Hello There

[Scouse Lee]

Hi, the names Lee & as you can probably tell from my user name I'm from Liverpool, live on a farm in Devon now though. Anyway we bought our son, daughter & grandson a 54L tank just over a week ago,(Juwell Korall), as every time we went into a local garden centre/aquarium they had us staring at the fish for ages,(they didn't like the goldfish though), I quickly realised that I wanted to get into fish keeping myself,(my dad actually had loads of tropical fish for years), so I've just picked up a 145L Clear-Seal tank & stand for £20. Going to look for a heater/filter/lights etc. for it now but the filter needs to be quieter than the one in the Juwell, it's getting on my nerves tbh. Anyhow I suppose there's a section for questions like that so I'll see you in there

Actually just realised it's a lot quieter without the lid on.

 

[Malawi MaD]

Welcome to the forum Lee. £20 for a 145L tank and stand is a bargain, filter wise you could go the external route they are always really really quiet. They just sit under the tank (in the cabinate/stand) and all you have in the tank is the intlet and outlet pipes

 

[Scouse Lee]

Cheers Malawi MaD, probably not going to put a hood on the 4ft tank,(it's only got a strange sort of metal strip for a lid anyway), so will see what it's like but could definitely do with changing the 54 L tank filter. I'm a couple of days into a fishless cycle but nothing much seems to be happening, I've added some Stress-Zyme+ and a bit of flake as I was recommended but maybe I need to put some pure ammonia in.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Go for the ammonia route, it's much easier to control/measure.

 

[Scouse Lee]

I've just bought a bottle of household ammonia, not sure if it's the right stuff as it doesn't have a list of ingredients, I said to the guy in the shop I didn't want it if it had perfumes and other additives in & before I could stop he he had the lid off & took an almighty sniff of it I must say he looked a bit afterwards. I now need to work out the desired amount to put in.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

LMAO! Ammonia is one of the most vile smelling substances on the planet, if he took a proper sniff of it....wow....

Shake it and if it foams up then it has added sufficants and you don't want it (a few clear bubbles that pop quickly is normal). Most household ammonia is 9.5% ammonia. So go up to the top of this page and click calculator at the top on the blue bar. There's an ammonia calculator in there. Use the 9.5% for ammonia and use 4ppm for how much to add to the tank. That should get you going.

Where did you buy the ammonia from? That will help us decide if it's the right stuff or not too...

And remove all of the old food from the tank now as it will mess up your results in the long run.

Oh, last thing. Once you dose your tank up to 4ppm the first time, and it subsequently drops back to 0. Don't dose it back up to 4 again. Somewhere between 2-3 ppm will be all you need after that.

 

[ZoddyZod]

Welcome to the forum!

Are you a blue or red Scouser? There is only one correct answer to this!

 

[Scouse Lee]

Cheers Alm0stAwesome, yeh he took a real good snort of the stuff then started swaying a bit lol, it was in a garden/hardware store, the guy who runs it,(& sniffed the ammonia), is the spitting image of Reg the policeman from Goodnight Sweetheart if you know the programme, even the way he talks & acts haha. I'll follow your advice on dosage.

ZoddyZod - Of course there's only one answer & the clue is that I'm a Scouser but if you need another clue then you will NEVER see me write the word r*d in full, always has to have the asterisk.

COYB ETID (2 more clues lol)

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Lee. I see that Zoddy has already given you a big hello from the MOD team. Try looking in the new aquarium section at first. Many common new fish keeper questions are best addressed there. It seems to me that many new people have much the same questions. That is where most end up addressed.