New Aquarium.

[Damballa]

Hi all,

as you will inevitably see, I am a total beginner in proper fish keeping. I have a tropical tank upstairs. Only a small one and there is two zebra danios in 40l of water as i took advice from pet shop, i don't know how they lived so long really. The advice that they give you is terrible. Anyway I am setting up an aquarium for our 15 months old daughter who adores fish and we can't get her out of pet shop every time we go there. I really want to do it properly both to educate her into proper way and as well of course to prevent any upset from fish dying cos' it is horrible. ;o( I want to start fish less cycle. Aquarium was bought used but from stranger so i washed everything with warm watter, changed filter sponges. my filter is Interpet PF2 and I have got a heater as i want the tank to be tropical and also have got and Interpet AV1 airpump and an airstone. Just to check on everything... when I want to add watter I do treat it with tap safe. Can i add tap safe directly to tank when no fish is present or do I still have to mix it in outside container of some sort? Also I read somewhere on this forum a lady mentioning something about filter start for these filters. What is it and do I need to add this? And do I have to perform a watter change during a fishless cycle and how much and how often? I have got a proper test kit not strips that is well in date so I will test it every other day. I am planning on starting cycle with fish flakes rather then ammonia or do you advice against it? Also i read something about donor media on this forum. WHat is that? Would that be if I didn't wash plants and gravel when I got aquarium or is it something that I can get? I realise I look totaly stupid on this forum but I really really want to do this properly so fish are not harmed in any way so if any of you experienced lovely people could help me, I'd be very happy as pet shops are just terrible. ;o(

Thanks.

L.L.

Hi all,

as you will inevitably see, I am a total beginner in proper fish keeping. I have a tropical tank upstairs. Only a small one and there is two zebra danios in 40l of water as i took advice from pet shop, i don't know how they lived so long really. The advice that they give you is terrible. Anyway I am setting up an aquarium for our 15 months old daughter who adores fish and we can't get her out of pet shop every time we go there. I really want to do it properly both to educate her into proper way and as well of course to prevent any upset from fish dying cos' it is horrible. ;o( I want to start fish less cycle. Aquarium was bought used but from stranger so i washed everything with warm watter, changed filter sponges. my filter is Interpet PF2 and I have got a heater as i want the tank to be tropical and also have got and Interpet AV1 airpump and an airstone. Just to check on everything... when I want to add watter I do treat it with tap safe. Can i add tap safe directly to tank when no fish is present or do I still have to mix it in outside container of some sort? Also I read somewhere on this forum a lady mentioning something about filter start for these filters. What is it and do I need to add this? And do I have to perform a watter change during a fishless cycle and how much and how often? I have got a proper test kit not strips that is well in date so I will test it every other day. I am planning on starting cycle with fish flakes rather then ammonia or do you advice against it? Also i read something about donor media on this forum. WHat is that? Would that be if I didn't wash plants and gravel when I got aquarium or is it something that I can get? I realise I look totaly stupid on this forum but I really really want to do this properly so fish are not harmed in any way so if any of you experienced lovely people could help me, I'd be very happy as pet shops are just terrible. ;o(

Thanks.

L.L.

Just forgot to say that our new tank is 2ft wide, 1.5 ft deep and 2ft high as it might be of use to you when recommending things. Thanks.

 

[fluttermoth]

to the forum!

I'd recommend you cycle with household ammonia rather than fish food. Cycling with fish food is smelly, messy and very imprecise!

There are two ways of using tap safe; either put enough for the whole tank in before you refill, or treat each bucket before it goes in. As your tank is quite small and new, I'd recommend you treat each bucket; new tanks and filter bacteria need a bit more TLC than older, more robust set ups.

You shouldn't need to do water changes in a fishless cycle, though they can be useful if your cycle stalls or stops for some reason. With a few exceptions, most of us here have no faith in 'filter start' solutions, so they probably won't help you.

Donor media means a little clipping or something from the filter in a mature tank. You could use some from your 40l. Take no more than 1/3 of the media from the old tank's filter (don't forget to replace it with new!) and put it in the filter in the new tank.

Doing that 'seeds' your new filter with some of the good bacteria and your cycle will go faster, as you just have to get the colony to grow, rather than growing it from scratch.

Hope that helps.

 

[fishies101]

to be honest some things i don't know about either but a fish less cycle is the best and i always had success without adding anything to the water if you know what i mean and the water changes you should bother about because of the "good bacteria" (don't ask me what that is i just read that somewhere here) and the best idea with plants is wait till the tank is done cycling. thats all and

oh sorry i meant you shouldn't bother with the water changes so sorry!