Starting Afresh

[Decus]

After making a complete failure with keeping fancy goldfish I'm now turning towards keeping tropicals.

My tank's not very big, about 45 litres / 10 US gallons

I have had no fish in it for one week now.

The filter and air pump are still going and the water temperature is 26C / 79F (is this the correct temperature?)

Since the tank previously housed goldfish, should I still worry about cycling the tank (I've been occasionally dropping in fish flakes to feed the bacteria) and do I need to buy a Nitrate testing kit (I already have Ammonia and Nitrite test kets)

I recently read a similar post in this forum where amonnia was suggested to be added to the tank. I'm really dubious about adding chemicals (other than conditioner) to the tank because I think this was one of the reasons why my last fishes died. Can I get away with just adding hardy fish / very cheap fish to the tank?

The other question is that my pH measures 8.4. Is this still OK for keeping tropicals.

Thanks Decus

 

[tstenback]

Yes you should definitely get a nitrate test kit. Once the tank is cycled which yours may be the nitrate test kit is a basic indicator of the water conditions in relation to the number of fish and if you are overfeeding. It tells you when you should do water changes and how often. The PH is a bit high at 8.4. What is the ph of your tap water? If it is much lower then something in the tank is causing the PH to rise and that should be looked into before adding fish. The food may have kept your bacteria colony alive as it has to decompose first before providing the ammonia the bacteria requires. You will need to test all the levels before adding fish and if ammonia is 0 and nitrite are 0 and nitrate is positive then it should be OK to add a few small fish. But watch the levels for a couple of weeks before adding any more fish. Danios and platies are pretty hardy. keep us posted

 

[Decus]

Thanks tstenback

The pH of the tap water is about 7.5. I have plastic plants, gravel and one very small ornament about 2cm x 2cm x 3cm high made of clay

I've added some pH downer - since I assumed that I can the risk being that there are no fish in the tank yet. The pH now reads 7.0

Will buy a nitrate test when I next go to the LFS but may also buy some Danios just to kick things in a bit more.

Decus

 

[tstenback]

Check the clay pot as it may be the culprit here. Take it out of the tank and let it dry out then put a few drops of vinegar on it. If it fizzes then it is probably releasing chemicals into the water that will increase the hardness which in turn will bring up the PH. If yoou are going to the LFS then also see if you can get some gravel or filter material from an established tank this will speed up the process a lot.

 

[wetwetwet]

Agree the flake should have kept the bacteria going...

What type of gravel - it could be this affecting the pH - Never heard too many good stories of people using pH adjusters in the long run...



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[Sky042]

Theres no fear in adding the ammonia to the tank it's not the same as adding any other chemical since it's esentially the same as fish waste which is ammonia. I'm doing the fishless cycle right now and the thought of being able to fully stock the tank after I'm done is much more appealing then adding 1 fish doing weeks of water changes hoping that I can add another in 2 months. Also if your PH is that high from standing I'm thinking your bacteria bed may not be very active.