Few Questions For You, Bit Of A New Kid To This

[Jonnyg]

Hi,

I have recently started a new tank, its a 4ft x 1.5ft x 1ft tank. It has an under gravel filter setup without any further pads, 2 pumps coming up each back corner and airating via these pumps. Its running a heater set at 26 degrees (i cant change it though as the adjusters mashed).

I washed the gravel e.t.c. and ran the tank for a few days. I performed a water change to get out the tanin from the driftwood and other impurtities and then ran it for a few more days. I pinched a mates filter cloth from his established tank to aid with bacteria groth and have started with 10 Zebra Danios to help with the cycling. I tested PH at 7.0, i havent tested for amonia/nitrite/nitrate yet as its only been a few days with the fish in there. When should i be looking to test and what sort oif results am i aiming for? i.e. no nitrite at 2 weeks.

I have also inherited 3 silver sharks, only very young at about 5cm. I know that these grow big and i have read that idealy they need a slightly bigger tank. Im wondering if these are going to be OK and what sort of fish am i going to be able to put with these?

Anything else i should be doing as well? Tips e.t.c. on setup, ornaments e.t.c.

cheers

 

[Haych]

silver sharks are very shy IIRC, but you should be ok to add others too, just be preapred to rehome/get a larger tank when theyre bigger.

 

[arobinson1984]

The silver sharks will be ok for a while but in the long term they need a minimum tank size of 6ft x 2ft x 2ft and preferably an 8ft tank.

Silver sharks (aka bala sharks) kept in the right conditions can be expected to live anywhere between 15 - 30 years and grow to around 12" in length, they should also be kept in groups of 6+ but I'm not suggesting you add anymore to your tank lol

Andy

 

[Harlequins]

Hi and welcome

You need to test daily really for ammonia/nitrite,and these need to be zero or has close too,if the readings are higher you will need to perform waterchanges,have a read of fish in cycle in the beginners section,even though you have media from your friends tank,its best to test just in case as fish produce ammonia in everything they do,breathing,eating,pooing etc...

Good luck,let us know how the readings go

 

[OldMan47]

After a few days of having those fish in your tank, you do have some ammonia already. A liquid type test kit is the next thing you need, not more fish. It will be far more than a couple of weeks before you have established the new UGF as your functioning biological filter in that tank. Between now and when that has happened, you doing large water changes will be acting as the biological filter as much as you can.