# Beginner Aquarium Setup (Problems & Solutions)



## silverfly (Jan 11, 2009)

I just got my first fish tank a few months ago. It is a 46 gallon bow-front tank. I have had quite a few problems for a while resulting in dead fish, but now my tank seems to be doing very well. 

So, I wanted to post a thread about the problems I ran into and what I did to fix those problems.

I started my tank out with natural looking pebbles, 3 plants (amazon somethings) and some medium sized rocks that I found in a dried out creek. I use a Marineland bio-wheel power filter (350 gals/hour) and I ran the tank for about 3 weeks before I added any fish.

In the first couple weeks I added 4 platys, a couple mollies, an upside down catfish, and a black bubble goldfish.

*Problem*: Many of my fish had some kind of white fungus growing on their fins. It looks like small pieces of cotton and it spreads quick. 

*Solution*: At first, I separated the sick fish into a small 10-gallon tank and treated the fish with Maroxy. The medicine seemed to work, but as soon as I put my fish back in the big tank, they would get the fungus within a few days. This kept spreading to other fish, so I began treating the whole tank. Most of the fish seemed to be doing okay, but I lost a couple in this time period. Finally, I bought a heater for my tank and the fish responded very well. I didn't have a thermometer the whole time and the water was probably around 68-70 degrees (apparently too cold for all my fish). Increasing the heat to about 76-80 helped tremendously. I also added the recommended amount of aquarium salt and I haven't seen any fungus since.

*Problem*: My ammonia and nitrite levels were dangerously high and I might have lost some fish to these problems as well.

*Solution*: At first, I thought I just needed a partial water change, so I bought a python siphon (extremely helpful for tanks over 20 gallons) and changed the water, but both ammonia and nitrites were still high. I bought some cheap plant bulbs from petsmart, increased the temperature (same as above), and added the salt. Ever since two of the bulbs grew, nitrites are non-existent and the ammonia has severely dropped. So I'm not sure if the live plants aided in this solution, but I like to think there's some natural ecosystem going on.

So, those were my biggest problems. I think increasing the temperature in the aquarium was the best solution to all my problems. Adding the salt seemed to help disease and I think having live plants helps the fish in more ways than one too. I didn't realize how important the temperature was, but I'd say you have to have a heater if you live in a cold area. 

I hope this was helpful.


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## Dragonbeards (Dec 14, 2008)

Thanks silverfly. I'm sure this will be really helpful to people who experience similar problems .


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## paavn (Jan 15, 2009)

generally if you keep tropical fish of anykind you must have an water heater, its going to make the fish alot happier and more active 
you should check to see your water hardness (KH) if your water hardness is too low you can get pH swings wich stress out fish, and too high of water hardness makes it easier for bacteria to breed (bacterias that you dont want) 
plants to use ammonia and nitrates so they do help to keep the levels down quite a bit if you heavily plant your tank


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## Chrispixx (Dec 23, 2008)

silverfly said:


> I ran the tank for about 3 weeks before I added any fish.


This did nothing without an ammonia source (fish pee/poop or bottled ammonia) all it did was circulate the water and was a waste of three weeks that the tank could have been cycling.




silverfly said:


> *Problem*: My ammonia and nitrite levels were dangerously high and I might have lost some fish to these problems as well.


This is a problem and is called new tank syndrome. It is from putting fish in a non-cycled tank. There is nothing to process the ammonia created from the fish waste. You should have researched cycling a tank before adding fish.

Glad to see you have it sorted out now.




Quick rundown on a tank cycle:

Fish pee/poop turns into Ammonia. Bacteria #1 convert this ammonia into NitrIte. Bacteria #2 then convert NitrIte Into NitrAte then water changes you do (plants help) remove the NitrAte.

There are only two ways to accomplish a cycle. 

#1. *Cycling With Fish* Add fish and wait it out. But this can be cruel and result in fish death.

#2. *Fishless Cycling* Add artificial ammonia source. Usually bottled ammonia from the supermarket. Pure ammonia only, no soaps or lemon scents, the label should read two ingredients Ammonia and Soft Water.


More cycling info:

http://www.fishforums.com/forum/beg...posting-if-your-fish-dying-your-new-tank.html


:fish:


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## COM (Mar 15, 2008)

The easiest thing to do is to get some bacteria from elsewhere. You can get some from someone else who has a well-established tank, or, you can buy some in a bottle in a product like BioSpira.


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## justintrask (Jun 29, 2008)

Ask your LFS for a bag full of squeezings from their sponge filters. I got about 10 gallons of this stuff, instant cycle.


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## Chrispixx (Dec 23, 2008)

justintrask said:


> Ask your LFS for a bag full of squeezings from their sponge filters. I got about 10 gallons of this stuff, instant cycle.



This has worked well for me with one of my tanks. I still did a fishless cycle and it didn't take long at all.




COM said:


> You can buy a product like BioSpira.


I have used BioSpira in the past and i think it works great. The problem is it has to be kept cold. That means from the manufacturer to the supplier then from the supplier to the LFS and then to you.


:fish:


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## rose_levi2006 (Jan 15, 2009)

*tank*

So i have a question to add i have a 50 gallon tank that has been setup for 6 months and i want to setup a 10 gallon. can i take the water from the 50 and add it to the 10 and add fish right away?


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## paavn (Jan 15, 2009)

rose_levi2006 said:


> So i have a question to add i have a 50 gallon tank that has been setup for 6 months and i want to setup a 10 gallon. can i take the water from the 50 and add it to the 10 and add fish right away?


if you do that you woun't get nearly enough bacteria cycle the tank, the only "instant" way would be to take the filter from the 50 gallon tank and put it on the 10 gallon thank. but im sure you have fish in there so its prolly not a good idea.

you can fill up your 10 gallon with water, dechlorinate it and then just rinse the filter media from the 50 gallon tank in there and you should be up and running in a couple of days. another option would be to take some of the filter media from your 50 gallon filter and put it into the 10 gallon filter, that will get you up and running within a few days as well


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