Please help me. Any advice is welcome.

Welcome to AC! I have anxiety and sitting in front of my aquariums and watching the fish is really calming. You will love it and probably end up with lots more aquariums before you know it. I started with a 10 and now I have 2 10s, a 20, a 40 and a 55. LOL

Not sure if you have it or not but you may want to get a good heater for your aquarium if you are going to have tropicals and the tank water risks dropping below 72.

I have a heater. My water usually stays between 75 and 77 degrees, and that's with my ceiling fan on high. If I turned the fan off, the water would easily go over 80. I plan to put the heater back in towards winter.

Thanks for welcoming me.
 
Hey Zbbal alot of good advice given here. I have had fish since I was bout 3yrs old im now 25 and still learning alot from others here granted I didnt know much bout keeping fish as I thought I did when I joined this site. I have hit several speed bumps on the way. Hopefully you wont hit as many as I have. I am doing pretty good now I own a 55gal and 2 20gal.

Aquariums are good for anxiety and as excuzzzeme stated also good for seizures when there established tanks. For me they help me with my anger issues. I tend to be overly aggressive mostly verbally but having my fish calm me down. Just stick with it and youll see it will pay off. Oh and Welcome to AquariaCentral.

Thank you. I have problems with anger myself, so I'm glad to hear that having fish helps with that too.
 
You will! I was where you are just a year ago. These folks here on AC have trained me to be a good *********** and I love helping others, just as everyone helped me.

I'm still learning, though, and I hope to be a real pro one day. You'll get there, too. Keep posting here, and read through threads on different topics. Learn from yours and others mistakes, and listen to the advice of these guys.

Your tank looks really nice, and Patootie is really a cutie!

Thank you very much! Patootie is a little upset right now. I did another water change, and he still isn't used to the siphon in the water. He swims away when I put it in, and then when I stop for a second he comes over to investigate.
 
read through this thread and as others have said there is lots to learn about the hobby, but you are definitely on the right track and i wish you and your finkids all the best! Welcome home to AC!
 
Oh Lord. I hope someone sees this.

I did a 40% water change earlier today. I'm not sure what's wrong, but Patootie seems rather frazzled.

Before I siphoned, I filled up the jug with water and conditioned. I let it sit while I siphoned the water. After I was done I began to gently pour the new water in, only to realize it felt kind of warm. I went to the bathroom and tried for some colder water, but with it being so hot even the cold water was warm. So I went ahead and put the warm water in. It was 4 degrees hotter, bringing my water from 76 degrees to 80 degrees. I turned my fan on the highest it could go so it would bring the temp down to normal levels. It's now at around 76 degrees again. -I realize that I probably should have left it at 80.-

Also, since he seems off, I checked the water. There seems to be a trace amount of either ammonia or Chloramine in the water. If it's ammonia, I don't know what to do. The ammonia is from my tap water. If it's Chloramine, I don't know why it's there. I added water conditioner.

A few minutes ago I add some more water conditioner. If it's Chloramine, it should be gone now.
 
And the only stores I know of in my area are retailers. They don't usually have anything in there tanks, other than maybe one plant. I doubt they'd let me take it.

My father just moved to Monks Corner, so we were there a couple of weeks ago. We saw 2 pet stores in North Charleston, but didn't stop at either of them. They might have some of the things you're needing. I didn't get the names or anything, sorry.
 
My father just moved to Monks Corner, so we were there a couple of weeks ago. We saw 2 pet stores in North Charleston, but didn't stop at either of them. They might have some of the things you're needing. I didn't get the names or anything, sorry.

Oh, thank you! I found a few in the phone book myself.
 
I'm not sure what water conditioner you're using, but if you have ammonia in your tap water you should be using Seachem prime. It's also a lot more ecinomical overall cause you use 1/5 the amount. But it will nuetralize the ammonia so it's harmless to the fish.

As far as the temp goes, lets just hope it's okay. At hotter temps, fish are always a lot more active and 'speedy' because their metobolisms speed up. They seem anxious. Just remember that when you make changes to things like temp, try to make it gradual.
 
A lot of people have recommended Prime.

I went to one of the oldest local shoppes in my area -They were around when my mom was a teenager.- It was amazing in there. Huge tanks, both saltwater and freshwater, with really healthy looking fish. -I did see some frogs that looked a little off, but considering I don't know much about them, I can't really say anything.- The staff was friendly, and when I told them they didn't have the API Freshwater Master Test Kit, they said they would call me when one came in.

Now, down to what I was going to say. I asked the employee for a really good water conditioner. He took me to where they were, and showed me three. Prime -he said it was really good-, some random one he didn't seem too excited about, and the newer cheaper conditioner called AquaLife Complete Water Conditioner. He said it did more for the water and recommended getting it. I bought it -It was $5.- and left.

I'm not going to open it or use it until I hear some feed back on it. I really don't want to mess up my water. Has anyone used it?
 
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