General Help Setting Up Please.

[connor_09]

Hello everyone I am a new comer to freshwater fish forum and to the hobby itself so I would like to say hello. I have recently bought a 60L tank from a local aquarium set it up with various plants, some driftwood and sand for substrate, I obviously filled, de-chlorinated, and left the filter and heater on 26C running for about 10 days or so. Yesterday I revisited my local aquarium and bought a tablet testing kit, food and my first fish. I have 3 mollies to start off with as I know they are classed as a hardy fish and didn't want to go too mad too early. I am going to revisit in a week or so to collect some more fish and I was just wondering and looking for some experienced advise on what fish you guys think I should invest in, which fish I will need and would look good in my tank I have a few ideas already but I may not know as many species as most and many different views would give me a great idea on my final tank?? I also need to know some opinions/advise on various thing I don't have in my tank for example 'good bacteria', aeration systems as well as what you guys think would be a safe, aesthetically pleasing population for my tank, and finally your lighting routines ie what time you have your light come on and when it goes out and how often you feed your fish?? As I said I have a rough idea but have heard so much varying advise I would really like the best for my fish.

Sorry to blabber on a little but I would really appreciate the advise!
Thanks Connor.

 

[erk628]

Hello Connor and welcome to TFF. Well right now you are in what we call a fishin cycle! One of the first things I would suggest doing is getting yourself a good liquid test kit. Most of us here use API master liquid test kit. You want to make sure that you get the liquid test kit and not the strips because there very inaccurate. The test kit will test for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, and ph.

Right now I would imagine you have a pretty high amount of ammonia in your tank. In saying that I would suggest you get the test kit ASAP so you know what is going on. You will have to do 50 to 75% water changes at least once a day sometimes more until your tank is cycled. If possible I would suggest you take the fish back and do a fishless cycle this is a lot easier on you cause theres no water changes having to be done and its easier on the fish. If thats not possible then you need to do the fishin cycle. I would suggest you read the links in my sig below they will tell you how to do the cycle among other things!

 

[connor_09]

Excellent thank you for the advise! How often would I perform the water changes, obviously once a day but for how long? I suspect I de-chlorinate after every water change? Would you be able to answer any of my other questions?

Thanks again!

 

[fishyfeet]

yes, small water changes daily to keep the ammonia levels down once the filter bacteria increases you should be able to do less and less, so for 60 litres for argument sake do 10 ltrs add de-chlorinated temp corrected water and then test the levels the next day if you still have ammonia keep doing the same shouldnt take more than a few days. As for lights, i have a timer on my tanks, my lights come on 7 - 12 and 3 - 9 daily, this gives my plants the light they need to be healthy, but the algae which needs 12 hours of constant light finds it hard. I dont understand what you mean by not having good bacteria, do you have a filter? If not you need to change more than 10 litres and every day forever. di

 

[connor_09]

Okay sounds good to me! Excellent thanks for the light help. No, I have a filter and I understand the bacteria will grow slowly right, but I've seen many different bacteria enhances which you can give to the tank from the start obviously not worth doing? What about aeration?

Thank you very much!

 

[fishyfeet]

Did you add fish food from the start to start of the bacterial process, you said you left the tank for 10 days, then added fish, did you test the water first before adding fish, ie had the tank cycled, your readings should have been ammonia 0 nitrites 0 and nitrates as low as possible.? As for Aeration, as long as your filter outlet causes water movement then thats all the fish need. People get airstones and pumps and they do little to help your fish and are just a novilty. di

 

[connor_09]

No I'm afraid not didn't put anything in apart from the de-chlorinator. Yes I bought the testing kit and tested before putting them in but was told the tablet testing kit I purchased wasn't as accurate as a liquid one, never the less the tablet testing showed up fine and all was well. Okay brill thanks for the help!

 

[fishyfeet]

no i dont think all was fine, i doubt there was anything in there to read, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and 0 nitrates, because there was no ammonia added then their was nothing for any bacteria to thrieve on, so you tank isnt cycled and you are now cycling your tank with your fish. di

 

[connor_09]

Well it didn't read 0,0,0 but it was the recommended level on the manual that came on my testing kit so I assumed all was well. I am removing the fish today and will cycle accordingly.

 

[fishyfeet]

how can the filter convert the ammonia and nitrites to nitrate when you havent added any???

As long as you keep ammonia down to 0 the fish will be fine, di