New Tropical Tank

[danb]

BUMP^

 

[Gustavo]

Well try stop me?? all because you say yu should do a fishless cycle and i disagree im not aloud to own fish??? You would have to be a deadset tosser aye!!! Feel sorry for my fish? if they were so sick cause i didnt cycle my tank why the **** are they breeding than!!! answer me that one!! if they didnt feel safe in their tank or the conditions they wouldnt breed!!! oh thas funny they are so obviously thy like their new tank and have no problems wit the water!!! No waste your time on me its great listening to someone who im sure would wanna bore me with their rubbish tlk,, go ahead enlighten my night

And then you ask yourself why people ignore your posts... ^^^

Fish-in cycle is a pain in the butt; daily water changes, fish dying, worries, constant water testings... never again! By the way, I added some Stress Zyme two weeks ago just to try because I've got a new Marineland biowheel filter, and guess what: it didn't do squat.

Gus


Dan,

Run a search with 'filter cloning' or 'tank seeding'

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showto...=filter+cloning

I understand that you wash the filter from the cycled tank into the new tank, and then move 1/3 of the cycled filter into the new one, but I haven't done that, so I'm just repeating from other posts.

Gus

 

[Essjay]

What you need to do is take some filter pads from the goldfish tank's filter and put them into the new filter. If it is the built in Juwel filter, there should be no problem - just leave out the carbon sponge as you don't need it. You can take a third of the pads from the goldfish's filter - but keep a check on the ammonia and nitrite in that tank. If either of them get above zero, you will need to do a water change to get them down.

Don't move the pads till you are ready to start your fishless cycle because the bacteria will starve without a source of ammonia. In case you don't know about fishless cycling, read this
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=113861



You can use pond dechlorinator. It's the same stuff, but more concentrated, so it goes further, and it works out cheaper.

 

[coldcazzie]

Wow, alot to read and take in.

Yes my goldfish tank has been up and running for around 6 month now all okay, apart from a poorly pleco dieing, due to pets at home i believe.

How would i get the bacteria from that filter into the new one? By filter media im presuming you mean the filter pads ... ? Would i just leave one of the pads in the new tank for a few hours? Also, can you buy the tap safe/stress coat in bulk as with this size of tank its going to be a bottle or so a month!

When the tank is ready for fish i only want to add a few species at a time to get the tank fully matured. What would be the best to put in the tank first?

Thank you for all your help.

Danny

Yes you can buy stress coat in bulk from ebay - I looked into it because I was having the same issue - a small bottle at £8.50 a pop is a very expensive way to go. I would recommend finding a more concentrated dechlorinator such as Seachem Prime. If you read the bottles it becomes obvious why - a 500ml bottle of Prime costs about £12, so slightly more expensive, but 5ml dechlorinates 200L, whereas 5ml of Stress Coat only dechlorinates 38L! No brainer as far as I'm concerned!

Filter media does mean the filter pads yes. If you take one of the filter pads out of the filter in your goldfish tank and place it in the top of the Juwel filter and leave it there for at least a few months it will help. I have a Juwel as well, if you take out the carbon (black) sponge there should be room - you can chop the pad up if it's the wrong shape or sized, and put it where the carbon sponge was because that way the flow of water will be through that pad first, then your new sponges afterwards.

Another (so far not mentioned) advantage of a fishless cycle is that once you're finished you can fully stock the tank, so won't have to worry about only adding a few fish at a time. The only fish to avoid are ones that don't like brand new tanks - neon cardinal and rummy nose tetras. After that, it's a case of whatever takes your fancy, and wont get too big for the tank!

Also, the temperature should be set at a happy medium for all your fish - the usual temp for a community is about 25oC ish, but you will find people who have their tanks at 28 and some that have theirs at 24, because they have a particular kind of fish that likes a particular temperature. There is no right or wrong answer, as long as you stick with what the fish like. If you look through the species index most of the threads will tell you what temp the fish like, so read up on some ones you like and see if they all share an overlapping temp, and then go for that!

PS: WD - I applaud you, you have the patience of a saint!

 

[OldMan47]

A couple of quick tips for DanB.
You can have a hard look at the bottles on the shelf at the LFS and will find that some products need a drop to dechlorinate a gallon of water while others require a full 1 ml to treat that much water. I use Prime because I can treat 10 gallons of new tank water with just 1 ml of the stuff. Most of the other products use, quite literally, 10 times as much per treatment. When I notice that my 500 ml bottle is still almost full after a year of use and then look around to see that I am caring for over 20 tanks with that one bottle, the value of small doses being enough to treat large volumes comes home to me.
To jump start a new cycle in a house that has a healthy tank in it, use the new tank as your cleaning bucket before you add in any ammonia. Bottled bacteria may not work but the live ones in a functioning filter work great. I have rarely had to go back after the first week to repeat that treatment. The new filter almost always looks cycled that quickly.

 

[danb]

A couple of quick tips for DanB.
You can have a hard look at the bottles on the shelf at the LFS and will find that some products need a drop to dechlorinate a gallon of water while others require a full 1 ml to treat that much water. I use Prime because I can treat 10 gallons of new tank water with just 1 ml of the stuff. Most of the other products use, quite literally, 10 times as much per treatment. When I notice that my 500 ml bottle is still almost full after a year of use and then look around to see that I am caring for over 20 tanks with that one bottle, the value of small doses being enough to treat large volumes comes home to me.
To jump start a new cycle in a house that has a healthy tank in it, use the new tank as your cleaning bucket before you add in any ammonia. Bottled bacteria may not work but the live ones in a functioning filter work great. I have rarely had to go back after the first week to repeat that treatment. The new filter almost always looks cycled that quickly.

Thank you, i just bought some prime now Thank you for all your help guys.

 

[K-Holed]

So are there people out there testing the waterways for all these bad things that can "kill" fish??? i dont think so, so i dont see why its such a great deal that everyone needs to do this cycle? im so over hearing cycle this and cycle that, who the hell cycled the waterways???

On the point of "So are there people out there testing the waterways", yes there are.
and on the second point "who the hell cycled the waterways???", nature did. The nitrogen cycle is happening all around you in nature. This process has been happening since before the dawn of man and I'm pretty sure that the vast majority of natural, permanent water sources are well and truely cycled. As a bonus, in nature you have vast bodies of water that can dilute the waste from the fish and in the case of moving bodies of water, sweep them away. In an aquarium, you have a very small amount of water, that only gets replaced when you do a water change. We need to set up the natural cycle found in nature in an artifical setup, this doesn't happen instantly but nature will find it's way. As hobbyists we can try make this process as speedy and efficent as possible, whilst at the same time safeguarding the very species that we want to keep.

Just my 2p's worth and nothing but my humble opinion.

Kind regards

Jimi