Tank Cycling Advice For Newbies

[scottjames1uk]

Although i am a newbie i just want to share my experience to others so they may not have the same issues.
When i bought my tank i ran it for a few days then put 6 platy fish into it. Let it run for about a week then kept testing with the API Strips which i was advised by a shop that they were good. As these were £9 and the liquid test was £30 then i opted for that. First mistake. Just spend a little more money for the liquid test as i personally found the strips inaccurate. The strips told me that my water was ok after 2 weeks so i steadily added more fish. After 4 weeks i took a sample to my local shop and was shocked that my ammonia was so high. I hadnt lost any fish though so that was good. They advised me to buy some bacteria in a bottle to which i did. I was doing regular water changes and sometimes twice a day. Eventually the ammonia dropped and the nitrate went up. Still kept on with water changes and now it is fine. Basically its been a really long process doing a fish cycle and if i had known then and found this forum earlier i would have gone fishless. Fortunalely i only lost one fish in all this so the hard work and regualar testing paid off.
I would definately do a fishless cycle next time.

This forum is great by the way and the advice from some members is very welcoming.

Thanks

Scott

 

[Gvilleguy]

I am glad you found this forum! I was lucky and stumbled upon it prior to getting my tank running last year. I think back to when I had a 10 gallon community tank as a kid, and my family knew nothing of cycling or regular water changes. And we would have fish die fairly often, but I had fun going to the store to pick out new ones. Fun, but ignorant!

Watch out - fish keeping can be addicting. I am now on my second tank...