New At This! Not Sure How To Proceed

[Devilscharming]

Hey everyone!

I just recently started this fish keeping business and because I take it as a personal failure to let something's life I've placed in my hands die, I'm being super hesitant to jump into live fish without being very sure of myself and the way I've established my tank. So far I'm feeling a little bit lost and confused, despite being an avid researcher and reader.

We purchased a tank and stand, have a bio-filter by Marineland for that size, have two submersible heaters and the temp is holding very nicely at just about 80 degrees F. We added substrate (petco gravel) and I added what the pet store told me to add in order to start my cycle (which is NovAqua Plus Water Conditioner, AmQuel Plus Ammonia Detoxifier and Prime - following the instructions on the packages). The pH is rather high, about an 8.5 and the water is cloudy. Not like milk, but it definitely has a haze to it. Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate is at 0. I've now gone through and read about Cycling your tank without fish, but I'm uncertain, due to the products I've added, whether I need to just start over and do it the way the instructions read, or if I can start adding the ammonia after a few water changes. Please help, and explain in ways birds of very little brain can understand . I'm more than a little lost and I refuse to do anything else until I'm certain I won't kill any poor little fish, lol.

Bewildered,

Dar

 

[Aqua Tom]

Hey everyone!

I just recently started this fish keeping business and because I take it as a personal failure to let something's life I've placed in my hands die, I'm being super hesitant to jump into live fish without being very sure of myself and the way I've established my tank. So far I'm feeling a little bit lost and confused, despite being an avid researcher and reader.

We purchased a tank and stand, have a bio-filter by Marineland for that size, have two submersible heaters and the temp is holding very nicely at just about 80 degrees F. We added substrate (petco gravel) and I added what the pet store told me to add in order to start my cycle (which is NovAqua Plus Water Conditioner, AmQuel Plus Ammonia Detoxifier and Prime - following the instructions on the packages). The pH is rather high, about an 8.5 and the water is cloudy. Not like milk, but it definitely has a haze to it. Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate is at 0. I've now gone through and read about Cycling your tank without fish, but I'm uncertain, due to the products I've added, whether I need to just start over and do it the way the instructions read, or if I can start adding the ammonia after a few water changes. Please help, and explain in ways birds of very little brain can understand . I'm more than a little lost and I refuse to do anything else until I'm certain I won't kill any poor little fish, lol.

Bewildered,

Dar

Welcome & well done on the reasearch, as you now know, the petstore has sold you some unrequired stuff. My opinion is to drain the tank & start over. All you need to do then is add Ammonia & raise the temp to 29-30c.

Tom

 

[soybean]

Don't worry, luckily you haven't added any fish so really there's nothing to harm!

As suggested, drain the tank, stop adding anything they've given you (nothing in a bottle will cycle your tank) and just buy some ordinary ammonia, and you're all set!

 

[Devilscharming]

Don't worry, luckily you haven't added any fish so really there's nothing to harm!

As suggested, drain the tank, stop adding anything they've given you (nothing in a bottle will cycle your tank) and just buy some ordinary ammonia, and you're all set!

Thanks guys. Should I go ahead and add plants and an air stone, since you can develop little colonies on those things, or does it really matter? I thought I read that oxygen leaves the water at higher temps and that having high levels of oxygen helps the bacteria?

Dar

 

[FishFanatic04]

NovAqua Plus Water Conditioner, AmQuel Plus Ammonia Detoxifier -------> Petco will take these back even though you opened them. Get your money back and buy extra prime It's also nice to have extra


You can add those if you want...but plants will take in some of the ammonia you add and make it hard to accuratly track your cycle. However they CAN have a small amount of bacteria on them. Not very much...IMO one or two plants won't hurt.

I got my bottle of ammonia at Ace Hardware. It was in a goofy big jug for about $6-$7 Well worth it. Way to go on starting fish-less by the way

 

[soybean]

Personally I would wait to add plants etc until you're cycled. Nor do you really *need* an airpump if you have sufficient water movement from the filter - they look good if you like bubbles in the tank, they have little practical purpose. Up to you of course!

 

[Devilscharming]

Little update. I tested my tap water (having taken ya'lls advice and just starting over). Gravel is washed, everything is hunky dory. But I wanted to know if the readings I'm taking from the tap water will affect how I do the cycling, or what I should add.

pH is running between 8.4 and 8.5
Ammonia is at 2.0 ppm
Nitrites are at 0 ppm
Nitrate is between 0 and 5.0 ppm

I haven't added anything to it, this is just straight out of the tap. Changes anything, or just start the cycle like the add and wait thread says?

I appreciate ya'lls help so much, btw. It's wonderful to have people that know what they're doing around to help

Dar

 

[FishFanatic04]

I have 1.0 ppm ammonia. This is another good reason to do a fishless cycle. You could actually cycle your tank without adding any foreign ammonia. I did this with one of my 10g tanks. There is no reason to raise the ammonia higher then 2.0ppm to cycle a tank.

Just let your tank run and wait for the ammonia to drop, when it does, you can either do small water changes daily to add ammonia back in {like I did} or at that point you can add small amount of bottled ammonia.


Using seachem prime after your cycle is over will help with water changes. It will keep your fish from stressing out until your filter clears the ammonia. It takes my filters 6-8 hours to clear the water after a water change.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Devilscharming.
With your tap water parameters, I would simply follow the fishless cycling thread. I have a link to it in my signature area.