# New to fish and already have a situation! :)



## RedWolf (Jul 26, 2008)

Hi everyone-

I'm fairly new to fish- I've had a single goldfish in a 10 gallon tank for about 4 years and two bettas in 5 gallon tanks for 1 and 3 years, but this is my first big tank. I have a 45 gallon corner tank (its hexagon so it can fit in a corner) that we set up this last week. Its a beautiful tank and we had a lot of fun setting it up- lots of plants and decorations including a huge ship with a ton of hiding places (the inside is all caves and hiding nooks) and 4 or 5 big chunks of fake coral, along with about half a dozen fake plants. We chose an aquaclear 70 filter (made for 30-70 gallons) and a good heater and digital thermometer, along with two airpumps. We set the tank up with conditioned water that was room temp, aquarium salt and a big handful of gravel from the established tank, and let it run for the weekend per suggestion of our fish specialty store, then added our cycling fish, four tiger barbs on Monday. I then went out of town and left the tank in the care of my eager and excited boyfriend with instructions on how to test, waterchange etc.

I came home today and found out that since Monday, he's added several fish from the list we had made out for the finished setup- the tank is now almost completely stocked. It has 6 tiger barbs, a gold gourami, a pearl gourami, a rainbow shark, and a female paradise fish. The only thing he DIDNT add from the list was the cories and bristlenosed pleco we had picked out. So now instead of trying to cycle the tank with 4 small fish, we have 10 fish!

It was hard to be mad at him when I know hes just excited, but now I dont know what I should do, LOL. I tested the water and the nitrates were a bit high (5) and the ammonia was a bit high (1.0) but the PH was 7.0 and the nitrites were non existant. I did a 20% water change and I added an amonia remover insert to the aquaclear filter. I'm really worried about trying to cycle the tank with so many fish- should I take some out? I dont have a second tank set up so I dont know what I will do with them, but I'm thinking 10 fish in a 45 gallon is too much when its only been set up a week!! Advice for a newbie??


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## djrichie (May 15, 2008)

You are correct, it going to be a long road now.... you going to have to watch the nitrate levels and most likely you will be doing WC everyday. When the nitrates reach 20 time to WC. You can try and find a product biosphere or cycle these are the products name..... the are bio colony in a bottle. That will help but you will still have to test the water everyday to insure the safety of the fish


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## zambize (Jul 23, 2008)

Your ammonia is actually very high. Even a small amount like .25 can be deadly to fish. Gourami are delicate fish and need an established tank. It's also hard to keep two Gourami together, they don't usually like each other. An ammonia level of 1.0 is burning the fish. I would strongly urge you to take the fish back to the lfs and get more when your tank is ready. You might feel bad for your boyfriend, but the fish feel worse.

With a hexagonal tank you should plan on fewer fish than what rectangular tanks can handle. The comfort and compatibility of the fish depends greatly on the amount of space they have. Most fish naturally swim back and forth, not up and down, so they as big of a footprint as possible, and it isn't really about the volume of the tank. 

Zambize


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## RedWolf (Jul 26, 2008)

Just an update- thanks to Prime and frequent water changes, the ammonia level is almost completely gone and the fish are flourishing. Thanks for the help-


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## MediaHound (Jul 19, 2006)

Glad to hear!!


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## zambize (Jul 23, 2008)

Excellent, that was the best way to handle the situation. I'm sure your fish are happy!

Zambize


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