New Tank, New To Fish
- Thread starter ziycon
- Start date
Chris w
New Member
why add stress zyme and stress coat when you dont have no fish in the tank.
i dont see no benefit.
how did you cycle your tank as you dont say.
have you been feeding the tank so the bacteria has something to feed on did you add ammonia
or use a cycle product
these are some of the question that require answer before any advice can be given
I'm totally new and I'm just going on what the shop guy said so far.
Am i right in saying that i need to put in ammonia as there is no fish in it to create waste to help the bacteria grow in the filter?
ALEXF
Fish Addict
I think the question was meaning how do they go about cycling? If that is what you ment they make bacteria in a bottle you can add or you can use fish food, which if i remember right takes longer.
So i need to buy ammonia to get the filter growing bacteria? Any recommendations?
mwood2
Fish Addict
well you can buy a bottle of pure ammonia and use it to cycle your tank. You should have a test kit first so that cast test to see how much you need to add to reach 5ppm of ammonia. If you couldn't find ammonia (it was hard for me to find) you can always use fish food. Its harder to control how much ammonia is produces but it will produce some at least. This will take a few weeks so when you first add don't expect for all the ammonia to go away for at least a week I would say.
Also this is a great time to research the fish you are looking into getting once its cycled. Its a good idea t research each fish's needs such as PH and temp to make sure they can get along.
Also stress zyme and stress coat dont do much in terms of fishles cycle. Stress Zyme MAY shorten the time but only by a few days. Stress Coat is a declorinator by API which will declorinate your water and also from what I hear good to use when transporting fish. I would suggest a cheaper one since your are paying for the name. I often hear pond declorinator can be bought in bulk for cheap and works just fine.
Also this is a great time to research the fish you are looking into getting once its cycled. Its a good idea t research each fish's needs such as PH and temp to make sure they can get along.
Also stress zyme and stress coat dont do much in terms of fishles cycle. Stress Zyme MAY shorten the time but only by a few days. Stress Coat is a declorinator by API which will declorinate your water and also from what I hear good to use when transporting fish. I would suggest a cheaper one since your are paying for the name. I often hear pond declorinator can be bought in bulk for cheap and works just fine.
Thanks for they help mwood2, i'll get started with that then.
fatheadminnow
Fish Aficionado
Stress coat is a very good water conditioner as mentioned above, and that is all I use. But when I was cycling the tank, I used a cheaper one, and when I added fish, I moved to Stress Coat Plus.
Check this link out about "how to fish-less cycle."
Stress zyme is snake oil and is nothing but a gimmick and will not do really anything. Just another product to get our money.
Just continue using it up, as it will not do any harm. Then I would suggest not to buy any more of it.
-FHM
vinylman
Essentially Humanoid
Ziycon,
Is there any way you could get some mature filter media?. Check the pinned threads and see if there's anyone near you that could let you have some. Also - and you've learned this the hard way - don't treat everything your LFS says as Gospel. Most of what they want to sell you will only benefit them, not you. Any doubts, check back here.
Is there any way you could get some mature filter media?. Check the pinned threads and see if there's anyone near you that could let you have some. Also - and you've learned this the hard way - don't treat everything your LFS says as Gospel. Most of what they want to sell you will only benefit them, not you. Any doubts, check back here.
There are a few people listed near me with mature media, i would prefer to start from scratch myself as i feel it would benifit me more in understanding what is going on.
I managed to get my hands on a bottle of ammonia, next thing is the Water test kit order was cancelled due to no stock, can anyone advise where to buy one in Dublin, Ireland or any reliable/good value web stores?
fatheadminnow
Fish Aficionado
fatheadminnow
Fish Aficionado
Nice!Thanks FHM, got a new API Freshwater Master Test Kit for €30 including p&p from ebay!
Yeah, I get a lot of stuff off Ebay, it really is not too bad of a place to shop sometimes.
-FHM
waterdrop
Enthusiastic "Re-Beginner"
Great, so you've got your test kit coming. When it gets here, read and follow the instructions carefully and you can do your initial learning on your tap water. Other things to have are a notebook to use as your daily logbook, two syringes ideally with measurements on them, one for tank water and the other for ammonia-only. Measure the ammonia, nitrite(NO2), nitrate(NO3) and pH of your tap water and record that in your logbook and post it here for the members to see.
Crank up your heater to 84F/29C so the bacteria will be a little warmer. Put about 2 gallons of tap water in a bucket and get out your pure household ammonia (you said you'd found that, right?) If the ammonia is marked with the concentration (9.5% for instance is common in UK) then use the calculator on this sight to get a starting estimate of how many milliliters it might take to raise 2 gallons to 5ppm concentration. Try to use a bit less than what it calls for and then run your ammonia test on the bucket. Hopefully it will come out looking a bit low, like 3ppm or 4ppm. See if you can raise it to what you would guess is 5ppm. Run the entire test again and see if you have now got a good exact amount of -your- bottle of ammonia that will give you 5ppm. Then do the calculation to get close to doing the same thing in your tank. Don't forget there will be water volume lost to the substrate and decorations, so you'll need to guesstimate that too. Once you've tested your way to a good ml amount that will raise your tank to 5ppm be sure to write that in your logbook.
You're in good hands with the members up there. I see they've already explained that StressZyme is probably worthless and StressCoat is a conditioner. Conditioner is important during any water changes that happen when you are fishless cycling because of course you are now trying to -grow- the very bacteria that the water company was trying to kill by putting chlorine or chloramine in your tap water. Be sure to follow dosing directions for your conditioner to dose at either exactly what they tell you or 1.5 times or even 2 times that, but not more than 2 times the recommendation. The two factors are that sometimes the water authorities will overdose chlorine products and it will damage your fledgling bacterial population in the filter media, but the other factor is that going more than 2x dosing of conditioner may slow the growth of the bacteria.
Hope that helps get you started and I'm sure many here will try to answer further questions,
~~waterdrop~~
Crank up your heater to 84F/29C so the bacteria will be a little warmer. Put about 2 gallons of tap water in a bucket and get out your pure household ammonia (you said you'd found that, right?) If the ammonia is marked with the concentration (9.5% for instance is common in UK) then use the calculator on this sight to get a starting estimate of how many milliliters it might take to raise 2 gallons to 5ppm concentration. Try to use a bit less than what it calls for and then run your ammonia test on the bucket. Hopefully it will come out looking a bit low, like 3ppm or 4ppm. See if you can raise it to what you would guess is 5ppm. Run the entire test again and see if you have now got a good exact amount of -your- bottle of ammonia that will give you 5ppm. Then do the calculation to get close to doing the same thing in your tank. Don't forget there will be water volume lost to the substrate and decorations, so you'll need to guesstimate that too. Once you've tested your way to a good ml amount that will raise your tank to 5ppm be sure to write that in your logbook.
You're in good hands with the members up there. I see they've already explained that StressZyme is probably worthless and StressCoat is a conditioner. Conditioner is important during any water changes that happen when you are fishless cycling because of course you are now trying to -grow- the very bacteria that the water company was trying to kill by putting chlorine or chloramine in your tap water. Be sure to follow dosing directions for your conditioner to dose at either exactly what they tell you or 1.5 times or even 2 times that, but not more than 2 times the recommendation. The two factors are that sometimes the water authorities will overdose chlorine products and it will damage your fledgling bacterial population in the filter media, but the other factor is that going more than 2x dosing of conditioner may slow the growth of the bacteria.
Hope that helps get you started and I'm sure many here will try to answer further questions,
~~waterdrop~~
Thanks for the advice waterdrop, i'll post back here when i get the water test kit and i have got started the cycling.Great, so you've got your test kit coming. When it gets here, read and follow the instructions carefully and you can do your initial learning on your tap water. Other things to have are a notebook to use as your daily logbook, two syringes ideally with measurements on them, one for tank water and the other for ammonia-only. Measure the ammonia, nitrite(NO2), nitrate(NO3) and pH of your tap water and record that in your logbook and post it here for the members to see.
Crank up your heater to 84F/29C so the bacteria will be a little warmer. Put about 2 gallons of tap water in a bucket and get out your pure household ammonia (you said you'd found that, right?) If the ammonia is marked with the concentration (9.5% for instance is common in UK) then use the calculator on this sight to get a starting estimate of how many milliliters it might take to raise 2 gallons to 5ppm concentration. Try to use a bit less than what it calls for and then run your ammonia test on the bucket. Hopefully it will come out looking a bit low, like 3ppm or 4ppm. See if you can raise it to what you would guess is 5ppm. Run the entire test again and see if you have now got a good exact amount of -your- bottle of ammonia that will give you 5ppm. Then do the calculation to get close to doing the same thing in your tank. Don't forget there will be water volume lost to the substrate and decorations, so you'll need to guesstimate that too. Once you've tested your way to a good ml amount that will raise your tank to 5ppm be sure to write that in your logbook.
You're in good hands with the members up there. I see they've already explained that StressZyme is probably worthless and StressCoat is a conditioner. Conditioner is important during any water changes that happen when you are fishless cycling because of course you are now trying to -grow- the very bacteria that the water company was trying to kill by putting chlorine or chloramine in your tap water. Be sure to follow dosing directions for your conditioner to dose at either exactly what they tell you or 1.5 times or even 2 times that, but not more than 2 times the recommendation. The two factors are that sometimes the water authorities will overdose chlorine products and it will damage your fledgling bacterial population in the filter media, but the other factor is that going more than 2x dosing of conditioner may slow the growth of the bacteria.
Hope that helps get you started and I'm sure many here will try to answer further questions,
~~waterdrop~~
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