New Tank Setup - Not My First

[mattyp84]

Hey, my first post here so id like to say hello first of all!

I currently have a small 30L tank setup which has been fine for the past few months without any problems - so i do know the basics but not everything.

Ive just setup up a Roma 90L, which im looking at planting a little. Set it all up and installed substrate, filter and heater last nite, However the water still appears reasonably cloudy and i have a lot of air bubbles covering most sufaces/items in the tank. The water is definetly alot clearer than when i first filled the tank and i made sure to wash the substate completely before installing it. I have NOT added anything like Nutrafin Aqua Plus or Nutrafin Cycle yet, so i suppose my main question is

Is this cloudyness and bubbles normal ? i remember it happening on my small tank i think, but im sure it cleared up reasonably quicker, so i maybe just being a bit too carfull and worrying because the new tank is alot larger?

The cloudyness is kinda dull clear milky colour and the bubbles havent reappered too much on the front of the tank where i used a algea magnet too remove them.

 

[1patrick1]

yeah the bubbles and the bubbles and cloudiness is quite normall. It is just because you have a new tank. The cloudiness should go away in a few days once the tank has run a bit. The bubble will go away soon. I had them on both of my tanks and they went away within a day or two.

 

[mattyp84]

thats cool thats what i thought, guess il add my nutrafin stuff 2nite, leave pump on and heater and head out, hope itll be cleared 2mo when i get back and i can start figuring out what else too add, wood, rocks etc etc

 

[OldMan47]

Do you have the ammonia and test kit to be ready to cycle that new tank? If so,you could clean the filter from your 30 in the new 90 and give that new filter a head start on a fishless cycle.

 

[mattyp84]

no test kits at the mo unfortunatly, ive added the stuff i mentioned above, how do i go about using the filter medium in the new tank ?? just wait a few days and ring it out in the new tank or ?

 

[OldMan47]

I quite literally rinse out an established filter in the new tank with the filter running. Then I add my ammonia to do a fishless cycle and in under a week I find the ammonia and nitrites are zeros in less than 12 hours after dosing with ammonia. You will want to keep the old media itself in the old tank so that you can stock both of them. The jump start on the new filter will let you stock that tank and the established filter is seldom affected badly by cleaning the media. After all, you clean it every month or two anyway.

 

[mattyp84]

i was just gona squeeze out the old filter and then after a week or so add an gourami from my other tank as they seem too be arguing and then leave it at 1 fish till ive sorted all interior decor etc, is this the wrong way ??

 

[OldMan47]

Don't wait after squeezing the filter in the tank unless you are going to use some ammonia to cycle it. The bacteria start that you give it will need ammonia to thrive.

 

[mattyp84]

so i can squeeze out the old filter and add 1 gourami instantly and then give it a few weeks before adding more ??

water is still slightly cloudy/bright/milky dull is this still ok ?? bubbles have gone mostly now however.

i have a fluval u2 pump which has a top + bottom and middle pump action, is there one which would be better to use for cyclying than the rest ?? it also has a venti (sorry gota shoot out, so not sure on spelling or the actual name) that adds air to the water when i use the top pump

 

[OldMan47]

The venturi seems to be a feature of a typical European style filter. It will make bubbles if you want them but I don't use that feature. As long as your filter is disturbing the water at the surface, no ripples needed, the gas exchange at the surface will take place. That means that the water will be well oxygenated. Bubbles are for decorating and the ones you get from a venturi do nothing for me aesthetically.
If you are doing a fish-in cycle, where you watch the chemistry of your tank closely with appropriate water changes, then yes you could start a filter clone and then put a fish or two into the water. I prefer to do a fishless cycle, even when I clone a filter. It just cuts the cycle down from the 4 to 8 weeks typical time into the 1 week range instead. I find that I can wait a whole week without much stress for a new cycled filter to be ready.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, just like OM47, I prefer to get a tank going via a fishless cycle rather than expose any of my fish to the chance of gill damage from ammonia or nerve damage from nitrite. With all the coming and going in my household, its hard to do the multiple daily tests and potentially to do many water changes that it would take to keep a fish safe during the first weeks while the bacteria are building their biofilms in the new filter.

Before I understood that a "working biofilter" needed to be up and fully running in a tank to really provide a safe environment for fish, I used to think it was safe to just put fish in to start things, now I know better. It also took me a while to work out that watching a filter be able to drop 5ppm of pure household ammonia to zero ppm within 12 hours or less (and do this for a full week or so, consistently) was the really definitive test for whether I had a working biofilter! Ever since then I've felt I understand what it takes to provide freshwater tropicals with the pristine new water they need.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[mattyp84]

well ive added my plants and the fish from my existing tank and got some more fish today and put them in too, put my old filter running in the new tank aswell - fish looking amazing, water is crystal clear, all looking good

 

[OldMan47]

It is time for a pause now Matty. The existing filter would have been enough for the fish that you already had, but by adding more fish, you are putting a strain on the filter's ability to process ammonia. Now it needs some time to get caught back up.

 

[mattyp84]

i wont be adding anythin now for a while, if ever. not sure what else too add, got some swordtails today, look amazing and imo my gouramis look better than ever, il be completely honest, was looking at picking up a test kit today, but for 30quid ?!?! i decided not too.

so just gona be keeping a very close on the fish for any bad signs and doing regular water changes

 

[OldMan47]

If you have the experience for it, you can probably get away with watching the fish for signs of distress. I will not recommend that to anyone, especially a new fish keeper. I do keep a test kit on hand for my own use and I have been doing this fish thing for over 50 years now. It helps when I see something wrong if I can test and figure out what the problem is. I picked up my test kit for much less than that by going on line on E-bay.