New Set Up

[andy_spurs]

Hi,

I have just bought a tank with and it came with a filter, but the filter had no instructions, it's a elite jet-flow 100, the filter came with a spray bar,

Is it worth fitting the spray bar or is it better to use the jet head of the filter??

Thanks

Andy

 

[waterdrop]

Hi Andy,

Spray bars are a very nice tool, in that you can position them at the water surface and create a good movement of water across. This will promote gas exchange, which is important. Another nice thing is that it is then relatively easy to slide the spraybar suction cups up and down a little to adjust the "water noise" level as the tank water evaporates or more water is added after water changes, assuming this matters to you.

Andy, much, much more important is whether you know about the "cycling" process for the filter? If not, then that is one of the core strengths of this forum. Its fun and fascinating to learn about and a filter really needs somewhere from a few weeks to a few months to be prepared before fish are added to the tank. Doing this "preparation" takes some learning and skill but is one of the most important essentials of the hobby.

You will need to learn about and obtain the right type of liquid-reagent based test kit and some pure household ammonia of the right type and then you will grow 2 species of bacteria in your filter using this ammonia as food -- all this is done prior to ever getting fish, but if you do it right, your eventual fish will love and thrive in their new home.

The members here will enjoy helping you with this!
~~waterdrop~~

 

[Miss Wiggle]

hi there, welcome to the forum

I hope you excuse us from deviating from your question, however often people don't ask the right questions because they simply don't know that they need to know the answer!

There's some important prep work to do before you go ahead with adding fish to the new tank, this process is called fishless cycling, it's basically setting up the filter so that it can process and de toxify the fish waste before the fish go in.

If you read the links in my sig 'whats cycling' and 'fishless cycling' these will help you out with the process, don't worry it's not half as complicated as it sounds, just have a read through and ask any questions you may have afterwards.

 

[andy_spurs]

I've already got a smaller tank which has been running for a few months.
I have just bought a bigger one, with a stand.
So i won't be adding fish for a while, once this tank has been set up i'm going to use all the things from other tank incuding the filter media.

Thanks for the replys
Andy