14 gallon planted tank journal.

[Obsessed with fish]

I will just buy cycled water. It seems like the quickest way, and im fine with spending some extra money on it.

 

[Animallover😍]

I will just buy cycled water. It seems like the quickest way, and im fine with spending some extra money on it.

what is 'cycled' water??

 

[Animallover😍]

If you mean reverse osmosis water, this water is not 'cycled'. You have to cycle the tank.

 

[Obsessed with fish]

what is 'cycled' water??

There are people out there who cycle water in a tank then put it in bottles and sell it for impatient people like me.

 

[Deleted member 149562]

I will just buy cycled water. It seems like the quickest way, and im fine with spending some extra money on it.

Water is not cycled...its the filtration, the substrate, the plants, the ornaments etc that gradually grow the good bacteria that naturally keep the water healthy

Seriously wondering if you are truly able to keep fish, not so sure that you are

If you want to do it right, we will help you through the process....but if you're not going to take this seriously and do it right then you should never have fish. I am sorry but that is how it is and I doubt I am alone in thinking you are unsuited to owning fish if constantly trying to cut corners in their care.

 

[Animallover😍]

I have never heard of this. But I will wait till others respond.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

I will just buy cycled water. It seems like the quickest way, and im fine with spending some extra money on it.

There is no such thing as cycled water.

Sorry but I'm seeing only 3 options here.

1) You are deliberately trolling.
2) You are too young to be responsible for being solely responsible for taking care of an animal. If this is the case get your parents or care givers involved and get them on here.
3) You are being willfully ignorant because the reality is not fitting what you want.

 

[Obsessed with fish]

Everything you just said hurt me, I'm defiantly not trolling and fine, I will cycle the tank, sorry for not listening to people who actually know what there talking about. I will now.

 

[Deleted member 149562]

@Obsessed with fish

You are new to this pastime, you have asked questions about stocking and advised what would be appropriate for your aquarium

You want to get started and its obvious that you are extremely impatient to have that perfect aquarium. They don't become perfect overnight, there is a massive amount of time, patience, more time and even more patience and hard work involved

People will naturally get annoyed with you if you ask advice and then do your own thing or ignore that advice

So just slow down, take a breath, read up on cycling properly, ask questions if you are unsure....but please do not cut corners or deliberately endanger fish when advised against it. Fishkeepers are a passionate bunch and we tend to lose faith and start to drift away from helping a newcomer if they persistently go against the advice and instructions given

Slow down, do things properly and just learn everything carefully please.

 

[Essjay]

Fish in cycling is a lot of hard work. It involves getting a very few fish (in 14 gallons just one or two) then testing every day for ammonia and nitrite. Every time either of them reads above zero, you have to do a water change. This could mean every day, or even a few times a day if it gets high quickly. For several weeks.
If the water changes are not done, the fish will be damaged. They will quite likely die, but even if they don't they will be damaged, get sick easier and not live as long as they should.
Ammonia burns their skin and gills, and burned gills can't take up as much oxygen as healthy gills.
Nitrite attaches to their blood and stops it absorbing oxygen - nitrite affects fish in a similar way to carbon monoxide affecting us.

Once both ammonia and nitrite stay at zero, then more fish can be bought - but only a few. The new fish will add more ammonia, but there are only enough bacteria to eat the ammonia and nitrite form the first fish. The bacteria have to grow more to cope with the extra ammonia. So whenever more fish are added, the tank water must be tested for ammonia and nitrite every day and again a water chnage must be done whenever either of them is above zero.



It is much easier to cycle the tank without fish in there. This is done by adding ammonia from a bottle. It is exactly the same ammonia that the fish excrete so the bacteria will use it as food and grow more of them until there are enough bacteria for a tankful of fish.
I have read comments in the past from other Australian members that it is hard to find ammonia without added detergent, surfactants or perfume. These additives will kill the bacteria. One option is to use Dr Tim's Ammonium Chloride (eBay, Amazon) which is made for cycling fish tanks.

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

There is no such thing as cycled water.

Sorry but I'm seeing only 3 options here.

1) You are deliberately trolling.
2) You are too young to be responsible for being solely responsible for taking care of an animal. If this is the case get your parents or care givers involved and get them on here.
3) You are being willfully ignorant because the reality is not fitting what you want.

You're missing another option...and that's there is always someone out there ready, willing and able to extract monies from the gullible.

I have two tanks full to the brim of 'cycled' water. Does anyone wanna make me an offer? (I'm sure i could find some plastic bottles in the local recycling centre. )

 

[Essjay]

Can you tell us the dimensions of your tank, please - the width, depth and height. In the photo it looks like it's a tall narrow tank which would restrict the fish that can be kept. Fish need swimming length, with some fish needing a longer tank than others. For example, neon tetras need 60 cm (24 inches) swimming length.

 

[Essjay]

This is how to do a fishless cycle

Cycling Your New Fresh Water Tank: Read This First!

Cycling Your First Fresh Water Tank What is Cycling and Why is it Important? Fish waste, and especially fish breathing, plus uneaten food and other organic matter breaking down in a tank all produce Ammonia. This can quickly become toxic to fish if it is allowed to build up to any measurable...

www.fishforums.net

It sounds complicated at first, but as long as you can follow the instructions, which are straight forward, you should be able to do a fishless cycle. If you need it, we can talk you through every step.

 

[Obsessed with fish]

You're missing another option...and that's there is always someone out there ready, willing and able to extract monies from the gullible.

I have two tanks full to the brim of 'cycled' water. Does anyone wanna make me an offer? (I'm sure i could find some plastic bottles in the local recycling centre. )

lol, im acctally gonna cycle the tank now though, thank you for the funny joke.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Everything you just said hurt me, I'm defiantly not trolling and fine, I will cycle the tank, sorry for not listening to people who actually know what there talking about. I will now.

Please don't take this the wrong way but I get the impression you are quite young. I don't say this to be condescending or put you down but I would strongly recommend getting a parent involved here.

There is a lot of things to learn and a large responsibility that comes with taking care of an animal and it is not fair to put that all onto someone who maybe doesn't have the life experience yet to be able to handle it. I think you mentioned your Mum in a previous thread. If you can get her involved with this, tell her it is something you would like to do together with her. Get her to make an account on here and we can help the both of you work through setting this up together.

I understand that sometime life isn't quite so straight forward and sometimes getting an adult involved may not be an option but if you can I would recommend it so you can have a much better time with this.