a couple of ?'s about my tank?

Question

i forgot to cycle my tank before puttting in my fish so i got recomened to do 25% water changes every day for 3 weeks so should i just take out water or use a gravle vacuum? also i aqidentally put 2 more drops then i had to of water purifier will my fish be ok

Answer 1

Dechlorination products are not going to harm the fish, and you pretty much cannot overdose this product, but if you read over the labels on the bottle, I'm sure you'd find them saying the same thing. If they do not have directions or instructions in regards to overdosing, nothing to worry about.

Ok your tank isn't cycled, and your last question is about keeping goldfish in a ten gallon tank. You never can say how long, because nature has it's own ways of doing things. I don't know what happend to those other fish you kept always asking us about, but it appears you now have a gold fish, and you're probably going to run out of space in a matter of time for it. How long that will be is not something set in stone.

For the water changes, for the vaccuming, you can do that once a week on the gravel and that should be fine. For changing out the water, you do not have to change that water out 25% every day. You just don't have to do that. What you want to do is get yourself a testing kit so you can keep track of the ammonia levels. When you see it start creeping up to 1.0 or higher ppm, then change it out. You have to leave some ammonia in that water for the bacteria to cycle out with though.

When you are not doing weekly maintence, you don't have to put the gravel pump down in the gravel to change out water. Just start the suction, and keep the gravel head slightly above the substrate, so if there are any physical particles in or on the surface, you can get that out while you are changing your water. A non cycled tank, with just a single goldfish in there, if you keep the feedings very small, shouldn't have ammonia getting to lethal levels anyways.

JV

For further help I reccomend asking questions here.

Answer 2

If you just bought the fish, take them back to the store. Explain to the employee you didnt cycle, and now need to do it. They will respect you for doing the right thing. Dont worry about the water purifier, the fish will be fine, if you keep them. Look into a fishless cycle.....

Answer 3

hopefully you have just a couple of fish or a large tank.
if the gravel is new you shouldn't have to use a gravel vac
it is hard to over dose with water cond.
check for ammonia often
feed your fish sparingly
make sure you have enough oxygen in your water
maybe add some filter material or some substrate from a tank already up and running

Answer 4

daily water changes might work, but they should be at least 50%, better two thirds.

don't use a gravel vacuum because the nitrobacter (lack of it is the reason for cycling the tank) grows in the mud on the ground, too.

it also might help when you buy a filter starter kit - which is nitrobacter in a solution and is used instead of tank cycling.

Answer 5

check out this link
http://www.firsttankguide.net/cycle.php

and 2 extra drops won't hurt



hope that helps
Good luck


EB