Noob Fishless Cycling Question

[waterdrop]

Twinkle, I think one of the things most of us do is just use google images: Just now I put in "female dwarf gourami" to google images and the best male female set of comparison pictures was at some page on petfishtalk dot com. Note that with the more recent browsers you can "save a tab group" (for instance you could turn on tabbed browsing, open TFF in the main tab, then open google in the next tab, then save the "tab group" as a favorite or bookmark (depending on your browser) and then you'd have that other tool handy when you're working on TFF (you open your tab group as your way of bringing TFF into your browser.)

WD

 

[Twinklecaz]

Hi, yeah thanks. I did that just after I posted this lol.

I'm thinking about this now. I'm right in thinking though aren't I that you have to be careful? Eg a fish that says it's sunet honey gourami or somthing might actually be a mix of two others?

 

[waterdrop]

O yeah, I forget about that.. I'm an old hobbyist and often I just look at the tanks I see in stores now and say to myself "there's no such thing as a zebra with long fins.. what a silly thing for the breeders to do" or I just shake my head at ones where they've managed to get dye into them to give them fake colors (its also zebras they do that to also, isn't it?) Yes, you have to watch out.

 

[Twinklecaz]

I may change my mind again and just go for the Guppies, at least with that mix of fish I'm 99% gonna have a nice peaceful community. But then I think "Hmmm I do love the Gouramis and I'd rather have one nice centrepiece one than 3 Guppies I wasn't what bothered about anyway". Still, I've prob still got loads of time to think as I suspect I'm gonna have quite a slow cycle.

Does anything think the gourami would be a bad idea (taking my other stocking and the fact I'm new to it into account)?

 

[Channti]

What was the other stocking you'd worked out? I know you've changed your mind quite a bit.
If you post your plan here, we'll tell you what we think.

 

[Basics]

So I came to the conclusion that I have to use photo bucket for my pics to get on here. So heres a couple of pics of the filter to see if anyone knows what kind it is

 

[Basics]

Ok looks like its an Interpet filter duo IPF duo 2 . Says water turn over is 450l/h. Is that suitable for an 80 liter tank?

 

[Channti]

After a little research, according to this site:
http/www.aquatics-online.co.uk/catalogue/interpet-internal-power-filters.asp

I would say that this filter is suitable for the tank. Not necessarily my first choice on a filter, but to each their own. Filters are all a personal-choice thing for smaller tanks.


What kind of stocking are you thinking now for this tank? I know the stocking ideas change the more you think about the tank. (or at least they do for me.. I've been through six different stocking ideas for my next tank, and its still sitting empty 100km away from me right now. )

 

[waterdrop]

My answer would be about the same. In terms of flow rate it meets the 5x turnover we'd generally look for but of course that's only one aspect of a filter. The most important aspect of a filter in many ways is the media volume and that filter probably has a pretty small media volume. Another key design aspect is "fit" such that the water can't cheat and go around the media and not be filtered. Other factors are ability to accept media in a general rather than proprietary way, ease of dismantling and cleaning, quietness, longevity of the impeller and its motor... etc. Who knows? Clean it all up, put new media in it and it might just do ok.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Twinklecaz]

Oh wow that looks exactly like the filter I had when I was about 14 when I kept fish the first time. I think it's probably good when you bear in mind I knew nothing about cycling then and I never changed the water but it was clear and they lived for about 6 months. The filter must have been doing something right coz really they shouldn't have lived 6 weeks let alone months


My stocking is gonna be

4x Male Platty
5 x Harlequins
6 x Pygmy Corys

Then hopefully one Dwarf Gourmai or if not 3 Male Guppies.

[EDIT] Wow I just found a pic of one called a Flame Dwarf Gourami (also called Blushing, Red Fire Dwarf, Blood Red Dwarf and Red Neon Dwarf)....what a beautiful fish!

 

[Basics]

I havent had much time to think about stocking options as of late. Will do some more thinking over the weekend. Another thing I have to consider is getting the fish I actually want. I hear that ther are a few fish stores around. Havent been to any yet. Theres some local pet stores but I'm not sure what there selections is like. I wounder how ordering online is?

I'm thinking about trying to do a flow test of the filter to see what the actual flow is, and then calculating if its acurate. Lets say I use it and its not suitable. How will I know? Wil fish get sick/die? Should I just invest in a different filter? I dont have loads of money right now.

 

[Twinklecaz]

You'll know if it's no good, your water won't look properly clean and your Ammonia ect won't process properly. Maybe you should give it a go then if it's rubbish you can always get a new one. I had a Stingray come with my tank, it wasn't very good (and then broke anyway) so I got a Fluval U2 which seems much better (tho I'm still paranoid about it. A lot of people talk about the Aqua Ball too which is apparently good. I've ben advised that if there is one thing worth spending the money on in a tank then it's the filter. The Fluval only cost me about £20 I think.

 

[Channti]

Between my three tanks which are currently running, I'm running three (four if you count my spare) different filters. I'm running an Aqua-Tech 10-20 or something like that on my 15 gallon, an Elite Hush 20 on my 10 gallon (it's rated for a 20 gallon, but the tank has a very high bioload), an Elite Stingray 5 (for my bettas, with a little modification, it works perfectly), and an Aquaclear Mini (my spare filter, and by far my fav, just a little loud).

Filters all come down to personal preference. The AquaTech filter I have is pretty much junk; as soon as I have some cash, I'm buying a new filter for the tank. The Elite Hush 20 is my favourite filter, just because of what an amazing job it does on my guppy tank. The Stingray 5 required some modification on what media I put in it (stuffed with sponge instead of using their cartridges), but it works great for my betta tank and is completely silent (which was very important on this tank as it's on my desk and I'm minorly anal about noise when I'm studying). The Aquaclear range of filters are nice because you can customize exactly what media you want to put in them, and from the looks of things, my 46 gallon tank will be running an AquaClear 70. My aquaClear Mini is a spare because I was given the filter, it's older, and it rattles a little when the lid is on, which was just too much noice for me at my desk.

Twinklecaz; your stocking looks good. When you pick out a Dwarf Gourami, be really picky about health. Before buying one I would suggest that you check out the section on Gouramis here to know exactly what to avoid.

 

[Twinklecaz]

Ooooo ok thanks. yeah I seriously need to read up about fish health in general before I get any of them coz I don't really know what to look out for.

 

[Basics]

Well, I think my filter has been cycled. My no2 had finally dropped to 0 as well. I wanted to wait a few days to make sure this wasnt a one time thing. Its been abot 7 weeks thogh so i would have thought it would be done by now.

anyways, my mom thought she would suprize me with some fish today. She brought home 3 females and one male guppy. Thing is though, my tank has got a bit of algae and i don have any plants in it. I watned to go this weekend and get a third of my fish, and some plants and slowy add to it.

So right now I have 4 fish that I dont want to put in my tank since I dont feel that it is ready for them. I think the water is ok for them. My readings are nh3 1ppm , no2 0, no3 0 , ph 6.75 kh 0 or 1.

My test kit is a bit old too. I wanted to take some water to the lfs and get it tested to make sure my readings are accurate.

Well what I would like your opinions on are, what should i do with these fish? Can i put them in a bowl for a couple of days and get my tank ready? Should i throw them in the tank with no plants? What do I doooo??

Thanks for your time.