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New to the forum, new to having fish!

6K views 34 replies 7 participants last post by  crazie.eddie 
#1 ·
Hello all, I found this forum and signed up immediately! As the subject says, I'm new to having fish. Already I love having them, but I'm worried about my limited experience/knowlege. Right away my tank clouded up, but I read on another site it may be from just having set it up and/or adding my new fish from the pet store. Does that sounds right?

Right now I have a Blood Parot Cichlid, a Tiger Oscar, and a goldfish. The goldfish was meant to be food, but they are all coexisting at the moment. I'm sure that will change through growth, but it makes for an entertaining mix at the moment. My plecastumus died within 2 days of purchase, which made me worry about the cloudiness, causing me to get online in the first place. I am going to purchase another one today, though.

I'm definitely a newbie to the board and to fish, so any suggestions or advice will never be scoffed at, it's all welcome! I look forward to meeting all of you!
 
#27 ·
im not sure what causes the water to be cloudy but all i know is that all 3 tanks if had in the past have been cloudy when first starting.In my newly started tank i used(mardel brite N clear it says on the bottle that it clears cloudy water. on my tank it worked within 4 hours! the active ingredient is aluminum sulfate.when starting that tank of yours add fish slowly(if your planning on adding more) and dont get discuraged.i also recemend a gravel vac you would be amazed at the amount of detrus you can suck up,only feed fish once aday,its better to underfeed than to over feed.If you have some free time read up on how biological filltration works it will make comunicating with some of the nerds here much easier. :D
 
#28 ·
Nerds?:squint:
:crazy:

If the fish are juveniles, then you try feeding them thrice rather than once so as not to stunt their growth.

dprUsh83 said:
As far as water changes, it has been up under a week...I planned to change water weekly, maybe I need to give it an early change since everything is new?
Hi mate,
You need to buy the test kit on ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. On the first, maintain them as constant zero. Any increase in both will harm your fish. To lower the level of ammonia and nitrites, just do frequent water changes.
 
#31 ·
Well I cycled the water (about 5 gallons), and the tank looks much better. I still have some cloudiness, but there is a noticeable improvement. If it looks the same in a couple of days I'm going to do another cycling. If it gets worse I suppose I'll worry about it at that time.

I also did a PH test and it is between 7.6 and 8.2, which I believe is high for my fish. I'm curious though, is this dangerous to the point that i need to run out and buy something to fix this?
 
#32 ·
No. pH will not matter at this point. As you don't keep fish that are delicate and thriving in soft, acidic water, I wouldn't worry about it.
Did you buy the test kit on ammonia, nitrites and nitrates?

By the way, you got the term "cycle" wrong.
It's "water change".
The term "water change" is replacing an amount of old water with a new one(which should be dechlorinated of course).


To "cycle" is allowing your tank to mature with bacteria establishing colonies to convert dangerous substances like ammonia and nitrites to harmless nitrates(at a level below 40 ppm).
Ammonia->nitrites->nitrates
 
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