A Few Questions

[jackkikz]

Hello, i am to to keeping fish and to this website but i have a few questions and i thought this would be the best place to come!

A few days ago i bought an Aqua One AR850 off ebay, its a year old but it was only £75 with a cabinet, an external fluval filter and a few other bits and bobs. Its in really good nic and im quite impressed with it really.

Ok, today i filled my tank up with water after washing gravel for over an hour - fun. It looks alright, not too cloudy, so im now leaving it to clear up and stuff.

Right now for the questions:

I bought a cool bit of wood (really expensive for a bit of wood), but it seems to be floating, will it ever sink?

How long will i have to wait before adding fish?

How many fish can i initially add? (its a 165 litre tank)

Which fish do you suggest? I would like to add some fish with fins eventually so which fish are "fin nippers" that i should avoid

How long will i have to wait before adding more fish?

I would like to add some plants, should i add them straight away?

The filter system is a tad confusing, its in the roof of the tank and says on the side the numbers of the filters and there are 3 of them 4w, 4c and 4s and there are also these noodle things, each do a different job, but on the instructions, see here: http/www.aquaone.co.uk/documents/Aquasty...res_new_000.pdf, it seems to suggest that there are only 2 layes above the noodles, what should i do?

Ok, i think thats all for now, i appreciate you reading this as its a fairly long post, and thank you for your answers and opinions,

Jack.

 

[Amunet]

Welcome!! You have def come to the right place to get all of your questions answered

For the wood. It needs to get waterlogged. Good ways to do this is to fully submerge it. Put some heavy rocks on it, or tie it to a piece of slate or a rock or whatever to help sink it. Not sure the average time it takes for a piece of wood to finally sink on it's own, but you could check after a week and if it's still floating, just weigh it down again

The first thing you'll need to do is read up on the nitrogen cycle, and then fishless cycling.
The sticky thread at the top Beginners Resource has links to the threads with all of the info in them.
Most people make the mistake of rushing and getting fish before their tank cycles properly, so it is highly recommended to do a fishless cycle. This will give you lots of time to research the fish you'd like to get.

If you go with fishless cycling, depending on how messy the fish is, it's ok to pretty much fully stock the tank. Some people are comfy doing that, while others like to be more cautious and only add in a few fish every week until fully stocked.

Which fish, that's really up to you. Your tank is a pretty decent size so you'll be able to pick from a wide variety. As for fin nipping fish. Only one I've had experience with are Tiger Barbs. They earn their rep as fin nippers
I really like this website to look up fish. Only has very basic information, but has a photo of the fish so you can at least see what it looks like to see if it's something you'd like. Then you can look up more info about it elsewhere
http/www.aquahobby.com/e_freshwater_trop...uarium_fish.php

You can get plants right away, but it's been recommended to wait after a fishless cycle is complete b/c the risk of getting algae is higher due to the high amounts of ammonia used during fishless cycling.


As for the filter, no idea

 

[Johng89]

First of all welcome to the forum

if you soak the wood in water for a week or so to remove most of teh tannins i used hot water initially then changed the water every day
if ot still doesnt sink tie it to a piece of slate using thread and place in tank it will eventually sink

I would suggest a fishless cycle on your tank if you look around the forum there are tons of threads on this it can take anything from 6-8 weeks but if you can get mature media from another member of you LFS you could speed this process up

the amount of fish and fish type depends on tank dimensions ans using a web site you have 55 US Gallons so you can have
55 inches of ADULT fish. so even if you but a fish at 1 inch if its adult size is 4 inches you count it as 4 inches
http/www.aquaticlifedirect.co.uk is a godd site for fish data that i have used

Ehat fish to add depends on what you like
have a look in the members pic section to see what you like and also use the internet to check how easy the fish are to keep as you are just starting out.

Not sure on plants and again this depends on teh look / fish you will keep

not sure about the filter but im sure if you post in the appropriate section another member will have teh same setup

Have fun and enjoy your fish

remember cheap is not always best , Buy Cheap Buy Twice

 

[jackkikz]

Thanks guys, i was originally going to do a fishless cycle after reading about it, but the guy in the lfs put me off it, but since i trust you lot more than him i am going to try it, i bought the ammonia today after several hours of looking in every lfs in the area, B&Q, The Range, Boots, and loads of other places i finally found it in homebase.

But now i found out the water testing strips i have dont test for ammonia so ill have to buy that tomorrow before starting.

Now i can look for fish to buy too, the website you recommended are really good, loads of pics. I might even buy them on the internet, since i will probably be buying quite a few.

OOOOH and my wood has finaly sunk!

Anyway, thanks for your help,

Jack.

 

[gogfumble]

What did the guy in the LFS say to try and put you off?

The only reason I can think for trying to put you off is that he was hoping to sell you some fish ASAP.

 

[arobinson1984]

I wouldn't recommend the test strips, especially for use during a cycle. The problem with the test strips is that have a reputation for giving inaccurate results. You really should get a liquid based test kit, the recommended one being the API freshwater master kit which I and many others on this forum use and it tests for PH, ammonia, nitrIte and nitrAte.

It looks like this: Master kit

Although slightly more expensive than the test strips, its defo worth it as it is accurate, easy to use and will last around a year if not longer. The website I have linked you to do it at a good price and you can sometimes pick them up even cheaper on ebay but at £18.95 its not bad as some fish shops sell it for £30

Andy

 

[arobinson1984]

I wouldn't recommend the test strips, especially for use during a cycle. The problem with the test strips is that have a reputation for giving inaccurate results. You really should get a liquid based test kit, the recommended one being the API freshwater master kit which I and many others on this forum use and it tests for PH, ammonia, nitrIte and nitrAte.

It looks like this: Master kit

Although slightly more expensive than the test strips, its defo worth it as it is accurate, easy to use and will last around a year if not longer. The website I have linked you to do it at a good price and you can sometimes pick them up even cheaper on ebay but at £18.95 its not bad as some fish shops sell it for £30

Andy

 

[drobbyb]

Yes, avoid the test strips. The strips are usually sold in 25. That's only 25 tests, so you will need to buy more. The liquid based test kits vary in the number of tests, but it's more than twice the value. The test kit is a little more expensive, but in the longrun is a far better value.

 

[arobinson1984]

The API freshwater master kit has enough for 800 tests

Andy

 

[jackkikz]

OK, now im confused, i have bought a water based test kit and added ammonia. I first added 8ml of ammonia, as that is what is suggested for a 165 litre tank with 9.5% ammonia. About half an hour later i tested the water and the test said that there was only 0.1% ammonia, so i added another 10 ml of ammonia, did another test and it had probably gone up to 0.2-0.3ish %. What do i do now? Add loads more?

Is it because i added Stress-zyme and Stress-coat when i first set up the tank last week as initially i was not going to do a fishless cycle.

Anyway, advice would be appreciated,

Jack

 

[arobinson1984]

If either the stress coat or zyme advertise that they reduce ammonia then that could well be your prob.

I'd recommend doing a large water change to remove as much of the chemicals as you can and then start again.

Also leave minimum of an hour after adding ammonia before you test

Andy

 

[jackkikz]

Urgh, i might just add the fish the old fashion way, without the fishless cycle, its becoming a bit too much of a hastle.

 

[waterdrop]

Hi Jack and welcome to the beginners section!

I know it can be very off-putting to be all set to have fish quickly and then come upon a real hobbyist forum like this and hear everyone talking about complicated sounding water chemistry. To top it off the LFS is always going to say to just ignore it and throw a few fish in.

Hope you won't decide to do that though as even though its harder for us humans to recognize when fish are in pain and dying (they make no sound and usually just look pale and listless) than it is with other pets that are mammals like us, its still the same thing.

I actually don't think either the StressCoat or StressZyme would have caused any problems for using the ammonia. StressCoat is just a variation on a dechlorination/dechloramination conditioner and StressZyme won't have done anything as I believe its just some dead bacteria in a bottle. Instead, to me at this point, it seems like somehow the HomeBase ammonia is not concentrated enough. Funny thing is that I believe the HomeBase stuff has been one of the better ones to find, at least according to lots of reports from other members here. Usually, but not always, the UK ammonias have been fairly close to the typical 9.5% aqueous ammonia. In the USA where I am there are lots of them that are much less than the 9.5% and so we typically have to dump in larger amounts to achieve the desired 4-5ppm concentration in the tank.

All of us here who have been helping people for a while just have it in mind to help and to make things easier. Even though you are having some hassles with the ammonia, its still almost always an easier approach than fish-in cycling. Fish-in takes a similar length of time (roughly a month) but during that time you often have to perform a -lot- of water changes and even then the lives of the fish will be shortened.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[oswoldy]

Urgh, i might just add the fish the old fashion way, without the fishless cycle, its becoming a bit too much of a hastle.

It will be ALOT more hastle if you shove the fish in, they get sick or worse die! If you are after a quick hobby you have chosen the wrong one.

Mike

 

[Bobtastic]

Could it be that your filter contains Zeolite, as Zeolite basically just removes Ammonia from the water? Or that the filter is already cycled? You did say that it was second hand in the original post. Was it all setup and running until just b4 you picked it up? Or was it sat in a garage somewhere?