Heres my story and progress from start to present for any body whos intersted.
Well late last year (2010) i decided to put a 60L tank to use that i had laying around.
It use to be the home for a Goliath Bird Eating Tarantula that i owned which unfortunately died from old age.
Anyway iv always wanted to keep fish so i set out to my local LFS with £100 in my back pocket to buy a filter and a heater also hoping they could provide my with enough information to look after them. After all how hard could it be?
I ended up buying a Fluval U2 filter and a 100W interpet heater.
I also bought 5 fancy guppies.
The LFS clerk said he wouldnt sell me the fish unless i bought a Tetra Nitrite test kit.
He said i had to leave the fish in the tank for a week and if my Nitrite test kit tested at 0, i could get another 5 fish the following weekend. So i smiled and agreed and bought the fish and test kit.
A week later and water seemed to be perfect, so i went back and bought 2 Angelfish and a Dwarf Gourami.
The week after that my water was still perfect, or so i thought, so went out and got 5 Platys.
Then of course my fish started dying one by one.
I couldnt work out why so i turned to the internet and discovered the nitrogen cycle.
I discovered i also had ammonia to worry about as well nitrites so i rushed out and bought an API master test kit.
Determined to cycle my filter and make my water safe for fish keeping, i research long and hard and found this on the internet.
Fishless cycling??!!!
So thats what i did, a fishless cycle.
And of course it was that thread how i found this forum.
The first person i ever got talking to was SKINS.
I dont know if you know him but hes a top bloke and he stayed with me all the way through my cycle answering all my questions, and i had alot lol.
My cycle ended up taking about 7 weeks!! It turned out my PH was too low for the cycle process so adding bicarb seemed to solve the problem and the tank cycled.
Anyway once i was cycled and after talking to people on here and seeing there tanks, i decided i wanted a much bigger tank
That 60L never did get stocked again.
Well late last year (2010) i decided to put a 60L tank to use that i had laying around.
It use to be the home for a Goliath Bird Eating Tarantula that i owned which unfortunately died from old age.
Anyway iv always wanted to keep fish so i set out to my local LFS with £100 in my back pocket to buy a filter and a heater also hoping they could provide my with enough information to look after them. After all how hard could it be?
I ended up buying a Fluval U2 filter and a 100W interpet heater.
I also bought 5 fancy guppies.
The LFS clerk said he wouldnt sell me the fish unless i bought a Tetra Nitrite test kit.
He said i had to leave the fish in the tank for a week and if my Nitrite test kit tested at 0, i could get another 5 fish the following weekend. So i smiled and agreed and bought the fish and test kit.
A week later and water seemed to be perfect, so i went back and bought 2 Angelfish and a Dwarf Gourami.
The week after that my water was still perfect, or so i thought, so went out and got 5 Platys.
Then of course my fish started dying one by one.
I couldnt work out why so i turned to the internet and discovered the nitrogen cycle.
I discovered i also had ammonia to worry about as well nitrites so i rushed out and bought an API master test kit.
Determined to cycle my filter and make my water safe for fish keeping, i research long and hard and found this on the internet.
Fishless cycling??!!!
So thats what i did, a fishless cycle.
And of course it was that thread how i found this forum.
The first person i ever got talking to was SKINS.
I dont know if you know him but hes a top bloke and he stayed with me all the way through my cycle answering all my questions, and i had alot lol.
My cycle ended up taking about 7 weeks!! It turned out my PH was too low for the cycle process so adding bicarb seemed to solve the problem and the tank cycled.
Anyway once i was cycled and after talking to people on here and seeing there tanks, i decided i wanted a much bigger tank
That 60L never did get stocked again.
