Arrrggghhhh What's Cycling, New Tank And I've Already Got Fish

[dsingleton]

I've decided to go with some advise from here and do regular water changes whilst waiting for my tank to cycle. I am also wishing to do the water tests each day for myself. I have been looking on eBay for different kits, can anybody recommend one that will do the job?

To me this one looks about right . . .

http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...A:IT&ih=012

But feedback would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

 

[lillykinloo]

Yes, Miss Wiggle! This post is extremely helpful! Actually, I recently asked a question like this, so I think this should definitely be pinned. I don't know if this would be helpful, but if you would recommend using Ammo-lock, maybe a blurb about this with some brief instructions for how & when it should be used would be helpful too. Thanks again!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

I've decided to go with some advise from here and do regular water changes whilst waiting for my tank to cycle. I am also wishing to do the water tests each day for myself. I have been looking on eBay for different kits, can anybody recommend one that will do the job?

To me this one looks about right . . .

http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...A:IT&ih=012

But feedback would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

thats designed for salt water, however the fresh water equivalent is a good kit so look for that

thanks linkyloo...... i've never used anything like ammo lock before myself, IMO it's enough to do water changes.

however i don't intend this thread to be just my opinions!! If someone else has experience with ammo lock and would like to write up a paragraph about it please do. I guess when we've got a reasonable amount of feedback and have tinkered with things I can combine everything and maybe just get 1 thread pinned with it all in (obviously i'd credit any other authors with they're sections)

 

[dsingleton]

thats designed for salt water, however the fresh water equivalent is a good kit so look for that

I saw in another thread you recommended the API Master Kit . . .

Is this the right one?

http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/API-MASTER-TEST-KIT-...6QQcmdZViewItem

 

[Miss Wiggle]

thats designed for salt water, however the fresh water equivalent is a good kit so look for that

I saw in another thread you recommended the API Master Kit . . .

Is this the right one?

http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/API-MASTER-TEST-KIT-...6QQcmdZViewItem

yup that's what we use

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Made a few amendments, thankyou to BigNose for your helpful comments

 

[tlagden]

Made a few amendments, thankyou to BigNose for your helpful comments

Hiya,


Very good thread it does contain all the basics and steps to take well done

You mention in your information that in particular some water test kits are 'awful', would you care to elaborate?

i.e from your experience would you say that the range of Nutrafin test kits are good at testing water quality or poor?

Thanks

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Made a few amendments, thankyou to BigNose for your helpful comments

Hiya,


Very good thread it does contain all the basics and steps to take well done

You mention in your information that in particular some water test kits are 'awful', would you care to elaborate?

i.e from your experience would you say that the range of Nutrafin test kits are good at testing water quality or poor?

Thanks

thanks

maybe i should change that to 'innacurate' strip tests and tablets i've found to be very unreliable. liquid tests are much better however at best they give an indication of the levels, not nescessarily the exact levels. Nitrate tests in particular are tricky, you know how the instructions are often quite detailed, like shake for 30 secs, well you do have to follow them exactly, and even then the results aren't perfect. you can often take a sample of water from a tank and do 2/3 tests on it and get a variation in the readings.

I've not used nutrafin tests so can't comment.

I've found the API tests to give steady readings which is really the only measure I can get of how good/poor they are. However a lot of others on this forum share this opinion with me so I reckon they're one of the best.

 

[tlagden]

liquid tests are much better however at best they give an indication of the levels, not nescessarily the exact levels.

That's good at least the one i'm using is liquid! - the nitrate one is certaintly the most tricky to do! I follow the instructions and seem to get steady readings too though.

Thanks for the answer

 

[Miss Wiggle]

liquid tests are much better however at best they give an indication of the levels, not nescessarily the exact levels.

That's good at least the one i'm using is liquid! - the nitrate one is certaintly the most tricky to do! I follow the instructions and seem to get steady readings too though.

Thanks for the answer

no problem

 

[Dutchie]

Great post and very informative...........

No longer seems Double Dutch to me anymore................!!!!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

thanks Dutchie,

and thankyou to Annastacia who's made this post accesible through the beginners resource centre, now available from the top of the beginners section

 

[Christine1014]

Great post! A must-read for anyone setting up a new tank. Nice job, Miss Wiggle!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Great post! A must-read for anyone setting up a new tank. Nice job, Miss Wiggle!

thanks christine

 

[Underwurlde]

With reference to my post above (post #11) some of you may be wondering why I mentioned testing your dechlorinated water BEFORE putting it in your tanks. The following thread sparked off my thinking on this subject: (See Post #5)
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=175313

I was also thinking of the variety of available water conditioners out there: Not all water conditioners are born equal - See here for a review of commercially available water conditioners..
http/www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/rev-cond.htm

So why the worry in using 'any' water conditioner?
Chloramine (NH2Cl) is actually a combination of Chlorine (Cl) & Ammonia (NH2). When water conditioners such as ‘Stress Coat’ & ‘Start Right’ are used to remove Chloramine they bind with Chlorine leaving Ammonia behind!

‘Prime’ can then be used to bind with the Ammonia to create harmless Ammonium (which is still an acceptable food for filter bacteria). Sodium Hydroxymethane Sulfinate converts Ammonia to Ammonium, it's the component, along with Sodium Thiosulfate, that is in somewater conditioners that remove Ammonia along with Chlorine & Chloramine.

To sum up, I am not trying to cause undue anxiety, but simply knowing what you're buying & what it is doing may help to overt such disasters as mentioned in the first thread above!

Note: in case you are wondering, dechlorinators work near a damn it instantly. Hence you can add tapwater stright into the tank if

you want and dechlorinate it there - I advise you turn your filter off whilst doing this of course! This means that you can use Pythons to fill your tank and avoid lugging & slopping buckets of water everywhere BUT the same applies - you might want to consider testing a small sample of dechlorinated water BEFORE using this method!

Andy

PS
Dunno what other think about this...