My set up continues! Trip to aquarists store-

Get Ready! 🐠 It's time for the....
FishForums.net Fish of the Month
🏆 Click to enter! 🏆

Maroonostrich

Fish Crazy
Joined
Jun 13, 2005
Messages
289
Reaction score
0
I visited my local aquarists today...

YOU WON'T BELIEVE THIS! They had seven golden eyed dwarf cichlids and I reserved a male and 2 females on the spot, so I have my fish! LOVE these little cichlids- a batch of rams nearly mugged me through the glass as I intruded just after he had opened and was still feeding, so when I raised my hand in the corner all the fish shot over! Awww :wub:

Any hooo

I WENT for gravel and plastic plants!

I LEFT with a large piece of bogwood, a bag of SAND and a request to come back next day for LIVE PLANTS!!!

Eeek! I never had live plants before, shop owner said he'd recommend all the above as being better environment overall for the fish- e.g. as I expressed a liking for corys he said he would think this would be better than gravel. He has promised the plants won't be hard and he has new ones tomorrow so I need to go get mine then.


Anyway, the tank now contains sand and dechlorinated water. I tried not to stir it all up too much when I put in the water but it's looking a tiny bit messy in there right now.

I have not turned on the heater yet or the filter, I'm waiting for things to settle. Is this ok?

I'm soaking my bog wood to limit the colour of water when it goes in, how soon should I put that in, does it matter?

Thanks everyone!
 
You need to go ahead and turn everything on and let it start to run. You need to get the water temp stable befor you add fish and also the filter will help clear the cloudy water from the sand. What size tank is it? I'm not a cichlid person so I don't know how they are for cycling a tank. Hopefully, someone else can shed some light on that. As for the bogwood, it kind of depends on whether it has been presoaked or not. If not, it could take quite a while before it quits leeching tanins. You may just have to go ahead and put it in and use water changes to keep the water from going brown.
 
Well done. Yeah, start the filter now and get things going. Are you going to do a fishless cycle ?
With the wood, it might take quite a while to stop leaching tannins. Anything up to a month I've found. Once your tank is cycled, just do your regular water changes, and the colour of the water will clear up completely (eventually). But while it's leaching tannins, you can expect clear brown water. Not the nicest sight, but harmless to your fish.
 
Everyone knows I reserved them but left them where they were?!! I just re read my post and that bit sounded like I just grabbed them and expected to throw em in and see success!!!

I'm hoping to start things off with a few black neons. But definitely not yet!

Ok, so the temp and filter are set off today and then I put in the plants tomorrow when temp is ok (what should that be again!?!).. then what? I read a little bit on this fishless cycle but I'm not sure I really got it... is there a total idiots guide anywhere?
 
Undawada did a good thread on fishless cycling which is easy to understand (hopefully !). But keep in mind you will need your test kits to follow results and know when your tank is ready. It usually takes around 10 days or so - but could be longer.

Remember that neons are not the best fish to start off with. They are not recommended starter fish and require very stable, mature and pristine water conditions. There have been reports of successful cycling with neons, but that's more due to luck than anything.

If you are not doing the fishless cycle (and really you should) then Danio's would be a good fish to start off with.

If however you go for fishless cycling, you are likely to encounter far less problems, you will have a greater success with the health of your fish and you can basically add a whole bio load of fish the minute your ammonia and nitrite readings are 0.

Hope that helps :)
 

Most reactions

Back
Top