All these questions

Not at all...

Were were all beginners at some point, and as I have mentioned in the past, for some of us that was longer ago than for others...

This is good news that the tank is holding water but as Daragh suggested, it would best be left for a 24 hour period filled just to be on the safe side.

I do have a larger tank than this sitting on a smallish cabinet (not a dedicated Fish Tank one, though) and this is supported fine - but it is a strong cabinet. I tried it out beforehand by sitting on it...I wasn't in the front of the queue when they were giving out the slimness gene...in fact I don't even think I was at the back of the queue. Anyway, it supported me just fine so I knew it would be OK for the tank.

You have to consider that water weighs 10lb per gallon (4.5 litres) and the rocks/gravel which you use would weigh even more than the water they displace so...you really have to test the ability of your sideboard to take the weight.

A custom-built stand would be possible, but not very cheap if your budget's a little on the tight side (from your other post). A further option would be to have a go at making one yourself, or getting one made for you?

I'm afraid your youngsters will be looking at nothing swimming in the tank for a little while as you will have to 'cycle' the water to make it safe for any fish you decide to buy...this might be a little difficult to explain to children who really want to see the tank filled and stocked immediately.

There are some excellent articles in both the beginners' section of the Forum and also lots of answered questions there too.
But as before, any questions not covered there can, hopefully, be answered here.

Good luck with the explaining...

John

JohnH wrote:
All these questions

i'm afraid your youngsters will be looking at nothing swimming in the tank for a little while as you will have to 'cycle' the water to make it safe for any fish you decide to buy...this might be a little difficult to explain to children who really want to see the tank filled and stocked immediately.
John

what about tetra safestart?
i have talked to lfs staff who swear by it

rgds

4

fourmations wrote:
JohnH wrote:
All these questions

i'm afraid your youngsters will be looking at nothing swimming in the tank for a little while as you will have to 'cycle' the water to make it safe for any fish you decide to buy...this might be a little difficult to explain to children who really want to see the tank filled and stocked immediately.
John

what about tetra safestart?
i have talked to lfs staff who swear by it

rgds

4

I know there are others here that swear by it too and I would have to believe them, they know what they are talking about when it comes to fish, but it never worked for me and if at all possible, go the natural route and cycle the tank. If that is not possible and the doe-eyed kids want to see fish, what can you do? Use Safe Start


Daragh

Went to my LFS here in Lucan, and I got a few bits all right,
I dont think it was safe start, but just stress coat I got.
The guy told me that I could ad fish after a week but I think I'd rather wait a bit longer than that.
As far as the kids are concerned in my eyes patience is a virtue .
can anyone reccomend a good testing kit for the water?
Thanks a lot for all your support.
Astrid

Hello Astrid.What the chap in the shop sold you is a water conditioner. This is used to remove harmful chlorine and neutralize chloramine in the tap water which are both harmful to fish. You will use this when ever you are preparing new water for the tank.
You are right in thinking you will have to wait a bit longer than a week as suggested. After seven days the the Ammonia level would probably not even have peaked. Then the Nitrite has to peak and drop to 0ppm before you think of adding fish.

Here is a rough time frame for the nitrogen cycle; Day 8 Ammonia will peak. Day 16 Ammonia will drop to zero. Day 10 Nitrite will start to rise and peak by day 30. Day 38 Nitrite will drop to Zero. From day 30 you will start to get reading for Nitrate but you need to wait until Nitrite is at zero before adding fish.
That is only a rough guide so don't take it as gospel.some tanks mature quicker than others.

If you want to speed things up a bit there are a number of things you can do.
Add beneficial bacteria from an established tank. If you know someone with a fish tank you can get some of their filter media and place it in to your filter and you can add a small amount of fish straight away. I personally don't like this idea because if thee is a problem in the tank the media came from you are transferring it to your tank. That said people have been doing this for years.
Use a product like Tetra safe start. I found this worked quite well but as mentioned above it did not work for others.
If you decide to go the long route and let the tank cycle naturally you can speed it up a little by adding a prawn or a small piece of krill to the tank. As this decomposes it will feed the bacteria in the filter. You could also add a small amount of fish food every other day.
The beneficial bacteria need food to grow and multiply and when the fish are added they feed of the pollution from fish waste.
There is another way that i don't believe in and that is to add some hardy fish from the start. Sure they might survive the toxic levels of Ammonia and Nitrite but do you really want your fish to suffer from the start?

Hope this all makes sense.

(edit) I forgot to mention a good test kit would be API master test kit. This will test all you need to get you started.

Next to the stress coat, I got stress zyme, these I was told were the bacteria I have to put in a couple of days after I put the stress coat.
I have never heard of sticking a prawn in the water, is this just a frozen shrimp because I am sure I can root one of them out of my freezer.
My father in law has a fish tank as well
but I dont really fancy any water out of his tank, it is never really looking clear, I suspect he is overfeeding his fish. To be completely honest, that tank actually used to belong to me, a long long time ago, I gave up after my little cousin poisoned my fish for the 4th time, and my fish were jumping against the hood trying to get out of the water, i didn't want to put any more fish trough that ordeal after it, and my F.I.L. then took over, for some reason the little cousin never did it again.(My fish food is going to be behind lock and key for my kids, for obvious reasons) The reason I still have so many question is that I have a birdbrain and my memory is just so bad I think I must have blocked it out mentally.
Does anybody know is Dave's Trop Shop still in Inchicore?
Thanks again for all your advice
Astrid

im new to this site myself. Has anyone used that Organic Aquarium pack available from fishkeepingsupplies.com. Im using it for over a year with good results.No need for stress coat and all the additives.Apparantly a new tank does'nt need to be cycled either using a start up kit

Volume 86 l./19 gal. (22.72 US gal.)
Probable volume 77 l./17 gal. (20 US gal.)

Just a quick update, last night we set up the tank.
The filter is in, the heater is in horizontally(anyone else have theirs in horizontally) it was touching of the bottom if I would have put it vertically.
How long do I have to wait till I put live plants in?
I did put the composty kinda stuff underneath my gravel especially for live plants.
And I am still wondering about the prawn Platty mentioned, if that is just a frozen shrimp I can put in there?
So many questions.....
Thanks
Astrid

Frozen prawn can work but if I was you,Id go the natural route of allowing the tank to cycle fully. Altho Safestart is also quite good. I used it to cycle my tank and had no problems,but I would defo wait more than a week to get the fish even if you do use safestart. Get a test kit also and that will help you see the water parameters change. Also get two thermometers,one for the tank,the other a spare and also used when doing water changes.Finally,its time to start researching what type of fish you want to get. The water parameters will effect this also, however a wee bit of advise on that front,if you are buying standard start up fish such as danios,tetras,mollies,guppies etc, please please check if they are male or female. I didnt know the difference at the start and was sold 2 males and 1 female molly. Ive had problems with fry ever since. I thought it would be exciting to have them breed and was a sign that I was doing things right, well trust me a population explosion isnt fun esp when you dont have (a) the space in the tank to keep them all and (b) the heart the destroy them!. And yes the more experienced members advised me of this also! I think Valerie was the one who bought it to my attention and I was thinking "Nah my fish wont breed esp when Im only new to it!" Well they did, and several times over! Presently have about 10 fry in the tank ranging from 2 months to 5 months! Just my thoughts on it!!
Gavin