anxious to get going :)

I'm Tara, mama to two little people with another on the way. I took a mad notion a few months ago about getting an aquarium; my dad always kept fish when I was growing up (indoors for about 10 yrs & outdoors for the last 25) and frankly I miss having them around. I enjoy watching them & would like for my kids to have the wonder of a tank too.

So I bought a display model Jewel 70 on clearance in a local pet shop, complete with filter, light, heater etc. No manual - directly off the shelf. I was told to just wipe it out with a clean cloth (no chemicals) and then fill with water, leave it running for a week & come back for fish.

They forgot to tell me to clean the stones although I did ask . That took quite a while (having already poured in about 5L of water).

I'm not sure if the advice I got regarding setting up was accurate.

From what I've read here there seems to be rather a bit more to getting a tank going than just leaving the filter running for a week. My instructions were to come back and get started with about 10 neon tetras & give them a week, gradually building stock.

Can anyone advise? Sorry to be so clueless.

Hey,

Im the same got loads of info from people on here.

Did you bye any strees coat and stress zyme. Stress coat will remove chlorine, chloramines and amnonia put that in first. Then use stress zyme which will speed up the growth of good bacterica in the filter wait around 5days or so change half the water in the tank and addstress zyme then after a few days you can add some fish.

Would buy so much right away prob get 5 and see how you go. When i started my 54l it took a while to get it right had a few die but after bout 5 weeks got it right and ive upgraded to a 180l ha

Please give it at least 3 weeks before you add some fish! The cycle of a tank is slow and shouldnt be rushed. Learn up on the cycle process and see how important it is. Patience is vital in these senarios. Also fishiegirl welcome along to the forum, feel free to ask any questions you may have and we will try and steer you in the right direction. Finally buy yourself a test kit, that will help you determining where the water levels are at before you add any fish.When it comes to adding the fish think carefully about what type of fish you wish to keep and research them carefully, then add them v slowly. a few at a time only.

Gavin

I'm a bit confused as to which approach would be best for us; I've come across the various options of:

- let it sit a week + then add fish slowly (my friend called this the sacrificial first few approach)
- throw in a frozen prawn & leave it (and then what?)
- get some 'starter' stuff like Tetra Safe Start + Filter Start
- Gavin's 3 week suggestion (pointer to learning more?)
- probably a million other possibilities too, this forum is huge.

Suggestions?

Hi and welcome,
the hard part is getting the tank right in the first place, leave it a week add fish def a no no, why put the fish through that much stress to have a poor short cut,
prawn mwthod is good but you still need to by a test kit to see when the water parameters are ok to add fish, same with filter start and safe start, the 3 wk method is better but still a little short.

fill you tank, and leave it running a few weeks.. test it after wk 1, wk2 and wk3.. post the results here and we'll advise you when to start adding fish, when your tank is ready add fish in small groups ie 6 fish, add no more till you levels of nitrite,nitrate and ammonia go back as near to 0 as poss (again post your results, we;re here to help each other) once they have add a few more fish, test again and when levels go back down add more... this gives your filter time to build up enough good biological bacteria to deal with the fishes waste... oh yes i'd reccommend weekly water changes of about 10%.... this is just a quick guide and my opinion... if someone is near you from the forum and can give you live media all the better this can cut your time to a mature tank in half... let us know where you are, what fish you intend to keep and we'll help you as much as we can.

sounds a lot to do but if you get it right first time it'll save you a lot of expense and questions of mammy wheres goldie gone, or goldie is sick and floating if you know what i mean

again welcome to the wonderful world of fishkeeping, ask anything you want, look through the beginners section all advise is in there and if any other questions well ask away we where all beginners once

Tara, there is a way to bypass fishless cycling that's a lot less complicated.

1) Set up the tank with Dechlorinated water & heat to temperature
2) Test your water - you need to know the PH of your water to see what fish are suitable
3) Get someone with an existing fish tank to give you some filter media from their filter
4) Add the media to your filter & add a few fish
5) Then stock your tank slowly with more fish over a few weeks

Adding filter media with established bacteria means that the filter can break down fish waste right away.

Obviously all the advice above is good & right but I think the notion of cycling a tank is enough to scare the bejaysus out of any beginner.

If you post up where you are based I'm sure there will be someone on the forum that is close by & can give you some filter media.

I'm near Dundrum in Dublin. My dilemma (and urgency) at this point is that my boys are fully convinced that when they come home on Sunday from a weekend with my parents we will be going to buy fish on Monday. They have counted down the sleeps to the fishies .

Fraid they wont be too happy on Monday morning when they find dead fish!! Trust me on this,the tank needs to cycle correctly otherwise it wont support the fish. The fish will die and your children wont be too impressed at that.
Sheag is correct in advising you re the test kit. Post the results here and we can get somewhere then. Id personally go with the quickcycle method and add that to your tank and it will kickstart the process. The filter suggestion from 2poc is a good way also but I think its best to actually let the cycle tank on its own when you are starting out as you may be limited to getting a squeeze of a filter if no-one is nearby by you,but since you are based in Dundrum Id imagine there are plenty of people nearby that will be offering a hand and if they are close then take them up on the offer,it will cycle the tank much quicker.
So Id get a test kit asap if I was you, and post the results,then we will know how far away from adding fish you will be at. Also can i ask what type of fish are you going to add?

Gavin

Hi,welcome to the forum.

There are many ways to start up a new tank as you've been reading.
some good,some less good;)
I've got a solution for you,once again some won't agree but here it is:
it's called "organic aqua",it's so far(in my opinion) the quickest and most reliable way to set up an aquarium.
There's been a thread about it on the forum before.
In short,you can set up your aquarium and add fish to it on the day.
If you are willing to do so,on Monday morning fill your tank with substrate and tap water,plug everything in and take a trip to Fintastic aquatics in Dun Laoghaire,where you can purchase this product and get good advice on how to get going.
I can guarantee you with success if you follow advices from the staff.
Hope this helps.
all the best,
D

Whoa we are opening that can of worms again!! The water results will be irrelevant if you use this product.
Read up on it please before you purchase so you understand whats involved in it.
But you would be able to add fish immediately yes.
Gavin

Thanks to D in AVII I now have a testing kit, SafeStart & AquaSafe. And a thermometer .

Today's test results (on the water that's been happily pumping away by itself for 6 days, sigh) are as follows.

temp 25.5*
pH 7.6
ammonia 0
nitrITE 0
nitrATE 0

I've added the AquaSafe & SafeStart now. Will test again on Friday.

Note, the thermostat set to 22 but light is on, it was 23 with light off. Where should the thermometer be in the tank, relative to the heater & lights? I've put it at the opposite corner (diagonally) from the heater/filter unit, but it's near the top. Is this right?

Thermometer is fine as long as its underwater and not pinned up against the heater. The test results are perfect Fishiegirl!Well done. Add that stuff and post results in a few day. The test kit figures are good in the tank but it still has to cycle so those readings will change.!

Gavin

Hi Fishiegirl,

I was at your stage over a year ago and was advised to use Organic Aqua. Reluctantly I did it and have really recommended it to everyone. I know there is alot of controversy surrounding it but it is safe.

On the otherhand it does prevent the steep learning curve that you will get from cycling the tank but if you have impatient people (like me) and you want fish there you should consider OA.

Best of luck with it. Why not post upi a few pics of the progress. Have you decided what fish to keep?

Leonie

Hi Tara
Im a newbie myself to keeping tropical fish and I got great advise from www.fishlore.com. It has a great beginners section that goes through everything you need to know about setting up a tank and the options you have on developing the tanks cycle from using frozen prawns to adding starting agents. they also give fish profiles which will help you pick out the kind of fish you want. I think the biggest mistake i made was letting the pet shopper owner decide what fish i bought and now I have two platys when really i wanted guppies and tetras.
The other tip I would give you is add 2 to 3 fish at a time coz adding 10 will overload the tanks cycle.
Hope it will be of some help to you.
And best of luck with the tank it is great when you get it set up.

I think there is more than enough on cycling a tank on this website! www.irishfishkeepers.com

Have a look at the following link. www.irishfishkeepers.com/cms/content/view/22/82/
Promote our own is what I say!

Gavin

Today's results are only marginally different.

We're now almost 48hrs after adding the safestart & aquasafe
[In case it's relevant, my elbow was knocked while pouring the safestart on Wednesday & about 75% of the bottle went in rather than the 50% I'd intended]


temp 25.5
pH 7.6
ammonia 0
nitrITE 0
nitrATE ~2.5?

It's definitely greater than zero and less than 5. Looks midway between.

Have added the rest of the SafeStart now & will be visiting AV2 on Monday for a few fishies .

Only add the fish when the readings allow. Keep an eye on the nitrates figure.

NitRAte is ok at <30, safe to add fish, NitRIte is toxic at any level!!!! but do keep an eye on it when you add fish, only 2-3 fish to start off with and feed every 2nd day or so, so far so good!!!!

I'm confused - what is the point in testing the water if there is nothing in it to cycle the tank?

If you introduce fish into a brand new tank with brand new water the water is perfect.
Its the fish that pollute the water.

So there's no way of telling whether any product works through testing the water unless there is something to pollute the water - i.e. fish

Maybe I'm missing something here as I am tired & its a Friday afternoon

its like this fishygirl,if you put too much clothes in a washing machine it would overload and leak everywhere,so the bacteria needs time to mature,

Think that must be the best explaination ever!!!

it wasnt ment to be serious:P

I agree!!!1 Very well put!!! the safestart is like a seed (seeding the filter)... it will grow but takes time!! Hows that for ya!!!! Patrick, i understand what you say but i would ALWAYS test water before you put fish into it...just to be safe!!!! and safestart is amazing!!! it does work!!! if you put fish into a new tank it will usually have ammonia soon after..safestart stops this providing you stock slowly.. dont know how, (Tetra keep it a secret)...

This morning's test appeared to show nitrates at zero but then the guys in AV2 told me that was almost impossible & to try shaking the 2nd bottle for a full minute, rather than the 30s on the card.

Result is now closer to 5.0 .

I have introduced two x-ray tetras and two glowlight tetras.

Hi Tara good choice, pristellas and glowlights are both hardy an peaceful species!! Go easy on the feeding and keep testing!!!

hey there

you add safestart WITH the fish

from tetra...

Tetra SafeStart should be added each time a fish is added, to increase the amount of bacteria in the filter.
A safer and faster approach is to add the majority of the fish in one go, at the same time as adding Tetra SafeStart to the water.

i was ill-advised on Safe-start when i first used it by lfs staff
and added it before getting stock and it did not work

i made a few mistakes at the start but also got bad advice
My safestart took two attempts and the tank still cycled two weeks later!!

Im sure the product works but as a newbie it did not work properly for me
and i still have no logical reason why it didnt

i am a relative newb myself but i would approach with caution
and read up as much as you can, keep testing and have patience with stocking

rgds

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