hello people i am a complete newbie, i have just set up my first tank today, the water is still quite cloudy im guessing from disturbing the gravel when i filled it, although i did rinse it well. will this settle on its own or should i let it settle a bit without the filter on ? also i know i should do a lot partial water changes to begin with when should i start to do this and how frequent? sorry to start off with all the questions would be grateful for a little help tho to get me started x
Hey there!
Do you have fish in the tank yet?
If not, get everything working in the tank and then wait for the gravel to settle. The filter should help with the cloudy water. Once everything is settled and the tank is the temperature you want it at, then I would suggest starting a fishless cycle. This is a way of preparing a fish tank for fish without exposing the fish themselves to any of their own waste products. The reason this works is that in a healthy tank there are LOADS of bacteria in the filter that eat fish waste and make the water safe for the fish. It's a natural ecosystem! Without the bacteria, the fish will die.
The way we recommend doing a fishless cycle is by getting hold of some ammonia. This is the same stuff that the fish produce when they wee and breathe and it's very dangerous for them! By getting ammonia without the fish, you can grow yourself some lovely bacteria before you add the fish. Neat!
What you'll need is -
+ A decent test kit that tests for
ammonia,
nitrite and
nitrate. We recommend the API Freshwater Master Kit. It uses liquid reagents and water samples to test the water for you, kind like a little chemistry lab. It is expensive, but it makes all the difference and the kits last for months. Much better investment than sunken ship decorations!
+ Ammonia. Many decent DIY/hardwear shops will sell it. You need to make sure it is just ammonia though, and doesn't have anything else added.
All you need to do is add
ammonia to the tank until it reads 5ppm on the test kit. If you add too much more than that, you won't get the right bacteria. Test every day and always top up the ammonia if it goes lower than 5ppm. You should also test for
nitrite and you should start to see this appearing after the first week or so. This is what the bacteria make when they eat the ammonia. After a couple of weeks you should see the ammonia going really low (but keep topping it up) and you should test for
nitrate as well. Once you see this appear, the cycle is almost over!
You know your tank is cycled when you see the
ammonia go from 5ppm to 0 in 12 hours, and when you see the
nitrite go from whatever it normally reads to 0 overnight as well. If this happens every day for a week (remember to keep topping it up!) and if you see the
nitrates climbing, you're ready to add fish!
Just remember, you need to make the tank safe for them first let the levels drop to zero and then do a 90% water change to get rid of the
nitrates, as you don't get bacteria for that.
The nice thing about this is that you can add all your fish at once, rather than waiting weeks between groups! This is because the filter can now process really high levels of fish waste! Once your fish are in the tank, keep testing the water every day for a couple of weeks just to make sure all is well. You want 0 on both the
ammonia and
nitrite tests. You should also do a weekly water change of 25% or so to get rid of
nitrates. If you ever see
ammonia or
nitrites go above 0, do a water change to bring the levels to zero again!
Also remember - without food, bacteria die. So always keep them fed, even if you don't have fish in the tank!
