New Fish Tank Setup

[jakewilks4]

Hi all,

I am new to the fish world and internet forums, but I have just got my first fish tank and when researching fish tank related items these forums always seemed to give the best information, hence why I joined - to steal all your fish knowledge .

So I bought a second hand fish tank, 240ltr with a fluval 4 filter, 200w heater, tetra 300 (check) air pump (very noisy), stones, bog wood, plastic plants and then spent 2 days cleaning it all thoroughly. I then however started my research (backwards I know) and found out how much the equipment and running costs could be for fish and was a little shocked to say the least, so I decided it would be better to start with tropical fish rather than marine as I had originally hoped. Hopefully will move onto marine at some point though.

So I set the tank up as follows:
- 2inches of sand as a substrate
- Fluval 4 filter (with media it was sold with, I did know the seller and he didn’t have problems with his fish, and I cleaned the filter)
- 200W Heater at about 26 degrees
- Air pump which has 2 valves of which only 1 works but it is very powerful. I think its almost to violent and I should reduce the air flow with a valve (I hope you can buy), is this advised?
- Stones large and small with 2 large bits of bog wood, all rinsed clean.
- Some plastic plants.
- Filled up with tap water as the fish shop recommended. I quote "give the filter a week and it will remove all the harmful substances in the water"

I ran this for about 4 days and I was always checking eBay trying to get a good deal on a bigger filter which I know I need, In the end I got a fluval 405 brand new and set it up with the media it came with. I have read so much about media and people changing them I am very confused about it now, but assume if its sold with it, it should be ok? I am running both filters as I wanted any good bacteria already accumulated in the old filter to stay in the system until the new filter is running with its own bacteria. I want to remove the old filter making more space as soon as pos really.

3 days after that I did my first water tests which were as follows
PH 8 Ammonia 0.4 Nitrite 0.4 Nitrate 65

It’s a big tank and a 20% water change is about 50 litres the biggest thing I had in the flat was a 10litre washing up bowl so I did a 20litre water change (about 10%) using the tap safe treatment recommend by the fish shop. I need to get a bigger container to do a bigger water change quicker, any recommendations or tips about water changes with large tanks?

Anyway just thought I'd say hello and if anyone has any helpful tips about how I can improve my tank and get the water ready to get fish in quicker (without to much expense) I would really appreciate it. Feel like I have a 101 questions but as I have already written an essay I'll stop…….for now

Thanks

Jake

 

[Randi]

Hi there! The first thing you need to do is begin a fishless cycle. This could be very quick if you have some established filter media. Leave both filters running or put the media from the old one into the new one along with what it came with. Your nitrates seem high for a tank that is not cycled, but there is no way to know what is happening unless you add a source of ammonia and see if the bacteria can handle it. If the used filter was not still wet when you got it, chances are the bacteria died. As for water changes, go to a DIY store and get a large bucket to siphon your water into. You may want to get a python hose. It hooks to your sink and lets you siphon water directly down the drain and then turn on your tap to fill up the tank.

 

[Miles_hot]

Have read of the stuff in the beginner's section at the top of this forum - this will answer many questions (and point you in directions you might not have expected)

Miles

 

[Tizer]

+1 for the above posts

You dont need to have the air pump running, bubbles are just there as decoration really.

 

[jakewilks4]

Thanks for the feed back

With regards to the media the fluval 405 filter came with foam pads, carbon for the bottom 2 trays (i think its carbon, small black granules in bags) and bio max for the top 2 trays. But the media doesnt fill the trays. Is it a good idea to get more and fill the trays up, and is this the best media to start off with?

What is the best way to add ammonia, I read using a hardy fish will do this but I dont want to poison the fish, would a treatment you buy and add to the water be better?

I also got a powerhead 1600l/h to help water movement, is this useful at all with a fresh water, it seems they are only used in marine tanks?

I think I will turn off the bubbles for now or get a smaller quieter air pump, thanks for the info on that.

Would adding plants be a good idea at this stage, I was reading up on the different types, I'll look at the plant forum and see what people say, I did read you can get better plants buying online which seems strange.

Appreciate the advise

 

[Randi]

To add ammonia you can put in a couple hardy fish and do a fish-in cycle. The more humane thing is to do a fishless cycle. You can put in a shrimp from the grocery store and let it rot or get pure ammonia. Make sure the ammonia doesn't have any additives, a good way to tell is if you shake the bottle and it foams it is no good. If you are in the UK Boots sells pure ammonia, if you are in the US you can find it at Ace Hardware. As far as I know you can cycle with plants.

 

[waterdrop]

If there is room for more biomax in the biomax trays you might want to increase it. You might even want to replace one of the carbon trays with more biomax. Since you have a lot of filter capacity I won't say to get rid of the carbon entirely although most of us don't use it (it is optimal as a "chemical media" not a "biological media" and its usefulness as a chemical media is gone in about 3 days under normal conditions, so its used by most aquarists as a special purpose thing to put in when removing medications, tannins and some other things. You will find that there are many things sold to beginners in pet shops that originally came into the hobby for special purposes but which the shops will happily sell and encourage frequent replacement on.

For many years probably the most core thing our little beginner forum section has helped with has been the Fishless Cycle. This, along with the other two core beginner skills (the Gravel-Clean-Water-Change and the techniques of Filter maintenance) have been the main secrets to success that those in the hobby a long time are able to do to really help beginners get a jump start. We've been here to help with thousands of situations where beginners have found themselves in Fish-In Cycling situations without really realizing the risks to their fish or the work it might take to be humane to them, but the thing most of us have really enjoyed doing was to pass along the magic of the Fishless Cycle, which just neatly sidesteps the whole chance of being inhumane to the fish.

Now the Fishless Cycle is not a sure thing. It can still be a bit of a black art.. not as much a black art as learning how to develop good stocking plans, but still it's an unpredictable thing at times and at times we don't have answers for some of the cases that have trouble. Still, for the majority of cases, the simple household ammonia Add&Wait Fishless Cycle is the real gold to be had from this little sub-forum and it is a shame for each beginner not to get a chance at that learning opportunity. Getting a real "feel" for "the biofilter" just must be the most valuable thing for an aquarist as the years go by.

Good luck and there are a lot of great members here who will hopefully look in on you during your cycle.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[jakewilks4]

Thanks for the advise, think I will go and get some bio max tomorrow and fill my top 3 trays with it and leave the carbon in the bottom tray .

Ill get some ammonia as well and start my cycle, read the post on fishless cycle under beginners tips which was useful, not sure why I have ammonia in my tank after a week without anything in it though

 

[jakewilks4]

My tank, old pic as have a new filter now though