Setting Up A New Tank, Advice Etc Appreciated

[kris1978]

what was the temp when you put the water in the tank?
does it feel the same as your biorb tank?
get it so it feels the same as your biorb, as long as heater light still isnt on then it should be ok.
how does the water look now?

kris

 

[justjon]

The waters looking better, little bit cloudy but not that bad... nothing that wont settle i think.

The heater works but is not on so it must be at a temp thats set.. and when i put my hand in, it just feels warm.. not too warm... comparing the two... their doesnt appear to be any difference. Maybe i'd be better to bite the bullet and buy an electric temp reader tommorow, local shop down the road sells them for £15ish..

The temp said the same about 5 mins after i'd put the water in, i had mixed boiling water in to speed the heating process up.

Shall I go ahead and move the fish, then put the sponge from old filter in as planned now?

Sorry, just felt it again to be sure - the biorb is definately colder water.

 

[kris1978]

try turning heater down a little, add some cold treated water to get the temp right, then add the old filter, once you got the temp to where you want it, turn heater gage untill the light goes off, then turn it slightly and see if it comes on, if so turn it back again and then it will be set to the temp you want, as soon as the temp of the water drops it should click back on and then off once it gets to the temp it was set at.
once you done all that add the fish.
good luck

kris

 

[justjon]

Allright, i've switched the heater off to cool it down, i'll give it 30 mins or so and check it then, if it doesn't cool too quick i'll put some treated cold water in there.

I need to move the fish first then change the filter as the biorb will fill with a ton of muck when i remove the filter. heh

 

[kris1978]

i dont know much about the biorbs but if you was to take half the water out would it still get mucky?

 

[justjon]

Yup, Biorbs have a tube in the centre, where the oxygen pumps out the top of, under that tube is the filter sponge/gravel system, but the only way to replace/remove it is to pull the whole lid of the sponge filter off... resulting in a big mess, this is also one of the reasons i've upgraded to a proper fish tank, as the cleaning system on the Biorbs is really flawed, and I didn't like my fish swimming in their own "stuff" for hours everytime I changed it..

 

[Essjay37 152]

Some heaters aren't calibrated properly, the dial on it says one temp, but it heats to another. My Juwel heater didn't even have a dial on it, I had to find out where to set it by trial and error. As kris says, adjust it to what you want with cold water, then turn the heater up till the light comes on then turn it back very slowly till it goes off again - that should be the setting for that temp.

 

[justjon]

Mad that such a sensitive object in an aquarium can leave the factory when it's not calibrated properly!

The temps already dropped to 30 - so i'll wait till it hits 24-26 area (it's marked green on this thermometer) and then turn the heater on and fiddle with it as you suggested

 

[kris1978]

that sucks, what a rubbish design, just try get the temp right, then add your filter along with the fish, did you add half the water from the biorb?
that will get all the good bacteria working, you could even wash the new filter sponges in the old water from your biorb to help the cycle process.
did you turn your heater down, or did you just mix the water to warm, did you check to see if heater light was still on, if so you need to turn it down, you could put your new temp reader in the biorb see what that reads then set new tank too the same temp?

kris


i have a heater here and it doesnt even have any temp gage on it to set too anything, just have to guess lol

 

[justjon]

I'm just adding a new bucket of cold treated water now to reduce it more, i've not added any water from the biorb yet, but I will before transferring fish (literally same time) - the biorb temp is reading 26 so if i target that, the fish shouldnt have a shock dipping into the new tank.

 

[kris1978]

you need to get some good bacteria in the water for it to cycle, so add some water from biorb to help the process, then top up biorb with treated water, wash new filter sponges with water from biorb aswell otherwise you could end up with high ammonia levels which could harm your fish, get all the good bacteria going in new tank.

kris

 

[Miss Wiggle]

you need to get some good bacteria in the water for it to cycle, so add some water from biorb to help the process, then top up biorb with treated water, wash new filter sponges with water from biorb aswell otherwise you could end up with high ammonia levels which could harm your fish, get all the good bacteria going in new tank.

kris

the bacteria don't live free swimming in the water, they all live in the filter media, the bi-orb media is the substrate, take some of this and put it into the new filter

 

[justjon]

I've added 1/4 of the old biorb tanks water to the new tank just now, which has filled it up.. and good news is that temp is dropping, so i'll drain a bucket worth of water from new tank and replace with another of cold treated water.. then should be ready to put new fish in straight away.

 

[kris1978]

you need to get some good bacteria in the water for it to cycle, so add some water from biorb to help the process, then top up biorb with treated water, wash new filter sponges with water from biorb aswell otherwise you could end up with high ammonia levels which could harm your fish, get all the good bacteria going in new tank.

kris

the bacteria don't live free swimming in the water, they all live in the filter media, the bi-orb media is the substrate, take some of this and put it into the new filter

well when setting up a new tank all cycled water helps along with adding the old filter sponge to get it cycled, the more you can get from the old tank the quicker it will cycle

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i'm sorry but that's simply not true. there's nothing in the water except for extra nitrates, you're better off using totally new dechlorinated water and transferring the media across.

if you want me to i can dig out several posts discussing this..........