Got the tank, no fish, now what?

[Chickengooch]

Hi everyone, just posted my newbie post on the other board (newbies).

So, tonight we bought a 10 gal glass tank, a filter, heater, rocks. We need a thermomter, and a water testing kit (I guess we need that??)Now what? I don't want to get fish until the tank is 100% ready.

I keep reading about "fishless cycling" but can't seem to find any info about it on this site. Links??

We really would like to only have 3-4 fish in the tank. Any suggestions, keeping in mind we have a 10 gallon tank and an 18 month old girl here at home that will be watching the tank and the fish...

Also, if you have suggestions on food that would be of much help as well!

We also don't have any plants or "toys" in there for the fish to hide behind. Any suggestions?

Thanks for any info you can give me, I know it will really help us out. I don't want to waste money on fish just to have them die on us. But I wanted tropical fish not gold fish, since I keep hearing gold fish are not clean.

 

[rvm]

I've never done a fishless cycle as I didn't know about it when I first started, and since then I've always used mature filter media to start a new tank, but here is a link which explains the process
fishless cycling
Make sure the ammonia you use has no additives by checking the ingrediants. there should be only ammonia and water.

 

[Fat Boy]

Hi Chickengooch, welcome to the world of fish keeping, you've certainly done the right thing by coming onto the forum, there are a lot of very helpful and knowledgeable people here. Firstly if you're in the UK you'll find it hard to get ammonia in the shops and staff in your LFS ( local fish stores ) don't know much about it either. So here's what I would do. Make sure you decholrinate your tank water with Stress coat or something similar, before you buy your fish make sure they'll be ok for your tank, some small fish in your lfs can get to 8 inchs plus HERE'S a link to see the most popular fish and their needs, you'll go thru the CYCLE process as rvms post said so you'll need hardy fish ( I started with 6 lemon tetras ) these should survive the poisions that the cycle produce, when you come to clean your filter media ( the sponge thing inside your filter ) wash it in old tank water NOT tap water, and also as you said DO get youself a test kit, I and a lot of oters use the API freshwater master test kit. As for food Tetramin flakes are ok and most fish love frozen bloodworm as a treat twice a week. The last bit of advive I'd give is only bad things happen quickly in this hobby, the cycle will take anything from 5 days to 3 weeks and more likely than not you will make mistakes ( we all have ) but people on here will make it a lot easier for you. Hope this helps.

 

[skimpy]

Hi Chickengooch, and welcome to TFF

I have never done a fishless cycle with ammonia and I do believe it is difficult to get in UK. I have done one with filter media however and it worked really well so if you can't get any ammonia ask at you lfs or someone you know if they can supply you with some filter media. In my case I got my media from my own main tank but If you have a friend or lfs who will give you some all it involves is to squeeze out their filter sponge into a bag of tank water and I believe it needs to be put into your tank within 20 minutes to make sure none of it dies (if this timing is wrong I'm sure someone will correct me- please ). Then you will need to feed the bacteria and if you can't get ammonia you can use flake to feed it twice a day.

HERE is a link to the baby tank that I did this way and it will give you an idea of the pattern the cycling took. Remember your tank is a different size so the timings will be different.

If you do decide to cycle with fish it will be OK, you just have to be more diligent with your testing and make sure you keep the ammonia and NitrIte under 1ppm with as many water changes as necessary. Do not add more than 3 fish in one go and go slowly. My main tank took nearly 8 weeks to fully cycle. HERE is the record of that tank cycling with fish.

Which ever way you decide to go, I wish you the best of luck. It is so nice to see you finding out what to do before you start. If you have any questions do not hesitate to ask, people are very happy to help here on TFF

Have fun and enjoy - I sure your daughter will be fasinated by them (but remember as some people have found keep the food out of her reach, she might think it kind to feed the fishes and a whole tub of flake can be tooooooooooo much)

 

[clutterydrawer]

Hello

There is a good thread here:

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=10099

which explains the concept of cycling a tank, and a page here:

http/www.aaquaria.com/aquasource/cycle2.shtml

which tells you how to cycle it without adding fish.

To find household ammonia yo uneed to look in a small local hardware store, not one of the big chains. if you can't find it you'll need to cycle with hardy fish.

The fish you evetually get wil feel mor secure with hiding plants and shelter. This is a matter of personal taste as to whether you want it to look natural or artificial, but at your pet shop you should be able to find a variety of things for your tanks, from wood and rocks and plants to fluorescent castles.

Plants are great for making the tank look pretty, cleaning the water, adding oxygen and giving shelter. there are low-maintenance plants like java moss, java fern, cryptocorynes, anubias, hygrophila and hornwort which you should be able to grow without too much trouble, but if you dont feel ready for live plants there are plenty of artificial ones available.

The test kits you need are Ammoia, nitrIte and nitrAte. these are the esential ones; pH and hardness tests are also useful but not so essential.

as for fish choices, the magical rule is - research before you buy! and don't trust the pet shop staff! very often people buy a fish not knowing it grows to 12", or will eat their other fish, or requires a special diet. For your tank tetras would be a good choice as most as small and colourful. I'd also like to recommend corydoras catfish which are small and comical, I think your daughter would enjoy watching them! try going to your pet shop and noting down what you like teh look of, then coe home and do some research on them.