First Time Tropical Fish Tank...

[Colin_T]

How much tap water would it take to make a 100G unhealthy? Like 10Gs? 5Gs? .5 Gs?

Not quite sure what you mean but if it is something along the lines of how much tap water does it take to kill off the filter bacteria in a 100gallon tank?

If the chlorine is removed from the tap water before it goes into the tank, and the temperature and PH of the tap water are similar to the tank water, you can change 90% of the tank water and not cause any problems to the filters or fish.

If the tap water has high levels of chlorine and that chlorinated water goes into a tank, then doing a 30% water change could mess up the filter bacteria.
10% water changes are unlikely to do anything to the filters regardless of chlorine levels, assuming the tapwater is safe for humans to drink.

Many people get away with doing 25% water changes using straight tapwater without dechlorinators. However every so often you hear of a major wipe out straight after a water change. Someone does a water change using chlorinated tap water and a few minutes later the fish are all gasping at the surface. The next day they are all dead.

The easiest and best thing to do is use a basic dechlorinator in any new water before it goes into the tank. If you can't get a dechlorinator then put the water in a bucket and aerate it for 24 hours. The chlorine will come out that way. If you can't aerate the water then put a container of water out in the sunlight for a few hours. The sunlight destroys the chlorine pretty quickly.

 

[groovitudedude]

If you've ever tried doing a WC on a tank bigger than 50Gs, you'll know why it's so hard to put in treated water.

 

[Colin_T]

I used to have a 100gallon tank in a fish room with 40 other tanks. It's not that hard
Get a couple of 70litre plastic rubbish bins from the hardware. Fill them up the day before you do a water change, add dechlorinator, and stir up. Leave over night and use for water changes the next day.
If you don't want it to stand overnight, then fill up the buckets with water, add dechlorinator and aerate the heck out of it for 10 minutes. It should be free of chlorine then.
It's preferable to leave the water over night to allow the gases to equalise in it. But 10 minutes with vigourous aeration and dechlorinator will get rid of the chlorine.

 

[rakem]

ok another question

Been to the pet shop today, he gave me some conditioning crystals and some KH powder. I also got two live plants as well.

He told me that if i run the water through for a week i don't need to add an liquid bacteria... is that true? I thought i would need to add some bacteria...

As suggested in some above posts however, I am going to put some of the bacteria from the goldfish filter into the new tank anyway so would this be just as good as liquid bacteria, should i just sort of squeeze the Goldie filter out into the new tank? I just had a look at the Goldie filter and it looks pretty dirty so i'm sure i can get a lot of bacteria out of it

 

[Colin_T]

The filter media from the goldfish tank will be better than liquid bacteria. But don't squeeze the gunk out into the new tank. That's just gross. Clean the goldfish filter in a bucket of tank water and when it is clean move the filter into the new tank with some fish. The bacteria from the goldfish filter will spread rapidly onto the new filter materials and in a few weeks the tank will have sufficient bacteria to be considered cycled.
***NB: fish must be in the tank with the goldfish filter material to keep the bacteria alive. If there are no fish in the new tank with the old filter, the bacteria will starve and die and you will have to begin from scratch.***

Generally you add liquid bacteria to a tank every day for a week or two while there are fish in the tank. The fish provide the ammonia for the bacteria to feed off. The liquid bacteria innoculates the tank with bacterial spores and help to speed the filter development.

You might want to get a KH test kit to see what levels the tank actually has. Then if you want to increase the KH (carbonate hardness), add some KH powder.

I'm always concerned about condtioning crystals. Many of them have salt in and some don't do anything at all to get rid of chlorine from the water. I prefer to use a liquid dechlorinator and if I want to add minerals to the water then add some mineral salts after.
I use "Wardleys Tri Start" for dechlorinating tapwater. It only contains sodium thiosulphate and that is all that's needed to break down chlorine.
If you have chloramine (chlorine & ammonia combined) in your tapwater then you will need a different condtioner to break down the chlorine and trap the ammonia so it doesn't harm the fish.

 

[rakem]

The filter media from the goldfish tank will be better than liquid bacteria. But don't squeeze the gunk out into the new tank. That's just gross. Clean the goldfish filter in a bucket of tank water and when it is clean move the filter into the new tank with some fish. The bacteria from the goldfish filter will spread rapidly onto the new filter materials and in a few weeks the tank will have sufficient bacteria to be considered cycled.
***NB: fish must be in the tank with the goldfish filter material to keep the bacteria alive. If there are no fish in the new tank with the old filter, the bacteria will starve and die and you will have to begin from scratch.***

Generally you add liquid bacteria to a tank every day for a week or two while there are fish in the tank. The fish provide the ammonia for the bacteria to feed off. The liquid bacteria innoculates the tank with bacterial spores and help to speed the filter development.

You might want to get a KH test kit to see what levels the tank actually has. Then if you want to increase the KH (carbonate hardness), add some KH powder.

well the filter from the goldfish thank is a lot smaller than the one in the new tank. However i can take out the internal filtering bit and just rest it inside the new filter. If i do this for a a little while every day will that be sufficient to prepare the water for fish?

I do have a test kit for testing the PH levels but i don't have an ammonia testing kit as yet. Will the live plant helps to keep the bacteria alive?

 

[Colin_T]

You need to leave a piece of the goldfish filter material in the new filter for a month or so. You can usually cut a piece of the old filter material and use that in the new filter. Don't remove more than half of the goldfish filter material becuase you won't have enough filter material to keep their water clean.
The new tank must have something in it to keep the filters alive. Either a fish or adding liquid ammonia to the tank. Healthy plants won't keep the filters alive. Dead rotting plants, fish food and fish waste will produce ammonia that keeps the filter bacteria happy.
If you add some of the filter material from the goldfish tank to the new filter, then move a goldfish into the new tank at the same time. Or add a couple of tropical fish. These fish can live in the tank and any waste they produce will feed the filter bacteria and in a month's time (possibly less) the filter should be fully developed.

 

[rakem]

The new tank must have something in it to keep the filters alive. Either a fish or adding liquid ammonia to the tank. Healthy plants won't keep the filters alive. Dead rotting plants, fish food and fish waste will produce ammonia that keeps the filter bacteria happy.

Ah ok, so would it be alright to put a few of my goldies in there for a while, then take them out when i get some tropical fish?

 

[Colin_T]

yep, certainly would be ok. Just move some of the goldfish filter material across with them and put it in the new filter. Then add 1 or 2 goldfish and leave it to run. When you get the tropicals you can move the goldfish out or whatever.

 

[rakem]

yep, certainly would be ok. Just move some of the goldfish filter material across with them and put it in the new filter. Then add 1 or 2 goldfish and leave it to run. When you get the tropicals you can move the goldfish out or whatever.

awesome i will do that tonight, the water temps on both tanks are pretty similar, should i acclimatise the goldies before putting them into the new tank?

 

[Colin_T]

If the temperature and PH are similar there should be no need to acclimatise the goldfish. Just scoop them out and put them in the new tank.

When you get new fish from the shop make sure you do acclimatise them to your tank.