Tank On Probation What Next?

[Sweeden]

Right well i cleaned out my tank last night.

rinsed out the filter sponges in the aquarium water. then cleaned everything throughly with a clean toothbrush so no algae from the goldfish was present. I then removed all water and refilled with just normal tap water.

It is currently set up with the filter on maximum power and the air pump on maximum too and nothing but the stones in the base. what do i do next???

I'm looking at keeping tetras so what liquids/additives should i buy and add? and how long before i can start to place plants in and also the fish themselves?? I Dont mind waiting.

 

[Sweeden]

anyone got any ideas???

 

[stubert]

Well without fish your filter wont be cycled, how big is your tank? Will have to add fish slowly to avoid any ammonia build ups, as for plants i only had success with plants in an established tank, well most plants anyway some grew like crazy but i think those plants would grow in any conditions. Did you use water conditioner? Prob best to let the tank sit for a couple of days anyway even if you did, let the water get to the right temp then add some fish, amount of fish you can add to start cycling your filter will depend on the size of your tank. You could do a fishless cycle with bottled ammonia i personally haven't done this as im too eager to have some fishes also if you havent got testing kits (nitrite and ammonia most importantly) then would prob be a good idea to get some and test your water on the regs for the first couple of months while your cycling/stocking.

hope this helped

 

[justjon]

The best thing you can do for the fish you want to keep (especially tetra's as they arent that hardy). is to start fresh as you've done and leave it as a fishless cycle, you can buy bottles of pure ammonia to do this, and then just monitor your levels (Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates being the main ones).

Once they have all stabled out, which could take a while - then start adding fish slowly.

Personally i'd never do a "fish-in" cycle, I think it's unnecessary and can be fatal to fish if you're not able to monitor it as closely.

You may find you can however start adding fish if your levels are OK, due to the fact there should be some bacteria build up on your media as you cleaned them with your water from the tank

Not sure what others think, though

Have you treated all the water you added with a dechlorinate?

 

[Sweeden]

Right well i've just gone to local shop for CPI/API solutions....
Stress Coat
Stress Zyme
Ammo Lock
Selection of 5 plants
Some moss to tie to my bog wood.

From which i have just added 10ml of S.Coat and Ammo Lock. tomorrow i shall add the stress zyme and add the plants.

 

[Wills]

Hi I wouldnt add the Ammo Lock all it will do is starve the bacteria in your filter. Also the Stress Zyme stuff is useless and the Stress Coat is only needed at water changes.

Best thing you can do is grab your self an API master test kit with ammonia and a bottle of house hold ammonia and add in the correct amount of ammonia (you can use the calculator section on this site in the link at the top of the website) then 12 hours later test your water for ammonia and nitrite - if it is 0 do a large water change the next day if its not 0 top it back up to what you need it to be (around 5ppm) to feed the filter and then repeat until the filter can process 5ppm of ammonia to nitrite and then to 0 nitrite in 12 hours and your ready for fish.

Ammonia is the chemcial created by fish poo (well all decaying organic material but its the poo we are talking about here) And its the ammonia that we use the filter to get rid of which is eaten up by tiny bacteria that live in your filter. Ammonia and Nitrite are the biggest killers of fish in the hobby but they are the most unavoidable thing in the hobby if you have fish. And its the filter that takes care of it.

So yeah get the test kit and do the method I mentioned above and it will bring your filter to full bacterial capacity that you need for fish and scrap the ammo lock and stress zyme as they will cause a lot more problems than help.

Well the ammo lock will the stress zyme is just highly unreliable. This is because it claims to be bacteria in a bottle however, the bacteria will be long dead before it reaches the shop. The bacteria in your tank needs a source of oxygen and a source of ammonia to stay alive other wise it dies off so if you think about how long it takes for these products to get from the factory to the store and then the fact that often some of these products are dusty the bacteria is dead in the bottle. The other option these companies have is to refrigerate them but how often do you see that in practice? And then again it needs to stay chilled from the factory, then in the lorry and then in the store so even the chilled stuff which keeps the bacteria dormant is never 100% reliable.

Ooo one more thing have a read around the beginners resource section in the my new tank section it will go over what I have talked about in a lot more detail

Hope I have helped

Wills