what do you mean? that what they told me to do in the LFS were i bought it
Hi Bryan,
Unfortunately bad advice from an LFS is quite common as most of them live in the dark ages of fishkeeping. Leaving your tank to stand without adding anything to it is a common recommendation, mainly said to let the tank 'settle'. In reality it actually achieves nothing at all.
What does need to be done is cycling the filter. If you are unfamiliar with the term 'cycling', it is the process of building up a bacteria colony in your filter which transforms fish waste products which can be lethal in very small doses, into less harmful substances. It is an essential part of fishkeeping and every tank goes through the process, but for it to start requires these waste products to be in the tank in the first place. Hence, why leaving the tank to 'settle' really does nothing.
Your LFS will probably recommend that you add a few 'hardy' fish to start the process. The problem with this is that the by-product of fish waste (ammonia) is lethal to fish, and using fish for this purpose is detrimental to their health to say the least, and at worst and all too commonly, lethal for the fish.
I recommend that you undertake what is known as a 'Fishless Cycle'. This is done by buying a bottle of ammonia from your local hardware store and using this as a substitute for adding fish to create ammonia. That way, you won't kill any fish.
You can read more about fishless cycling in the link in my signature below.
For you to understand what 'cycling' does, you will need to understand the natural process called the 'Nitrogen Cycle'. This is what happens in your filter. Basically, your fish produce ammonia (which is lethal to fish in even very small doses) which the bacteria in your filter converts to nitrite (which is also lethal to fish but not so much as ammonia, a step in the right direction if you will). The bacteria in your filter then convert the lethal nitrite into relatively harmless nitrate, which is removed routinely by doing partial water changes. You can understand that without a filter bacteria colony, your fish may meet a nasty end as the 'Nitrogen Cycle' is a crucial lifeline for your fish.
If you perform a 'Fishless Cycle', your bacteria colony will already be established when you put your first fish into the tank and hence, no ammonia or nitrite poisoning is suffered by the fish, and you don't suffer any deaths and get disheartened and give up.
I hope this helps you somewhat, and if you are unsure about anything, just ask. Someone on here will always be willing to offer advice.
Cheers
BTT
