New Tank, Beginner With Fish - 48 Hrs In

[snoopstar]

Hi all,

After so much reading here I thought I would put my tank and its short life so far here.

I bought an Aquastart 500 plus stand a few days ago along with a heater, a few live plants, large grain gravel and a gravel cleaner.

I conditioned the water with Tetra Aquasafe and on advice from the fish shop added 50ml of Tetra Safestart. Then again on their advice 2 hrs later I added a Bactozym capsule which together is supposed to start the bacteria off growing in the tank. Oh, I also added a touch of liquid plant food. The tank is at 24Deg C.

The fish shop told me I should then wait 48 hours and then add about 5 Tetras to get things going. So, this is the point I am at. I just tested the water and got the following results:

PH: 8.0
Nitrite: 0.1 or below
Nitrate: 10 to 15 ppm
Ammonia: 0

My plan was today to add 5 Cardinal Tetras and see how things progress from there. Should this be ok?

 

[Silverlady]

Cardinal Tetras like a more mature tank.I think most people start with Platies.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

tetra's aren't nescessarily the best fish to do a fish cycle with..... don't know if you have made a conscious descision not to, but just incase your not aware of it, you should look into fishless cycling IMO it's safer and fairer to the fish.

 

[snoopstar]

Thanks for your replies.

No I hadnt made a conscious decision to do a fish cycle, it was just I didn't really understand the fishless cycle and I wanted to get started with fish asap.

Now after reading that post about fishless cycling I have a much better understanding of it and am going to go the way of the fishless cycle !! So it's off to find some ammonia tomorrow, maybe homebase or Boots it would appear.

Thanks again for your help in helping me understand the world of fish keeping.

 

[voo]

Best of luck, a good decision you made

When you do start stocking your tank, neon tetras and cardinal tetras prefer a mature tank, one that's been running for 3+ months, otherwise there's a good chance they might die.

I dont know if that'll still be 3 months if you've done a fishless cycle though where the bacteria is already built up... Maybe someone else will tell you this (and me!)

 

[Silverlady]

Well done on going for a Fishless Cycle, you wont regret it.
voo, yes it is still 3 months at least for Cardinals and Neons.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i'd say closer to 6 months after finishing your cycle..... but i do err on the side of caution a little bit.

think you've made the right choice though, good luck and let us know how you get on

 

[InaneCathode]

Thanks for your replies.

No I hadnt made a conscious decision to do a fish cycle, it was just I didn't really understand the fishless cycle and I wanted to get started with fish asap.

Now after reading that post about fishless cycling I have a much better understanding of it and am going to go the way of the fishless cycle !! So it's off to find some ammonia tomorrow, maybe homebase or Boots it would appear.

Thanks again for your help in helping me understand the world of fish keeping.

Whoa hey, don't go adding ammonia with fish in the tank already

 

[sparklefuzz]

Thanks for your replies.

No I hadnt made a conscious decision to do a fish cycle, it was just I didn't really understand the fishless cycle and I wanted to get started with fish asap.

Now after reading that post about fishless cycling I have a much better understanding of it and am going to go the way of the fishless cycle !! So it's off to find some ammonia tomorrow, maybe homebase or Boots it would appear.

Thanks again for your help in helping me understand the world of fish keeping.

Whoa hey, don't go adding ammonia with fish in the tank already

I don't think he had yet... I hope! LOL

 

[snoopstar]

So if I still want to add cardinal Tetras, then the best way would for me to choose a few other fish to start with leaving room to add some tetras at a later date?

I added the ammonia today. For anyone elses information, I used Homebase Household Ammonia. I added 5ml to a 65 litre tank and that gave me approx 6ppm.

Thanks for your replies.

No I hadnt made a conscious decision to do a fish cycle, it was just I didn't really understand the fishless cycle and I wanted to get started with fish asap.

Now after reading that post about fishless cycling I have a much better understanding of it and am going to go the way of the fishless cycle !! So it's off to find some ammonia tomorrow, maybe homebase or Boots it would appear.

Thanks again for your help in helping me understand the world of fish keeping.

Whoa hey, don't go adding ammonia with fish in the tank already

It's ok, I haven't added any fish. Just starting the fishless cycle today.

 

[Silverlady]

Try putting the tank heat up to 80deg, it will help things happen a little faster.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

So if I still want to add cardinal Tetras, then the best way would for me to choose a few other fish to start with leaving room to add some tetras at a later date?

I added the ammonia today. For anyone elses information, I used Homebase Household Ammonia. I added 5ml to a 65 litre tank and that gave me approx 6ppm.

It's ok, I haven't added any fish. Just starting the fishless cycle today.

yup that's right

 

[snoopstar]

Try putting the tank heat up to 80deg, it will help things happen a little faster.

Yep done that. I'm going to test the water for ammonia and nitrite this evening and see if anything has started yet.

 

[Silverlady]

Mine took about a week for Nitrite to show.

 

[snoopstar]

At the start when I set the tank up I added safestart and bactozym. It will be interesting to see if that actually does help or speed anything up or if it is indeed a complete waste of money.