Is My Tank Ready?

[shivvy_girl]

OK, I have had a quarantine tank set up for 3 weeks now, thought it would be handy after having a bad doze of ich in my main tank.

Here's the stats - PH 6.6
AMMONIA 0
NITRITE 0
NITRATE 5.0


I said to my dad it's probably no where near ready, as I've read that the ammonia should be up and the Nitrate - is this correct?

My dad's wanting to buy clown loaches on friday, I don't think he should, be he says different

Or is it me that's wrong? is the tank ok for clown loaches just now?

I don't want to rush into it, if it is ready i'll agree with my dad and get them but I just don't think it's time.

Whats the best way to put ammonia and nitrate up in a quarantine tank...without medications?

 

[diademhill]

OK, I have had a quarantine tank set up for 3 weeks now, thought it would be handy after having a bad doze of ich in my main tank.

Here's the stats - PH 6.6
AMMONIA 0
NITRITE 0
NITRATE 5.0


I said to my dad it's probably no where near ready, as I've read that the ammonia should be up and the Nitrate - is this correct?

My dad's wanting to buy clown loaches on friday, I don't think he should, be he says different

Or is it me that's wrong? is the tank ok for clown loaches just now?

I don't want to rush into it, if it is ready i'll agree with my dad and get them but I just don't think it's time.

Whats the best way to put ammonia and nitrate up in a quarantine tank...without medications?

The ammonia should read zero but the tank should be able to reduce ammonia from about 2-4ppm to zero within hours.
How have you cycled it & how big are your tanks?

 

[shivvy_girl]

It's been cycling for 3 weeks, I had baby fish in there but they died after a few days

The quarantine tank is 20 gallon, and (I've finally got the right size now!) my Juwel aquarium is 380 litres, it's one of those ones with the sort of bow front, when we got it my dad thought it was 190 litres, duh, we looked in my lfs at the aquariums and it was much bigger than the 190 litre one...so i was quite happy when I found that out

So, do you think we can get them this friday?

 

[shivvy_girl]

Any advice good/bad welcome please

 

[diademhill]

It's been cycling for 3 weeks, I had baby fish in there but they died after a few days

The quarantine tank is 20 gallon, and (I've finally got the right size now!) my Juwel aquarium is 380 litres, it's one of those ones with the sort of bow front, when we got it my dad thought it was 190 litres, duh, we looked in my lfs at the aquariums and it was much bigger than the 190 litre one...so i was quite happy when I found that out

So, do you think we can get them this friday?

If you have a Juwel corner tank it is 350 litres - not 380. If it is flat backed it is probably a vision 260L.
Neither of these are large enough for clown loaches IMO/E. Botia kubotai, B dario or B histrionica would be a much better idea & you could have a group of at least five to see them behave as they can. (I've just been on the phone to a friend who also keeps kubies & we've decided the collective noun for Botias is an "ooze" )

What did you do to cycle the QT?
Ammonia or fishfood or shrimp? When did the nitrites spike?

 

[emma12321]

Hi,

If its from the vision range by juwel it has to be either 180, 260 or 450 litres as this is all they sell with the curved front. If its from the trigon range (corner tank) it has to be 190 or 350 litres. It really is best to know how much water your tank holds especially as it is stocked with big fish like the balas and you are adding clown loach.

Have you been adding ammonia daily as without it the tank can't cycle and the bacteria will all die in the filter if the tank has had no fish for 24 hours or no ammonia added.

Since its just a quarantine tank you can clone it by running the filter in your main tank for a couple of weeks then it will be instantly cycled and you can place fish in the qt tank with the cycled filter.

Emma

 

[shivvy_girl]

Thanks everyone lol I dunno why we don't have a clue about the size, my dad threw the handbook out 'silly him'. I know it's more than 190litre corner tank, it must be the next one up, grr my dad's sooo dumb lol.

I knew the main tank I have just now isn't big enough for clown loaches, I posted before, saying that we are getting a bigger tank quite soon once the attick is done up 'if my dad would hurry up lol'

I know this sounds dumb, but I didn't know I had to add ammonia! Wow you find out something new every day - I take it the pet shops sell it?

Thanks again!

Infact I might even get different types of loaches, anyone know ones that would fit in my tank... and that has the same characteristics as the clown loaches, because my dad loved the clown loaches we had, I might persuade him to get different loaches

 

[Phoenixfish]

you can find it in places like boots (?!?) but make sure its unsented uncoloured etc under cleaning

 

[shivvy_girl]

Oh and thanks for that diademhill, those loaches look great! I'm browsing the net looking at pictures of them

Oh I had no idea you could get it at boots - I better make sure I get the right one though, I'm kind of nervouse incase I chose one that harms them, I'll read through them all

 

[BigIan]

the one in boots is in a white bottle with a pale blue cross on the front...
and i suggest you read through the pages on cycling a tank in the beginners faq section and also purchase your self a master test kit that reast amonia, nitrAte and nitrIte

 

[shivvy_girl]

Thanks BigIan, I'll get that tomorrow on my way to work. Yeah, I've been reading up on cycling and everything, I'm just one of those people that get confused easily

I have a test kit that tests Ammonia, Nitrite, nitrate and PH

 

[BigIan]

well tomorrow calculate hoe much ammonia to add to get the tank up to 4ppm, then add it and wait....


and wait...

and wait...

well you get the idea.

just keep testing the watter

 

[pica_nuttalli]

PS: don't add fish while you still have an ammonia reading. wait until the filter bacteria have caught up. that means you want to look for an ammonia spike, then a nitrite spike and finally the disappearance of both ammonia and nitrite with a super-high nitrate level. perform a massive water change and immediately add your fish.

if this tank isn't going to be a permanent home but is just for a 2 week quarantine period, then you may just want to add fish and perform 1/3 water changes every day. add some filter floss from your main tank to get a bacteria colony started.

 

[shivvy_girl]

ok dokey, thanks again guys.

Just got the ammonia today.

Will put it in once I chill for a little while, hard day at work

Then I'll wait

And wait...

And wait...

lol