10 minutes. Needless to say, they lived for 6 hours...

Started doing research online and grasped a little of a lot of info and seemed almost more confused than I was before. After looking into things, I picked up a 20 gallon long tank, new HOB filter (30-45 gallon), a heater and a fresh water master kit.

I setup the new tank and I reused the deco and water from the 10 gallon tank and added another 10 gallons of water. The old tank ran for about 20 days. Against better judgement, I went in to talk to the rep again for advise and took a sample of water in. He said everything looked right and said he would recommend Microbe-Lift special blend and nite-out 2 and trying again. He said I should add those in and add 3 Glo Tetras in right away.

So... I did. So far so good, all 3 fish are still alive and seem ok, I'm about a week in. I wish I would have known a little more and not went with Microbe-Lift and fish, but it was hard to find much on these products and the rep said it's what they use.

For the first 20ish days I had .25ppm-.50ppm ammonia, 0 nitrites and 0 nitrates. Started the Microbe-Lift SB and Nite-Out mix and in 3 days I was showing .25ppm Nitrites and 5 days in I'm showing 5.0ppm Nitrates. Still not sure what I'm doing. Once I started getting Nitrites in my reading I started doing daily 25-35% water change.

Current situation:
Fish: 3 Glo Tetras
Tank: 20 gallon long
Filter: Tetra Whisper EX45
Heater: hygger 200W Aquarium Heater with LED Display Controller
Water conditions: see attached picture



Any recommendations? Don't really want to ask for help at Petco anymore. Do I keep doing daily water changes? Seems like my cycle started, so I've continued with the daily Nite-Out. Fish seem to be doing ok. Once finished cycled, how long to add more Tetras? Also, should I stick to just Tetras? After reading more, feel like I'd like a group of Glo Dianos as they are more active. Would 6 of each be too much? Found a site, can't think of it now, but said I'd only be 60% stocked. Seemed to get mixed reviews on other forums and not sure what to believe. Any tips are appreciated, unless it's from Petco

 

Would 6 Tetra and 6 Danios be too much for the 20 gal long tank? If so, is there anything I should add other than Tetras? Feel like if it didn't glow we'd never really see it, room is fairly dark.

That's not too many fish for a 20gal tank in my opinion but you should wait until you're done cycling before adding them. Cycle is completed when nitrites reach zero and stay there. Here's a pic of a "typical" cycle. It could be up to a couple of months before this happens. You should research this by going to that link above. Ignore the mg/l units in the chart. I know we measure in parts per million. Mainly just wanted you to look at the curves on the chart for what you should expect.

 

Here are some great tutorials for the nitrogen cycle and fish-in-cycle that should help with cycling. I like them because they are clear and the fishlab one goes step by step-good luck!
Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle

I agree to hold off on addingbfish until the cycling is done, and address group size for schooling fish later. Hang in there, this effort will be worth it!

I've read about as much info as I could find and watched numerous videos. I thought I was on the right track especially when the Ammonia hit 0 and Nitrites 0 and Nitrates 5ppm. However, after a few days I have Ammonia back, I get about .25ppm in my tap water, but it doesn't seem to go away. So I'm just kinda randomly doing water changes every few days and making sure to add prime every 48 hours. Did my cycle stop? With ammonia present, shouldn't I have Nitrites, and without Nitrites wouldn't the Nitrates stop?

 

Sometimes when the test kits show traces of ammonia it seems to be an artifact. What I usually look for are patterns- a jump in ammonia, followed by a rise in nitrites and decrease in ammonnia, which is then followed by increase in nitrites and falls to zero in ammonia and nitrites-if you have seen this pattern, the the fish look OK and you are keeping nitrates down with water changes, I would suspect either an artifact or as you mentioned, trouble with your tap water ( call your water supplier!). In any event, the prime is always a good idea in case you are experiencing spikes. Mattgirl may be able to provide more information- she is super-knowledeable about cycling! Mattgirl, can you weigh in?

 

Sometimes when the test kits show traces of ammonia it seems to be an artifact. What I usually look for are patterns- a jump in ammonia, followed by a rise in nitrites and decrease in ammonnia, which is then followed by increase in nitrites and falls to zero in ammonia and nitrites-if you have seen this pattern, the the fish look OK and you are keeping nitrates down with water changes, I would suspect either an artifact or as you mentioned, trouble with your tap water ( call your water supplier!). In any event, the prime is always a good idea in case you are experiencing spikes. Mattgirl may be able to provide more information- she is super-knowledeable about cycling! Mattgirl, can you weigh in?

I saw that pattern but everything was in low amounts. Highest spikes was .50 ammonia and .25pm Nitrites.

I haven't really cleaned anything due to not wanting to get rid of the good bacteria. Not sure when I should attempt a cleaning.

 

So it sounds to me like maybe you have beneficial bacteria building up but not enough to support a lot of fish. The amount of bacteria grows with the amount if ammonia in the tank-but with fish in cycle you have to be careful- you get ammonia spikes because there is a lag between increase in ammonia ( the bacteria’s food) and the time it takes for the population to grow in response to increased food abundance, which is why you have the prime. The prime can neutralize harmful effects of small spikes until your population of beneficial bacteria grows so your fish won’t suffer. If the amount of ammonia producing waste is continuing to increase gradually ( eg from fish eating more as they get comfortable in the tank)- this would be expected- just watch for any spikes in nitrite that may follow after ammonia spikes and keep up with the prime. And I wouldn’t add any new fish for now. I am open to hearing other ideas and interpretations from other forum members!
Its important to balance cleaning/water changes with allowing ammonia levels to gradually increase in order to grow your bacterial populations- to me it seems like you are safe in holding off cleaning for now. As long as you dose with prime every 24 to 48 hours or so based on ammonia levels ( see the fishlab link) you should be ok with holding off on water changes until your ammonia levels are higher.

 

So it sounds to me like maybe you have beneficial bacteria building up but not enough to support a lot of fish. The amount of bacteria grows with the amount if ammonia in the tank-but with fish in cycle you have to be careful- you get ammonia spikes because there is a lag between increase in ammonia ( the bacteria’s food) and the time it takes for the population to grow in response to increased food abundance, which is why you have the prime. The prime can neutralize harmful effects of small spikes until your population of beneficial bacteria grows so your fish won’t suffer. If the amount of ammonia producing waste is continuing to increase gradually ( eg from fish eating more as they get comfortable in the tank)- this would be expected- just watch for any spikes in nitrite that may follow after ammonia spikes and keep up with the prime. And I wouldn’t add any new fish for now. I am open to hearing other ideas and interpretations from other forum members!
Its important to balance cleaning/water changes with allowing ammonia levels to gradually increase in order to grow your bacterial populations- to me it seems like you are safe in holding off cleaning for now. As long as you dose with prime every 24 to 48 hours or so based on ammonia levels ( see the fishlab link) you should be ok with holding off on water changes until your ammonia levels are higher.

Thank you, I'll give this a shot and hold off on water changes and continue with prime and daily testing. No plans on new fish, was just trying to get as much info as I could before it was time so I didn't do something I shouldn't again.

 

Just do water changes if ammonia gets high as per the fishlab link, you accidentally spill a ton of food in the tank, or if nitrates get above 20-40 ppm, and you should be fine

 

Any low light plants should do ok, you might find some in your local online shops. They also help with water quality and keep your fish less stressed.