When And What Fish To Add To My Tank.

[stephbarnett28]

Hi

We have had our tropical tank for 2 weeks now and used a treatment to hurry the process, but still unsure when to add fish? Also because it's a new tank we would like to know which fish are best to add first?

We would like a colourful fish tank so the brighter the fish the better.

We have a 50 litter intergrated tank so how many fish would you recommend keeping?

thanks

Steph

 

[Inchworm]

Hi stephbarnett28

Welcome to the forum!

I'll move your thread to our New To The Hobby Section since I'm sure you'll get good information there.

If you've been testing the water, please post the results of the Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate tests.

 

[arobinson1984]

The treatment you used to hurry your tank cycle would have more than likely done nothing! About 99% of the treatments available to 'speed up the process' are basically an advertising con and dont really do anything so save your money.

Have a read here: Fishless cycle

As mentioned, you will need a good liquid based water test kit. The API freshwater master kit is highly recommended and priced around £20, you can normally pick them up abit cheaper on ebay.

Any other questions dont hesitate to ask.

Andy

 

[stephbarnett28]

The treatment you used to hurry your tank cycle would have more than likely done nothing! About 99% of the treatments available to 'speed up the process' are basically an advertising con and dont really do anything so save your money.

Have a read here: Fishless cycle

As mentioned, you will need a good liquid based water test kit. The API freshwater master kit is highly recommended and priced around £20, you can normally pick them up abit cheaper on ebay.

Any other questions dont hesitate to ask.

Andy

Hi Andy

We brought our tank which is a "interpet" intergrated tank and the new aquarium start up kit came with it. It includes the following in the kit:

Fresh start soloution
Filter start
Test kits Ph and nitrite

The Ph test results have been 7.5 and nitrite test hasn't been done yet not due for another few days.

It says we can add starter fish over the weekend but not sure what it ment by that. Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[meguro]

have a read http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=271928&hl=

then read the other link. it's worth the 5-30 minutes reading time

 

[Bobtastic]

I agree with the above. You need to have a read through the Beginners Resource section which is pinned at the top of this section (and is in my signature below). You also need to get yourself a good liquid based water test kit that covers the basic 4 Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate and pH (API and Nutrafin seem to be the most popular), the strips are too unreliable.

You probably haven't actually done very much to create the right environment for your fish. At the start of setting up an aquarium you actually want to breed bacteria in your filter to process the fish waste. The first lot of bacteria (A-bac) will eat the Ammonia, which is toxic to fish above 0.25 ppm, the the fish produce and turn it into NitrITE, this is also toxic to fish at 0.25 ppm. You then need to let the NitrITE eating bacteria (N-bac) grow, these guys will then process the NitrITEs into NitrATEs which are still poisonous to fish but at a much higher concentration. You get rid of the NitrATEs in the weekly water changes and maintenance.

The kinder way to "cycle" your tank is to do it without fish in it, a "Fishless Cycle". You replicate the fish waste by adding liquid ammonia into the tank and monitoring the readings until 4-5 ppm are processed through to NitrATEs within a 12hr period.

The other option is to add fish and do a "Fish-in Cycle". With this type of cycle you need to keep on top of the Ammonia and NitrITE reading to make sure then don't get about 0.25 ppm. This is done through regular water changes (remembering to condition the water). Sometime multiple water changes. This way you are potentially exposing your fish to gill danaging (Ammonia) and nervous system poisoning (NitrITEs) chemicals. I did mine this way, it was hard work but I quite enjoyed it.

Cricky! That was quite long... Welcome to TFF and I hope you have fun!

 

[Big O]

try platys there great test fish there hardy and come in lots of differnt colours

 

[Bobtastic]

I used Platies to cycle my tank. They are hard and very pretty.

 

[arobinson1984]

I don't agree with fish-in cycling to be honest. After finding this site I will only ever do fishless cycles in the future, but if you are adamant on cycling using fish then I'd recommend zebra danios as they are more hardy than platies.

Andy