My Little Diary ......

[leannethenewbie]

I was given an open top, square Rena tank. It's this one :

It's called 'Rena Zeneo'

It says 30L - but I counted when I put the water in and it's 24L



I will start a new Diary as soon as I begin my fishless cycle -

Note to any other Newbs: Get as much info as you can before even putting water in your tank - don't make the same mistakes I did (being too impatient) because you will just set yourself back even further !!!

 

[leannethenewbie]

Thanks Guys

 

[Ryefish]

Look on Ebay for an API test kit, they are normally half the price that you'd pay in an LFS (i've seen up to £38 in there!!! ). You'd be better off in the long run owning one.

Take a little trip to Boots and see if you can find a bottle of ammonia too.

What setting is the heater set to?

 

[leannethenewbie]

Look on Ebay for an API test kit, they are normally half the price that you'd pay in an LFS (i've seen up to £38 in there!!! ). You'd be better off in the long run owning one.

Take a little trip to Boots and see if you can find a bottle of ammonia too.

What setting is the heater set to?

The tank water is at 26c (perfecto) and the heater is set to 27c (cold room!)

Do you think I might be better off cutting my losses and starting agian, with all the right equiptment in place?

( i was thinking E-bay ... and it's payday soon!)

 

[Ryefish]

If your water has ammonia and nitrite readings already then i'd be tempted to say that emptying it all wouldn't be very good... it might take you a while to get nitrites again if you empty if all and start again, unless you can get some mature media (somebody should verify this though)

Do you have any fish food you can shot in the tank just to keep it all going until you can get the ammonia and liquid test?

 

[leannethenewbie]

Yeah I do have some...

I think I'll leave it all going for now, and then 're-start' the cycle when i get the proper ammonia and the test kit!

Thanks for the advice

 

[Assaye]

You've had a chance to test your tank, filter and heater and make sure they work so you can get serious now.

I can think of two reasons you had ammonia in the water:

1) You have a level in your tap water - get this tested

2) You have chloramine in your tap water and your water conditioner only broke the chloramine down and removed the chlorine, but didn't remove the ammonia (chloramine is chlorine bonded to ammonia).

What water conditioner did you use?

Either way, a good fishless cycle will sort this out!

Ebay is your friend =)

 

[leannethenewbie]

Hi Assaye

Thanks for the help - I'm going to start again and do it all properly.

I used the api Goldfish Protect 'makes tap water safe for fish'.
If it turns out to be my tap water - is there anything else I can do to it to get rid of it? Or should I put less ammonia in to compensate?

I'm currently 'watching' a test kit on e-bay
I've bought a ml measure spoon (as it's 1.26ml of ammonia for my 24 litres.)
I'm also 'watching' a pipette (to drop the ammonia onto my measuring spoon)


Funny story ...

I went to Homebase and found their Household Ammonia ,I coudn't see whether it has any perfume etc in it. So I opened the lid..... and stuck my nose right in it!

Suffice to say : my eyes watered and I thought my nose was going to fall off!

I won't be doing that again!!

 

[BethK]

Ebay is good, I got my ammonia, pH and nitrite kit for £14.00 altogether. Paying £6 with free p&p is better than the £11 in the shops for each bit

Good luck with your tank, its a fab tank you got x

 

[Assaye]

Hi Assaye

Thanks for the help - I'm going to start again and do it all properly.

I used the api Goldfish Protect 'makes tap water safe for fish'.
If it turns out to be my tap water - is there anything else I can do to it to get rid of it? Or should I put less ammonia in to compensate?

I'm currently 'watching' a test kit on e-bay
I've bought a ml measure spoon (as it's 1.26ml of ammonia for my 24 litres.)
I'm also 'watching' a pipette (to drop the ammonia onto my measuring spoon)


Funny story ...

I went to Homebase and found their Household Ammonia ,I coudn't see whether it has any perfume etc in it. So I opened the lid..... and stuck my nose right in it!

Suffice to say : my eyes watered and I thought my nose was going to fall off!

I won't be doing that again!!

Ha ha, I did that when I bought my ammonia . . . bad times >.<

If it is your tap water just adjust the ammount if ammonia you add.

What does the bottle for the "Goldfish Protect" say? If it doesn't "remove heavy metals, chlorine, chloramine and ammonia associated with chloramines" you need a new product =)

 

[leannethenewbie]

I'm not at home to check at the moment - but if thats the case could you recommend a product for me?

Thanks (as always ) x

Ebay is good, I got my ammonia, pH and nitrite kit for £14.00 altogether. Paying £6 with free p&p is better than the £11 in the shops for each bit

Good luck with your tank, its a fab tank you got x

Thanks Beth

It is nice (well I like it) which is why I want to get it right ...

I'll be posting a little cycle diary and then will add some pictures when I finally get my fish

 

[leannethenewbie]

Will API Stress Coat do the whole job?

 

[Inchworm]

Hi leannethenewbie

API Water Conditioner will do the job and has no unnecessary ingredients like Stress Coat. It costs less too.

I'll move your thread over to the Your New Freshwater Tank section where you can continue it as long as you like. Good luck with your tank.

 

[waterdrop]

For my money, Prime is the water conditioner that ends up getting the largest number of recommendations from experienced aquarists here. It can seem expensive if you don't yet know to read the dosing instructions of all the ones being compared and calculate out the cost per unit of treated water, but once you do that you realize how competitive it is. Prime also seems to be the best at handling beginner problems in the first year or so.

Glad to hear you found the right ammonia and now have your own liquid-reagent based test kit. You've gathered the essentials for a fishless cycle. A good heater also helps. Are you going to be able to bring it up to the 84F/29C that we usually recommend as optimal?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[leannethenewbie]

For my money, Prime is the water conditioner that ends up getting the largest number of recommendations from experienced aquarists here. It can seem expensive if you don't yet know to read the dosing instructions of all the ones being compared and calculate out the cost per unit of treated water, but once you do that you realize how competitive it is. Prime also seems to be the best at handling beginner problems in the first year or so.

Glad to hear you found the right ammonia and now have your own liquid-reagent based test kit. You've gathered the essentials for a fishless cycle. A good heater also helps. Are you going to be able to bring it up to the 84F/29C that we usually recommend as optimal?

~~waterdrop~~

Hi Waterdrop

Thanks - Ihave looked into Prime and I also found Tetra AquaSafe - which looks like that will do the job too!

I certainly do have a heater that can go that high - Did I read right that you're better off aiming for a temperature such as that when Fishless Cycling?