New Malawi Tank

[Juggler75]

Hi, I've been looking for some help online and came across this forum. It looked like the best place to ask for help so here goes... bear with me please it's a long story with quite a few questions.

My dad hasn't kept fish for about 15 years but now he's retired and looking to get back into it. Anyway he's ordered a bespoke 4' by 2' by 2' tank with stand from www.acaquatics.co.uk with the aim of keeping quite a few malawi mbuna cichlids, this is due to arrive in about 3 weeks and has been collecting stuff for it for the last 3 weeks. Last week he aquired an old Aqua one 320 to use as a hospital tank and so in went the coral sand, some river rocks (collected by my daughter) and a cheap internal sponge filter (model QD1900-F which apparently does 450l/h - no more details as was donated by a friend whose goldfish had died 3 months ago). That is where he stopped, quite happy that the ph has been steady at 8.5 for the week. He hasn't got an test kit for Ammonia etc and was only testing the ph with his brand new, recently calibrated, shiny digital test pen but following me looking at this forum today he put in 2ml of ammonia solution (from boots) with the aim of leaving it a week and buying the major test kit in the meantime saying "thats what they say on there, it'll take a week before anything happens".

Now he had planned on getting a 50w heater for the hospital tank and taking delivery of some young cichlids (4 week old fry I think) from a friend and leaving them in this hospital tank whilst waiting for his new tank to arrive and mature for a week.

Now, though he has finally realised that he will need to cycle both tanks before he can do this.

My questions are can we use this period to cycle the external filter he plans to use in his main tank (an All Pond Solutions 2000EF external canister filter)?
If so what is the best way of doing this? Any thing else we need to do? Do we have to adapt the methods described in http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/113861-fishless-cycling

I've sort of got involved because my daughter is getting really excited and I don't want tears when the fish die due to old fashioned ideas about how to get a tank ready.
Also if I got my daughter a tank (for neons etc, I'm getting excited too and would quite like to get back involved) could I use the hospital tank internal filter to 'seed' the tank with bacteria and speed up her cycle period? I think I could but not sure if the fact it would be coming from a hard water tank might cause problems.

Many thanks in advance for staying with me and any help you can offer.

Edit: to get the links to work

 

[fluttermoth]

This is what I would do; cycle the small tank and filter, fishlessly, with the ammonia you have.

Once that cycle is done, your dad can get the fish and keep them in the quarantine tank for two weeks; then transfer the whole lot into the big tank; fish into the tank, mature media into the new filter.

That will seed the media in the new filter and keep the media from your quarantine/hospital tank cycled, so you can just take it out of the big filter back into the msaller one when you need to use it; it's a waste of time, effort and electricity running a quarantine tank all the time, plus you have to think of a way to keep the filter cycled while it's not in use.

You can use any media to seed other filters; you may need to be extra vigilant moving bacteria into softer water, as they do grow better in hard, but it's not much of a problem.

Hope that all makes sense!

 

[Juggler75]

ok, thanks for the help.

If, i've got that right then just cycle the small tank with the internal filter then put the fry in.
We then put the internal into the big tank with the fry and connect the external as well and this will be ok or do we have to cycle the big tank with the external before adding the fry?

Sorry if I'm being stupid but rough night with baby and my brain is fuzzy.

 

[fluttermoth]

Sorry, what I actually meant was cycle the small tank and internal filter, thentake the stuff inside the smaller filter; the sponges, ceramic rings or whatever it is (what we call the 'media') and put that into the external.

You can just move the smaller filter over to the big tank and wait for the external to be colonised, but moving the media is the better option.

In fishkeeping, you really only ever need to do one cycle, before you get your first fish. From then on, you can just move the media around from filter to filter where you need it.

Hope baby lets you get an unbroken night's sleep soon; I remember those days only too well!

 

[Juggler75]

Thanks, bit more awake now.

Just popped round to dads to explain this to him to find he'd set up his big filter in the quarantine tank, taking his carbon out, so out of the four trays he has one with wool, one with ceramic rings and one with bio balls, with one empty.

At least we now know it works and is silent, the spray bar is causing massive bubbles though as there doesn't seem to be a way to adjust the flow. He also has the uv switched on. He wants to leave it like this for the week to fully test the main filter but should he switch off the uv? and will it impede the cycling?

API master kit ordered of ebay so will post readings when it arrives.

Cheers

 

[fluttermoth]

Is it an APS filter? If it is, you can adjust the flow a little bit by using the hose shut off lever (I emailed APS about this myself, so I know it's ok to do!), but it's more than likely that it's either air caught in the filter (try tilting it gently) or you've got the spray bar positioned wrongly.

The UV is pretty much useless; I don't bother having them on. The only way it could do any good was if every drop of water in the tank went past it, and that's just not likely to happen in a normal, home aquarium.

You could just do a fishless cycle on the big filter and not bother with the internal, but it does depend on what kind of flow you have with the external; if it's too 'washing machine' your new fry won't be very happy!

 

[colleen0309]

Good morning and welcome!