My Fish Less Cycle

[David J]

Thanks for the reassurances folks. I'm really tired and. Need to go to bed but I'm sitting watching the filter. I haven't stuttered once since I cleaned it so think I'm ok.

You're right, it is a bit of work np but I know that I won't have to do that every week. Half an hour will do it each week with a deeper clean every month or 2 I reckon. I'll see what the results are before I head to work in the morning. If they are good, I'll go get fish. If they're not so good, I'll come home and test again and if they're ok then I'll go get fish.

I won't rush into any purchase but every time I've been into the LFS I'm going to tomorrow the fish look really good.

I'll keep,you posted.

Thanks

David

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Enjoy it... this is what its all about...
 
Acclimatization.
 
I think you are ready for this.  

 

[David J]

Good morning,

So, 8 hours after adding the ammonia last night, it has all been processed as has the nitrite. The tank is looking nice. Plants are still planted. Am I dreaming?

Off to work now. Finish at 2pm and then the fun begins. Will check in later.

David

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Nope.  That's the way its supposed to work.  Rinsing the filter media isn't a BAD thing, its just often unnecessary.  And in my experience, the biofilter is still fragile and is susceptible to little issues.  Leaving it for a month is a good idea early on, just for the sake of getting it more robust, but the bacteria generally cling VERY tight once established.  The issue is how "established" are they at this stage?  Apparently established enough for you.  
 
Enjoy the new fishies.... I envy you.  

 

[David J]

Hi

All is good. There are 7 lemon tetra swimming around in my tank. I will post a couple of pictures in the members pictures section later tonight. They all seem healthy. I acclimatised them before letting them loose. They hid away in a corner to start but that was to be expected. Gradually they came out bit by bit until finally that were all swimming around happily together. They never really go far away from the group on their own. Only for a moment and then the one that's moved away realises it is on its own and rushes back to the others. It's quite funny.

As time has passed, about 5 hours now, one of them, the bigger of the group is heading over to the right side of the tank on his own. Gradually the others follow but the bitters one turns and chases them away back to the left. Then goes back to the right side and the same thing happens again. It has been going on for an hour or so. Should I be concerned?

Other than that, I am loving them. They are beautiful fish and its just great seeing all the hard work finally be rewarded.
David

 

[daizeUK]

 Enjoy watching your fish   Definitely post pictures!  I want to see them

 

[David J]

Thanks Daize,

I just tried adding pics. I tried adding them directly by clicking on choose file but it says they are too big so I uploaded them to photo bucket and typed my new thread and added a few links to photobucket and then when I switched back to the tab with TFF on it, the page reloaded and wiped everything. Ragin lol. Took me about 20 mins and I tried I it again and the same thing happened.

Is there a better way to do it?

 

[daizeUK]

Personally I tend to edit my photos in Paint first, to resize them so they are not massive.  They dont need to be more than about 800 pixels wide to view on the screen so I resize them to that width and it usually knocks the file size down to a few 100k.

 

[David J]

I'm useless at stuff like that. I'll have another look later.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I use flickr, and on the share button, there is a HTML/BB Code option....  I just highlight and paste it into the message and the photo magically appears... like this:
 
http/www.flickr.com/photos/56876192@N03/8456288102/]

[/url]
http/www.flickr.com/photos/56876192@N03/8456288102/]Photo on 2013-02-08 at 10.11 #3[/url] by http/www.flickr.com/people/56876192@N03/]eaglesfan54[/url], on Flickr

 

[daizeUK]

I'm useless at stuff like that. I'll have another look later.

 
It's dead easy

  Just right click on file - Open with: Paint - click the Resize button and change from Percentage to Pixels, make sure 'Maintain aspect ratio' is checked then put Horizontal:800.  Then Save As > Jpeg.  Job done.
 
Then I upload them to photobucket, copy the direct link and use the Image button to paste it in.
 
But there are probably other simpler ways to post pictures too, that's just the way I use.
 
(Incidentally, I have an absolutely rubbish broadband connection, so it kind of helps me to keep file sizes small, that's why I go to the effort of shrinking them   otherwise it takes all day to upload)

 

[David J]

Here's a try again. I'll figure out a better way but this will do for now.

http/i639.photobucket.com/albums/uu120/DavMars/image-1.jpg

http/i639.photobucket.com/albums/uu120/DavMars/image-2.jpg

 

[eaglesaquarium]

That's a nice set-up!  

 
 
I'd suggest you put your heater on a 45 degree angle though...  It will keep the heater from cycling on and off constantly, and give you a more consistent temp.    (Hot water will rise, and if the heater is vertical, the thermostat will get confused by the water that it just heated, rather than the temp of the rest of the tank.)
  
 
I love the piece of wood!  (Oh, and the fish look good too!)

 

[David J]

Thanks. I'm really happy with the way it looks. I want a couple more background plants for the area between the filter and the wood and I'm hoping the moss I glued to the wood grows soon as it looks a bit lifeless.

I'll shift the heater. Makes sense.

The wood is 2 pieces. What do you think of the fish behaviour? The 'bully' fish has claimed the wood as his own. He circles it and chases any fish that comes near. All the other fish are kind herded into the bottom left/front corner. The other big one of the 7 made a big challenge to him but eventually failed after about 15 minutes of not giving up. The rest of them just concede immediately and go back to the corner.

I wonder if this will settle down or keep on happening.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I've never kept lemon tetras so, I can't speak from direct experience, but it does seem a bit strange.
 
Does he/she have any distinguishing marks that could indicate any sexual dimorphism?
 
From: http/animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/characins/lemon.php

Sex: Sexual differences
The male has a more pointed dorsal fin and is more colorful than the female. The female is plumper.

 
 
Since you will be staring at them for a while tonight, can you distinguish male from female?  Is it the only male in the tank?  
 
 
The only thing you really can do is just keep monitoring for a while and see what happens in a few days.  It should settle down.  it seems a bit odd, but it could just be a response to a new environment... or it might actually be a different species from the rest.  (Look closely, it's been known to happen.)  See if it looks more like a "red-eye" tetra, which are a bit chunkier.  I doubt that this has happened, but it could have happened.