Few questions (from a newbie)

Hello everyone!

My friend gave me an old aquarium recently and I am trying to
get it back in working order again and now I have a few questions I could use some advise on, thank you in advance for reading this/helping me.
-I was thinking of going over the old seals, can I(my hubbie) just use ordinary silicone to do this?
- the tank I got came without a hood, were could I source one?
- would anybody reccomend a good LFS in the west dublin/kildare area?
- How do I find out what size of tank this is ( i know the measurements, but have no idea how many liters of water it holds!)
These are all the questions I can think of right now, but I might be back with more in the not so distant future.
Thanks
Astrid

Hi Astrid

I was thinking of going over the old seals, can I(my hubbie) just use ordinary silicone to do this?

NO!! First check if it is leaking, do a fill test in the garden, leaving it full for at least a day. If it needs to be resealed you must use silicone suitable for aquarium, regular silicone has fungicide in it that will kill fish. If it needs resealing the old silicone much be removed with a sharp knife first.

would anybody recomend a good LFS in the west dublin/kildare area?

My geoghraphy is not great, but there is one in Celbridge, part of a garden centre whose name escapes me at the moment.

the tank I got came without a hood, were could I source one?

I would not bother, purchase a light that sits over the top of the tank, I will post a link to a picture later. I think they look better and will be easier to source than a hood to fit an exisitng tank, depending on the make and how old, of course.

How do I find out what size of tank this is ( i know the measurements, but have no idea how many liters of water it holds!)

Measure the inside of the tank, post the three measurements here in cm or inches and we will tell you.


Welcome to the forum



Daragh

Welcome Astrid. I can't really add anything to Daraghs reply except the garden centre in Celbridge is called the orchard.
What size is the tank?

Hi Astrid/Mrs Fishpatrick!

Welcome to the forum!

- would anybody reccomend a good LFS in the west dublin/kildare area?

There also is Aquatic Village in Brittas, it's not too far from Naas.

Valerie

Thanks everybody that replied,
This is definetly usefull info I am going to follow,
I will try to get some aeroboard to put the tank on outside
for the day.
And thank you for telling me not to use ordinary silicone, I really wasn't sure.
I know the orchard garden centre allright, I'll be passing there later in the day.
And as for the hood, i might get a somebody to fabricate a hood for my tank, i didn't know could you buy spares or not.
I will post the measurements of my tank in a while and if someone could tell me what water it holds I would be very gratefull as I am diabolical at doing maths. (that's why I still cant convert cm's in to inches, and I am here for nearly 7 years:blush: )
Thanks again
Astrid

Okay,
I measured the tank and here goes
w75x h36 x d32 cm's
I hope someone can tell me by these measurements what amount of water this tank will hold (if it's not leaking:lol: )
thanks
Astrid

Hi Astrid, the Fish Bowl at Rosse Court, Lucan is another LFS you could visit. The guy there is quite helpful.

Hi there
I am after taking your advice(johnH) and filling up the tank outside. It looks like she is staying dry, wich is good news.
and I kept an eye on how much water i fit in there, I think I got around 70 liters in there, so you are on the ball with your calculations.
Do I need to buy a proper fish tank stand for this or should a sideboard hold this much weight.
All these questions, My 2 toddlers are dancing inside the backdoor looking at the tank ouside going fissies fissies! they propably think I will go to the shop now and buy some fish. Poor them, they'll be looking at a few plants in there over the next couple of weeks, if they are lucky;)
Have to get something to put the tank on first.
Thanks everybody for your help
Astrid

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

I am using stress coat end stress zyme to cycle my tank,
and yes I was thinking of the more standard fish, I dont have a very big tank, and my nana used to have neon tetra's, they remind me of her so that's what I'll propably end up with.
I always thought that the fry got eaten by the other fish, my mistake obviously, can you not bring the fry you don't want back to a fish shop so they could sell them once they have matured enough, saves you having to destroy them, or is this a silly thought, i don't know.
Thanks for looking at my post
Astrid

I agree, tetras are fab to look at and colour up very well also. Remember they are shoaling fish so get at least 6 or 7 of them to see them together and they feel more secure in larger numbers. As for the LFS taking fry,they wont take new fry,they need to be at least a few months old and alot of these fry take time to mature. Mine are 4 or 5 months old nearly and they are still not ready for the shop! Hopefully they will be ready very soon and I can reduce the amount of fish I have!
Fry do sometimes get eaten by other fish,depends on what fish you have. I mean Angels will eat the molly and guppy fry very quick,but the mother fish doesnt always eat their young,a well established tank with enough food for the fish will mean the mother fish leaves the fry alone,also if there are hiding spaces in the tank then the fry will find them and hide their. The filter box seems to be a place I always find them in, which is perfect for them as its full of food for them to eat!
Gavin

Cool thanks for that advice on the tetra , I will get a few of them. In a couple of weeks ofcoarse. And In the meantime I'll have a look in the fishshops to see what else is there and what would be suitable for my tank.
Untill then we are looking at an emty tank if you dont count the filter and the heater.
Still have to source something that would be suitable as a hood, otherwise we might see some floating toys in there shortly, or uneaten lunches of the kids
Husband was mentioning something about clear perspex.
If anyone has any blueprints on how to fabricate a hood, and affix the lightbox to them plz let me know.
thanks
Astrid

I have to say i would be pro the natural or prawn method both give good results

the Organic Aquarium method i am neither pro or against As the last time i was in Petstop they were running a tank with out problem and i know a couple of other sponsors are using it but names escape me(sorry)

there was a recent thread about using bottled ammonia which was interesting informative and a fast track do i would personally worry about new tank syndrome with some of the newer ways and methods.

( www.irishfishkeepers.com/cms/component/o.../catid,517/id,36635/ )


i use the prawn method i find it sightly quicker and cleaner as i do not have to feed the tank daily nor do i have to remove as much debris

I use a stainless steel tea/herb diffuser which means i only have to clean it. i keep it close to my in take thus water is passing through it and the ammonia is drawn around the filter and tank. a lot less messy but position is vital bad position longer to cycle.


the ammonia method in the link i would not use around kids or place were safety must be considered. you will find many hundreds of treads on cycling i think it is a very personal choice



As for the heater well i some times use them flat but i try to keep them up right this seem to reduce the risk of burns but again personal choice


fish wise well neons look great but ensure you get them from a good quality source any of our sponsor also look at cardinals very similar do slightly bigger. livebears very beautiful but if not kept in check will soon swamp you depending on species that could mean double in a few months. do this is easily controlled by reducing tem slightly and by feeding over feed over breed only feed six out of seven days and the minimum required on the feed days this follows nature naturally is best

Fishowner is correct about two thermometers, in fact two of every thing you can never have enough filtration and if one brakes the other is there to do the work, heaters two but have that the tank requires the reason for this is if one brakes you still have the other also if one gets locked in the on position the other will be off this will avoid dead fish that have been cooked by a faulty heater.

i am sure other will have plenty of other advise for you and keep us post on your progress


and remember the only silly question is the one you did not ask

i use the prawn method i find it sightly quicker and cleaner as i do not have to feed the tank daily nor do i have to remove as much debris

I use a stainless steel tea/herb diffuser which means i only have to clean it. i keep it close to my in take thus water is passing through it and the ammonia is drawn around the filter and tank. a lot less messy but position is vital bad position longer to cycle.

Just to get things straight, you would stick a prawn in a teastrainer, near the filter(sorry I am just a bit slow)


the ammonia method in the link i would not use around kids or place were safety must be considered. you will find many hundreds of treads on cycling i think it is a very personal choice

Your'e right about this deffo not being the method for me with my 2 inquisitive monsters/toddlers
they would see me adding a few drops once and when I turm my back to do something they'd have the bottle emptied in there, or worse they might try to take a zip



As for the heater well i some times use them flat but i try to keep them up right this seem to reduce the risk of burns but again personal choice
To be honest I would prefer to have it upright but it just doesn't fit, when I rang the shop I bought it I was told he has all his heaters in horizontally ( maybe he wasn't keen on exchanging it for a shorter heater)



Fishowner is correct about two thermometers, in fact two of every thing you can never have enough filtration and if one brakes the other is there to do the work, heaters two but have that the tank requires the reason for this is if one brakes you still have the other also if one gets locked in the on position the other will be off this will avoid dead fish that have been cooked by a faulty heater.Sorry I don't get this part about the 2nd heater, Do you mean they should have a thermostat that switches off automatically when the desire temperature is reached? ( I feel so blonde sometimes)

[/quote]

sorry i will try and explain better

diffuser mine is like a metal orb that comes apart i place the prawn in side and close the top part, this is full of hole which allow water in and water and ammonio out while the prawn remain in side they use for herb tea or cooking to save the hassle of removing small bits.

the heater position well my prefrence is up right close to water flow and most types i have had stated the up right position it also seem less lightly to do harm in this position but others will give you more advice on this

two heathers rather than one
if your tank needs a total of 300 watts to heat it then i would use two 150 watts to do the job
because if one brakes the other will keep the temp up for you or as can happen if one is stuck on the other will auto turn off and this will protect your fish

hope this helps
mickey

How would you know how many watt you need to fill up the tank?
(are you sure there are no such things as silly questions:blush: )
Thanks for explaining
Astrid

Astrid,
What size tank have you ? That will determine what size heater you will need. The more watts yo have,the quicker it heats the water. Im not sure what size tank you have but if its around the 86 litre size then Im thinking about 150 watt minimum?
Im guessing only at that though so someone may confirm it or indeed correct me!
Gavin

I've a Jewel Trigon 350L which came with 2x Fluval Tronic 300W heaters in it.

Heaters rarely seem to come on and the tank stays at a constant temp for me.

Each heater has a thermostat, when the temp falls the heater comes on to bring the temp back up. Usually indicated by a light in the heater itself. It will go on and off several times during the day to keep the temperature constant. When it gets too warm it shuts off until the temp drops again. During the summer it will drop slower due to the room temp in most houses being up. Winter is different depending on the room temp etc.
The thermostat should never be taken as granted which is why its vital you have at least 1 thermometer in the tank to ensure you can check the temp on a daily basis.
Also having a spare heater is important as if one breaks you will have another to replace it etc.
Hope the post hasnt come across as a basic lesson,I just thought explaining it might help but Im pretty sure you know it already.
Gavin