New Fish Owner Help?

Question

Im a new fish owner with a 10 gallon tank. I have a few questions hopefully someone can help me with. I have alot of fish, the guy in the store let me get them and i figured he knew what he was talking about but then i read that u were only supposed to have 10 one inch fish in a 10 gallon tank, i have 14 but they are really small like 1 inch and 4 of them are really tiny they are tetras but some are small mollies and i read they are going to get big. So next month im gonna buy another 10 gallon and split them. But my question is what all do i need to buy i see so much in the store by way of chemicals and things. So far i have tap water conditioner and accu clear and a pH testing thingy but its only for pH and not nitrates and things. Do i need anything more and my filter is something full of cotton. Is this ok or should i buy a better one. if so what kind?? website links would help. :) Money isnt really an option as my partner is willing to buy me anything so i dont get a cat lol

Oh im sorry i forgot to add the vaccum, and tap water conditioner. I have that as well

Answer 1

Forget the 1 inch per gallon rule, it's nonsense and you can't apply it
But here is an article on what you should buy
http://www.fishlesscycling.com/articles/new_aquarium_needs.html

Also you need to do weekly partial waterchanges of 25% with the gravel siphon and not bi weekly

I also don't know how long you have the tank already, but your tank will go through a nitrogen cycle process, and you have definately way to many fish on doing so

If you just set up the tank, you will need to do 10% daily waterchanges to keep the ammonia down when cycling and also to keep your fish alive at the same time

You will also experience a cloudy tank, which is caused by bacteria bloom which is a good sign, but will clear up a few days later
It's very important that the bacteria is able to establish in your filter

Once your tank is cycled, you're suppose to have 0 Ammonia, 0 nitrite and nitrates should be under 20ppm



Hope that helps
Good luck


EB


for further help, feel free to email me through my profile

Answer 2

You need to use water conditioner and bacteria supplement (the bacteria supplement for the first 6 months). You do have too many fish in the 10 gallon because the mollies will get much bigger. Get another tank very soon because fish get stressed in small tanks and often become aggressive or get ill.
I use a Bio-Wheel (they sell them at most pet stores including PetSmart): http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752364&cp=2767036.2769128&sr=1

You need a gravel vaccum and you use this to clean the gravel every 2 weeks (it takes out water also so you do a 15%-25% water change).
Make sure you turn the light off at night and don't overfeed them because the excess food sits on the bottom and rots which makes the water toxic.