Is This Fomula Right?

[TheMerovingian]

ok,
so cycle will take about 1 month?
Add the molls, plats and swords, one everyday?
Wait 3 months then add my little tetras?


Will the neon and purple emperor tetras school togivther

 

[Miss Wiggle]

The time a tank takes to cycle is quite variable so it’s hard to predict exactly what will happen, but you can expect around 1-2 months to cycle the tank fishlessly. When the tank is done you can almost fully stock the tank so you can put all the hardy fish that you’re planning like the platy’s and mollies in straight away, then you leave things to run in for 2/3 months then you can add the more delicate fish.

In some cases different species will school together but only if they look similar, like if you put neon’s and cardinals in they’ll school together but I don’t think neons and emperor’s would. Remember schooling is a defence mechanism employed by the fish when they are scared of something, in your nice safe tank with nothing to be afraid of you won’t see much of the schooling behaviour; they’ll pretty much do their own thing.

 

[rabbut]

I should add at this point, that fishless cycling can be spead-up or even by-passed completely with mature media. Have a look through BTT (backtotropical) signature at the mature media donation thread. Fishless cycling requires you to add liquide ammonia for however long it takes for the tank to drop 5ppm of ammonia to zero ammonia and nitrite withing 12 hours This process cannot be rushed, and can be very variable in the length of time it takes to complete.

Steel Blue killiefish are agressive male-on-male just like any livebarer more or less, but they are placid towards other species. Males can also pester females to breed considerable, and fry being produced in a community tanks is not out of the question. Treat them like livebarers. Get two females to each male, no more than 1 male per 20g, or all males. If you go all males, get a good group to spread agression

I havn't had much look with lampeyes. I have bought them on two occasions, from different suppliers, and they all kieled over within a week IME they aren't hardy. Add these with your tetras to gie you the best chance of keeping them

As above, your livebarers should either be stocked as all males, or as at least wo females to each male to spread pestering.

HTH
Rabbut

 

[TheMerovingian]

yeah, i want my tank all male. because i'm just starting out, i dont want my fsh to breed just yet.


I heard that by adding mature media it can really help the cycle go along abit quicker.
Is there anyone on here that might help me next year?

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, you have some time on your hands and could really set to work finding a media donor. They would not take more than 1/3 of some of their mature media out, so it should not cause them much of a blip, but for you it could be a significant speedup to the fishless cycling time.

While you hear stories of people getting fishlessly cycled in a week, you have to realize that realistically this is the front of a bell curve with the back of the curve being people who have it take 2 or 3 months. Its almost impossible to predict where your's will be on that curve of completion time.

Another thing not to forget to be doing up front this fall is to learn all about filters, functions of filters, different media types and their trade-offs. This will allow you to choose the best type of filter, or if it is simply coming as part of a kit, to understand whether it will be good enough for you or whether you will want to change the default media types etc.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[TheMerovingian]

200 litre
100 cm W x 40 cm D x 55 cm H
High quality machine cut glass
Minimalist design
Twin GLO T8 lighting canopy
Choice of two canopy colour inlays to compliment your cabinet
Cabinet available in 2 colour options (cabinet optional).
Complete with:

Fluval 205 external filter
2 x 36" 30 watt GLO fluorescent lighting
200 watt Fluval Tronic heater
Nutrafin Care Pack (LCD thermometer,100ml Nutrafin Aqua Plus & Cycle. 26g Nutrafin Tropical Flake food).
Fluval Step-by-Step guide

this is what i'm hoping to get.
Is everything in this pack ok??
can i use the aqua plus & cycle for the fishless cycle?

 

[rabbut]

The filter will be "underpowered" IMO. I'd see if you can get your LFS to part-exchange it for a 305 if you want to stay with fluval, or better still switch it to Eheim or Tetratec. An EX1200 Tetratec would be ideal. Sorry, I can't recomend an exact Eheim, as I'm not well up on their models Eheim are rated as the best exturnals available, but avoid the Ecco range and any thermo version, as these are dodgy Fluval have a poor track record, usualy leaking and IME they clogg quickly and suffer channeling issues Tetratec is my prefured brand, reliable and affordable

Ignore the step-by-step guide, instead read Miss Wiggles version in the pinned topic. It is somewhat better and doesn't miss some basics such as fishless cycling and the importance of leveling the tank

The Aquaplus is a water conditioner, so it will be fine. Cycle is a "bacteria in the bottle" product, that may or may not work to speed the cycle. IME this product doesn't work, and reports of such products actually working are rare. You may be a lucky one though and it may work, but I doubt it. It won't do any harm, so if it's supplied it's worth a try IMO

HTH
Rabbut

 

[TheMerovingian]

oh
Thats all i can afford. being 16 with no job, doesn't give me alot of options.

 

[rabbut]

You can work it with the standord gear, but you will have to lightly stock I know many members (myself included) will build their own tanks or just buy a glass box and their own gear seporately from there. What are your DIY skills like? Whats your budget? There are other options if you wanted a heavy stocking, or you could limit yourself to 1 inch per gallon only and put up with regualr filter cleans

You could try the Buy Sell and swap section also

All the best
Rabbut

 

[TheMerovingian]

my DIY skills are good, plus my dad knows some stuff and my uncle is a builder.

But will that tank be ok to start with, with my selection of fish?

 

[rabbut]

200 litre
100 cm W x 40 cm D x 55 cm H

Steel Blue Killifish
Lamp Eye Killifish
4 Mollies
7 Platies
5 Neon Tetra
5 Purple Emperor Tetra
3 Swordtails
2 Glass Catfish

OK, lets look at the stocking....

we scratched the glass cats diden't we?

Mollies, 16 inches
platies, 14 inches
neons, 5inches
emporer tetras, 5 inches
swardtails, 12 inches

So thats 52 inches of stocking, in a 52.9 gallon tank. That should be fine. There aren't any compability issues that are jumping out at me either, which is good

The Fluval tanks are good compaired to other "kit" set-ups, with only the filters lacking. If you want to go above 1 inch per gallon later, you will need to save up for another filter, but these can be added later

HTH
Rabbut

 

[TheMerovingian]

thanks a million Rabbut for helping out.
So the tank is ok, i just have to think about the fish.
hmm.... thats the hard bit