Few Quick Questions

[shaun_j]

Hi,
As you can see I'm new to the forums, looks great.

Just wanted a bit of feedback.

**First off I just have a smallish tank about 2ft. Just want to know what kind of filter I should use. I have this filter here

Is this enough?

I also have running just a simple oxygen pump.

I have about 8 fish in the tank at the moment. I did have some snails but they died for some reason and a few other fish have died here and there like silver sharks and tetras. I have the heater running at a good temperature also.

**I was also wondering about media I read it a few times and don't really understand it.

**Cleaning the tank also shows me a problem because I don't no if I'm meant to empty all the water, leave the filter in there or what

**Also last question, is there any limit on how much light the tank should receive?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Davo86]

Hi,
As you can see I'm new to the forums, looks great.

Just wanted a bit of feedback.

**First off I just have a smallish tank about 2ft. Just want to know what kind of filter I should use. I have this filter here

Is this enough?

I also have running just a simple oxygen pump.

I have about 8 fish in the tank at the moment. I did have some snails but they died for some reason and a few other fish have died here and there like silver sharks and tetras. I have the heater running at a good temperature also.

**I was also wondering about media I read it a few times and don't really understand it.

**Cleaning the tank also shows me a problem because I don't no if I'm meant to empty all the water, leave the filter in there or what

**Also last question, is there any limit on how much light the tank should receive?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Hi shaun,
Ok, first question is how long has the tank been running for? Also do you have a test kit and know the water stats?
depending on which model the filter is (looks to be a magiflow) it should be fine for a 2foot tank
how did you originally set up the tank? do you know if it is cycled? an uncycled tank would lead to many deaths if not known about.
Silver sharks grow way too big for a 2 foot tank, what are the other dimensions?
The media could be pads, ceramica or carbon, in the case of the magi-flow filter you have 1 black carbon pad and then a tub of actual carbon
On the media, the bacteria is formed, this bacteria is what will keep your fish alive and disease free.
The media should always be cleaned in a bucket of tank water, never use tap water as this will kill off the bacteria.
if the tank is cycled and you have the right amount of fish for the aquarium size then usually a water change from 25-50% per week is fine,
With regards to the light, this is for your benefit, (unless you have live plants) and so only needs to be on when you are there, if you have live plants however 8-10hours of light per day is suggested.

 

[shaun_j]

Hi shaun,
Ok, first question is how long has the tank been running for? Also do you have a test kit and know the water stats?
depending on which model the filter is (looks to be a magiflow) it should be fine for a 2foot tank
how did you originally set up the tank? do you know if it is cycled? an uncycled tank would lead to many deaths if not known about.
Silver sharks grow way too big for a 2 foot tank, what are the other dimensions?
The media could be pads, ceramica or carbon, in the case of the magi-flow filter you have 1 black carbon pad and then a tub of actual carbon
On the media, the bacteria is formed, this bacteria is what will keep your fish alive and disease free.
The media should always be cleaned in a bucket of tank water, never use tap water as this will kill off the bacteria.
if the tank is cycled and you have the right amount of fish for the aquarium size then usually a water change from 25-50% per week is fine,
With regards to the light, this is for your benefit, (unless you have live plants) and so only needs to be on when you are there, if you have live plants however 8-10hours of light per day is suggested.

Yeah I realised the silver sharks will grow too big so I just plan on giving them to my mate he has a pretty big tank. They are only small at the moment though.
Umm nah I don't have test kit. And I've had the tank for a while now but I didn't no about not cleaning the filter in tap water.

And i didn't do any of that cycle stuff to set it up I just got everything running, conditioned the water, and just started off with goldfish from my mates tank. I gave them away now though, and have a few small fish in there.

With those kind of filters would i have to add anything?

Thanks

 

[Miss Wiggle]

right, the first thing to learn in looking after fish is cycling and water testing. the key to looking after fish well is to look after the water.

now you may well be past the cycling process now, it will just happen naturally when you first add fish, but without water tests results it's hard to tell, also cleaning the filter in tap water can set the cycle back.

Have a read of the link in my sig 'whats cycling' which will help you to understand the process, then as soon as you can you should buy a decent liquid based test kit, i recommend the API Fresh Water Master Test Kit, this usually retails for around £15-20 on ebay so it's quite easy to get hold of. Once you've got that then follow the instructions and when you have the readings for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate then post them up here and we'll let you know if you need to do anything to correct them.

there's also a link in my signature about weekly maintenance, have a read through that to get an idea of what you should be doing each week.

can you get us the make and model of the filter (don't recognise it from the pic) and tell us the dimensions of your fish tank, then also can you give us a list of what fish you keep and how many of each species. These few basic things along with test results will help us understand the health of the tank and set up and give any advice as appropriate.

oh and welcome to the forum!

 

[Davo86]

Yeah I realised the silver sharks will grow too big so I just plan on giving them to my mate he has a pretty big tank. They are only small at the moment though.
Umm nah I don't have test kit. And I've had the tank for a while now but I didn't no about not cleaning the filter in tap water.

And i didn't do any of that cycle stuff to set it up I just got everything running, conditioned the water, and just started off with goldfish from my mates tank. I gave them away now though, and have a few small fish in there.

With those kind of filters would i have to add anything?
Thanks

without knowing the stats its impossible to say whether the tank is/isn't cycled, or if you need to change things or not.
how long where the goldfish in the tank before the other fish where added?
Also have you cleaned all the media in tap water? if so you've probably pressed the reset button and the bacteria that would have built up when the goldfish where added has probably been killed off and you would be back to square one.

 

[mark.w.jones]

This pinned article about tank maintainance is useful as are the ones in my sig.

[URL="http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=171045"]http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=171045[/URL]

 

[shaun_j]

I am now using this filter here... I dropped my other one.

Main Features:

1. Condition: Brand New
2. Multifunctional design: pumping , adding oxygen, filtering and sprinkling, Biochemical filter
3. Aquarium filter size: 165 x 50 x 65 (mm)
4. AC: 220-240V- 50Hz
5. Power: 11W
6. Hmax: 0.8m
7. Qmax: 400L/h

I'm running 2 of them. Would this be ok ? I also have a air pump aswell. And like i said the tank is about 2ft.

The other question I have is it better to have living plants in a tank or not? I wasn't sure if u need those co2 filter things?

Thanks

 

[waterdrop]

Shaun, If you've just switched from the previous filter to two of the new ones you're showing us then that means we can probably definately assume you are -not- cycled anymore, which means you will be needing some urgent help. Probably the two filters will be fine from a physical standpoint (although discussing the media in them will be good for us to do, but is not the most urgent topic.)

The advice from the members above (for instance, reading the links in Miss Wiggles post) now becomes very important, as the quicker you understand some new things, the better you will be able to help your fish. You are in what we call a "Fish-In" cycle. This is about a month-long process where your new filters will be pulling fresh water (with oxygen and ammonia from fish waste in it) through the filter media and you will be growing beneficial bacteria on that media. (By the way, if you are new to this, it can sound really weird (!) but yes, we really know what we're talking about.)

Unfortunately, an aquarium rarely approaches being a balanced ecosystem (as many think it is) and is really a fairly artificial environment that very much needs knowledge and frequent action from the aquarist. In your case, with a Fish-In cycle going on, you will need to do fairly large and frequent water changes to manually clear the ammonia out of the water, since your beneficial bacteria won't have grown in the filter yet. Learning good water change technique is not hard though and the members here are great and will help you along.

Your goal will be to get a good liquid-reagent based test kit (as MW said, the API Freshwater Master Test Kit is very popular and many of us use it) and learn how to use it. You will practice on your tap water and post your results here and then on your tank water and also post those results. You'll need to get this testing bit going as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, your goal for water changes will be to see how large and repeated the changes need to be to get ammonia and nitrite(NO2) (these are two of your test results) down as near to zero values as possible. It will take some doing to figure out a rhythm to this, as its different for everybody.

The reason these steps are essential is because both ammonia and nitrite(NO2) cause permanent damage to your fish and that damage can easily kill them, despite you eventually getting the water cleared and being of better quality for them later. The ammonia causes gill damage and the nitrite(NO2) suffocates them, causing nerve damage.

What's great is that you've found the right place to find out about all these things, since they are things you'll almost never hear clearly from your local pet shop or even from books sometimes.
Good Luck and be sure to ask questions as the members really enjoy responding.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[shaun_j]

Shaun, If you've just switched from the previous filter to two of the new ones you're showing us then that means we can probably definately assume you are -not- cycled anymore, which means you will be needing some urgent help. Probably the two filters will be fine from a physical standpoint (although discussing the media in them will be good for us to do, but is not the most urgent topic.)

The advice from the members above (for instance, reading the links in Miss Wiggles post) now becomes very important, as the quicker you understand some new things, the better you will be able to help your fish. You are in what we call a "Fish-In" cycle. This is about a month-long process where your new filters will be pulling fresh water (with oxygen and ammonia from fish waste in it) through the filter media and you will be growing beneficial bacteria on that media. (By the way, if you are new to this, it can sound really weird (!) but yes, we really know what we're talking about.)

Unfortunately, an aquarium rarely approaches being a balanced ecosystem (as many think it is) and is really a fairly artificial environment that very much needs knowledge and frequent action from the aquarist. In your case, with a Fish-In cycle going on, you will need to do fairly large and frequent water changes to manually clear the ammonia out of the water, since your beneficial bacteria won't have grown in the filter yet. Learning good water change technique is not hard though and the members here are great and will help you along.

Your goal will be to get a good liquid-reagent based test kit (as MW said, the API Freshwater Master Test Kit is very popular and many of us use it) and learn how to use it. You will practice on your tap water and post your results here and then on your tank water and also post those results. You'll need to get this testing bit going as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, your goal for water changes will be to see how large and repeated the changes need to be to get ammonia and nitrite(NO2) (these are two of your test results) down as near to zero values as possible. It will take some doing to figure out a rhythm to this, as its different for everybody.

The reason these steps are essential is because both ammonia and nitrite(NO2) cause permanent damage to your fish and that damage can easily kill them, despite you eventually getting the water cleared and being of better quality for them later. The ammonia causes gill damage and the nitrite(NO2) suffocates them, causing nerve damage.

What's great is that you've found the right place to find out about all these things, since they are things you'll almost never hear clearly from your local pet shop or even from books sometimes.
Good Luck and be sure to ask questions as the members really enjoy responding.

~~waterdrop~~

Thanks for the reply, well seeing as I just read all the stuff on beneficial bacteria I used the old filter sponge in the new filter since they were a perfect fit when replacing it. Would this be ok ? or will I need to keep doing large water changes?