Chemicals Supplied With New Tank

[rfisher]

Hi All,

When I purchased my first ever fish tank from Pets at Home, A fluval 800 Deep 3ft tank. I was supplied as sorts of bits, a heater, Fluval 3+ filter system, I am sure that most of you know what I am on about. I also got a sample pack of Nutrafin Cycle, Nutrafin Nutrafin Aqua Plus and a bottle of Liquid plant food ( cant remember the name now, sorry).

I also got a booklet explaining how to set up the tank and to use these chemicals to treat the water for chlorine etc and also to establish the bacteria needed for the tank to be able to support fish. I followed these instructions and thought that everything would be O.K, after all a manufacturer of well known aquatic supplies isnt going to lead me astray with duff information or supply me with equipment that isnt really any good. Would they?

However when I joined this forum and started to read more and more articles, it would appear, IMO, that many of the users on the forum dont rate these chemicals and dont think that they actually seem to do much. Before joining the forum I had never heard of a fishless cycle and adding Ammonia to a tank. Dont get me wrong I think the forum is fantastic and has been really really helpful to me.

It has somewhat confused me though as to what is the right way of doing things, obviously I want to try and achieve the perfect living condition for my fish as I am sure do all of you. So now I am a little confused as to what is the right and wrong way of preparing the tank, or indeed if there is a right or wrong way of prepping a tank?

Any thoughts would be welcome,

Regards,

Rich

 

[OohFeeshy]

Most of the chemicals are uneeded, Hagen definately isn't a reliable source of info. All you need is the one that says it gets rid of chlorine and heavy metals. After that, you'll need a bottle of ammonia and test kits for a fishless cycle.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Well, some chemicals are useful: dechlorinator is a must for most of us, and I've certainly noticed a difference in my plants since I started using the plant food

As for the cycle stuff, what it is supposed to do is to supply bacteria to your tank. These bacteria are the ones that eat the ammonia that is excreted by the fish. In fact, such bacteria are naturally present in the water anyway; the whole cycling thing is just about encouraging them to grow in great enough numbers to deal with the output of your whole fish population. As far as I know, the only products that contain enough living bacteria to populate a whole tank in one go are the refrigerated live bacteria products like BioSpira or Bactinett. If you do not have access to these, you are going to need to proceed very gradually and only build up your fish stock slowly enough for the bacteria to keep pace. Or, alternatively, simulate the whole fish-adding situation by adding ammonia instead=fishless cycle.

It is not so much that the aquatics manufacturers are con-men; it is more that before the coming of BioSpira and the invention of the fishless cycle, this was the best that anyone could offer: add a few starter fish and try this chemical- if it doesn't do any good, it won't do any harm, either. Just like doctors aren't necessarily con men if their medicines don't work terribly well; they're doing the best with what they have. And an oldfashioned GP who sticks with the drugs he knows is not necessarily trying to con you either- but he may not be able to offer you the best treatment available.

The point about the new cycling methods, is that fishkeeping has moved on- and most aquatics shops haven't. We can do better for our fish now than was possible 30 years ago, when I set up my first tank, so I for one am not going to stick with outdated methods if there is a more humane way of doing things.