New 125l Set Up

[Essjay]

I see you don't give the ammonia reading. Did you get strips which don't have an ammonia test on them or a liquid reagent kit (with bottles and test tubes) and you just haven't tested for ammonia?

Strip testers aren't very accurate, you are better off with a liquid reagent one. And most strips don't test for ammonia.
You need to know the ammonia reading. You can't do a fishless cycle without being able to test for it. Or a fish-in cycle come to that.

 

[serbusfish]

I see you don't give the ammonia reading. Did you get strips which don't have an ammonia test on them or a liquid reagent kit (with bottles and test tubes) and you just haven't tested for ammonia?

Strip testers aren't very accurate, you are better off with a liquid reagent one. And most strips don't test for ammonia.
You need to know the ammonia reading. You can't do a fishless cycle without being able to test for it. Or a fish-in cycle come to that.

My local shop only had the Tetra 6 in 1 test strip kit so I had to go with that. I am going to order the ammonia one online I think. I did the test twice to be sure and i also tested our bigger family tank which provided different results to mine (it badly needs cleaning out!). Ive done a 50% water change and will test again either later tonight or tomorrow.

 

[Essjay]

You really do need an ammonia test. You can't do anything to the tank till you have one. Well, I suppose if you could get a bottle of ammonia you could add some at the dose given in the calculator http/www.fishforums.net/aquarium-calculator.htm down at the bottom of the page. So long as you don't add more than that, it should be OK till you get your ammonia tester.


You have another tank in the house! Just how bad is it? If you think it could spare some of its media, you could pinch some for yours. Put it in your filter where the water enters the media and add ammonia to the tank at the same time or the bacteria in it will starve. That would speed your cycle up quite a bit.

 

[serbusfish]

You really do need an ammonia test. You can't do anything to the tank till you have one. Well, I suppose if you could get a bottle of ammonia you could add some at the dose given in the calculator http/www.fishforum...-calculator.htm down at the bottom of the page. So long as you don't add more than that, it should be OK till you get your ammonia tester.


You have another tank in the house! Just how bad is it? If you think it could spare some of its media, you could pinch some for yours. Put it in your filter where the water enters the media and add ammonia to the tank at the same time or the bacteria in it will starve. That would speed your cycle up quite a bit.

Put it this way the nitrate is at 250! I think they are doing a water change tonight on it. By media I take it you mean filter pads? They have an internal filter whilst mine is external, dont think they will fit it. I think I will add some more fish food to my tank so more ammonia is generated, that way the bacteria I have wont stave.

 

[Essjay]

The fish food will help. Though it isn't as accurate a way of fishless cycling, as you say it will help keep any bacteria you have alive.

If whoever makes the decisions on the other tank would agree, you can take any of their media and cut it up to make it fit in yours. Bury it in the middle of your media.

 

[serbusfish]

Well, I got the ammonia test kit and it was at 0.25, I did a 30% water change and its now 0. I tested nitrate and nitrite, nitrate was at 10 and nitrite at 0. So I decided rather than keep adding fish food id get some fish. I have had 5 Mountain Cloud Minnows in the tank since 5.00pm (its now 12.45am) and they are doing good, still as lively as when I put them in. Fingers crossed they survive, however I was just wondering how much I should be feeding them, and do I need to make the food really small? They are about an inch long, I tried crushing some flake up but they seem to have trouble eating it unless its a tiny piece.

EDIT:

The tank as it is atm

 

[sebn]

So you have decided to do a "fish in cycle"? I hope you enjoy water changes! You are going to need to keep a really close eye on the ammonia readings. If it gets to 0.25ppm you will need to do a huge (80%+) water change. Its entirely possible that you will need to do big water changes every couple of days.
Someone else will have to confirm but I thought the White cloud minnows were cold water fish?

 

[Essjay]

White clouds are more temperate than cold. They won't survive outdoors in a British winter, for example. But they do need cooler tamperatures than tropical fish, the range for them being 16 to 22 deg C. Future fish for the tank should also be those that prefer these temperatures, which will exclude a lot of the fish at the shop.


I have to repeat what sebn says. Now that you have fish in an uncycled tank it is very importat that you measure your ammonia and nitrite levels at least twice a day and do a water change every time either of them show above zero. Neither should be allowed to get above 0.25. So long as you don't get any more fish till the filter is cycled in a few weeks time, you may get away with a daily water change.
Just because you got the ammonia down to zero by a water change before adding fish it doesn't mean that it'll stay at zero. The fish will have been making ammonia since they first went in the tank, and you'll have virtually no bacteria to remove it.

I wouldn't worry about feeding the fish just yet. it can take fish a while to settle in and start eating, especially if you are feeding them something different from what the shop used. Besides, the less you feed them, the less ammonia they'll make.

 

[serbusfish]

Currently doing an Ammonia test, will post results soon as I know them.

Ive seen 3 different temp ranges for these fish, up to 26'c is the highest ive seen. They are doing ok anyway, and I know for a fact my local store would not have sold them to me if there were not going to be compatible with the other fish I plan to stock (I had a long discussion with the owner yesterday and he knows his stuff).

He told me I could put fish in after one week as my external filter is very different to regular filters, so we'll see what happens.

 

[Flute]

Unfortunately although a lot of shops come across as being very knowledgeable, at the end of the day they are a business and as such will do what ever they can to get a sale. Most of us have been caught out at some point by listening to what they tell us.
Cycling an external is exactly the same as cycling an internal, so you'll still need to be doing big daily water changes to keep levels down otherwise the fish will start to suffer very quickly.

Most information on the net states 22c as the highest temperature, and although yours will probably do ok at 26c you could see them have shortened life spans as a result.

 

[serbusfish]

Right, I tested the water before I went to work (at 12.45pm) and ammonia reading was 0.25mg/l. I tested it when I got home (10.00pm) and it read exactly the same, 0.25mg/l. If it was rated higher than this I would have done a water change tonight, but as it hasnt gone up during the day I will wait til tomorrow to do one. One question, do I need to be turning my filter off during water changes? I know you do with internal boxes but I wasnt sure about external as they are always full of water no matter what.

 

[Essjay]

I have only internals, but as far as I understand, if the end of the tube that sucks the water out of the tank stays under water all the time it's safe to leave it on. But if the it would get uncovered and suck air in you have to turn the filter off.

Edit to add - you do need to turn the heater off though, unless you have a heater inside the filter tube when I've no idea whether you turn those off or not!

 

[serbusfish]

Ok, i'll probably just turn it off to be safe. Nah I still use the regular in tank juwel heater, and yes I turn it off when water changing