Newbie fish keeper

[Tobytyke245]

Hello I have recently bought a second hand tank a juwel rio 180 led. I am new to fish keeping I have done a lot of research but am still needing to learn. I have set it all up and added Api stress coat and Api quick start. It's been set up and running for 24 hours now I was just wondering when I should start doing water tests and when I should see results that my cycle has started. I am hoping it wont take too long as the tank was running up to the morning of collection and he took the filter sponges out and put them in a bag with some water. Sorry for the long post but would appreciate any feedback and advice

 

[Essjay]

If the tank had fish in it until shortly before you got the tank (up to a couple of weeks before) and the media was kept in water all the time, theoretically there should be enough bacteria to support the same amount of fish that the previous owner had.

I see from the photo that you have fake plants so you have 2 options.
Add ammonia solution to get a reading of 3 ppm then test 24 hours later. If both ammonia and nitrite are zero, you have enough bacteria for a tankful of fish. If they are not zero, follow the fishless cycling method which is a sticky in the Cycling section.
But you will have some bacteria in the media, you just don't know how many, so the simplest would be to get a few fish and monitor the levels of ammonia and nitrite for several days. If either show up, do water changes till they stay at zero. If they don't show up, wait a week and get the next batch of fish, testing for ammonia and nitrite every day etc etc.

If you can't get fish due to the lockdown, either add some fish food which will break down to ammonia and feed the bacteria, or use ammonia solution from a bottle.



One other thing you need to know is the hardness of your water. Look on your water company's website for hardness (if you can't find it tell us the name of the company and we'll look). You need a number and the unit of measurement rather than some vague words. The unit is important as there are half a dozen they could use.
You need to know this because fish should be kept in water with similar hardness to that in the water they originate from. Hard water fish suffer in soft water and soft water fish suffer in hard water. Knowing the hardness will help you choose fish.

 

[Tobytyke245]

If the tank had fish in it until shortly before you got the tank (up to a couple of weeks before) and the media was kept in water all the time, theoretically there should be enough bacteria to support the same amount of fish that the previous owner had.

I see from the photo that you have fake plants so you have 2 options.
Add ammonia solution to get a reading of 3 ppm then test 24 hours later. If both ammonia and nitrite are zero, you have enough bacteria for a tankful of fish. If they are not zero, follow the fishless cycling method which is a sticky in the Cycling section.
But you will have some bacteria in the media, you just don't know how many, so the simplest would be to get a few fish and monitor the levels of ammonia and nitrite for several days. If either show up, do water changes till they stay at zero. If they don't show up, wait a week and get the next batch of fish, testing for ammonia and nitrite every day etc etc.

If you can't get fish due to the lockdown, either add some fish food which will break down to ammonia and feed the bacteria, or use ammonia solution from a bottle.



One other thing you need to know is the hardness of your water. Look on your water company's website for hardness (if you can't find it tell us the name of the company and we'll look). You need a number and the unit of measurement rather than some vague words. The unit is important as there are half a dozen they could use.
You need to know this because fish should be kept in water with similar hardness to that in the water they originate from. Hard water fish suffer in soft water and soft water fish suffer in hard water. Knowing the hardness will help you choose fish.

Thank you for your reply will see if I can get some ammonia solution just tested it and it's at 0.25mg/l,0 nitrite,0 nitrate so safe to say no cycle has started yet and I have just looked up my water hardness is 110.7mg/l I was thinking of doing a tetra comunity tank would they be okay with this

 

[Essjay]

Does it say what the mg/l are? UK water companies often use mg/l calcium, or it could be mg/l calcium carbonate.

Could I ask you to look again and see what's after mg/l. The reason is that if it's mg/l calcium carbonate, the water is reasonably soft but if it's mg/l calcium, that's quite hard.

 

[Tobytyke245]

It's mg/l calcium it does say its hard water

 

[Essjay]

Thank you. That unit isn't used in fishkeeping so we need to convert it.
110.7 mg/l calcium converts to 15.5 dH and 276 ppm. Some fish profiles use dH, others use ppm so you need to know your hardness in both.

I'm afraid your water is too hard for just about all tetras. But if your shops are like mine, closed for the lockdown duration, you do have some time to decide what you want to keep.
Hard water is suitable for livebearers, rainbowfish, Rift Lake cichlids. Rift Lake cichlids do have be kept with only fish from the same lake, but livebearers and rainbowfish would make a nice community.
I have soft water but other members with hard water will be able to suggest more hard water fish which I have forgotten about.

The only alternative would be to soften your water by mixing it with pure water (distilled, reverse osmosis etc) but this is something which shouldn't be undertaken lightly, especially not right at the start of fishkeeping.



First things first, though. Make sure that the tank is cycled and while you are doing that you can discuss fish with those members who have hard water.

 

[Tobytyke245]

Thank you so much for your help it's nice to have a conversation with someone with Experiance I would never really have thought to check the hardness. I will look into fish for hard water

 

[Essjay]

The best site for fish research is https://www.seriouslyfish.com/knowledge-base/


Edit - for members who work in gallons, 180 litres = 48 gallons

 

[Tobytyke245]

Thank you for your help been looking probably going to go down the route of guppies,platy,swordtail and Cory's I mainly want bright coloured fish as I have a 3 and 4 year old and they want colourful fish lol that's why I originally thought about tetras

 

[Essjay]

If you go with livebearers, remember that females will have batches of fry roughly once a month. Every month. Since the common livebearers should be kept with at least two females for every male, that means a lot of fry. The reason for more females is that males pester females constantly and with more females than males, each female gets time out while the males chase a different female. Even with an all female tank, the chances are there will still be fry as females can store sperm so if they've ever been in a tank with a male (eg at the shop) they can have fry for several months with no male in the tank. Then the fry will grow up and the male fry will mate with with the females and life goes round and round. While this is educational for children there is a limit to the number of fish a tank can hold.

The answer is to have all males

 

[Tobytyke245]

Phoned my local fish shop this morning explained everything to him he was very helpful and advised that I could do a fish in cycle as I was planning on keeping guppies anyway so took a quick drive through and picked up 10 male guppies. I have swapped out the pump it came with as the original owner of the tank changed the 600l/h to a 1000l/h dont think the guppies liked it to much as they were all congregating in one corner of the tank but put the 600l/h pump in and they seem happy enough now.

 

[JuiceBox52]

A fish in cycle is definitely possible but takes longer and can be dangerous to the fish. Do daily water changes until it is cycled. I'll let other members advise further

 

[Tobytyke245]

 

[Essjay]

Hopefully there will be enough bacteria in the media from the first owner, but check ammonia and nitrite every day to be certain. if you ever see a reading for either of them, do a water change. And even if they stay at zero, you'll need to do a water change every week. With 10 guppies in 180 litres/48 gallons, less than 50% weekly water changes should be OK, but as you get more fish you do need to change at least 50%.

 

[Tobytyke245]

I've been panicking like mad since I put the fish in I must have done about 6 tests for ammonia (the fish have been in for 9 hours). My wife is going crazy saying I'm doing it to much but I'm just putting it down to practice seen as though I am new to testing water. All looks good for now let's just hope it stays that way.