Ok, So We've Made Multiple Newbie Mistakes Already....

HI everyone
My partner and I have both had tanks when we were younger so figured we would just jump right into a new 10 gallon tank.
It would appear we should have been more humble and done some research first! We set up our tank on Thursday, put in water (we used water treatment), rinsed our gravel and plants with clean water. We let the tank run until Saturday evening, temp at 22. We added 3 tetras to the tank. Everyone was doing alright until this morning. One is VERY lethargic, the 2 larger ones seem fine. I've noticed the tank water is a bit cloudy and there is white fuzz on the bottom of the tank. So it would appear a. they have been overfed and b. we should have let the tank cycle for longer. We are going to get our water tested tonight and follow the appropriate steps based on the ammonia, nitrites, nitrates etc.
Does anyone else have any suggestions that will help us minimize the discomfort to the fish? I'm planning on cleaning the tank tomorrow, I understand 25% is a good amount and to clean half the gravel? If we have to treat the water tonight based on the water testing is it still ok to clean the tank tomorrow?

Have a great day everyone!

 

You can never do too many water changes. And you can gravel vac the whole bottom since the bacteria that is in the gravel is stuck fast and you only vac the gunk and left over food out.

 

Welcome to Fishlore. Don't beat yourself up. Most of us were in your shoes at one point in our fish keeping lives. Hopefully this will help you understand exactly what is going on and what to do about it

Fish in Nitrogen Cycle simplified

The cycle needs an ammonia source. In your case that ammonia source is your fish. They are in there eating, breathing and pooping. All those things produce ammonia. That ammonia is food for your cycle but can be deadly for the fish. You can't know how high the ammonia is without testing it. I highly recommend the API Master Freshwater Test Kit. With it you can know exactly what is happening with the tank water. Without it you need to be doing water changes often to keep the ammonia level down.

A cycle is simply growing ammonia eating bacteria. That bacteria grows mostly on your filter media but also grows on every surface in your tank.

It takes time for the bacteria to start growing. The first bacteria is one that eats ammonia. The waste from the ammonia eating bacteria is nitrite. The second bacteria is one that eats nitrites. Then the waste from the nitrite eating bacteria is nitrate. There usually isn't another bacteria to eat the nitrates so they have to be removed with water changes. Nitrates are the final stage of the cycling process so unless you have them in your source water you probably won't see them until the nitrites rise and start to fall.

Right now the most important thing you can do to protect your fish is to keep the ammonia and nitrites (once they start showing up) as low as possible with water changes. Water changes should not hurt your fish as long as you use a water conditioner in the water you are replacing and making sure the temp is close to the same as what you took out.

Ammonia can build up pretty fast so it is possible you will have to do water changes every day or every other day to keep it as low as possible.

I can't over stress the importance of SeaChem Prime while doing a fish in cycle. It is first and foremost a water conditioner but it has the added benefit of neutralizing low amounts of ammonia thus protecting your fish from its damaging affects yet leaving some there to feed the growing bacteria..

While cycling my last tank I never saw an ammonia spike because I was doing 30% water changes every other day for most of the cycle so I know a zero ammonia reading is possible while doing a fish in cycle. I was doing them every day when the nitrites spiked. I know the ammonia was there because the tank did in fact cycle.

 

Hello! Welcome to fishlore!
You are not alone.

 

Get a set of test kits like API's master kit. Almost impossible to properly keep fish without one.

edit: didn't realize this was already mentioned xP

 

You can never do too many water changes. And you can gravel vac the whole bottom since the bacteria that is in the gravel is stuck fast and you only vac the gunk and left over food out.

Thank you!

Thank you so much for this info, I have ordered a bottle of Seachem. Unfortunately one of the fish has died so hopefully we can save the other two!

Welcome to Fishlore. Don't beat yourself up. Most of us were in your shoes at one point in our fish keeping lives. Hopefully this will help you understand exactly what is going on and what to do about it

Fish in Nitrogen Cycle simplified

The cycle needs an ammonia source. In your case that ammonia source is your fish. They are in there eating, breathing and pooping. All those things produce ammonia. That ammonia is food for your cycle but can be deadly for the fish. You can't know how high the ammonia is without testing it. I highly recommend the API Master Freshwater Test Kit. With it you can know exactly what is happening with the tank water. Without it you need to be doing water changes often to keep the ammonia level down.

A cycle is simply growing ammonia eating bacteria. That bacteria grows mostly on your filter media but also grows on every surface in your tank.

It takes time for the bacteria to start growing. The first bacteria is one that eats ammonia. The waste from the ammonia eating bacteria is nitrite. The second bacteria is one that eats nitrites. Then the waste from the nitrite eating bacteria is nitrate. There usually isn't another bacteria to eat the nitrates so they have to be removed with water changes. Nitrates are the final stage of the cycling process so unless you have them in your source water you probably won't see them until the nitrites rise and start to fall.

Right now the most important thing you can do to protect your fish is to keep the ammonia and nitrites (once they start showing up) as low as possible with water changes. Water changes should not hurt your fish as long as you use a water conditioner in the water you are replacing and making sure the temp is close to the same as what you took out.

Ammonia can build up pretty fast so it is possible you will have to do water changes every day or every other day to keep it as low as possible.

I can't over stress the importance of SeaChem Prime while doing a fish in cycle. It is first and foremost a water conditioner but it has the added benefit of neutralizing low amounts of ammonia thus protecting your fish from its damaging affects yet leaving some there to feed the growing bacteria..

While cycling my last tank I never saw an ammonia spike because I was doing 30% water changes every other day for most of the cycle so I know a zero ammonia reading is possible while doing a fish in cycle. I was doing them every day when the nitrites spiked. I know the ammonia was there because the tank did in fact cycle.

Thank you both for this information, we will be following it

Hello! Welcome to fishlore!
You are not alone.

Get a set of test kits like API's master kit. Almost impossible to properly keep fish without one.

edit: didn't realize this was already mentioned xP

 

Thank you so much for this info, I have ordered a bottle of Seachem. Unfortunately one of the fish has died so hopefully we can save the other two!

You are so very welcome. I am sorry that you lost one. Sadly that does happen

Fish really go through a lot getting from the breeder to our tanks and sometimes no matter what we do whether we have a fully cycled tank or one that has just been set up we lose some of them.

The slightly foggy water you are seeing could be nothing more than a bacterial bloom and that isn't unusual to see in a tank starting the cycling process.

What size is this tank? oops, I see that you have already answered this question

 

Thank you again, we tested the water and surprisingly the levels were ok so the pet shop exchanged the fish for us.... we will be using one of the more accurate tests (not strips) tomorrow after we clean the tank so fingers crossed the poor fish don't suffer!

You are so very welcome. I am sorry that you lost one. Sadly that does happen

Fish really go through a lot getting from the breeder to our tanks and sometimes no matter what we do whether we have a fully cycled tank or one that has just been set up we lose some of them.

The slightly foggy water you are seeing could be nothing more than a bacterial bloom and that isn't unusual to see in a tank starting the cycling process.

What size is this tank? oops, I see that you have already answered this question

 

I'd be curious to the water test with the Master Kit...
I never had any luck with test strips, I use the API kit

 

I'd be curious to the water test with the Master Kit...
I never had any luck with test strips, I use the API kit

We just picked up the master kit so will be testing tonight. I didn't 100% trust the test strip results from the pet store