Agree with Corleone.
How young is your son? By about age 11 or 12 you can get them interested in the science of the Nitrogen Cycle and get them involved in the chemistry-like testing of the water - well, even at younger ages you can get them involved in that.
~~waterdrop~~
answer: "cheers people, sons too young to learn the science hes only 3, however he will learn to respect animals this way - gotta start somewhere.. what should the water temp be set at for the smaller types of fish that would go in my tank? in degrees celcius please <...>"
Hi Jasonpetts,
Well, sorry to hear he's only 3 (not that we can help that!) But on the surface this makes it much harder for the parent to feel he can withstand the wait and patience involved in cycling the tank. What then happens is that once the parent realizes we are recommending that the tank not even have fish for the next one or two months (!) then they immediately decide this is impossible and they choose the alternative, which is called a Fish-In cycle (often the fish-in cycle idea is reinforced by the LFS.)
What happens next is the parent buys a few fish and is delighted that they seem fine in the new tank. But then after a few days they begin to observe some strange behaviour. The fishes fins clamp up and they don't swim about happily or some other strange symptoms appear and the parent is back on the forum wondering what could be wrong. Even worse, often the fish simply die unexpectedly. The LFS reaction is interesting. Sometimes they express concern and offer new bottles of remedies, but then look upbeat and direct you to the tanks to buy more fish!
The *problem* is that the whole hobby of tropical fishkeeping is much, much slower paced than our modern society and its hard to make yourself slow down and do the right thing. The respiration of fish doesn't give off CO2 like humans, it gives off Ammonia (!), the fish waste, the excess food and any plant debris also get broken down into Ammonia. Ammonia, in even small amounts, causes permanent gill damage and even death. In a tank, Ammonia can be transformed into another substance, nitrite(NO2), but this too is deadly for fish as it attaches to fish hemoglobin molecules in the blood and displaces oxygen, thus causing suffocation, permanent nerve damage and eventual death. It doesn't work to deal with these problems with bottled chemicals.
What the LFS is loath to tell you is that the expensive filter you just bought, with assembly instructions and all, is really just a "hardware kit" (like a computer with no software!) and it must be set up and "nourished" by an aquarist with knowledge and skill and weeks and weeks of time. It sounds very arcane, but we aquarists actually set out to *grow 2 specific species of bacteria* in our filters. These 2 species must "win out" over several other species by being provided just the right environment to promote their growth. Once they've grown up, these bacteria form an amazing "biofilter" which will powerfully and rapidly and continuously clear your tank water of the deadly Ammonia and Nitrite(NO2) toxins!
The *solution* is to accept this tough truth and let yourself be guided by the wonderful TFF members here, who collectively have many years of experience helping beginners get their new aquariums up and going in as healthy and fast a manner as is technically possible, in my opinion. In my own case I even found it to be great fun and have tried to help others like I was helped. In my own case, I even found a strange thing, that my son, despite fussing sometimes about the wait, actually did become involved in wanting the fish to have good water and wondering how the bacteria were doing (what would the test colors be today??) And in the end was very proud that the fish were happy. A lesson was learned I think.
The *reason* a parent should make the fishless cycling choice is that there is only one thing worse than a disappointed child who wonders why he can't have fish for many weeks... and that is trying to explain to that same child why his favorite new pet just died. In a hobby like this there will always be some risk of that, but learning how to get your water right is the best insurance against this sad problem.
OK, sorry for all the words... I just have experienced it some with my own son and thus felt I'd be a good person to try commnunicating it. If you don't choose fishless cycling its not the end of the world, but I know I speak for many when I say that we are just trying to save you tons of water changes and make your fish even happier.
~~waterdrop~~
/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=113861
