Newbie Post... Hello!

[matt_99]

full set on eBay?.... feel free to point out where rather than just point out i made the mistake!

Does seachem have appropriate measuring / dispensing? I'll be changing water a bucket at a time.

 

[Curiosity101]

API Master Test Kit - It's the liquid kit most of us use...I presumed someone would've mentioned it by now. Sorry about that.

And it measures as 1 capful = 5ml. I have a pipette that I got from the labs at uni which measures in mls so I use that.

 

[matt_99]

5ml to 200 litres though... im doing 25?!

thanks for the heads up though.

 

[Essjay]

You can buy baby's medicine dosing syringes from a pharmacy. They go as small as 1 ml graduated into tenth of a ml. Make sure you ask for a baby's medicine dosing syringe though - you don't want them thinking you want one for injecting things.......

 

[matt_99]

great idea, thanks

 

[DD2510]

5ml to 200 litres though... im doing 25?!

thanks for the heads up though.

Yeah prime is excellent value for money.. having a guesstimate id assume you would use the following ml of prime:
5ml - 200l
2.5ml - 100l
1.25ml - 50l
0.625ml - 25l - bout an 1/8 of a teaspoon.

I use the easy dosing syringe you get with the kids Nurofen.

 

[Harlequins]

Another good pointer is too measure ammonia/nitrite/nitrate & ph etc, straight from the tap to see if you have any readings for these.

My nitrate from the tap is 10ppm,so normally on my readings for the tank it shows 20ppm,so hence tank reading is actually 10ppm.

Different areas vary on water supply,so its best to know what yours start out at

Good luck with your cycle

 

[matt_99]

didn't think about that... Good idea. Thanks.

 

[stuuk1]

Hi Matt, im also new here and learning a hell of alot! Im currently 3/4 of my way through my fish-in cycle.

I know im an amateur but I was told that Mollies are very sensitive to water conditions, I had 4 mollies and 3 have died! I have one remaining which has had 4 fry recently.

I have a 48ltr tank which I have massively overstocked and have just ordered a 240ltr tank to ease my guilt!

I was also told that if you choose to do a fish-in cycle then use Neons as they are a hardy fish that can survive nuclear war... Ok perhaps not nuclear war but... you know.

Good luck!

 

[Assaye]

Hi Matt, im also new here and learning a hell of alot! Im currently 3/4 of my way through my fish-in cycle.

I know im an amateur but I was told that Mollies are very sensitive to water conditions, I had 4 mollies and 3 have died! I have one remaining which has had 4 fry recently.

I have a 48ltr tank which I have massively overstocked and have just ordered a 240ltr tank to ease my guilt!

I was also told that if you choose to do a fish-in cycle then use Neons as they are a hardy fish that can survive nuclear war... Ok perhaps not nuclear war but... you know.

Good luck!

Actually, these days neons tend to be very fragile. I hear that they used to be hardy, years (or perhaps even decades ago) but intensive farming and breeding has weakened the population significantly. I would certainly avoid them for a fish-in cycle and to be honest, would avoid them altogether until the tank in question has matured nicely and is about 6 months old.

Others may have had more luck with neons - I know some claim they are very hardy - but enough of us have found them to be fragile that I it's better to be safe than sorry.

Matt_99 - how's the cycle coming along?

I would definitely advise you to get hold of some liquid kits as soon as you can. If you look online and especially on Ebay you should be able to find reasonably priced kits by Nutrafin, API, Sera, Tetra or Salifert.

Also, once your tank is cycled (assuming you've done a successful fishless cycle to around 4-5ppm (aka mg/l) of ammonia), then you could add the danios and the mollys at the same time. This is because your filter has enough bacteria to cope with loads and loads of ammonia - more ammonia than that amount of fish will produce. If you add the danios then wait a couple of weeks, the extra bacteria will die off. This isn't a problem because when you add new fish, the bacteria will catch up very very quickly (as there are already some there to grow) but it does mean that if you add more than 2-3 mollys at that stage, you're risking the bacteria taking too long to catch up and thus the water getting bad. So the ideal choice would be to add the danios and mollys all at once, or to add the danios and then add the mollys in pairs over the course of the next few weeks.

Once you have the danios and mollys in and settled, you can add larger groups of fish but you never want to add more than are already in there. So if you have 6 fish, don't add more than 6 other fish with a similar size and bioload in one go. Having 6 danios doesn't mean you can add 6 mollys, as mollys are much bigger.

I hope that made sense? I'm tired and feeling a little ill, lol.

 

[matt_99]

that makes perfect sense... thanks.

I know many are going to flame me, but after reading so much conflicting and unproven advice, I've decided to do a fish in cycle. So far fish are well and happy and the ammonia reading i took (liquid ki) is between the 5ppm and 25ppm, definately closer to the lower shade of green.

I do appreciate peoples opinion on harm to fish and shortening life, but i won't know if I don't try.

And I'd much rather have a lower process but now that its matured to the fish stock level rather than get as much bacteria as possible by loading with ammonia. Seems a bit backwards.

I appreciate everyone will have an opinion on this, though unless its constructive I would kindly ask you to keep it to yourself for this thread, if you really feel the neeed, my contact details are on my profile page

The plan so far is to put in the better water filter today, as it has arrived, and also an airstone to cycle the water as much as possible around the tank.

Daily 25% water changes (with water treated with conditioner and to similar temperature).

Will be taking tests every night.

Also thinking of doing a custom LED light for the lid, just struggling to get the intensity at the moment.

Thanks all

Matt

 

[Assaye]

that makes perfect sense... thanks.

I know many are going to flame me, but after reading so much conflicting and unproven advice, I've decided to do a fish in cycle. So far fish are well and happy and the ammonia reading i took (liquid ki) is between the 5ppm and 25ppm, definately closer to the lower shade of green.

I do appreciate peoples opinion on harm to fish and shortening life, but i won't know if I don't try.

And I'd much rather have a lower process but now that its matured to the fish stock level rather than get as much bacteria as possible by loading with ammonia. Seems a bit backwards.

I appreciate everyone will have an opinion on this, though unless its constructive I would kindly ask you to keep it to yourself for this thread, if you really feel the neeed, my contact details are on my profile page

The plan so far is to put in the better water filter today, as it has arrived, and also an airstone to cycle the water as much as possible around the tank.

Daily 25% water changes (with water treated with conditioner and to similar temperature).

Will be taking tests every night.

Also thinking of doing a custom LED light for the lid, just struggling to get the intensity at the moment.

Thanks all

Matt

If it was 5-24ppm, your fish would be dead or dying. Do you mean 0.25-0.5ppm?

Even so - any ammonia is bad ammonia. 25% a day will not be enough. That would mean you still have 0.19-0.38ppm in the tank each day, which will only build up. If you have a detectable level, you need to do a big enough water change to bring it down to undetectable on the test. That might take some experimentation but you'll soon find how big a water change you need to do for a test an hour later to read zero (or as near as you can make out). Be prepared for back-to-back 80% water changes if need be. We did warn you about the workload.

If you pull this off, good on you. It can be fairly safe. However, 'giving it a go' isn't a very good reason. They are animal lives - do you really want to mess with the life and health of another living thing for the sake of trying it out? Anyway, if you have stock in the tank there isn't much you can do other than WATERCHANGES, lol.

It's also not backwards to build up the biofilter to a much higher level of ammonia than the fish will produce. Firstly, it doesn't take any longer. Secondly, it allows you to safely add the majority (if not all) of your stock in one go when the cycle is complete. Thirdly, it's a failsafe way of making sure that however many fish you add you won't overload the filter. Lastly, its easier to measure out and the larger the numbers, the easier to get fairly readings in the right order of magnitude.

Good luck. What fish do you have in there?

 

[matt_99]

there are 6 zebra danios in at the minute.

Yes levels is at 0.25 ppm

With the water changes what will be the effect of the temperature change etc... water from the warm tap should suffice as im using the water conditioner that neutralises heavy metals?

What about setting up a siphon through a small tube (so small constant flow) and pump the water back into the aquarium, changing the water in the seperate tank?

Should be able utilise the water pump ive just bought to pump the water back (its got a certain level of flow control).

Easier to change the water then and less stress to the fish but i suppose the problem will be matching the water 'in' and the water out.

 

[matt_99]

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsNttKIJVJ8

 

[Assaye]

there are 6 zebra danios in at the minute.

Yes levels is at 0.25 ppm

With the water changes what will be the effect of the temperature change etc... water from the warm tap should suffice as im using the water conditioner that neutralises heavy metals?

What about setting up a siphon through a small tube (so small constant flow) and pump the water back into the aquarium, changing the water in the seperate tank?

Should be able utilise the water pump ive just bought to pump the water back (its got a certain level of flow control).

Easier to change the water then and less stress to the fish but i suppose the problem will be matching the water 'in' and the water out.

The stress on the fish from water changes is far less than the stress caused by the ammonia. Warm water from the warm tap can be bad due to the metals in the pipes - even if you're using a good water conditioner it's probably better to use a little bit of water from the kettle. However, I just double dose the water conditioner and use the mixer tap on the shower so I can't talk =P

Not sure what you mean by using two tanks - I think I'm a bit too tired. Have a vague idea and it just sounds unnecessarily complicated. However, if it makes it easier for you and you can do water changes that are less stress on the fish, go for it.