New fish owners need help because pet stores have us confused!?

  • Thread starter Thread starter EricaS
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EricaS

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We have a 55gallon tank, stocked with 1 Red Capped Oranda, 1 Black Moor, and 2 Calico's. I keep getting varying opinions on how often to feed them and how much. We just got the tank 3 weeks ago and we were told we could have all these fish in the new tank as long as we did our water changes. The cycle has not concluded yet and the Nitrite levels are way up. The Ammonia levels were up as well, we added live plants and the Ammonia seems to have gone down to a safe level. Is there a way to get the Nitrite down? We were told to do a 50% water change by one store and told not to by the other as it would interfere with the cycle and make it start all over again. We have done 25% water changes as recommended once per week and have followed every bit of advice given. Now the Oranda seems to have red spots developing on his body. One pet store says it's an infection and to treat it with Melafix, the other says it's something else and to treat the water with Stress coat and it should get better. We are so confused, it's driving us crazy! We don't want to put things in the water unnecessarily and harm the fish. We just need all around advice on everything I suppose, please!! Thanks for any help any of you can give.
 
I only have an answer for one of your questions. About the cycling since you didn't cycle your tank first and your levels are up. The plants are great for the ammonia. You should try to do a small water change every other day so you can bring the nitrite levels down with out taking out too many necessary bacteria. don't clean or change any of your filter media because this is what holds the beneficial bacteria. A small water change is about 10 to 15% max until your tank has cycled then you can continue with weekly 20% water changes. As far as feeding them goes all the fish that I have ever owned were only fed once a day and not fed once a week that seemed to work for me. Everybody feeds differently just know that the more you feed the more waste you will have in your tank. good luck
 
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