Bacteria Starter Kit?

[Marius]

Hi.. I just got a new tank,i saw at the pet shop a bacteria starter kit,, will this be a save way to start the tank of?

 

[Randi]

What is the bacteria starter kit? If it is filter media from one of their tanks it will work great, if it is bacteria in a bottle it is not worth the money.

 

[Marius]

it is in a box,i think u mix it in the new water

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Sounds like its going to do a whole lot of nothing for you, really... Sorry to say.

 

[Marius]

okey thanx, but should i cycle my thank? its about 80 litre thank,im planning on getting malawi's in there and dont want to let them die or catch a virus

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Oh definitely cycle the tank!

Have a read through the fishless cycle thread and follow the instructions carefully. In the US, you can get ammonia at Ace Hardware. In the UK, at Boots.


Have a read through the Beginner's Resource Center. There is a WEALTH of knowledge in there!

 

[Marius]

Okey ill look again,, Make sure.. Thanx

 

[fluttermoth]

+1 for fishless cycling!

I think I should point out that 80l is too small for nearly all Malawis; especially mbuna. You could have some of the Lake Tanganyikan shell dwellers.

It would be worth posting in the 'Old world cichlids' forum; that's where all the Rift people hang out

 

[Marius]

Did my meusurement again,its a 115.5 litre tank,,i want to get african malawi,i think thats their name,grows to about 6-8cms i guess.. I want to do n fishless cycle,but what if i cannot get the amonia?? Is there no other way cuz i dont konw anyone with filtes and the petshop,too scared for i virus and they probly wouldnt lent me n cycled filter

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

The answer is always no unless you ask

Are you in the uk? Ammonia is in pretty much all boots. It's sold under the cleaning products. Good for stain removing apparently. Its only £2 for 750ml so plenty to wash your clothes with too haha!!

 

[Marius]

Ja haha,no im in South Africa,,so every thing is hard to get,,ill ask them anyway..
Just hope theyll have the amonia. And Fluttermoth,the name of the fish is Damasoni, sound like a troublemaker.. Pretty fish

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

If you can't find ammonia you will have to do a fish in cycle. If you read the beginners thread all the details of how to do this safely will be in there. It is perfectly safe for the fish when done properly. Just very time consuming.

 

[fluttermoth]

You don't necessarily need ammonia; you can do a fishless cycle using fish food and letting it rot down to produce the ammonia. If you want to keep Malawis, you should defintely fishless cycle; you must overcrowd these fish to reduce aggression, so adding fish gradually is not really an option.

There are lots of different species of African cichlid. Pseudotropheus demasoni is a mbuna from Lake Malawi (not all Malawi cichlids are mbuna!).

It's not really my area of expertise although my mum keeps mbuna, but I believe they should have a 48" plus tank (a lot of places say 3 foot, but they are a very aggressive fish; I don't think that would be big enough, even with the Demasoni's small size), and you need to keep at least a dozen to reduce aggression.

As I said, you should post in the 'Old world cichlid' forum and get some proper advice from the experts; all Rift valley cichlids have quite specific requirements that you need to meet or you'll run into big problems

 

[Marius]

i hav readed it,,One question,So the bacteria will only start to grow as soon as there is a low count of amonia in the tank??

Okey ill check there and post. But how do i remove the roten food from gravel? or should i add the food to rot without any decoration in the thank?

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

Good point fluttermouth. That's why your a legend haha. Forgot about rotting food.

If you leave the food in there and just do a really good clean on the tank before you add fish. Almost all the good bacteria lives in the filter so giving the tank a real good clean won't kill any of the bacteria. Unless of course you have go an underground filter. That may cause a problem.

Fluttermouth will be able to help you more than I can. I'm still very new to the hobby.