Going To Set My First 'big' Tank Up - Advice

[DaveyG]

Hi all

I posted my first topic here the other day about fishless cycling and was pointed at the incredibly useful pinned article written by rdd1952 and so I'm now all clued up so this isn't a 'how do I cycle' thread!

What I have now is a 200 Litre (40 US Gallons) Fluval 200 aquarium and I want to set it up as perfectly as I can give my little fishies the best life possible So what I want to do is list the steps I am planning on taking (as of next Saturday when it gets delivered) and I would like some feedback on my steps?

1) Fill tank with gravel followed by tap water and add something (??) to get all the chlorine out of the water.

2) Turn heater on up to about 27C / 80F and leave it for a couple of days for everything to settle.

3) I am going to take the 'add and wait' method in rdd1952's article, so I will then add 10.5ml pure ammonia (worked out from the handy calculator!) and wait about a week.

4) Test Ammonia level to see if it has dropped to about 1ppm then add more to get it back to about 4ppm and carry on with the add and wait method.

5) Once cycled reduce temperature to about 24C / 75F.

6) Turn off filter and do a 90% water change (filter tubes come to about half way in the tank).

7) Fill tank with water again and add something (??) to remove chlorine.

8) Wait a day or so and add fish and other bits and pieces.

So, how does that sound? Is there anything that needs to be added/subtracted from that list?

In addition I have a few questions...

After the tank is cycled I am led to believe it will look pretty horrible and dirty, hence the 90% water change. So is there a way to prevent the dirt from taking over, or even is there a need to? Will the inside of the glass need a clean when I take the dirty water out to be replaced by 'new' clean water?

Also, I have read a few posts on here about stalling tank cycles which can be to do with PH dipping to around 6 or lower - the resolution to this seems to be to add baking soda or do water changes in an attempt to increase the PH again. I've no idea what my PH is out of the tap (will test when I get the tank) but should it dip to 6 or thereabouts does that mean that once cycled I will need constant and frequent water changes to keep the PH to ~7 or will it 'maintain' its PH?

I have another tank (only 35 litres - a BiUbe) which is cycled - can I speed up my cycle with the filter from this tank (just thrown in my Fluval 205, external filter) or because it is much much smaller would it not work?

What is the something ?? I need to add to remove the chlorine? I am assuming it will come with the tank as there seems to be quite a lot of extras that come with it!

Does anyone have a Fluval 200 as I had heard that the pipes to/from the filter need to go through the top but you have to cut the hole out yourself...? Obviously I can check that when it arrives but wanted to see if anyone else had experience with this?

Your feedback on my plan of action would be very much appreciated as I want to make sure I do this right! I apologise if this seems like just question after question but I want to get as much advice from experts as possible!

Thanks in advance for your help and I hope to be able to repay the debt after I get my knowledge up to scratch on all this!

Dave

 

[AdAndrews]

the something you need to add is dechlorinator, or otherwise called water conditioner, this removed chlorine. be sure to get a good one, i approve of the API Stress Coat, this will get rid of any nasties in atap water

 

[DaveyG]

Thanks AdAndrews

I'm just looking into the types of fish I can have Hopefully someone else will spot my thread and offer some more advice

 

[shelaghfishface]

hi and welcome to TFF.
i have the fluval roma 200l too, its a great tank
just caught this thread on my way to bed, so will be fast..i would rec that you go with a fishless cycle , will take about 4-5 weeks.. for 2 or more reasons

1) you get to learn all about the basics of fishkeeping- the chemistry side is not rocket science, but cheating will stop you picking up on things that could be very usefull to you further down the line ie.. ammonia or nitrite spike in the tank

2) these few weeks will give you plenty of time to design the layout for the tank, the options for planting, and stocking with fish.. when you chosen what you would like you`ll have time to reaserch to see infact what you can have, get to know a little more about the plants,fish that you have chosen to spend the forseeable future with.

the cycling process is not a boring bit, its a time to get stuck in and learn whatever you can to start you off on the best foot when it comes to the day you can get your fish
and i assure you after all the effort and reaserch you will have put in, that day will like christmas to a 5 yr old

there are lots of pinned sections, full of very usefull info, cycling,fish index, plants, fish illness ( very handy to get a look at b4 you should ever need to treat a sick fish)


this is a very enjoyable and addictive ( you have been warned ) hobby, but long gone are the days when we threw a goldfish and some water in a bowl and hope for the best, it just requires a little effort on our part, and besides theres nothing like that feeling of success when everything is going well within the tank and you know just where your at with it all

keep asking questions, theres lots of very friendly advice here... no question is a silly one, weve all been there and done it

looking forward to seeing how you go

shelagh xxxxx

 

[waterdrop]

Hi Dave and welcome to TFF!

You sound to be getting off on the right foot, so I'll just make a few comments at this point on small details:

1) I believe the newest StressCoat+ (?) but after years of using stresscoat (and its fine really) I've decided Seachem Prime is the best and I've started using and recommending that for during cycling. After a tank is mature I recommend switching to pond dechlor as the cheapest for volume water changes.

2) I recommend 84F/29C as the ideal temperature to bring the tank to for the duration of the fishless cycle. After you get fish of course you will need to seek a "compromise" temp between your different species choices.

3) The add & wait is the one to go with, but I recommend you don't just trust the calculator. The problem is that you can't really trust the concentrations (9.5% etc.) on the bottles of household ammonia. They are often way off from what they say. You need to test (2 US gallon bucket is handy, for example) using the calculator to start youself very low and then bring up the concentration in a series of steps while taking careful notes until your liquid test kit confirms you really got 4 or 5ppm in the 2g, then do the math to multiply to tank water volume (real volume after gravel etc.) and again when you actually dose the tank the first few times, come in low and make sure you don't overshoot 5ppm (for example, 8ppm is not good.)

4) Each time you dose the tank to 5ppm, you let it drop all the way to 0ppm (zero ppm, not 1ppm) before you add more. On the very first time, this could take up to 2 weeks to happen, but usually its faster than that. You only ever add ammonia once in a 24hour period and you always add it at the same general time of day (your "add mark") so typically people will either add in the morning or evening such that later in the cycling they can have a "12-hour-mark" when they can be home to test at 12 hours after the ammonia was added. So if you got down to zero ammonia at noon, but your "add mark" was always 8pm in the evening, you'd wait till 8pm to add more ammonia, got it? The bacteria won't starve.

Presumably you're going to get an API Freshwater Master Test Kit or some other similar good test kit. You can use that to post up your tap and tank water parameters when you are ready. Fishless cycling takes maybe 4 to 8 weeks and is ideally done with lots of interaction with the members here in your thread. Read other threads too and do searches of course.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[craig855s]

the something u add is indeed dechlorinator,also known as water conditioner,what i currently use is nutrafin aqua+ because it was buy one get one free for the 250ml bottles and my water changes are less than 20L at a time so pond dechlor is just too strong, 5ml of pond dechlor neutralises hundreds of litres of water so u'd need to measure out a tiny drop of it to treat 20L.

Also i recomend completely decorating and being happy with the tank before u add a single fish. I wouldn't wanna be messing about adding plants and bits of wood daily for the first few weeks of ur fishes time in your tank because ur not happy with the look,spend the time u have spare getting it looking just right so when the fish go in u wont be disturbing them with ur arms and huge chunks of wood while they are settling in

 

[8inary]

did a similar thing on a large scale also..

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLGa8d9L1SY