Evaporation

[derekgsw]

Hello,
1.
I am in the process of setting up a new 33 litre aquarium which has a built in water filter and sealed lights in the lid.
Since starting to set it up with plants but over the three weeks of setting it up i had many problems with the lighting but
now that is fixed it has lost about 1/4 of a litre in two days, What should i do?

2. The water filter does not have away of exchanging the filter I have ordered another one in its place and an air pump.
3. When i ordered the plants I found i got much more about about 20 snails I have reduced them down to 5. Do i need to do
anything with the rest of them before i get fish.

Any help would be grateful

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Have you cycled the tank?


You can always top off the water to make up for evaporation, just use dechlorinated (& temp matched) water as you would during a water change.

There are lots of resources in the Beginners Resource Center. Have a read through... a wealth of information. If you still have questions, post them and folks on here will be happy to answer them.

 

[derekgsw]

No I have not done anything yet until i get the snail situation sorted. they have eaten
a lot of the plants and have more on order
I do have a Tetra Aqua-Safe and a ph test kit which i will use before i order some fish by mail,
I have to buy that way as i am housebound disabled

 

[eaglesaquarium]

No I have not done anything yet until i get the snail situation sorted. they have eaten
a lot of the plants and have more on order
I do have a Tetra Aqua-Safe and a ph test kit which i will use before i order some fish by mail,
I have to buy that way as i am housebound disabled

Well, you don't want to add fish until the tank is cycled. There are multiple methods, including adding ammonia or fish food, to get the cycle started. You will want to wait until the ammonia and nitrite readings are reaching zero after 12 hours for a week or more. Have a read through the resource guide. There are also fish-in cycling resources as well, if you need to go that route as well. You will need a ammonia test kit to ensure that the water is safe. Ammonia is toxic to fish, and is far more important than pH to the fish. pH need stable pH, but can't tolerate ammonia.