Ideas, Advice, Suggestions Please.

[Ape-man]

Hi Ape-man, welcome to the forum.

Good to see that you are doing some reading before diving in, we get so many members that join this forum after getting bad advice from their local fish store so its refreshing to find new members who have spent a little time researching.

After the tank is cycled the fun of stocking begins.

Personally myself, I prefer to have a centrepiece fish or pair of fish that are slightly larger than others and form a focal point in the tank. Centrepiece fish are not always bigger than others, you can get colourful fish that stand out in the tank.

I then prefer a shoal of fish, and some bottom dwellers.

Here are some suggestions that would be suitable for your tank,

Centrepiece fish:

A pair of rams, either bolivian or german blue depending on your water PH and hardness,
A pair of gouramis, either honey, pearl or dwarf.


Shoaling fish (around 8-10 of one of these)

Neon tetras, these require a mature tank aged 6 months+ so shouldnt be put in straight after a cycle
Cardinal Tetras, same as neons, need mature tank
Harlequin Rasboras, these are a great hardy shoaling fish, perfect for newly cycled tanks
Endler Livebearers, A stunning colourful fish.

Bottom Dwellers (about 6)

Corys, there are many types of corys, many of which would be ok in a newly cycled tank, one to avoid is panda corys, they are very sensitive. My personal favourite are sterbai corys although they are slightly more expensive than your standard peppered corys.

A plec, In that size tank you only want 1 plec and you need to be careful which you get due to the potential size they can reach. As mentioned above, the two best suited to the tank would be either a bulldog plec or a bristlenose plec (BN plec) I have an albino bristlenose in my 33 gal tank.

There are obviously many more combinations, all down to preference. Above are just some of the common choices. Remember to research any fish before buying, try not to buy on impulse as you often find out you've madfe a mistake when you get home. Always find out what size a fish will reach when fully grown, remember most fish you see in the stores arte either babies or very young and many are far off their true potential size.

Andy

arobinson1984 - Just noticed you're in Leeds, So am I. Where do you get your fish and supplies etc from??

 

[arobinson1984]

Hi Ape-Man, where abouts in Leeds are you?

I used to go to a small one called tingley tropicals, they are quite good and have been running a long time.

The one I use now which is by far the best I've found round the leeds area is QSS on wakefield Road in Bradford

Website: QSS

Andy

 

[Ape-man]

Right...I have the new tank, filters substrate etc, etc... The water is in and conditioner added etc, etc... I am going to do my water test next (I will get back with the results!), then, the fishless cycle, where do I get ammonia from in the UK?

Ta
Andy

 

[OldMan47]

In the UK it is often Boots or Homebase. Look in the cleaning area with the mops and brooms.

 

[Ape-man]

In the UK it is often Bots or Homebase. Look in the cleaning area with the mops and brooms.

Thanks OldMan47, will have a look into both...

Right, the results are in, this is the water in my tank now, straight from the tap, the only thing I have added is tap water conditioner and some filter boost (stresszyme)

The test kit I have used is API fresh water master test kit:

pH: 7.4, Nitrate: 0.0 ppm, Nitrite: 0.0ppm, Ammonia:0.0ppm (maybe a bit over, but less than 0.25ppm)

Just need to find me some ammonia now to start this cycle!

 

[OldMan47]

It sounds like your water will be easy to work with once you get the tank cycled. Those kinds of numbers should put you in good shape for a wide variety of fish.

 

[Ape-man]

Added some ammonia last night. Has taken ammonia level upto 4-5ppm.

Will take new readings tonight, and get back!

 

[Ape-man]

Good Evening!

I have been Fish-less cycling for a week now... Initially I was only testing ammonia, when that started dropping I started testing for Nitrite. Everything seems fairly normalish: Ammonia seems to be slowly dropping an nitrite slowly rising. Anyway... Today I have done a full test and the results are as below:
Ammonia: 2ppm
Nitrite: 0.25ppm
Nitrate: 20ppm!!!
pH: 8

Now, my concern is that the ammonia seems to have plateaued at 2ppm, and Nitrite at 0.25ppm for the last 3 days! But even more concerning is that the Nitrate seems to have shot through the roof! Anyone got any ideas? Please help!

BTW... Merry Christmas!

....Started a new thread for my cycle: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/316403-my-fishless-cycle/

 

[Ape-man]

Hi all

A coulpe of questions:

1) I have some Cornish Granite, is this safe to use in my aquarium (obviously I will properly clean it first!), I have found the following website: http/www.sydneycichlid.com/aquarium-rocks.htm ,and it claims it is safe, but thought I would get some second opinions!

2)I popped into a local aquatics shop yesterday and was talking to the guys in there, they told me quite a few things but mainly they don't really beleave in all this "fishless cycling" stuff, they add "Microbe-lift - Gel filter cartridge inoculant", they agree that the usual filter booster is crap but they swear by this for getting a tank cycled, one guy (who honestly seemed pretty genuine!) has been in the tropical fish hobby/business for 30 years and he has won many awards (they're all on show in the shop... A bit anal really!!). He really did say that they use this stuff to cycle all new tanks in the shop.

 

[waterdrop]

0) A week is too soon to be worrying too much about your fishless cycle. Your pH is good, I assume your temp is good (84F/29C is ideal) and you are seeing very good progress signs that most people don't see, so just hang in there and wait for ammonia to drop to true zero ppm. Once it drops to zero, add the amount of ammonia that takes you to 4ppm or so and add it at your "add-hour" which should be your regular time (a particular hour out of the 24 hours) that you always add ammonia on. Later in the cycle you will test at the 12 and 24 hour marks, but you only ever add on the 24 hour mark, if ammonia dropped to zero anytime within the previous 24 hours.

1) I don't know about that granite. I believe granite in general is ok. The main problem we watch out for with rocks are the ones that will add hardness to the water, subsequently raising pH also sometimes. Sometimes people have to resort to manual bucket tests of rocks.

2) Aren't those salesmen amazing! I can't tell you whether their latest, greatest snake oil will work but I can tell you they are wrong about fishless cycling as we do it here. Its not only reliable (eventually!) but is straightforward and cheap!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Ape-man]

1) I have some Cornish Granite, is this safe to use in my aquarium (obviously I will properly clean it first!), I have found the following website: http/www.sydneycichlid.com/aquarium-rocks.htm ,and it claims it is safe, but thought I would get some second opinions!

Bump... On the rocks question!

 

[waterdrop]

Have you tried dripping some household vinegar on the rock in various places to see if it fizzes? That's how we usually test to see if the rock would be likely to raise our hardness and pH.

~~waterdrop~~