Newbie

[cutelittlefish]

Hello everyone,

Just found your forum today and have found it to be very interesting although I wish I had found it earlier. I bought my tank last Tuesday and I have added 2 lovely orange Platy to it yesterday as recommended by lfs, I had no idea there was such a thing as a fish cycle. I followed the instructions from my lfs and my 2 little fish seem happy but I would hate to think I have caused them any harm I will be going back to the lfs tomorrow morning and buying the test kits required. My tank is 48l, and I have added the water and filter chemicals. The temp is set at 24 on my heater and the filter and bubbles are flowing fine. My only problem is my tank is slightly cloudy Why is this?

 

[aly_starh]

WELCOME to the forum!
The cloudiness is probarly the substrate. What substrate have you got atm? It should clear up in around 2 days time.

EDIT- spelling mistake... i meant substrate as in the "floor" of the tank.

 

[glolite]

Agree with above. Just test for ammonia and nitrites daily and if even a trace of either shows do a 25% water change then test again. Keep water changing until readings are zero then continue to test daily. With just 2 fish you should be fine but don't buy any more for another 6 weeks by which time your filter should be building up a good bacteria base. Then just add 1 or 2 weekly and keep testing. You'll be fine now you know the basics.

Good luck and welcome to the forums.

 

[cutelittlefish]

WELCOME to the forum!
The cloudiness is probarly the substarte. What substrate have you got atm? It should clear up in around 2 days time.

I have used Interpet Filter Start, it says to use every 2 days for 2wks. I have added it twice so far. Is that what you mean?

Thanks

Agree with above. Just test for ammonia and nitrites daily and if even a trace of either shows do a 25% water change then test again. Keep water changing until readings are zero then continue to test daily. With just 2 fish you should be fine but don't buy any more for another 6 weeks by which time your filter should be building up a good bacteria base. Then just add 1 or 2 weekly and keep testing. You'll be fine now you know the basics.

Good luck and welcome to the forums.

Thank you .

 

[arobinson1984]

No, substrate is either the base that you used for the bottom of the tank, usually sand or gravel

Andy

 

[rami]

Generally it is a good idea to let a tank sit for about 48 hours to let all the cloudy stuff ( which is basically dirt kicked up from adding the gravel) settle before you add fish to the tank.

Just a word of warning, but the last tank I got, I lost 7 cycling fish before the tank finally finished it cycle, so don't be overly suprised if some of your fish die and you have to start over.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Little Fish.
As Andy said, the substrate is the sand or gravel that you probably put into the bottom of the tank.
The filter start is what we often consider useless ways to extract money from new fish keepers. The only thing not useless about most of them is that they are quite successful at removing money from customers' pockets.
Now that you have fish in your tank, you are in what we call a fish-in cycle. The basic problem statement is quite simple. The filter that you were sold, regardless of brand or style, is only really good at removing solids from the water. The unfortunate thing about that is that fish produce ammonia in their gills and in their urine. Ammonia is very toxic to fish in concentrations as low as 0.25 ppm (0.25 mg/l). There are bacteria that convert ammonia to nitrites called AOB, ammonia oxidizing bacteria, that can be encouraged to grow in your filter and will convert ammonia to nitrites. Unfortunately the nitrites are also toxic and can interfere with the fish's use of oxygen at levels as low as 0.25 ppm. There are again bacteria that can grow in your filter called NOB, nitrite oxidizing bacteria, that will convert nitrites to nitrates. Nitrates are much safer than nitrites or ammonia so we work to get those bacteria to work for us. The process of getting the AOB and NOB established is called cycling a filter. In a fish in cycle situation, the fish are producing ammonia constantly and we do water changes to protect the fish from the ammonia build up by keeping ammonia below 0.25 ppm at all times. When the ammonia start to be controlled by the AOB, we need to still do water changes because each 1 ppm of ammonia that gets converted becomes 2.7 ppm of nitrites. Once both chemicals are holding at 0 ppm by themselves we say that the tank is cycled. Really it is only capable of dealing with the number of fish you have in the tank at the time but at least we can drop back to a maintenance level of water changes instead of life saving water changes.
To monitor the cycling process, you will need a test kit that can test for ammonia and nitrites at least. Many of the people on the forum are familiar with the API freshwater master test kit that really includes any tests that you should need during a cycle. It is much cheaper to obtain on line than at most local fish shops. Your 2 platies in a 15 gallon tank should be fine for a day or two but will start showing signs of stress after about 2 days if you have not done a large water change by then. If you can get the needed test kit by then, we can help guide you through your fish in cycle. Between now and then, have a read of the fish-in cycle thread so that the terms we use will become familiar to you. There is a link to it in my signature area because we run into this kind of thing daily.

 

[cutelittlefish]

Welcome to the forum Little Fish.
As Andy said, the substrate is the sand or gravel that you probably put into the bottom of the tank.
The filter start is what we often consider useless ways to extract money from new fish keepers. The only thing not useless about most of them is that they are quite successful at removing money from customers' pockets.
Now that you have fish in your tank, you are in what we call a fish-in cycle. The basic problem statement is quite simple. The filter that you were sold, regardless of brand or style, is only really good at removing solids from the water. The unfortunate thing about that is that fish produce ammonia in their gills and in their urine. Ammonia is very toxic to fish in concentrations as low as 0.25 ppm (0.25 mg/l). There are bacteria that convert ammonia to nitrites called AOB, ammonia oxidizing bacteria, that can be encouraged to grow in your filter and will convert ammonia to nitrites. Unfortunately the nitrites are also toxic and can interfere with the fish's use of oxygen at levels as low as 0.25 ppm. There are again bacteria that can grow in your filter called NOB, nitrite oxidizing bacteria, that will convert nitrites to nitrates. Nitrates are much safer than nitrites or ammonia so we work to get those bacteria to work for us. The process of getting the AOB and NOB established is called cycling a filter. In a fish in cycle situation, the fish are producing ammonia constantly and we do water changes to protect the fish from the ammonia build up by keeping ammonia below 0.25 ppm at all times. When the ammonia start to be controlled by the AOB, we need to still do water changes because each 1 ppm of ammonia that gets converted becomes 2.7 ppm of nitrites. Once both chemicals are holding at 0 ppm by themselves we say that the tank is cycled. Really it is only capable of dealing with the number of fish you have in the tank at the time but at least we can drop back to a maintenance level of water changes instead of life saving water changes.
To monitor the cycling process, you will need a test kit that can test for ammonia and nitrites at least. Many of the people on the forum are familiar with the API freshwater master test kit that really includes any tests that you should need during a cycle. It is much cheaper to obtain on line than at most local fish shops. Your 2 platies in a 15 gallon tank should be fine for a day or two but will start showing signs of stress after about 2 days if you have not done a large water change by then. If you can get the needed test kit by then, we can help guide you through your fish in cycle. Between now and then, have a read of the fish-in cycle thread so that the terms we use will become familiar to you. There is a link to it in my signature area because we run into this kind of thing daily.

Thank you, your advice is very much appreciated.

No, substrate is either the base that you used for the bottom of the tank, usually sand or gravel

Andy

I used Black Gravel from the lfs