Stupid Newbie Questions ....know I've Done Some Stuff Wrong Already...

Hi lowkey, welcome to the forum 


Don't worry, we can help you with your new tank. And there's no such thing as a stupid question 


To tackle your list of questions first:
1. Filter. You don't need carbon, it's a hangover from the very old days. And you don't need the algaway pad either. The simplest would be to buy a filter sponge, any make as long as it's a bit bigger than the carbon cartridge and alagaway pad combined, then just cut it to the same size as those two. It is better to have a tight fit than a bit loose so that the water can't sneak round the edges.

2. Once the tank is cycled and fully stocked, change about 50% of the water every week. Until then, you need to test the water every day for both ammonia and nitrite and do a water change whenever you see either of them above zero.
Unless you have live plants growing in the gravel, clean that at every water change. Use a siphon tube made for fish tanks. These comprise a length of flexible tubing attached to a rigid plastic cylinder. All you do is push the cylinder down into the gravel and watch the muck flow up the tubing. When the water is clear, move on to the next bit of gravel.
If you have live plants in the gravel, do this only in gravel where there are no roots.

3. If you change the media to sponge, it needs changing when it falls apart or loses shape. Sponge will last for several years. When it gets covered in brown goo, squeeze it in water you take out during a water change.
Carbon gets full and needs replacing every few weeks - but you throw away all the bacteria on the carbon and outer stuff of the cartridge. Carbon is only useful for removing the brown colour that leaches out of wood, and for removing medication after treatment has finished so you don't need it full time.
The filter description says it contains biomedia, mechanical floss, carbon and algaway pad. What exactly does the biomedia and mechanical floss look like? If the floss is a layer of something that looks like pillow stuffing, you do need to replace that because it clogs easily and won't wash without going into holes. It is not a very good home for the bacteria so it doesn't matter if it is changed regularly.
And depending on exactly what the biomedia is, that will need changing every few years.

4. To be brutally honest with you, danios are not suitable for this tank. They may be small but they are such fast swimmers they need a tank at least 100 cm long. Their temperature range is 18 to 25 deg C so they are best kept at around 20 to 22 C. Zebra danios If you can bear to part with them, there are fish more suited to this tank.

5. Stocking. This is more complex than most people realise.
There are several things to take into account. The starting point is the hardness of your tap water. I know you have test strips but they can be inaccurate so I would also look on your water company's website. That should give the hardness, somewhere. Assuming you are in the UK, it is most likely to give your hardness as mg/l calcium, with maybe a button to convert it to other units. See what you can find, and post both the number and the units on here. If they give it in german degrees and/or mg/l calcium carbonate, those are the two used in fish keeping; for any other unit we can convert them to those two.
The next thing is to look at the recommended tank size for any species, and the best site for that is http://www.seriouslyfish.com/knowledge-base/
Then look at the temperature requirements on the same site.
Finally, having drawn up a shortlist of fish that all need the same conditions, look at their behaviour. For example, your danios are very active, fast swimming fish. They would badly stress fish like honey gouramis which are placid sedate fish.

Once we know your hardness, we can take it from there.

6 Algae. Yes you can have fish or shrimps - though the tank is too small for most algae eating fish - but no creature will eat all types of algae. It is the responsibility of the fish keeper to keep algae under control. There is always some algae in every tank, it is only when it gets out of control that it is bad.
Algae are plants so they need three things - light, carbon dioxide and fertiliser. They need to be in balance to keep the algae under control. Not enough of one, or too much of one will make the algae take over. The usual culprit is having the light on too long.

7. Lights.
Fish need the same pattern of lights every day, so they are best run on a timer. If there are no live plants, 6 hours is the maximum I'd have them on for. Set the timer so they are on when you and your children are at home to see the tank. if you do have live plants you need to experiment to find the duration that lets your plants grow well without growing too much algae.
Blue light encourages algae. I would stick to just white light if your lighting allows that.

8. Background. Whichever you prefer  The general consensus seems to be that a black background makes the tank look better.




Now that I've dealt with your list -

You need to be able to test for ammonia and nitrite. Most strips do not include an ammonia test (it because it needs a different length of time to develop) so you'll have to get a separate tester for that. And yes, liquid reagent testers are generally regarded as being more accurate than strips.
There is a How To sticky on fish-in cycling in the Filtration & Cycling section; I suggest you read that if you haven't already done so.
Tetra Safe Start is one of the two recommended bottled bacteria products so you may be lucky and find it does work (it's when it's been allowed to get too hot or too cold anywhere on its journey to your tank that it doesn't work)


As I mentioned earlier, think seriously about keeping the danios. Their temperature requirements will serious limit the other fish you can keep, and they really do need a bigger tank.



Do you have any live plants in the tank? They help keep the water good, and fish like them. After many years of not being able to keep plants alive, I am now a convert to planted tanks. But not those that you see on-line. Mine tank is full of slow growing, easy plants attached to wood 


Sorry for the essay.......

From your water company's figures, the two you need are
Total hardness mg/l CaCO3 214
Degrees German (^odH) 13

mg/l CaCO3 are the same as ppm, and you'll find fish profiles give hardness in either ppm or dH. Some sites, like Seriously Fish, use one in some profiles and the other in the rest.

Hardness is the most important of the water parameters; fish can be kept in water outside their normal pH range provided the hardness is within their range. And as with temperature it is better to keep fish in the middle of the range rather than at one extreme end.

Zebra danio are suitable for water with hardness from 90 to 357 ppm; your 214 is nicely inside that range. White cloud mountain minnows need the same hardness range and a temperature range of 14 to 22 deg C so they are compatible with zebra danios. Recommended tank size 60 cm long x 30 cm wide.


Other fish that would be OK at the same temp as danios grow a bit too big for your tank, unfortunately; fish like golden barbs and Buenos Aires tetras. There are corydoras that can cope with low temps but they tend to be the larger species which need a bigger floor space. The smaller cory species need warmer water.


However, there is an option. Leopard danios are the same species as zebra danios, they just look different. And white clouds come in two colours - grey and gold. In the same tank, these would look like 4 different species but the fish would know there were just two species and be very happy to be in large shoals. 10 of each (your 6 zebra danios, 4 leopard danios and 5 each of gold and grey white clouds) would take you to just about fully stocked.



You have time to think about what you want to do - the tank won't be ready for more fish until both ammonia and nitrite have been at zero for a week.

The Love Fish version of the Interpet filter is poor to say the least as it does not include the biological media section which the 'proper' filter does. The algaway pad also quickly becomes blocked and compacted and will not be an effective biological filter. I would strongly recommend changing all the contents of the filter for a simple filter sponge which fits the dimensions of the filter snugly. Your local fish store will have the kind you need. Just take the filter compartment dimensions with you.  They are not expensive and I would do it asap so you can cycle this sponge to treat the fish waste asap also.

You really do need to read the sticky on fish-in cycling so you can keep your fish healthy at this stage.

This will be more than enough to keep you busy - happy to suggest future stocking further down the line 

I think the key question for now is whether to keep the existing fish or not - if not, you can do a fish less cycle. If you do just focus your efforts on following the fish-in cycling guide for now.

Thank you all for all the amazing advice.... I have followed the fish in cycling advice and been testing and water changing daily and finally have had 8 days (so far) of amonia and nitrites at zero.... And I now have 7 danios (... Long story but my sister ended up wth a lone one needing a home after a cracked tank disaster). They all seem fine and are darting about and chase each other the whole depth of the tank and Dart in and out of the hiding places etc.

I  know my tank is not the ideal shape for them but I don't really have anyone who'd take them off me so I'd like to keep them.

I put in a fluval filter alongside the intepet one based on the comments on this thread and running it alongside the interpet I until I'm happy that tank is all established etc.

My questions now :

1.what should be my routine for water changes now (I've been taking out about 30 litres daily, bigger changes when the amonia and nitrites rose)?

2. How often /when do I clean/change my filter media? (I've rinsed the sponges off in used tank water a couple of times... But was scared of losing "good"  bacteria).

3. If I can maintain the current water params am I good to add some fish?... And if so what type... Would be happy with wc mm, other danios.... Tank temp is c. 24c

Thank you all again for the amazing advice.... Can't believe I've gotten the tank cycled (I hope) and the danio have survived this far. Sorry for being needy with more questions too.

Congratulations. 
Great to hear that your tank is doing well.

I'd be tempted to drop the temperature of your tank slowly, and go with WCMM. I will admit that I am biased as that's what I've got in my temperate tank. 

WCMM are indeed lovely - and come in a golden colour variation as well. In fact, I double-checked and it looks as though there may be several colour strains - according to Seriously Fish, "One of the most ubiquitous species in the aquarium hobby and several ornamental strains are available including ‘long-finned’, ‘golden’, ‘albino‘, and ‘super red’, for which care is identical".

Just to add its super confusing re fish temps as lots of the Internet say danios fine in temps up to about 27c and online fish shops* list zebras under both tropical and temperate?!?


*and are online fish stores ok? I fret about the fish traveling about....  The lfs I used  years ago which was good (seemed knowledgeable! Asked you to bring in a water sample be the they'd sell you fish etc)  closed down. I'm based in Bristol if anyone can recommend a good lfs.

There are a lot of variable quality sources on the internet but using this site, cross-checked with the more up-to-date and extensive international site www.seriouslyfish.com, should keep you right.

I have previously listened to advice from certain fish stores and made some catastrophic errors.
Since then I went with ignoring advice from fish stores, researching information online and then discussing it here, before getting the fish from the shop.
I would like to think that now I have got to know some of the people who work in certain shops, and have learned a lot more about fish, to the point I generally know what advice to trust.
I would suggest that you probably have a Maidenhead Aquatics or similar in Bristol, and as long as you know what you are after then you don't have to listen to any advice that they give, as you will have already done your research.

As for zebra danios, the standard temperature range is around 18 - 25C, but it is best to avoid extremes for long periods of time. My danios, wcmm, peppered cories, etc. are in a tank without a heater, and the tank temperature generally runs at around 19C.