Still New And Need Help

[danep267]

Ok since i joined this site i have seen alot about "cycling" and still dont know anything about it if someone could explain why do you have to "cycle" your tank? I also am wondering about adding more water am I just suppose to add tap because when i got my tank it came with Aquasafe water conditioner and i just use that stuff

 

[KittyKat]

Read the first three articles in the beginner's resource centre, which is pinned at the top of the "Your new freshwater tank" forum.

I also am wondering about adding more water am I just suppose to add tap because when i got my tank it came with Aquasafe water conditioner and i just use that stuff

You need to always use dechlorinator to remove the chlorine and chloramine from the tap water. Both can kill the good bacteria in the filter and harm your fish. AquaSafe is a one type of dechlorinator.

 

[JoshuaA]

Along with the advice Kitty Kat gave I would recommend you use an alternative water conditioner. I have used Nutrafin Aquasafe in the past myself and found it very counter productive, the products design flaw is that it doesn't neutralise ammonia but in neutralising Chloramines(sp?) it produces ammonia as a by product of that neutralisation but does not then detoxify the ammonia it produces to make it safe for fish. I found myself frantically doing water changes when I was new to fish keeping as my Ammonia level was through the roof and the more water changes I did the higher the Ammonia readings were going. In fact it got to the point I could do nearly 100% water change and "neutralise" the chlorine and chloramine and then perform a water test to find Ammonia at 2ppm!

I would recommend something like Seachem Prime or Tetra Aquasafe, both are great for either Fish less or Fish in cycles, the first being the preferred method for myself.

 

[Gvilleguy]

Links are also in my signature to give some helpful hints about fishless cycling.