Introduction

[Lord Fishheart]

Well hello there fishy friends, ive just bought a tank today, the wife treated me for my birthday and bought me a Aqua One 620 http/www.onlineaquariumstore.com/acatalo...0_Aquarium.html for £129.00. I am a complete novice where the subject of fish and tanks are concerned, so I have decided to join this forum.

Took me about 2 hours to set me tank up and it looks gorgeous, although I did have a mishap when my new puppy decided to pull the filter box off the draining board by the plug wire

Anyway, the guy in the shop told me that I have to prepare the tank and leave it a week for it to be all sorted before introducing it to the new fish.

This is where I need some help friends. What fish should I be buying?, what do you recommend? I would be grateful for any advice

Many thanks

 

[gaz gun man]

hiya mate

read this thread
http/www.fishforums.net/content/New-to-t...shless-Cycling/

it'll give you all the info you need, alot of fish shops give misleading info regarding prepairing a tank for fish. its going to take abit of time otherwise all your filter is going to do is run all the crap in the water around in circles instead of actually cleaning the water for safe and happy fish

 

[Lord Fishheart]

hiya mate

read this thread
[URL="http/www.fishforums.net/content/New-to-t...shless-Cycling/"]http/www.fishforums.net/content/New-to-t...shless-Cycling/[/URL]

it'll give you all the info you need, alot of fish shops give misleading info regarding prepairing a tank for fish. its going to take abit of time otherwise all your filter is going to do is run all the crap in the water around in circles instead of actually cleaning the water for safe and happy fish

Thanks for that, very interesting

 

[gaz gun man]

no problems. fishless cycling will save you ALOT of hassle in the long run!

Fish-in cycling requires about 30% water changes everyday

 

[JenCliBee]

Hi & Welcome 2 TFF


as stated above the best way 2 get ur tank ready is the fishless cycle as the link given will guide u, many ppl are given the same advice on setting up a tank by LFS owners/staff but this way leads 2 alot of dead fish or alot of wter changes as in everyday lol.

it seems a long wait waiting for the add ammonia and wait method but a much more humane way and u get the knowledge of how a nitrigen cycle works

anyways welcome


jen

 

[minxfishy]

Welcome Lord Fishheart

As suggested, we recommend a fishless cycle before adding any fish, to save them the stress, ill health and possible death that a fish-in cycle can cause.

Here is a link to the Beginner Resource Centre : http/www.fishforums.net/content/New-to-t...ease-Read-Here/

With lots of useful topics for new fishkeepers, including the fishless cycle, how to cope with a fish-in cycle, species index for the mainly available fish and lots of other information regarding setting up a new tank, water changes etc.

Everybody here will be more than happy to help you through each stage of the set-up process and the fishless cycle should you need it, dont hesitate to ask questions, even if they seem daft, its always best to be sure

 

[Nick16]

start with community fish such as tetras and livebearers. don not add all the fish at the same time add 4-6 every week or 2. this allows the bacteria to build up rather than overloading it which is where you get problems. so therefore youre tank will not be fully stocked for around a month or so. welcome though!!!!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Hello there Lord Fishheart

You've definately got yourself off to a good start here, the first important thing in fishkeeping is to do your research before you buy fish. You're starting our with your research now so you've a great jumping off point.

As you will have gathered from the mixed information here and from the fish shop, there is more than one way to skin a cat.... or set up a fish tank

All I will say is don't make any rushed decisions, sure you're just dying to jump in and get some fish but you will make things a lot easier for yourself in the long run if you take your time, read through the different options presented to you and make an informed choice, that way whichever route you choose you'll know the benefits and drawbacks and know what problems you may experience, if you can anticipate the problems you can reduce the effects of them.

Now me personally, I did exactly what I tell people not to do!! I didn't know the first thing about fish, ran the tank for two weeks, added a load of fish, most died so i chucked a few more in, i didn't know how to maintain the tank so i made mistakes. I had fish which are agressive and got too big for the tank, I didn't know how to treat disease so gave the wrong meds, I gave the wrong food.... did just about everything wrong and basically had a horrible first few months of fishkeeping until I started doing my research.

My boyfriend on the other hand was just setting up his first tank when we got together, so I saw him do a fishless cycle after carefully researching his fish choices and setting it up just right for the fish he wanted to keep. I saw him glide through a cycle in about 6 weeks and saw how few problems he had afterwards as a result of it.

Seeing both ways I definately know what I'd do now!!

So the links above will be a good place to start your research, i'd also recommend you read a couple of things from my sig, the first one is 'step by step guide to setting up an aquarium'. Now I know you already have one and it's running, but there's a lot of other bits and bobs covered in the thread which will be of some use to you.

Also have a read of the link 'whats cycling' which gives some idea of what will happen if you choose not to do a fishless cycle.

Just feel free to ask away with any questions, the only dumb questions is one that you don't ask so just fire away and we'll get you off the ground and with a happy healthy tank in no time

 

[tangokitty]

Hello and welcome!

 

[locust267]

Hi and welcome to TFF!

Agree with above and as mentioned fishless cycles can take a good few weeks but much easier in the long run and the best thing is your dont get dead fish!

Fishless cycling is a great time to be reading through books and looking at pictures to decide what fish you like. Make a list and then a shortlist as to which fish are compatible with which. At the end of the day the fish which go in your tank are your choice so it's important you like them! If you get stuck or need advice just pop back on here. Personally I love zebra danio's, very hardy, shiny, fast and exciting fish to watch!

Get yourself a API Freshwater master test kit as you will need to be doing lots of tests throughout the cycle and also in the future on a regular basis

Keep us posted.

Vicki

 

[Lord Fishheart]

Hi and welcome to TFF!

Agree with above and as mentioned fishless cycles can take a good few weeks but much easier in the long run and the best thing is your dont get dead fish!

Fishless cycling is a great time to be reading through books and looking at pictures to decide what fish you like. Make a list and then a shortlist as to which fish are compatible with which. At the end of the day the fish which go in your tank are your choice so it's important you like them! If you get stuck or need advice just pop back on here. Personally I love zebra danio's, very hardy, shiny, fast and exciting fish to watch!

Get yourself a API Freshwater master test kit as you will need to be doing lots of tests throughout the cycle and also in the future on a regular basis

Keep us posted.

Vicki

I got my tank on 13 August, added a plec and some neon tetras, and after a few weeks added some more fish (all from the same store) however I bought some fish from a different store on Thursday last week, two rainbow sharks, 3 guppies and a silver shark, and during the last few days the water has turned yellow and all me fish are dying! . I am a complete novice to fishkeeping and would be grateful for any help, do I take the fish out? do I change the water? I am in need of some good advice please! HELP ME!

 

[poohbear1]

advice asked, advice given didn't go with advice given so now has problems.
If I were you I would return the fish and do a fishless cycle as previous said.
But if you don't do that you need to test the water with an api test kit. You need to test for ammonia, nitrate and nitrite.
But you will need to do massive water changes daily.
Im no expert but Im sure miss wiggle will be along soon to correct any wrong info I might have given

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah i'm sorry to say but i agree with the above

did you do a fishless cycle as discussed above?

Do you have a test kit, what are the levels for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate?

The silver shark, rainbow sharks and probably the plec are too big for your tank, if you leave them in there they will becomes stunted and will die from these conditions, as this happens they will also start producing more waste than the filter can handle, this means the water quality will become very poor and the other fish you have will die off because of it. So as a minimum you need to return these fish to the store. Preferably you should return all the fish and do a fishless cycle as per the advice given above.

I’m sorry if this comes across as stressy, but as you can see from the deaths you have experienced something is going badly wrong in your tank. It’s possible to rectify it but you now have to put in some work and do some research.

The link in my sig ‘what’s cycling’ will help you out immediately, you’ll see details there of the different water parameters and what to do to keep them under control for now. It’s basically going to be lots of work doing lots of water changes.

 

[Jazzzz]

You read the information given agread it was interresting ignored it and then complain your fish are dying. If you didn't add mature filter media or do a fishless cycle then its your fault they are dying

when did you last do a water change

and 3 sharks and a plec they all grow to big return some of them

 

[Lord Fishheart]

You read the information given agread it was interresting ignored it and then complain your fish are dying. If you didn't add mature filter media or do a fishless cycle then its your fault they are dying

when did you last do a water change

and 3 sharks and a plec they all grow to big return some of them

Ok, I made a mistake I can gather that, I was way too keen to get the fish in. Will the aquatics store take them back?