A Little Advise

[muzzy]

Hi All

Just wanted to get some advise from you all.

About 1 year ago i moved in to a new house and acquired an aquarium with a couple of fish in it. I tried to do my best to keep it going and after reading up on how to look after aquariums i then thought i would get a few more fish. I thought this might help the fish stay stress free.

To cut a long story short a lot of the fish have died bar 2 plecs and 5 tetras. So i have decided to start from scratch.....

I have just purchased myself a all in one cabinet and aquarium (Juwel Rio 125). What i don't want to do i kill anymore fish so like a few of the posts Ive read say I'm planning out what I'm doing before the fish go in.

So far Ive setup the tank, added the gravel, decorations, water and filter and lighting working as well. Having read the forum i know that the next thing to do is get the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate to acceptable levels by cycling the tank. To help things along Ive added a bit of the water from the original tank and stolen one of my girlfriends tights and added some of the gravel as well. Hopefully this will bring up the ammonia levels and in turn the nitrite and nitrate.

I think so far Ive done everything right...... if i haven't please tell me what Ive done wrong. Other than waiting for the bacteria to start doing its job I'm not entirely sure what else i can do.

The only other thing I'm doing is treating it as if there were fish in there so I'm switching the light on during the day, i also ready that adding a little food can help. Is this right or wrong?

Here are some pics for you to look at and if you see anything that could be changed just let me know. (These were taken before the tights and gravel were added)



Any advise would be appreciated.

Muzzy

 

[Nerwign]

You don't need the light or the food if you are adding ammonia some other way. The food is just to produce more ammonia. If you bought ammonia at the store and are dosing your tank for a fish-less cycle, then that is all you need. The light will just encourage algae to grow so I would leave it off.

The fish also don't care if you have a light, it's just so you can see them better.

Hope this helps! My fishless cycle took way longer than it should have because I didn't do it very well, but it was so very worth it. Good luck!

-Nerwign

 

[muzzy]

You don't need the light or the food if you are adding ammonia some other way. The food is just to produce more ammonia. If you bought ammonia at the store and are dosing your tank for a fish-less cycle, then that is all you need. The light will just encourage algae to grow so I would leave it off.

The fish also don't care if you have a light, it's just so you can see them better.

Hope this helps! My fishless cycle took way longer than it should have because I didn't do it very well, but it was so very worth it. Good luck!

-Nerwign

Thank you Nerwign, that has helped!! I didn't really know the significance of adding food until then. As you say if I'm introducing ammonia by other means then i shouldn't need to add food as well.

Would it be wise to buy some bottled ammonia or do you think what Ive done is enough?

Oh and what size is your tank and how long did your cycle tank?

Muzzy

 

[Kyrielle]

You need to add ammonia daily so the bacteria have something to eat. =) Bottled ammonia would be a good idea since it's cleaner than having fish food debris all over your tank.

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=113861

Check that thread out. Should tell you everything you need to know about cycling.

 

[muzzy]

Thank you Kyrielle, ill have a read through that and then probably buy some tomorrow.

Muzzy