Quick Question About A New Tank

[juggernuts]

I recently set up a 45ltr tank, with sand. It was over a week now and i have been testing all parameters and all are 0 and fine as i already have a 250ltr tank and am clear about them, ammonia, nitrites and trates are 0 so they are fine.

the one thing i am curios is about a film on top of the tank that looks like oil?

but i have tested the water several times with this film on the top and it has not changed but will this effect any fish i place in the tank?

thanks

Paul

 

[tenohfive]

How did you cycle the tank? It sound strange to have reading of 0 all along, most tank have some nitrates after cycling - in fact its a sign of a fishless cycle working.

The film is oils from food, nothing harmful - certain varieties produce it. Its nothing to worry about, if it bothers you you can skim it off the surface with a jug. Personally I just ignore it.

What occupants are there in the tank (if any) right now?

 

[juggernuts]

How did you cycle the tank? It sound strange to have reading of 0 all along, most tank have some nitrates after cycling - in fact its a sign of a fishless cycle working.

The film is oils from food, nothing harmful - certain varieties produce it. Its nothing to worry about, if it bothers you you can skim it off the surface with a jug. Personally I just ignore it.

What occupants are there in the tank (if any) right now?

well i had a small stingray filter from a previous tank and this went in, aswell as placing in a live plant from my larger tank with a small amount of that water.
And i said they were 0 they were all as close as possible to what i could tell from the readings.

the only things in the tank at the moment is one live plant, i had place 2 flakes of food in the water along with stress zyme and coat earlier on when first setting it up.

In my opinion i feel that i could place fish in there now as temperature and readings are fine, i would just like to know if there is anything i maybe missing?

thanks again

 

[Honeythorn]

Has the stingray filter from the previous tank, been running in that tank right up until you put it into the 45ltr? How long had it been in the old tank? If less than a month, then the flter media is not cycled. If more, then you should be fine.

If however, the filter has just been sitting in a box, or running in a tank with no fish for more than a couple of weeks, then it's not going to be cycled, and putting fish into the 45ltr now, would mean you were doing a fish-in cycle. Which is stressful and harmful to the fish.

The plant will not cycle the tank, and neither will adding a bit of used tank water. Your main stock of bacteria live in your filter sponges/media, not in gravel or water. If the stingray is uncycled like I described above, then you can just take some used/dirty filter media out of the filter running your main tank, and stick it in the stingray, enough to fill it with used media.

That process is known as cloning, and will give you an instantly cycled filter and allow you to add a fish at once ( but in 45 litres you can only really have something like a betta or some ember tetras or galaxy rasboros or shrimp , though I trust you know that already)