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Yes, we did, the nitrate was low but there are plants in the tank.

We also added bottled bacteria and some of the filter media from the tank we'd set up to keep our two remaining snails in before adding them to try and get as many bacteria in as possible to give it a start.

We have done a fishless cycle. The tank was set up just over a month ago and we were adding ammonia and the water test showed ammonia and nitrite levels at zero before we got the fish. We did a water change before adding them as well.

Great, thank you!

Question: we have a new, about 180L aquarium that we have set up and cycled and we've just put in our first 5 neon tetras. We'd like to get 5 more (since I understand they do best in schools of 10 or more but the shop advised starting with less). How long should we wait before introducing...

Thank you! Must just be a different shape etc to the others. How do you know? (so I can learn)

Meet Mummyfish (my son named them). She was sold to us as a platy but seems to be markedly bigger than our other platys and a different shape. I wondered whether she was a Molly. It doesn't really matter, except that she's pregnant and has been having fry so it's just knowing how much space...

We have three fish. They are all female! That would mean getting all new fish, which is an option but they are all named so might get interesting!

I had been told that the adults would eat the fry and that as the number of adults increased the number of fry eaten would also increase until a relatively stable population was achieved, which kind of makes sense but then I suppose I hadn't factored in feeding the fish which would alter the...

I agree, I'd much rather have too much information than too little!

Thank you! I think we're going to need it!

We have our 58L tank all set up and are now the proud owners of three female platys (for my 4year old, all named). It seems one of them is pregnant (not entirely unexpected) and with the amount of plant life in the tank I suspect some of the babies will avoid being eaten by the other fish (the...

We did put water conditioner in to dechlorinate the water. And it's not really oily, more like everything that was making the water cloudy has just floated to the surface of the water

Hi, So, after setting up our tank for a day or so, the water went cloudy... which on reading some websites, seemed to be normal and the advice seemed to be to leave it alone as it was doing it's thing. Now it is clear again with a layer of... I'm not really sure what to be honest, on the top...

We seem to have a sponge and a cartridge in the filter. Should we replace the cartridge with another sponge/similar?

No, just one colour of gravel, its just funny lighting in that picture. Thanks for the tip about the picture for the back, I will get one to put in. And no, I'll check with my husband as I was looking after the boy while they were going through filter related things!

Oh, and sorry about the bad photo, my phone is broken at the moment so it's a photo taken with my laptop which is not ideal!

Thank you all for all of your help and advice - it's very gratefully received. We got our aquarium set up today (ready to get fish next week so there will be fish in there while it's cycling but I thought this week would help the plants get a little more established which might help a bit at...

Great, I will have a look at those. The water company website says that the water in our area is moderately hard (66mg/L calcium, 176mg/L calcium carbonate, which, if I remember any chemistry at all, indicates it should have a slightly higher pH) so that should be ok for...

Wow! Thank you for all of the useful tips. We were looking at mollies because the shop suggested three of them would be fine in that size of tank and (apparently) they would be ok living in a two or three (which was more what my son wanted than a shoal of fish which, for example guppies would...

Thank you for this, I will give it a try!

Hi, I am new to fish keeping and am taking it up because my 4 year old is fascinated by fish and wanted to get some for his birthday (which is next week). When I spoke to the person in the shop, they said a tank should be set up at least 24 hours before the fish go in but now I've read that...

Wow! I haven't been on here for a while - busy summer working :( But thanks for all the help and advice! I'm moving soon so hopefully we'll get an aquarium and I'll certainly try and bear your advice in mind when finding something to put in it!

It's nice to know which fish to avoid, but are there any fish that anyone would recommend for a complete beginner (like me!)?

Hello I don't have any tropical fish at the moment but my housemates and I are thinking of getting some when we move in. So I thought I'd join now and ask all my questions before I start so we don't bite off more than we can chew!