First time fish tank a few questions

Welcome to Aquaria Central.

1) I hope you are conditioning the water. If so, with what??
2) Getting egg-layers to lay eggs is not as simple as "well, please breed". They must be conditioned, correct set-up, ect.
3) Even if they lay eggs, and they hatch, raising the babies is not easy for a "Newbe".
4) What kind of filter are you talking about?? Not the pad, the filter.

wvu31 said:

I've got api stress coat, and started out using some kind of quick start. The filter that I'm using is just whatever comes with the tank and just replace the blue carbon filtered part. I want to start actually testing my water so it's got all the necessary components is there any testing kits you recommend? Should I upgrade the filter part and get a better one? Or is what I'm doing fine?

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OK, API is alright, but I always use "Prime". The filter looks like a Hagen Wisper hang on (but not sure), it is OK, but maybe a little too small for the fish load.

I use "Kordon" test kits, they work for me. Whar do you mean by " testing my water so it's got all the necessary components"?? You do not need to add components to water. You do want to test for 1) Ammonia, 2) Nitrite, 3) Nitrate, and PH.

wvu31 said:

There's a picture of my setup as of right now. It's just a 10 gallon tank with a 20$ water heater and filter that comes with it. I've got several questions about this setup that if anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated. I've had the 8 glofish for about 5-6 months now and none have died. My first question is should these little guys be having little fishy's, I've been watching them to see if they lay eggs but i haven't noticed anything. Secondly am I doing everything right? I clean the bottom with a vacuum thingy once every week sometimes every two weeks, and I stop after about 20% water loss and add tap water to it. This is the part that I'm most worried about, and that I'm most likely doing something wrong here. I usually keep the blue part of the filter until it gets real dirty and just replace it with another, and I've yet to throw the white spongy part away surely I'm doing something wrong here. And lastly I've yet to actually test the water seeing none has died yet, and the dude that sold me the fish gave me like a cheap sampling kit that has like one strip, should I invest in something to actually test the water with? I mostly want to know why my little guys aren't having any babies because surely there's at least one of each in there. any help would be appreciated thanks.

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That's cute.. where you bought that tank from. Is there another piece similar to yours. Even I want to buy one for my niece.

If you want "little fishies" then livebearers (guppies, mollies, platties, swordtails) are probably your best bet. They don't lay eggs, but give birth to live young and will breed without much/any prompting. That said, if you're not set up for it, you may find that you will lose most of the fry. The other thing is, if you're looking to breed fish, you'll want to have somewhere to put them as they grow. There's not really room for any more fish in the tank that you have right now, so if your fish were to spawn, you'd want to have somewhere for the additional fish to go.

There are lots of different water conditioners on the market. I know a lot of folks here like Prime. Just make sure that whatever you get will deal with both chlorine and chloramines as there's a good chance that you'll have one or both of those in your water if you're on a municipal water supply.

A test kit is a good idea so that you can see what your water parameters are. The most common recommendation that I see on the boards here is the API Master Test Kit. This is a liquid kit with tests for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, and pH (two pH tests, one for low and one for high). Other important water parameters are GH and KH, but again, if you're on a municipal water supply you can usually get that information from the township/city without having to test it yourself. You can also get test strips that will give results for some combination of the things mentioned above. The strips are sometimes cheaper, but often less accurate.

As far as water parameters go, ideally what you're looking for is ammonia = 0, nitrites = 0, nitrates <20ppm. Basically, fish produce ammonia. Ammonia is very toxic. There are bacteria that turn to ammonia into nitrites. Nitrites are less toxic than ammonia, but still not something you'd want to be swimming around in and breathing. There are other bacteria that turn the nitrites into nitrates. Nitrates are much less toxic. However, if you get enough of them in the water, they can make your fish sick. When you take out 20% of the water with your gravel vacuum, you're also taking out 20% of the nitrates. When you add fresh water back in, you're diluting the nitrates that are left. Once you get a test kit, you can try testing for nitrates before and after a water change to see how it affects the nitrate concentrations.

The beneficial bacteria that I mentioned above will grow on most of the surfaces in your tank. The majority of them will be in your substrate (gravel) and your filter. That's part of how your filter helps keep the water healthy, it gives all those bacteria a place to grow and turn more harmful compounds (ammonia and nitrites) into less harmful ones (nitrates). A lot of bacteria live in the white, spongy part of your filter. It's actually okay not to replace it, since taking away that sponge will also take away a lot of your bacteria. What you should do every once in a while though is try to clean/rinse the sponge so that it doesn't get clogged up. You can do this when you are doing a water change. Just rinse your filter sponge in the old tank water before you throw it out. Don't rinse it in regular tap water since the chlorine will kill your beneficial bacteria.

Also, if you don't already have one, you might want to pick up a thermometer. You should be able to buy a cheap, stick-on one for a couple of dollars or a glass one to go inside the tank for about a fiver. This way you can make sure that your heater is actually keeping the water at the temperature you want it at.

@austinwend: It may depend on where you are located, but pretty much any fish or pet store in my area will sell a "10 gallon starter kit". This normally comes with a 10 gallon tank and hood as pictured above. Usually with an incandescent light of some sort. A small filter. And often some samples of food, water conditioner, and various other products. You usually have to buy the substrate (gravel or sand), heater (if you're planning on tropical fish), thermometer, water test kit, and any decor separately.

Welcome to the hobby and I hope you continue to enjoy your fish!

Not sure what the problem could be, but doing a water change when right away is the best option until you figure out what happened. It could be that the ammonia level got too high again and the water change helped lower it. One other thing that many people seem to think when they first start off is that they need to feed thier fish every day. It reality fish can go a couple of days without a feeding. There is no one feeding them in the wild, they have to go find food for themselves. I am positive that fish do have days where they find no food, so it is ok to skip a feeding or two every now and then. Automatic fish feeders seem like a good idea at the start but if you are only going to be out of town for the weekend, I would just not feed them those couple days. They can handle the lack of food and it would take days of not feeding them before illness sets in. If you plan on going for longer trips, I would ask someone(preferably another aquarist) to feed them when needed. Other than that I think you are doing pretty good and keep testing/water changes until your tank cycles.