New Member New To Everything

[Wilky87]

Hello everyone, my name is Karl & i'm 23 from Stockton-on-tees in the UK. I bought my 1st Aquarium a little over 2 weeks ago, mainly because I had a spare corner of my dining room which needed some "life" bringing to it. I opted for a AquaOne Marine 900 which is a 175ltr Tank with a beach cabinet. I'm so happy this forum is here for all the advice and help from the Experienced fish keepers! I went on to set up the tank, filled it with water, some live plants, waited for it to get upto temperature then added a small amount of fish flakes to get some bacteria into the tank. I let the tank run for a little over a week then added some fish. I added 7 tetras of 2 kinds and they seem so be very happy and are playing lovely. I will be adding a Air pump today when I buy a non return valve and i'm going to leave the tank for about 3 weeks then take a sample to my local pet shop for water testing. Then go onto adding some more fish.

Any advice would be very appreciated and here is a picture of my tank at the minute.

*Edit* As you can see i decided to be a little different & use purple slate for the bottom of my tank, it was a nightmare to wash clean but the results were worth it


Tank by Karl Wilkinson, on Flickr


Tetra by Karl Wilkinson, on Flickr

 

[Blubble37]

nice tank mate, the slate looks amazing.

unfortunately though you have fallen prey to the fish in cycle.

have a read through the beginners resource centre (i will post the link) and look at the bit on fish-in cycling

just leaving the tank to run won't work, niether do bacteria in a bottle things! the best thing for your tank right now is either frequent water changes and you buying your own test kit (api master liquid or the salifert liquid)

or

in the beginners resource centre there is a media donation list, this media is full of the bacteria your tank needs because we have cycled it. if you find my username on there and send me a PM (you have to be above 10 posts to do the pm's though) i will happily donate some to you! (mainly because one of my filters is crammed full of foam media after my 2nd filter went south for the winter)

here's the link to the beginners resource centre...

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/277264-beginners-resource-center/

and a link to the media donation list...
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/150631-list-of-members-willing-to-donate-mature-filter-media-to-newbies/


i am under ESSEX/HERTFORDSHIRE but i am willing to accept newbies from further afar.

anyways, what filter are you using, i can see that it is an external.

 

[fishyfeet]

im essex/suffolk but of course as long as you are prepared to travel i will help anyone, like wise if you want my phone number you are welcome to call for a chat. You really need some mature media asap. di

 

[Wilky87]

Cheers for the reply, the bionood media was donated to me, im sorry for not being more specific.. The tank run for 1 week to de-chloronise the water. Will 20% water changes weekly be enough for about 4 weeks, then monthly water changes?

 

[fishyfeet]

you add de-chlorinator when you add water, when you change water you need to dechorinate the water you add, dont add any more fish until the tank is cycled, im not sure if you are changing enough, you need to test the water for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates, and change enough water so that ammonia and nitrites are very low, feed spareingly until it has cycled, the more you feed the higher the ammonia will be the more damaged the tetras will be, ammonia which the fish produce as waste product will burn and poisen the fish inside. The more water you change the less ammonia there will be for the fish, i think you should change at least 10% daily. di

 

[Wilky87]

Thanks, i have taken your advice and have changed 15% of water today, will do this every other day for a few weeks

 

[fishyfeet]

well done, you need to keep testing it as well, esp after the first few weeks, as the bacteria levels will start building up and you might be able to just do it every other day after a while, all tanks are different, so get some dip test strips they are cheap enough and although not perfectly correct they are a good guide and i find them efficient enough to tell you if there is any ammonia or nitrite and if there is not there should be a good reading for nitrates, again test your tap water because my tapwater has 20 nitrates reading so my tanks at 30 or 40 are pretty good, if you have less then your nitates should be lower, whatever your tapwater reading keep them under 50, the more plants you have and the more water you change the nitrates will be lower, you need some for the plants though if your tank is planted. di

 

[Wilky87]

thanks you have been really helpful, its so tempting to just buy some fish and plonk them in, im not gunna though

 

[fishyfeet]

thanks you have been really helpful, its so tempting to just buy some fish and plonk them in, im not gunna though

even after you have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites, and low nitrates without more than weekly water changes you cant just dump fish in, every time you add a fish, you up the amount of ammonia being produced, the filter needs to up its bacteria which it will but takes a while for the adjustment so its little by little.

 

[colleen0309]

Good afternoon and welcome to the forum. Please don't get the test strips. They are notoriously inaccurate and this could be the life or death of your fish. As for water changes, while doing a fish in cycle, you will be a water changing machine. If you don't have a test kit, you should be doing a 50%+ change a day with temp matched, dechlorinated water. After you are cycled, 25% per week should be good with a larger change once a month. Never use chlorinated water in your tank or wash your filter in tap water. The chlorine will kill your beneficial bacteria.

 

[luckytankkeeper]

are you sure that.being that attentive is necessary? i've been successful at sea and fresh water for over 20 years and have never changed.water.so much during a cycle. a test kit is really only a must for salt tanks. fresh is so easy that as long as he doesn't over populate during the first cycling month, he should be just fine. why are you telling him to change water.so, so much? he needs the amonia laden water for bateria growth. that canister filter in.that tank is going to limit the amount of bateria anyway since it is closed and limited on space for the amount of media he needs for that size of tank. i've never had to, been advised to, or have seen anyone change water as much as recommended here? i'm not saying it is wrong. i'd just like to know what the thought is and if it is realistic in a fresh tank of it's size. you shouldn't apply all the recommendation to ANY tank. keep in mind the volume and the reasons for steps and logically apply rules. tank volume will be a great factor in how you start a tank. everyone will have different opinions on how all this is done and especially on maintainning tanks. while most everyone is correct, there are quite a few streams of thought on how to keep a tank. i just.warn you not to be too anal with a fresh/water tank. to much hands in tank is very bad. size the filtration to your volume, then double it, and the volume of media your filtration can bear. just don't flip out and add too many fish in the first month. plants will need a good co2 source of they will not survive. don't use food as your source of decomposing biological matter to generate amonia during cycling. let the few, very few, fish in the tank do their thing. even if you did get used bio media from someone, you need to cycle the tank water before adding more life. fresh water is easy. your tank is awsome. love the substrate. your tank will be great when done. but add more filtration. i recognize the inlet hose to your canister filter. thise alone are aweful. you will be cleanning your tank all the time. add another form of filtration. add power heads to move the water towards the inlet. the slate will get a ton of debris settling in and on that. keep water aggitated with that kind of substrate. fish will love it also.

really, just read as much as you can about WHY maintenance is required. understand the chemical ballances required. understand each.fish and what they require. understand HOW plants grow underwater and what they need to grow. once you have a knowledge footing you will just know how and when to act on.your aquarium. listen to/people here, but really just research the physics and you'd be much better off. many ways to do this, but you have to stick with one method. when people give you advice, ask WHY a step is taken. it is very simple and extremely LOW maintenance. i do one water change a year roughly on my planted tank, and NEVER on my salt reef tank. all i do is add water due to evaporation, change the mechanical media every three to 6 months and feed the plants (CO2 & food) and fish. add clearfast every now and then but poly filter polishes the water on its own.

godd luck buddy. it's a very rewarding/hobby.

 

[Wilky87]

Thanks Does the powerhead just suck onto the tank and suck in water and force it back out? Or does it connect to the filter outlet? Also should i wrap the filter inlet gauze thing with some type of wool?

 

[Malawi MaD]

Thanks Does the powerhead just suck onto the tank and suck in water and force it back out? Or does it connect to the filter outlet? Also should i wrap the filter inlet gauze thing with some type of wool?

Yeah the power head adds water flow to your tank . Wool around the inlet of the power head?

 

[colleen0309]

are you sure that.being that attentive is necessary? i've been successful at sea and fresh water for over 20 years and have never changed.water.so much during a cycle. a test kit is really only a must for salt tanks. fresh is so easy that as long as he doesn't over populate during the first cycling month, he should be just fine. why are you telling him to change water.so, so much? he needs the amonia laden water for bateria growth. that canister filter in.that tank is going to limit the amount of bateria anyway since it is closed and limited on space for the amount of media he needs for that size of tank. i've never had to, been advised to, or have seen anyone change water as much as recommended here? i'm not saying it is wrong. i'd just like to know what the thought is and if it is realistic in a fresh tank of it's size. you shouldn't apply all the recommendation to ANY tank. keep in mind the volume and the reasons for steps and logically apply rules. tank volume will be a great factor in how you start a tank. everyone will have different opinions on how all this is done and especially on maintainning tanks. while most everyone is correct, there are quite a few streams of thought on how to keep a tank. i just.warn you not to be too anal with a fresh/water tank. to much hands in tank is very bad. size the filtration to your volume, then double it, and the volume of media your filtration can bear. just don't flip out and add too many fish in the first month. plants will need a good co2 source of they will not survive. don't use food as your source of decomposing biological matter to generate amonia during cycling. let the few, very few, fish in the tank do their thing. even if you did get used bio media from someone, you need to cycle the tank water before adding more life. fresh water is easy. your tank is awsome. love the substrate. your tank will be great when done. but add more filtration. i recognize the inlet hose to your canister filter. thise alone are aweful. you will be cleanning your tank all the time. add another form of filtration. add power heads to move the water towards the inlet. the slate will get a ton of debris settling in and on that. keep water aggitated with that kind of substrate. fish will love it also.

really, just read as much as you can about WHY maintenance is required. understand the chemical ballances required. understand each.fish and what they require. understand HOW plants grow underwater and what they need to grow. once you have a knowledge footing you will just know how and when to act on.your aquarium. listen to/people here, but really just research the physics and you'd be much better off. many ways to do this, but you have to stick with one method. when people give you advice, ask WHY a step is taken. it is very simple and extremely LOW maintenance. i do one water change a year roughly on my planted tank, and NEVER on my salt reef tank. all i do is add water due to evaporation, change the mechanical media every three to 6 months and feed the plants (CO2 & food) and fish. add clearfast every now and then but poly filter polishes the water on its own.

godd luck buddy. it's a very rewarding/hobby.

I'm so sorry you don't like my advice. We do large water changes while doing a fish in cycle to lessen the damage ammonia and nitrite cause the fish. If you don't have a test kit, how will you know if the levels are too high? Any reading for ammonia or nitrite above 0.25ppm is damaging to fish. People like you who do not do water changes and seem to have luck with fish eventually run out of luck. Then you come here and ask why. If the poster has a test kit to check the levels, daily water changes may not be necessary. But here we are concerned about the health and well being of our fish. We try to tell people the best way to care for their pets. When you get enough posts to pm, contact me directly and we can have a discussion on the subject. Until then I would appreciate it if you don't tell people water changes and test kits aren't necessary. This goes against what we are trying to do on this forum. We try to educate people to the proper way of caring for their pets.

 

[Malawi MaD]

Think lucky tank keeper was basically saying not to tamper with the tank to much as it will never settle. Understand where your both coming from though because without a test kit you don't know if your water is good enough to be left alone to settle. Just people's opinion's really everyone does certain things different