aquarium cleaning.

Question
hello i e-mailed you a little while ago. here is what i e-mailed you i quote "i got a 5 gallon fish tank. i have a power filtration system.( top of tank kind) i have rocks, corral, and fake plants. i have a thermometer. i also have a heater which is suppose to keep the tank  at the recommended temp. i have 2 African frogs, 2 tetra glow lites, and 2 algae eaters. i had 2 guppies but they dies due to over crowding i guess. am i suppose to siphon out 25% of the water every day? or just once a week? my fish are not very active. they hide most of the time. i need to get some pH test strips to see if it's ok. or could they be still to crowded and are not very active cause of lack of oxygen? my temp. is between 72 and 75 i think. I'm feeding them tetra fish flakes twice a day. thanks in advance for your response."
i just wanted to add that i just put in an 10" bubble curtain, for aeration. i did get a pH test kit. it tests for  5 things, nitrate, nitrite, hardness, alkalinity, and pH. everything tested normal.my one tetra glowlite had a tail when i got it, now it's tail is gone, just a stub left. not sure what happened there, but it's tail is gone. thanks again

Answer
Good morning Jason, thank you for your question.

Your small tank setup sounds like you have the essentials. How long have you set it up? It takes a while for a new tank to cycle. Here's a few websites that describe the process:

http://www.fishforever.co.uk/cycling.html
http://www.firsttankguide.net/cycle.php
http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/biologicalcycle/a/nitrogencycle.htm

The nitrogen cycle turns the ammonia your fish excrete (in the form of waste) into nitrite, which then becomes nitrate - a much less harmful end product. Your test kit (hopefully the liquid kind, as the strips are awfully inaccurate and difficult to read) will let you know where your levels are. You don't want to see any levels of ammonia or nitrite at all - 0 ppm. Even half a point is toxic. Your nitrate levels should be under 20 ppm. A new tank often starts with 5-10 pmm of nitrates once the cycling process is complete.

When you clean your aquarium, take care not to break everything down and rinse it in untreated tap water. This disturbs, if not undoes, the cycle, because the chlorine kills the beneficial bacteria. You should be changing out 25%-30% of your water a week - preferably in two, twice weekly changes of 15%.

Your heater, if it is the Whisper kind with a curved line with a minus and plus sign, should be turned just to the minus side of the notch, which indicates 78 degrees.

If it is the kind that is not submersible, you will have to adjust it one notch an hour and monitor the water temperature. It should be a consistent 76-77 degrees - once your thermometer registers the desired temperature, no adjustments should need to be made to the dial.

Your glowlight tetras are actually schooling fish that feel more comfortable with more of their kind. Since your tank is a small size, you can't really afford to give them any more tankmates. Your algae eaters (whether they are Chinese algae eaters or common plecostomuses, both go by this moniker sometimes) will outgrow your tank. My advice to you would be to return the two algae eaters and get a couple more glowlights tetras. You can get an otoclinus catfish when your tank ages (matures) a bit. They are small and can keep up with the algae that will grow on your decor in time.

Take care not to overfeed. A very small pinch of flakes is all that will be required for your tetras. They will need different foods besides flakes to keep them healthy. Read more about feeding your aquarium fish a variety of foods:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?dept_id=0&siteid=6&acatid=409&aid=...

Your African dwarf frogs have different feeding requirements than your fish. They will only eat food that sinks to the bottom. Try feeding them some frozen bloodworms or frozen brine shrimp (the spirulina or vitamin-enhanced kind) - your fish will appreciate this addition, too. Here's a page with details on feeding techniques and foodstuffs for ADFs:

http://aquaticfrogs.tripod.com/id13.html

I am not sure why your tetra's tail fell off, but that isn't healthy. It's hard to believe that it would be nipped at with the present tankmates. You are going to have to keep the water very clean to ward off infection. The kind of filter you describe has a bio wheel, correct? That is going to help you with your biological filtration, but a new tank such as yours is not going to any bio-filter to begin with. I strongly suspect your tank hasn't completely cycled, and that is why your tetra's tail fell off...

Don't add any more livestock to your tank, since you are fully stocked right now. Perform water changes if you suspect a problem. Water changes tend to delay cycling and are not advised during the cycling process, but if you have fish in the tank already, you will need to keep nitrite and ammonia levels safe (0 ppm) at all times. Otherwise, they will quickly perish. It is kind of a Catch-22...

Keep using your test kit once a day (or if the fish show signs of discomfort such as clamped gills, rapid breathing) to monitor these two paramters, nitrites and ammonia, until you are certain you have a handle on things. Cloudy water is a sign of cycling. Test the water if cloudy water develops. It's a pain! But testing is important when there are fish in an uncycled system. "New Tank Syndrome" is at play here - and this was likely the cause death of your guppies.

You are on the right track, Jason, but you will have to keep reading. The algae eaters will have to go soon, they are going to be too big and boisterous, competing with everyone for food, especially the ADFs. Take some time to peruse one of my favorite websites about keeping fish, Wet Web Media. Here is a link to their freshwater subsection:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/fwsubwebindex.htm

They have thousands of questions that they have answered and archived, as well as articles written by the crew, that are going to be of merit to you. The aeration, heater (once you get the temperature stable and a little higher) and decor are all positive steps. If you don't have any gravel, consider adding some for biological filtration. The beneficial bacteria grows on your gravel, too, that's why when you clean your tank, all of these items - decor, gravel - need to be washed in dechlorinated water or tank water.

Good luck with your new tank. Feel free to write if you have any more questions. Do some reading and you'll be all set!

Nicole