1st Tropical Tank Help Please :)

[lucejayne123]

coloured glass catfish have been artificially died, which means they were injected with dye, or dipped in a stripper then coated then dipped in a replenisher
to get the slime coat back, its sickening really, dont buy from that LFS, are you in the UK?

*shocked* yes in the UK saw them at local respectable big fish shop- they were all neon colours...pink green blue orange etc...

 

[Truck]

i thought fish dying was illegal in the UK?

its not illegal

read this

http/www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/...ign_details.php

 

[lucejayne123]

i thought fish dying was illegal in the UK?

i havent got a clue - didnt evan know they were dyed.. they were just little see through fish with a neon coloured bit olong top of their backs.. tank lable said theye were coloured glass fish...

like i said im new to tropical fish so i really dont know

 

[Truck]

its sickening there are loads of died fish for sale in the UK still

the most common being neon glass cats, and parrot fish

 

[waterdrop]

What type of filter and filter media do you have on your coldwater tank? Hopefully you can talk with the members here about how to pull 1/3 or less of one of the types of media from your coldwater filter and seed the filter on your new tank with it. If the seed takes successfully, and that's not guaranteed, you could lower the time the fishless cycle might take.

I think you are making a very good choice to plan to go with fishless cycling your new filter. Fishless cycling and Fish-In cycling are often presented as two equal paths leading to a cycled filter and requiring nothing but a choice at the beginning. The reality is nothing like that. Very experienced aquarists, especially those with plenty of patience and particularly, for instance, those working on starting up lots of plants in a tank, can often put a very small number of fish in and then monitor the stats for a long time, often performing water changes or having extremely well-planted tanks.

In contrast, fish-in cycling for beginners is rarely this controlled. Instead, fish end up getting permanent damage to their gills (from ammonia) or to there nervous system (from hemoglobin damaged by nitrite) and the innocent newcomer to the hobby ends up wondering if all tropical fish are as prone to disease and death as the ones they are trying to start with. Either that or the beginner finds information on a forum like this and ends up performing exhausting water changes that most end up saying they would never do again if they could possibly help it.

The fishless cycle is no piece of cake either. It requires every bit as much patience but at least without the laborious water changing. It requires testing and plenty of dialog with the members here, as its a bit of an art and all the ins and outs are not easily prescribed. One good thing about a fishless cycle though is that it gives you time to get used to the operation of your tank prior to fish and gives you a period to work on the long, drawn out process of figuring out your stocking. Normally we generally say fishless takes about 3 weeks to 2 months, but with mature media seeding, that time can sometimes go down drastically. Regardless, its very hard to predict the time and you are better off simply using the time to learn and interact as much as possible about both the tank water chemistry and about your future stocking.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[lucejayne123]

its sickening there are loads of died fish for sale in the UK still

the most common being neon glass cats, and parrot fish

oh thats really made me look at the brightly coloured fish in a differant way - shocking!

What type of filter and filter media do you have on your coldwater tank? Hopefully you can talk with the members here about how to pull 1/3 or less of one of the types of media from your coldwater filter and seed the filter on your new tank with it. If the seed takes successfully, and that's not guaranteed, you could lower the time the fishless cycle might take.

I think you are making a very good choice to plan to go with fishless cycling your new filter. Fishless cycling and Fish-In cycling are often presented as two equal paths leading to a cycled filter and requiring nothing but a choice at the beginning. The reality is nothing like that. Very experienced aquarists, especially those with plenty of patience and particularly, for instance, those working on starting up lots of plants in a tank, can often put a very small number of fish in and then monitor the stats for a long time, often performing water changes or having extremely well-planted tanks.

In contrast, fish-in cycling for beginners is rarely this controlled. Instead, fish end up getting permanent damage to their gills (from ammonia) or to there nervous system (from hemoglobin damaged by nitrite) and the innocent newcomer to the hobby ends up wondering if all tropical fish are as prone to disease and death as the ones they are trying to start with. Either that or the beginner finds information on a forum like this and ends up performing exhausting water changes that most end up saying they would never do again if they could possibly help it.

The fishless cycle is no piece of cake either. It requires every bit as much patience but at least without the laborious water changing. It requires testing and plenty of dialog with the members here, as its a bit of an art and all the ins and outs are not easily prescribed. One good thing about a fishless cycle though is that it gives you time to get used to the operation of your tank prior to fish and gives you a period to work on the long, drawn out process of figuring out your stocking. Normally we generally say fishless takes about 3 weeks to 2 months, but with mature media seeding, that time can sometimes go down drastically. Regardless, its very hard to predict the time and you are better off simply using the time to learn and interact as much as possible about both the tank water chemistry and about your future stocking.

~~waterdrop~~

it s just the internal standard filter in my cold water tank its a juwel rio 240. im sorry i dont know what you mean by media and seeds? im still needing a lot of advise on the cycling aswell - i need it explaining to me in 'cycling for dummies' terms haha. i think my new tank juwel trigon 350 comes with an external filter too . . .

thanks for your help and patcience!!

 

[waterdrop]

Media is the term we use for all the different "particle catcher" things we put inside the filter box. Its going to be a good thing for you to learn about them prior to starting your fishless cycle, but its not hard at all. The members will come along and help.

The filter manufacturers like to design "cartridges" and other filter media "devices" in the hope of selling lots of them on an ongoing basis to innocent newcomers to the hobby. You'll find from the members here that that's not necessary and in fact hobbyists have plenty of reasons to "customize" (meaning actually getting it right!) the media in their filters.

Filters have three major functions: Mechanical Filtration, Chemical Filtration and Biological Filtration. The members will explain this to you.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[matchstickman47]

truck i had to show this from your link


the bore of the needle used, and make a comparison of scale, it would be the equivalent of us receiving several injections with a needle the same diameter as a pencil.


that is disgusting

 

[Essjay]

The two tanks are both Juwel - they have the same filter don't they? That would make it much easier. The sponges are the media, though I think some of the new Juwel tanks are starting to use a ceramic media called cirax in addition to the sponges. You'll just need to take some of the sponges out of the Rio's filter and put them in the Trigon's, and put an equal number of the new ones from the Trigon into the Rio to replace the ones you've taken out. I don't know how many blue sponges you get with those two tanks, but if you put 1/3 of the number from the Rio into the Trigon, that is what waterdrop meant by seeding the new filter.

When you get your new tank, have a look at what they give you for the filter. You should be used to the coarse blue and fine blue sponges that came with the Rio. There may also be a basket of what looks like pebbles - that's the cirax, a ceramic medium. If there are green and black sponges, don't bother with them. Replace them with more blue ones or more cirax.




Edited for spelling

 

[lucejayne123]

The two tanks are both Juwel - they have the same filter don't they? That would make it much easier. The sponges are the media, though I think some of the new Juwel tanks are starting to use a ceramic media called cirax in addition to the sponges. You'll just need to take some of the sponges out of the Rio's filter and put them in the Trigon's, and put an equal number of the new ones from the Trigon into the Rio to replace the ones you've taken out. I don't know how many blue sponges you get with those two tanks, but if you put 1/3 of the number from the Rio into the Trigon, that is what waterdrop meant by seeding the new filter.

When you get your new tank, have a look at what they give you for the filter. You should be used to the coarse blue and fine blue sponges that came with the Rio. There may also be a basket of what looks like pebbles - that's the cirax, a ceramic medium. If there are green and black sponges, don't bother with them. Replace them with more blue ones or more cirax.




Edited for spelling

ah i understand now! but.... my rio is a coldwater aquarium - does this matter?? also my trigon is getting delivered with the internal filter but also a Eheim Professional 2, which the person who im buying off said they never used the internal once they got that - also a sulper filter??

thanks x

 

[Essjay]

Now I understand too! The Trigon isn't new.

Has the previous owner kept fish in the tank up till now? What I mean is, will the external still have a bacteria colony in there? If not, you could still seed the external with sponges from the Rio, though you may have to trim them to fit, and buy some new sponges for the Rio filter. It shouldn't matter that the Rio's cold water.
Is the Trigon's internal not in use? If not, and you just want to use the external, it'll give you more room in the tank if you remove it before you set the tank up. You just need to cut through the silicone blobs holding it in place, being very careful not to damage the sealant in the corner. If I can do it......

Never heard of a sulper filter I'm afraid.

 

[lucejayne123]

Now I understand too! The Trigon isn't new.

Has the previous owner kept fish in the tank up till now? What I mean is, will the external still have a bacteria colony in there? If not, you could still seed the external with sponges from the Rio, though you may have to trim them to fit, and buy some new sponges for the Rio filter. It shouldn't matter that the Rio's cold water.
Is the Trigon's internal not in use? If not, and you just want to use the external, it'll give you more room in the tank if you remove it before you set the tank up. You just need to cut through the silicone blobs holding it in place, being very careful not to damage the sealant in the corner. If I can do it......

Never heard of a sulper filter I'm afraid.

i think the tank is two years old and was originally set up as a tropical and she still has all the equipment but the past couple of months shes kept bearded dragons in it tempararily but she still has all the equipment to make it tropical and the internal filters still in the tank. so there gunna be too minging to use arnt they, i have lotrs of spares for my filter for the Rio so i could just take filters out of my rio and put new ones in ther rio...

 

[Essjay]

I don't know anything about bearded dragons so I can't comment on the state of the equipment!

So if there haven't been any fish in it for a few months, there'll be no bacteria left. If you can clean the external OK, you'd probably be better off using that, but if you wanted, you could use the built in Juwel filter if you buy a new set of sponges, and cirax if you want to use Juwel's new medium as well. Whichever filter you decide to use, you can use the sponges from your current cold water tank to seed the new tank.

Someone with more experience than me will be able to take you through the process of seeding your filter.

 

[lucejayne123]

I don't know anything about bearded dragons so I can't comment on the state of the equipment!

So if there haven't been any fish in it for a few months, there'll be no bacteria left. If you can clean the external OK, you'd probably be better off using that, but if you wanted, you could use the built in Juwel filter if you buy a new set of sponges, and cirax if you want to use Juwel's new medium as well. Whichever filter you decide to use, you can use the sponges from your current cold water tank to seed the new tank.

Someone with more experience than me will be able to take you through the process of seeding your filter.

i hope the dragons dont come with the tank!!

thanks for your advise, you helped

 

[lucejayne123]

I don't know anything about bearded dragons so I can't comment on the state of the equipment!

So if there haven't been any fish in it for a few months, there'll be no bacteria left. If you can clean the external OK, you'd probably be better off using that, but if you wanted, you could use the built in Juwel filter if you buy a new set of sponges, and cirax if you want to use Juwel's new medium as well. Whichever filter you decide to use, you can use the sponges from your current cold water tank to seed the new tank.

Someone with more experience than me will be able to take you through the process of seeding your filter.

i hope the dragons dont come with the tank!!

thanks for your advise, you helped

Its here and it huge im so exited