NEW TANK

[Fishclubfriends]

Hiya, I currently have a 25 Litre tank containing 4 neon Tetras, 2 gold dust mollys, 2 Raspberry Tetras and one Pleco.

I have had this set up for about 8 months but just purchased a new tank of 105 litres. I read online the tank set up can take weeks. I always use purified mineral water from the fish shop when cleaning my tank so the new tank will be 100% purified water. I will add plants and bog wood and leave the filter and heater on.

QUESTION- How long do I need to leave the tank running before introducing my fish and how long do I wait to introduce more fish?
The plan is to add another 10 Neon tetras as I want them to swim in a school and maybe more after. Am I able to add more due to the tank size and which ones can I add? want a tropical and colourful looking tank. Any tips appreciated. Thanks in advance

 

[JuiceBox52]

Heres a link on how to cycle your tank

Cycling Your New Fresh Water Tank: Read This First!

Cycling Your First Fresh Water Tank What is Cycling and Why is it Important? Fish waste, and especially fish breathing, plus uneaten food and other organic matter breaking down in a tank all produce Ammonia. This can quickly become toxic to fish if it is allowed to build up to any measurable...

www.fishforums.net

 

[Fishclubfriends]

Heres a link on how to cycle your tank

Cycling Your New Fresh Water Tank: Read This First!

Cycling Your First Fresh Water Tank What is Cycling and Why is it Important? Fish waste, and especially fish breathing, plus uneaten food and other organic matter breaking down in a tank all produce Ammonia. This can quickly become toxic to fish if it is allowed to build up to any measurable...

www.fishforums.net

Thank you for your reply. I did try and read about cycling but to be honest did get lost. Using purified water is clearly a lot better for the fish, as for ammonia build up etc that strikes me as more of a maintenance thing? I am confused and would like to clarify if its telling me to leave the tank for 2-3 days before adding my own fish (types mentioned above) then waiting those weeks for the tank to cycle before adding new ones??

 

[JuiceBox52]

Thank you for your reply. I did try and read about cycling but to be honest did get lost. Using purified water is clearly a lot better for the fish, as for ammonia build up etc that strikes me as more of a maintenance thing? I am confused and would like to clarify if its telling me to leave the tank for 2-3 days before adding my own fish (types mentioned above) then waiting those weeks for the tank to cycle before adding new ones??

Cycle the tank for 3-4 weeks before adding any fish. Using tetra safe start will help speed it along. @essjay is much better at explaining cycling but I'll do my best until she comes along

 

[Fishclubfriends]

Cycle the tank for 3-4 weeks before adding any fish. Using tetra safe start will help speed it along. @essjay is much better at explaining cycling but I'll do my best until she comes along

Oh I see, I didnt think it was possible to start the cycling process without fish in the tank? I must have read it wrong! You are being very helpful, thank you

 

[JuiceBox52]

Oh I see, I didnt think it was possible to start the cycling process without fish in the tank? I must have read it wrong! You are being very helpful, thank you

Yes it is lots of live plants will also help speed the process. You add ammonia to simulate the ammonia a fish would produce. The bacteria feeds on the ammonia. Adding safe start helps it because it gives it more bacteria to start with

 

[Colin_T]

If you plan on putting all the fish into the new tank, you can simply set up the new tank and move the filter and fish across and that is it. The established filter will continue running on the new tank and you won't have to cycle it.

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If you are using reverse osmosis (R/O) water, the mollies will have problems.

Mollies, guppies, swordtails and platies come from water that contains a lot of minerals and they struggle in pure water with no minerals.

Guppies, platies and swordtails need water with a GH of 200ppm and a pH above 7.0, mollies need water with a GH above 250ppm and a pH above 7.0.

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What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

 

[Essjay]

If you move the filter across to the new tank and at the same time move the fish across, you should be OK. But you would need to check for ammonia and nitrite every day to make sure, and wait until everything has settled in the new tank before getting more fish, a few at a time.
Do you intend to have live plants in the new tank? Plants use ammonia as fertiliser and they don't turn it into nitrite or nitrate. Floating plants are particualrly good at this, so if you moved the filter media and fish over, and got a number of floating plants such as water sprite, that would help the tank settle faster and allow you to get more fish a but quicker.

The alternative would be a fishless cycle, as in JuiceBox's link. If you did this, once it is complete you could move the current fish over and buy new fish at the same time. Using the method in that link could take several weeks to cycle the tank; using Tetra safe Start as well would speed it up, though it won't cycle instantly.



What exactly do you mean by purified water? Is this RO water? Do you, or the shop, add minerals back into the water?
As Colin said, you have hard water fish and soft water fish, so one or other group will not be happy, I'm afraid.