Newbie!

[Moonkestrel]

Hi All

Good to meet you.

Not only am I new to the forum but am also new to the world of tropical fish...have got a juwel 120 tank and after literally months of planning and gathering the right equipment etc and reading as much as I could, I finally set up my tank last night. A friend of mine has a mature aquarium so she gave me some of her water to start the bacteria off.

Have opted for a fishless cycle so did the first set of tests this morning using the API master test kit - results were as follows:

pH - 7.6
Ammonia - 0.5ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - 5.0ppm

Fed the bacteria with a few flakes of food this morning as well.

Am prepared for at least couple of weeks of this process but at the same time I have to admit that I am really looking forward to putting fish in there! My eventual plan is black skirt tetras, lake kutubu rainbow fish and neon blue dwarf gouramis but this may change as find I am developing rather a soft spot for penguin tetras.....watch this space!!!

So, I apologise in advance for any daft questions I may ask and look foward to chatting with you all soon.

Moonkestrel. xxxx

 

[dh058977]

Firstly welcome! Sorry to say unless your friend gave you some media to go with that water then it wont be of much help. You should also consider using bottled Ammonia rather than fish food as using fish food is too hard to accuratly measure.

 

[phishyphil]

Fish water is pretty much useless to be honest with you. You will need Mature Filter Media (sponges, bio balls, rings etc). Please read the following focussingo n cycling to begin the process imediately.

Beginners Advice to Tropcial Fish Keeping

 

[colleen0309]

good afternoon and welcome to the forum! As was stated above, old aquarium water won't do you much good. the beneficial bacteria live in your filter. Have your friend give you a piece of her sponge or other filter media (bio balls, ceramic rings, ect..) and put it in your filter. Get some bottled, pure ammonia (make sure the ingredient lists just water and ammonia) and dose the tank. follow the instructions in the beginner's resource section on fishless cycling and you will be cycled in no time! Good luck and enjoy!