My New Tank

[mrtash]

Festive Greetings from Grantham

My lady bought me an aquarium for christmas.

I washed my gravel
I rinced the tank
I Boiled the drift wood
I washed the Plastic Plants

Filled the tank
Added Filter start
Added Tap Clear

Tank filter started

PH Reading 7.5
After 3 days I have reisisted temptation to Install any scaley friends to my new habbitat, my tank is cloudy but showing signs of clearing added 1 1/2 doses of filter start as per the instructions.
Joined this forums,
posted my first post

Tashman

 

[Truck]

are you going to do a fishless cycle? ie, adding ammonia every day to acheive 5 ppm until you get a reading of 0 ammonia and nitrites and a reading of around 10-20 ppm of nitrate

 

[mrtash]

are you going to do a fishless cycle? ie, adding ammonia every day to acheive 5 ppm until you get a reading of 0 ammonia and nitrites and a reading of around 10-20 ppm of nitrate

yes i am going for the fishless cycle, i am so glad i resisted temptaion to drop some fish in, i need to pick up the additional testing equipment

 

[Truck]

ok, i recomend a API master freshwater test kit, £15 on ebay

 

[mrtash]

ok, i recomend a API master freshwater test kit, £15 on ebay

ok thanks

 

[rabbut]

Joining the Forum before adding fish just saved the lives of some fish, and you some £££...

You are collecting your testgear which is great, but do you already have your ammonia?

to tff

All the best
Rabbut

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yes congrats for making the first wise choice, researching before adding fish, read the link in my sig 'step by step guide to setting up an aquarium' it covers loads of beginner bits and bobs and will help you out no end.

 

[mrtash]

yes congrats for making the first wise choice, researching before adding fish, read the link in my sig 'step by step guide to setting up an aquarium' it covers loads of beginner bits and bobs and will help you out no end.

yep got amonia

added 2 live plants today

tank crystal clear

adding filter start every 2 days

 

[rabbut]

The filter start is snake oil. It won't do any harm, so you may as well use it up, but it won't do any good either IME, so there wouldn't be any point in buying any more when it runs out IMO It is quite typical for most LFS's to sell this stuff with a new tank, telling you that you need it, when realy you don't

Sounds like a good start

All the best
Rabbut

 

[mrtash]

today,s readings

PH 7.6
NIT 2.0
AMO 0.5

Thanks

Pete aka Tash

 

[Truck]

what about nitrAtes? and what do you mean by Nit?

as that could be NitrAte or NitrIte

 

[mrtash]

what about nitrAtes? and what do you mean by Nit?

as that could be NitrAte or NitrIte

NitrIte

got another test to buy, for nitrate haven't i

wow thers a lot to take in

 

[dave1987]

you need to test for all and when ammonia is down to 0 do a water change about 50% leave it a day see if it broke down the ammonia if it did you are ready for a couple of fish...
Also if you can get some filter media from some one elses established tank it will speed up the process

 

[waterdrop]

you need to test for all and when ammonia is down to 0 do a water change about 50% leave it a day see if it broke down the ammonia if it did you are ready for a couple of fish...
Also if you can get some filter media from some one elses established tank it will speed up the process

Sorry, I'm probably misunderstanding you but this doesn't make any sense to me. The Fishless Cycling techniques we talk about a lot here are nicely spelled out in the Add and Wait method section of our working article "Fishless Cycling" by member "rdd1952" pinned at the top of the "New to the Hobby" section here.

Yes, you need liquid-reagent based tests for Ammonia, Nitrite(NO2), pH and Nitrate(NO3) at a minimum, although you will not need to perform all these tests all the time during the fishless cycling.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[mrtash]

you need to test for all and when ammonia is down to 0 do a water change about 50% leave it a day see if it broke down the ammonia if it did you are ready for a couple of fish...
Also if you can get some filter media from some one elses established tank it will speed up the process

Sorry, I'm probably misunderstanding you but this doesn't make any sense to me. The Fishless Cycling techniques we talk about a lot here are nicely spelled out in the Add and Wait method section of our working article "Fishless Cycling" by member "rdd1952" pinned at the top of the "New to the Hobby" section here.

Yes, you need liquid-reagent based tests for Ammonia, Nitrite(NO2), pH and Nitrate(NO3) at a minimum, although you will not need to perform all these tests all the time during the fishless cycling.

~~waterdrop~~

i am now having sucess in with the amonia levels they are on the verge of zero - these charts are not the best with 43 year old eyes looking at them my readings are yellow lol.
I am thinking about dropping my PH alittle to maybe mid 6 at present it is at 7.5
we live in lincolnshire the water tastes ok in tea but proberbly needs some attention for some tropical friends.