Back In The Game!

[mata]

Hi all, I'm new here as you can see. So heres the story of my fishing life...

About 8 years ago I bought a nice Juwel Rekord 70 tank from my local, bought a few fake plants, gravel and rock and some of the chemicals to get me started (water safe I think it was called). Anyway had it set up for two weeks without fish but feeding in a few flakes (as far as I remember) Added my first few fish, my favorite, a bronze cory, 3 neon tetras and 2 'x-ray' tetras I think there called.

Everything was good, until I messed it up by adding more about a year later, 2 more neons, and a red tail shark (I think it was called) was told by the local it would be fine, no it was very territorial in my tank chasing other fish and stressing them. I took it out put it in my water change bucket after a month of distressing the fish, was in for an hour and managed to jump out clear into the bath and died. Replaced with a common plec about a month after and about 6 months down the line something bad went wrong and nearly all the fish died within two days and the rest died the week after.

Anyway, I never really got round to cleaning the tank up till and trying to get things started again until this week. So the plan of attack is to get a new pump for the tank, Juwel pump 400, new filter materials for the filter, will use the same heater that I had as it seems still in good nick. Will get some sort of gravel for the bottom and a few fake plants, not keen on trying live ones yet, and a bit of bog wood or the like for resting/decor. Might get a new bulb for the hood, but it seems in good nick also.

I will be looking of going down the same root of getting a bronze Cory and a 2 or 3 other fish to start things off, but will have to check the stock of the local first before any decisions can be made.

My questions...

Where best to buy the Juwel Compact filter material? Which ones do I need and how many? As I cant really find the order they go into the filter box on line.
Is there a place where I can get a 'Starter Kit' with all the bits I need to start off with? E.G. siphon, water safe, testing kit etc?

Also, when setting up the filter and pump in the box, where is the best place to 'aim' the exhaust of the pump where the water flows out? I found that the way it comes out it flow the water round the tank back to the intake at the top, so when I fed the fish the flakes floating would spin round the tank then straight into the filter.. if I point it up it puts the water over the tank edge.. so any experience with this? and since there is no disturbance of water, there is no oxygen getting in, this could have been my downfall the last time, would an air stone be a good idea?

The Local that I bought the original stuff from has long since been shut down (new owners came in and it was shut down due to poor management and health welfare) The 'new' local started out as a garden center and now has a pets shop side to things, I haven't been in in a while but would rather advise from here than there if you know what I mean.

Thanks

Matthew

 

[waterdrop]

Hi Mata and Welcome to TFF!

Glad to hear you're going to get started in the hobby again. Sounds like a nice tank and plan. Perhaps the best boost this time will be the information you can find on TFF. The members here are great and will help you and discuss all the different topics that might come up. I've found that information and know-how are usually the much more powerful side of the equation, compared to equipment.

I'm sure there will be some member who will know the media stacking order and design intention for your particular filter - hopefully they'll give us a run-down. Most of what you'll need will be biomedia and coarse and fine mechanical media. There is also a class of media called chemical media that is designed to use chemical charge to remove various substances. The most common example of this is carbon (yes, its black!) We find that in the majority of cases this is not needed for everyday use but is better kept on the shelf to be used if one needs to remove medications after they are finished working or yellow tannins from new wood decorations or a few other odd things.

The filter is the core device one needs to learn about as a beginner. It has three filtration functions: Mechanical, Biological and Chemical, as mentioned. Mechanical filtration is the thing most people already understand, the trapping of debris particles. To do that the water is slowed down in the filter box and forced to go through material like gravel, sponges and fine polyfloss, each forming smaller and smaller particle traps.

The second function is biological filtration. This is the really strange one that most have never learned about directly and it is quite fascinating. What we hobbyists learn to do is to grow two specific species of bacteria inside the filter that will process the main waste products that build up in a small water environment.

When fish move water through their gills to get oxygen and give off CO2, they also give off a lot of ammonia(NH3), rather than store it up in a bladder system like we do. Fish waste, excess fishfood and plant debris are also broken down in the tank into still more ammonia. Ammonia, even in tiny amounts, causes permanent damage to fish gills, leading to shortened lives and possible death. In nature this ammonia is carried away by thousands of gallons of fresh water, to be filtered by acres of wetlands. In our tiny tanks, the first species of bacteria must process all our tank ammonia into nitrite(NO2).

Nitrite(NO2) turns out to also be a deadly poison to fish because of its ability to attach to red blood cells just like oxygen and thus to suffocate the fish. Nitrite, even in tiny amounts, causes permanent nerve and brain damage leading to shortened lives and possible death. The second species of bacteria we grow will process nitrite(NO2) into nitrate(NO3) and leave that third substance in the tank.

It turns out that nitrate(NO3) is much, much less harmful to our fish and tank environment and can be removed via a weekly water change. In fact, NO3 serves a special purpose: we have cheap tests that can measure it reasonably well and it can serve as an "indicator" for all the other hundreds of complicated organic substances and heavy metals that might build up in a tank and need to be removed. If nitrate(NO3) is going up, then we can assume those other bad things are going up too! So NO3 tests help us know how to schedule our gravel-clean-water-changes and our filter cleanings.

So that takes care of describing "biological filtration" and I've already mentioned chemical filtration, so we've had our preview of all three functions. Another thing a filter does is to help circulate the water throughout the tank and particularly to help keep the surface water moving - that being how gases like oxygen can exchange between water and air. The flow rate figure is a measure of how much water a filter is moving. The turnover rate is a measure of how many times the total tank volume moves through the filter per hour. We often recommend a turnover rate of 5x to beginners, but filters that turn over somewhat less or filters that move twice as much are often used, to various ends.

Once you get all these filter details worked out, it will be time to learn how to grow the two species of bacteria in the filter. This is often about a 2 month process and one of the main things this beginner forum is all about! You will see many threads where other members are in the process of "fishless cycling" their new filters. Its fun to follow along.

While you are figuring out your filter materials, please read 3 articles in the Beginners Resource Center at the top: the Nitrogen Cycle, the Fishless Cycle and the Fish-In Cycle. These will serve to reinforce and add to the things I've mentioned above.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[mata]

Thanks for that, will come in very handy. Well I have just discovered that I can buy only the impeller for my pump so that will save me a few squid on buying a whole new pump

I have also decided to buy the API Master test kit, so will get thats for around £20 on ebay. Will also get the filter material for around that as well, a full set.

So now just need the chemicals and additives, what should I be looking for/brands?, can't believe how much I don't remember! Or is there a kit that I can get with everything in one box kinda thing I could get?

Then its just gravel, water and decor to go...

 

[Harlequins]

Hi & welcome

Welcome back to the world of fish keeping

Sounds like you are off to a good start,the only additive you need really is dechlorinator,mix this with tap water before adding to the tank,Seachem prime is a good one and is widely used,this can be bought on ebay and lasts for a long time as its very concentrated,i tend to buy the 500g bottle for around £13 with P&P, also be handy to have a gravel vac,these are quite cheap in pets@home for around £5 or less.

If you are keen on getting corys again,you may be best on considering having sand in the tank instead of gravel,this can be bought at argos for £2.99,some peeps use very fine gravel,like i use to have once,but corys act some much differently with sand and love sifted through it

Have you decided if you are doing a fishless cycle? if so then you would do good in buying a bottle of neat jeyes household ammonia,homebase or boots sell this to name a few.

Good luck and let us know how you go

 

[OldMan47]

The only "chemicals and additives" that you need are a decent dechlorinator. I use Prime for that because it comes out much cheaper in actual use than most of the other brands. If you start out with a properly cycled filter, you are unlikely to need any medications. I have used salt for a single outbreak of ich in the last 7 years since I got back into the hobby. That is it for 7 years. The pH adjusters are a bad idea because they add to the mineral content of the water. The fish that are reputed to need soft acid water seem to really need low mineral content. Adding acids to drop the pH means increasing, not decreasing, the mineral content. If you have extremely soft water, you may need some pH buffer but crushed shells or crushed coral, the stuff they use for substrate in a saltwater aquarium, do a great job of adding some buffering to your water.

 

[mata]

Nice one thanks for all this, its helping loads. So shopping list is as follows,

New impeller (ordered)
Sand
Plants
Filter Material
Test Kit
Water Additive
Ammonia
Siphon

So I ordered the new impeller for my pump, going to order the test kit soon and the water additive and siphon. Sand... so silica yea? how much roughly should I got for my tank? sizes are 61 x 46 x 31cm.

I'm hoping to start off with fish less cycling, so should I bother with the carbon material for the filter and the green nitrate filter?

And I've got a Boot's store in the town here, so what exactly am I looking for Ammonia wise?

Thinking of going Live plants after all, read on here that they are good with sand to help get rid of decomposing food under the sand, correct?

Thanks all.

 

[PDSimon]

i used argos play sand for my tank, looks good in my opinion, lots of other members use it too

You said you're looking for ammonia, so you've decided to do a fishless cycle now rather than a fish in one?

if so, boots ammonia looks like THIS

 

[mata]

Perfect, will get that then. Yea I think in the long run I'm sure it will be better for everyone thats its a fishless cycle. That also means I don't put the plants into the tank till the cycle is finished yea?

I forgot to mention about an air pump, should I have one of these for my tank? If so what kind is cheapest/best? Been looking online and there are hundreds!

 

[PDSimon]

Theres a big debate on whether to put plants in whilst your cycling, but i've read they can get damaged by the high levels of ammonia so I've chosen to add them at the end of my cycle.

I'm not sure about an airpump, as my pump (fluval u3) has a setting where you use a little valve in the top of it and it sprays air into the water. As long as there is surface agitation there is no need for air pumps except if you like them visually...

sand wise, one bag from argos got up to a depth of 1.5 inches in a 100L/30 US gallon tank. with 1-1 and a half inches of sand is good for a tank with plants. If you intend on using loads of plants or something i recommend reading up in the planted tank section, reading blogs etc. But yeah a bag will be more than enough. Its very cheap too.

You'll have to wash it out in buckets to remove all the dust from it with a hose or something, takes a while but saves the tank being a mess

 

[mata]

Another great response thanks!

I actually live near a beach... would getting beach sand and washing it out be a bad thing?

 

[PDSimon]

Another great response thanks!

I actually live near a beach... would getting beach sand and washing it out be a bad thing?

I wouldn't advise it, the salt, minieral etc content is unknown... and if it were to affect the water it would be quite bad!

play sand

Its pretty cheap

I recommend reading as much as you can, especially from peoples experiences in this forum. Personally I like to know every option available to me with it's advantages and disadvantages so I can make opinions on what I want. Blogs and what not I have found very useful... and obviously the amazing members

 

[mata]

Haha yea play sand it is then...not that I'm stingy (spelling) would just be nice thinking its local Only thing is where I live (western isles) theres no Argos and no Argos delivery, a local courier does the shopping basically and charges postage... but will be worth it, ebay was showing bags of 1kg sand for like £8+!!

So will order tomorrow, API test kit should be ordered in the next half hour, ammonia later on as well hopefully.

Just need filters and away I go....

 

[PDSimon]

various stores sell it, I think it may be called silversand or something along those lines..!

You just want to check the colour, some can be orangey and too dark etc

 

[mata]

Thanks yea, Wife is going to order the sand for me from the Courier tomorrow as I work about 40 miles away from where we live/main town

Ordered Seachem Prime and API Master Test Kit. Will pick up the Ammonia tonight.

Just need to know what the stance on the Carbon and Nitrate remover filter material. Decided not to bother with an air pump until I'm at the point of having the tank up and running, just to see how the filter/pump exhaust is looking.

This forum has got to be one of the best I've been on for anything, very responsive, friendly and helpful.

Edit: Just read the 'getting to know your filter material' section (still finding my way around this forum) says that Carbon isn't really necessary in a well maintained Aquarium, regular water changes should get rid of the stuff that the carbon is there to get rid of; So no carbon needed then? This is also mentioned for nitrate removed sponge, that regular water changes should get rid of the nitrate, so also need for this then?

 

[PDSimon]

Definately, its unusually friendly..!

I'm not to sure on filters, I just have a fluval internal filter which has big filter sponges, carbon filter sponges (which are pretty useless apparently) and biomedia stuff which are just like white ceramic rings which bacteria live on.

I'd recommend looking up the filter you have for specifications and it'll probably say what you need

and yeah nitrate removers will probably be fairly useless if not useless. The majority of people manage to remove nitrates with water changes. they aren't as toxic as nitrite or ammonia so its normal

You get carbon sponges and activated carbon? or something like that (not to sure!) which is used to soak up medicines..chemicals... it isn't necessary for general maintenance