That's not how it works...

My ancient, hand me down hospital tank sprung a leak. Had to got to a Big box LFS to get a replacement asap. Well...found a reasonable 45g on sale. I was keeping track of my 3 minions (all of whom wanted desperately to look at all the animals in the store)so I missed this gem....this was on the back of the image plastered on the aquarium I bought. Setting up for failure right out the gate, to merely line corporate pockets, is pretty crappy. Crappy for the person new to hobby, really crappy for the fish.

SomethingsFishy24 said:

My ancient, hand me down hospital tank sprung a leak. Had to got to a Big box LFS to get a replacement asap. Well...found a reasonable 45g on sale. I was keeping track of my 3 minions (all of whom wanted desperately to look at all the animals in the store)so I missed this gem....this was on the back of the image plastered on the aquarium I bought. Setting up for failure right out the gate, to merely line corporate pockets, is pretty crappy. Crappy for the person new to hobby, really crappy for the fish.

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Oops I did it wrong.... I added fish two months after buying a tank... That can't be good ... At least they said to add that tetra safe start cause that stuff does work... But its not a miracle liquid

Rocky998 said:

Oops I did it wrong.... I added fish two months after buying a tank... That can't be good ... At least they said to add that tetra safe start cause that stuff does work... But its not a miracle liquid

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Not dissing safe start, it is great if you have an "oops, I accidentally broke my cycle."

My tanks usually take 2-3 months to cycle when brand new. Even "seeded" aquariums take a few weeks to stabilize.

You should see the directions for a sponge bob aquarium I saw at walmart... Oof, they were real bad

SomethingsFishy24 said:

Not dissing safe start, it is great if you have an "oops, I accidentally broke my cycle."

My tanks usually take 2-3 months to cycle when brand new. Even "seeded" aquariums take a few weeks to stabilize.

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Rocky998 said:

You should see the directions for a sponge bob aquarium I saw at walmart... Oof, they were real bad

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I can only imagine Sponge bob needs to stick to flippin' crabby patties.

It is a hobby MYTH that you need 6-8 weeks to 'CYCLE' an aquarium, but this gets parroted about all the time.

ALL you need is enough beneficial bacteria (or PLANTS) to process ammonia and nitrite into nitrates. I've repeatedly started new tanks by 'cleaning' a sponge from an established, healthy tank in the 'new' water and added fish immediately (bacteria in a bottle can work too!). My friend Byron has had success by just using plants as plants, especially fast growing floating plants, will use ammonia as their nitrogen source. The key is to only add a few fish at a time so as not to overpower the ammonia neutralizing source be it plants or beneficial bacteria.

Now having gone on above, I will say that their mention that fish must be added two hours after setting up the tank is pretty bad...however, if/when you add beneficial bacteria, they will need food to survive so if you were to setup a tank, add a product, and wait days or weeks, it would likely fail.
See:
Cycling a New Aquarium
Does Bottled Bacteria Really Work
Deep Dive into Filtration and Water Quality

AbbeysDad said:

It is a hobby MYTH that you need 6-8 weeks to 'CYCLE' an aquarium, but this gets parroted about all the time.

ALL you need is enough beneficial bacteria (or PLANTS) to process ammonia and nitrite into nitrates. I've repeatedly started new tanks by 'cleaning' a sponge from an established, healthy tank in the 'new' water and added fish immediately (bacteria in a bottle can work too!). My friend Byron has had success by just using plants as plants, especially fast growing floating plants, will use ammonia as their nitrogen source. The key is to only add a few fish at a time so as not to overpower the ammonia neutralizing source be it plants or beneficial bacteria.

Now having gone on above, I will say that their mention that fish must be added two hours after setting up the tank is pretty bad...however, if/when you add beneficial bacteria, they will need food to survive so if you were to setup a tank, add a product, and wait days or weeks, it would likely fail.
See:
Cycling a New Aquarium
Does Bottled Bacteria Really Work
Deep Dive into Filtration and Water Quality

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Yes, but you are way more experienced then some person randomly buying a tank and just following the directions on the back... Their fish are destined to die unless their fish are built like tanks lol

Rocky998 said:

Yes, but you are way more experienced then some person randomly buying a tank and just following the directions on the back... Their fish are destined to die unless their fish are built like tanks lol

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You might think so....but I remember a time in the dark ages of the hobby when little or nothing was known or communicated about the nitrogen cycle...and yet the hobby (and fish) survived. ~

AbbeysDad said:

You might think so....but I remember a time in the dark ages of the hobby when little or nothing was known or communicated about the nitrogen cycle...and yet the hobby (and fish) survived. ~

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Tank fish... They were B.L.A.Ts back then (Built Like A Tank) LOL

That's the way it was back in the day. I'd vacuum the gravel/water change. Break down the filter, replace all the media, scrub the housing, put it all together with brand new media, fresh water and thought I was giving my fish the best environment possible.

That's why a forum like this offers such an important service to our hobby.

As a returning hobbyist, it's clear that most stores, be it small shops or chains; care about the sales first and the well being of the fish, a distant second. The manufacturers do their part by putting such moronic "instructions" on their wares. Ideally, anyone who goes to buy a tank or asks about fish would be given a basic 2 min talk about the cycle and how to put together a tank and get it ready for fish, but we know that would cause at least 50% of people to not buy anything at that point since most purchases, specially by new hobbyists; is made on impulse and what "looks pretty" at the store.

To adopt or buy a dog or cat where I live you almost have to go thru a background check, that's how intensive the process and requirements can be. That's as extreme as just selling fish to someone who thinks thay a plecco will be fine in a 10g tank because that's how it looks in the store. I myself thought so at some point, so having some real education and pointers from the industry people would be nice.

AbbeysDad said:

ALL you need is enough beneficial bacteria (or PLANTS) to process ammonia and nitrite into nitrates. I've repeatedly started new tanks by 'cleaning' a sponge from an established, healthy tank in the 'new' water and added fish immediately (bacteria in a bottle can work too!). My friend Byron has had success by just using plants as plants, especially fast growing floating plants, will use ammonia as their nitrogen source.

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The problem with plants is that they will only consume ammonia if the plants growing. I have seen many post about a new tank with plants that keep dyeing. Additionally i have signpost of people that have purchased an aquarium plants and fish and set it up thinking the plant will keep the ammonia and nitrate at safe levels. But find the plants are not processing ammonia and nitrite.

What is often left out is that you should verify a plant will grow for at least a week.But preferably for several weeks. The reason for the wait is that sometime the substrate has nutrients or some nutrient came with the plant. But often these nutrients don't last long. So quite often you will get some growth the first few days or week but then the growth stops. Any buying a fertilizer is no guaranty that your plants will grow.

AbbeysDad said:

You might think so....but I remember a time in the dark ages of the hobby when little or nothing was known or communicated about the nitrogen cycle...and yet the hobby (and fish) survived. ~

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For some people for other back before we had coputrers and forums. Many of the failure were not noticed. And Even with all the information available on line today people still by a tank and add too many which shout cycling or putting plants in and fish die.

StevenF said:

The problem with plants is that they will only consume ammonia if the plants growing.

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I thought I mentioned fast growing floating plants as many plants (like anubias and java fern to name a couple) are slow growing and not real ammonia sponges.

AbbeysDad said:

thought I mentioned fast growing floating plants as many plants (like anubias and java fern to name a couple) are slow growing and not real ammonia spon

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It doesn't matter if it is fast growing or slow growing, floating, or fully submerged. All plants must grow to consume nutrients. And there are a lot of people out there that cannot get plants to grow. So it is imperative that you verify healthy plant growth before you add fish otherwise you will have to do daily water changed to control ammonia..

No one will change the way I set up my tanks, not after all these years.
A nice natural neutral gravel base, lots of fast-growing plants. When the plants start growing add a few fish at a time.
After seeing what @Rocky998 went through with cycling, I'm surprised he has decided to keep fish and not canaries.