New Tank

[royhandy]

Well...last Sunday I got a 55 gallon tank, manufacturer unknown, with an Emperor 400B HOB and an EBO-Jager 200W heater. I got this stuff in exchange for a Palm Zire (the white model)!

I have not introduced any new fish into the tank yet, but here is what I have done so far:

1) Tank was delivered with pea gravel and about a gallon of water (blackish) in the bottom. I cleaned all that stuff out, reintroduced the gravel after thorough cleaning.

2) On Tuesday, I filled the tank with water and hit it with TetraAqua AquaSafe.

3) I have been running the Emperor 400B since I put in the water. I cleaned all the filters before I installed the unit and filled the charcoal filter (chemical filter?) with new charcoal.

4) Yesterday, Friday, my wife took a water sample to PetSmart and they declared it safe (no chlorine) but advised us to wait another 3 or 4 days before purchasing any fish.

5) Yesterday we bought some plastic decorations and plastic plants. I put these in last night, and installed the water heater and hood light.

The tank is gurgling happily right now, waiting for some inhabitants. I intend to have the water tested again next Tuesday or Wednesday before purchasing any occupants.

My questions are as follows:

1) Does this seem like a reasonable setup for a newbie?

2) What do you folks recommend as first fish? Would 6 Neon Tetras be okay?

3) Is it okay to purchase fish from PetSmart? I would appreciate any tales of success or failure using their fish....I have seen dead fish in their tanks but have not seen any obvious signs of disease like white spots or erratic swimming. There is a non-chain fish store in my area but I am worried that a 20 mile trip might stress any fish I purchased.

Thank you for any input.

Roy

 

[chemflex]

I wouldn't go anywhere near shops like petsmart. You need to be going to aquatic shops really

 

[Kissifish]

One week is not enough time to cycle your tank. Purchase some 5 in 1 test strips that check for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, pH, and water hardness. And check out this site for fishless cycling: Tom's Place - Aquaria at it's best. (Courtesy of one of the older fish enthusiasts on this site. ) Sorry I couldn't remember and didn't have time to look back. ) )

 

[Kissifish]

) Ah, I found it. It's on smb's signature at the bottom. Fishless Cycling.

 

[royhandy]

One week is not enough time to cycle your tank. Purchase some 5 in 1 test strips that check for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, pH, and water hardness. And check out this site for fishless cycling: Tom's Place - Aquaria at it's best. (Courtesy of one of the older fish enthusiasts on this site. ) Sorry I couldn't remember and didn't have time to look back. ) )

I will purchase some of the test strips. I really didn't want to have a bunch of test kits for different water factors lying around. I didn't even know they made five in one strips! Thanks for the advice and link!

Roy

 

[Alien Anna]

Roy - please don't add any fish until your tank is cycled (follow the links for Fishless Cycling). Otherwise, as soon as you add fish the waste they produce is going to produce ammonia in your water, which could kill the fish. You need the beneficial bacteria to grow in your filter and gravel which will break the ammonia down into nitrite, and other bacteria that will break the nitrite down to relatively harmless nitrate (the Nitrogen Cycle). This cannot happen unless you have fish, or an artificial source of ammonia in your tank (hence my recommendation for Fishless Cycling).

I can assure you this will be a lot easier, a lot quicker and save you the stress and heartbreak of losing all your first fish to ammonia and nitrite poisoning.

Leaving a tank of water to stand for a week or a month won't make any difference, except perhaps act as reassurance you haven't got any leaks and the pumps work. If you'd used dechlorinator there wasn't any chance you had chlorine in there anyway! (did the guy not sell you any dechlorinator?).

The next mistake newbies make, which you can avoid, is believing the Local Fish Shop (LFS) people and buying incompatible species, not buying enough for a school when it's schooling fish, buying fish that grow to Moby Dick proportions and being sold Chinese Algae Eaters to keep down algae (CAEs don't eat much algae once adult, aren't from China, are very aggressive to other fish and grow to 9" long potentially). You need to figure out what species you want and you need to buy very carefully, from a reliable and informed LFS (which is usually not a pet supermarket).

Congratulations on making it to this site before you made all the mistakes we made!

 

[aernympha]

my little bit of advive is buy cardinal tetras instead of neon tetra s because cardinal tetras are far more hrady ier and they look practiaclly the same and have more red on there tummys that the neon which has a bit of silver instead!! cradinal do get a bit bigger

 

[royhandy]

Roy - please don't add any fish until your tank is cycled (follow the links for Fishless Cycling). Otherwise, as soon as you add fish the waste they produce is going to produce ammonia in your water, which could kill the fish. You need the beneficial bacteria to grow in your filter and gravel which will break the ammonia down into nitrite, and other bacteria that will break the nitrite down to relatively harmless nitrate (the Nitrogen Cycle). This cannot happen unless you have fish, or an artificial source of ammonia in your tank (hence my recommendation for Fishless Cycling).

I can assure you this will be a lot easier, a lot quicker and save you the stress and heartbreak of losing all your first fish to ammonia and nitrite poisoning.

Leaving a tank of water to stand for a week or a month won't make any difference, except perhaps act as reassurance you haven't got any leaks and the pumps work. If you'd used dechlorinator there wasn't any chance you had chlorine in there anyway! (did the guy not sell you any dechlorinator?).

The next mistake newbies make, which you can avoid, is believing the Local Fish Shop (LFS) people and buying incompatible species, not buying enough for a school when it's schooling fish, buying fish that grow to Moby Dick proportions and being sold Chinese Algae Eaters to keep down algae (CAEs don't eat much algae once adult, aren't from China, are very aggressive to other fish and grow to 9" long potentially). You need to figure out what species you want and you need to buy very carefully, from a reliable and informed LFS (which is usually not a pet supermarket).

Congratulations on making it to this site before you made all the mistakes we made!

Well, I don't have any leaks and the pump works!

Ummm...TetraAqua AquaSafe is a dechlorinator. The guy didn't sell me anything...I traded him a Palm Zire for all this stuff! He had had the tank setup and wanted to get rid of it. I had heard that using the biowheels that he had in his 400B filter would introduce beneficial bacteria into my system (he had a healthy setup before he decided it was too much work)...if that is not the case, then I am going to have to rethink my timetable here. Have no fear, I am going to go buy some test strips and make sure the water is okay. If I am seeing ammonia and no evidence of nitrates I will not introduce any fish into the equation!

HMMM....another vote against PetSmart. Looks like Elmer's will get my business.

SAID BY AERNYMPHA: my little bit of advive is buy cardinal tetras instead of neon tetra s because cardinal tetras are far more hrady ier and they look practiaclly the same and have more red on there tummys that the neon which has a bit of silver instead!!

Thanks for the advice! I had *just* read that neons were a little soft and probably not a good choice for first fish. I appreciate your recommendation.

Roy

 

[Alien Anna]

Ummm...TetraAqua AquaSafe is a dechlorinator. The guy didn't sell me anything...I traded him a Palm Zire for all this stuff! He had had the tank setup and wanted to get rid of it. I had heard that using the biowheels that he had in his 400B filter would introduce beneficial bacteria into my system (he had a healthy setup before he decided it was too much work)...if that is not the case, then I am going to have to rethink my timetable here.

Roy - great idea to get the matured filter from someone else but unless the bacteria in the filter have been "fed" on a source of ammonia, there is a chance they will have died off.

I suggest you follow the fishless cycling advice from the point of checking that the tank is cycled ie. by adding a small bit of ammonia and testing to check it has converted into nitrite and nitrate (if it is cycled, this process will happen so quickly you might not actually detect nitrite). The ammonia will have the added benefit of "feeding" your beneficial bacteria. Once you are satisfied your filter bacteria are alive and growing, you can slowly introduce your new fish.

Here are some hardy species I'd recommend for a beginer to look at:

Schooling fish:

Black neon tetras
White Cloud Mountain minnows
Peppered corys
Harlequin rasboras
Danios
Cardinal tetras
Guppies
Platties
Head-and-tail-light tetras
Penguin fish
Oto catfish

Loners and "Family group" fish (i.e. a male and two or three females):

Cherry barbs
Mollies
Bristle-nosed plec
Betta (Siamese Fighting Fish), female only for community aquaria
Dwarf gouramis
Pearl gouramis

Ones to avoid:
(Either due to size, difficulty in care or aggression) in the beginner phase of fish-keeping (my opinion, of course, YMMV)

Chinese Algae Eater (aka "Sucking Loach")
Red-tailed Black Shark
Discus
Bala shark
Common plec (aka "Suckermouth Catfish")
Oscars
All other cichlids
Rummy-nosed tetras

Don't forget to take environment and territorial behaviour into account before choosing fish. For instance, mollies appreciate hard, slightly saline water; bristlenosed plecs require driftwood and hidey-holes; cherry barbs require plants to hide in and corys can't tolerate salt.