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New to fish! Blonde needing help!
- Thread starter R84achey
- Start date
Ps I haven’t even set it up yet... need to find a manual as I haven’t a clue where anything goes ?? all this has stemmed from seeing stunning marine coral tanks and deciding I have to have a tank... thank the lord I didn’t get a marine one ?? might be a few months before I end up with fish in at this rate
For everyone who doesn't know what Milton is, it's plain bleach with no additives in a dilute form and it is used for sterilising babies' bottles. Ideal for sterilising fish equipment as it's just bleach (though expensive bleach)
mg/l calcium is not one of the two units used in fishkeeping so we need to convert it.
53.5 mg /l calcium = 7.5 dH and 134 ppm.
Fish profiles give the hardness a species needs in one of those two units so you need to know your hardness in both.
Your water is at the top end of soft, so you need to avoid hard water fish and those few soft water fish which must have very soft water.
While you get the tank ready for fish, you can be researching the fish you want to get. this is the best website for research as it's written by experts - many other sites are written by people who don't actually know much.
www.seriouslyfish.com
The fish profiles will tell you the tank size they need, the hardness and pH they need, the temperature, whether they are shoaling or solitary fish, what kind of food they like, suggestions for tank mates and so on. Now that lockdown is being lifted, go to your local shops (but do not listen to a word they say*) and make a note of the fish that catch yuor eye then look them up on Seriously Fish.
Read the article Deanause gave you about fishless cycling, and this one on plant cycling
www.fishforums.net
then you have information to decide which way you want to go.
Does the tank have the built in filter or did the previous owner replace it with a different one?
If it's the original, you'll find details about it here
www.juwel-aquarium.co.uk
* The most important lesson in fish keeping is never believe anything a shop worker tells you. Most of them have not been trained in fish needs and care, only in how to make a sale. We are not trying to sell you anything and between us have kept just about every fish in the hobby.
mg/l calcium is not one of the two units used in fishkeeping so we need to convert it.
53.5 mg /l calcium = 7.5 dH and 134 ppm.
Fish profiles give the hardness a species needs in one of those two units so you need to know your hardness in both.
Your water is at the top end of soft, so you need to avoid hard water fish and those few soft water fish which must have very soft water.
While you get the tank ready for fish, you can be researching the fish you want to get. this is the best website for research as it's written by experts - many other sites are written by people who don't actually know much.
Knowledge Base — Seriously Fish
www.seriouslyfish.com
Read the article Deanause gave you about fishless cycling, and this one on plant cycling
Planted/silent cycling
So ya got yourself a fish tank, and now you're wondering how to cycle it. You have a few options: 1) Fishless cycle: Set up your substrate and filter (decorations and plants are optional), buy pure ammonia, add enough to your tank to read 3ppm, wait. Full instructions here...
www.fishforums.net
Does the tank have the built in filter or did the previous owner replace it with a different one?
If it's the original, you'll find details about it here
JUWEL Aquarium | Rio 180 LED | purchase online
Rio Line LED - Rio 180 LED. JUWEL Aquarium
www.juwel-aquarium.co.uk
* The most important lesson in fish keeping is never believe anything a shop worker tells you. Most of them have not been trained in fish needs and care, only in how to make a sale. We are not trying to sell you anything and between us have kept just about every fish in the hobby.
ClownLurch
Fish Gatherer
Thank you for your reply. I still don’t understand the water bit (blonde lol) I’m with Yorkshire water xxxxx if you fancy having a look.For everyone who doesn't know what Milton is, it's plain bleach with no additives in a dilute form and it is used for sterilising babies' bottles. Ideal for sterilising fish equipment as it's just bleach (though expensive bleach)
mg/l calcium is not one of the two units used in fishkeeping so we need to convert it.
53.5 mg /l calcium = 7.5 dH and 134 ppm.
Fish profiles give the hardness a species needs in one of those two units so you need to know your hardness in both.
Your water is at the top end of soft, so you need to avoid hard water fish and those few soft water fish which must have very soft water.
While you get the tank ready for fish, you can be researching the fish you want to get. this is the best website for research as it's written by experts - many other sites are written by people who don't actually know much.
The fish profiles will tell you the tank size they need, the hardness and pH they need, the temperature, whether they are shoaling or solitary fish, what kind of food they like, suggestions for tank mates and so on. Now that lockdown is being lifted, go to your local shops (but do not listen to a word they say*) and make a note of the fish that catch yuor eye then look them up on Seriously Fish.Knowledge Base — Seriously Fish
Read the article Deanause gave you about fishless cycling, and this one on plant cycling
then you have information to decide which way you want to go.Planted/silent cycling
So ya got yourself a fish tank, and now you're wondering how to cycle it. You have a few options: 1) Fishless cycle: Set up your substrate and filter (decorations and plants are optional), buy pure ammonia, add enough to your tank to read 3ppm, wait. Full instructions here...
Does the tank have the built in filter or did the previous owner replace it with a different one?
If it's the original, you'll find details about it here
JUWEL Aquarium | Rio 180 LED | purchase online
Rio Line LED - Rio 180 LED. JUWEL Aquarium
* The most important lesson in fish keeping is never believe anything a shop worker tells you. Most of them have not been trained in fish needs and care, only in how to make a sale. We are not trying to sell you anything and between us have kept just about every fish in the hobby.
funnily enough my parents have a small tank and listen to the pet shop/ garden centre advice. They told me I could have the fish in as soon as it’s up to temp with no testing or adjustments as they’ve never tested their tank... it’s a 40 litre one and overstocked from what I can see on here. I’ve not even told them I have this tank as I don’t need to hear their useless advice ? I’ll send you a pic of what I have as I haven’t a clue... I don’t even know how to set it up. However I’m keen to learn and looking forward to being a fish mummy
Obviously I’m going to give the tank a clean... do I need to clean the filter or just leave it be. I’ve ordered 25kg of black fine gravel for the bottom. I’m also really struggling to get the algae off the ornaments they were filthy! You couldn’t even see any colour just dark dark green. Is this as good as it’s going to get. I literally spent 9 hours (no exaggeration just cleaning the artificial plants. They were black and I presumed they were just green plants however there’s a lovely array of colour under all the algae ?
Attachments
A tank will not cycle within a week, even with a source of ammonia. This is the nonsense pet shops tell people
PlasticGalaxy
Fish Gatherer
Nonsense my dad told me, I guess. Wouldn't surprise me really though! I'll change that in my original reply.
Thanks for the correction!
There's a tab for cycling a tank, think it's been posted above. Worth a read to fully understand what the nitrogen cycle is for next time you're giving advice ?
(I can't type without sounding blunt and rude, so apologies for that, I don't mean to ?)
Ignore my link to the Juwel tank - yours is a Vision not Rio (Visions have curved fronts, Rios have straight fronts).
The first of the photos shows an encrusted built in filter but the second shows an external (with a cute dog's head in the photo). You don't need both. If you have an external I would use that and remove that black box that's stuck to the glass to create more space in the tank. It's a bit fiddly but I did it with a Juwel tank. It's stuck on with 8 blobs of silicone, 4 on each side next to the glass. Using a long flexible blade, saw through the 2 silicone blobs at the top of one side then ease it away from the glass and do the bottom two. Now do the other side. It will leave bits of black on the glass but they can be scraped off with a razor blade/Stanley knife bade. Be careful not to touch the silicone joining the panes of glass together.
I don't have an external filter, so someone who used those can help you set it up. Do you have the manual for it? If you don't, tell us everything written on it and we'll see if we can find the manual for you.
The box of assorted bits -
I can see a box labelled Tetra test NH3/NH4 - that's an ammonia tester. Our testers measure ammonia (NH3) and ammonium (NH4) combined. I can explain that more if you want (don't want to overload you too much at once). Check the use by date as it can give false readings if it's out of date.
If you use the external filter, don't bother with all the things with Juwel on them, they are probably spare media for the built in filter. And you don't need the CD.
The black thing with a cable looks to be an air pump. These are used with an air stone to create bubbles, but they are not necessary, you only need it if you like the looks of a lot of bubbles.
Milton is obvious
The various bottles in the corner could be anything!
I've used your postcode to look up your water quality - then I deleted the postcode from your post as it identifies your home to within a few properties.
The hardness is the main thing, and you've given that already.
Your water quality report lists:
nitrate 7.66, that's nice and low
nitrite 0.002 which is so low our test kits won't be able to detect it
pH 7.3.
they don't give ammonia
The reason for looking at these is ammonia and nitrite need to be zero in a fish tank. Nitrate is made by the beneficial bacteria from the ammonia excreted by the fish and that should be kept below 20 - you should find that easy with your tap water level.
It's a steep learning curve and you are probably feeing overwhelmed at the moment. Take it slowly; read everything several times till you get your head round it all.
Concentrate on getting the tank set up - decide if you want gravel or sand on the bottom - look at the photos of tanks on here. We have a section for photos and videos and one for journals which contain lots of photos.
Let us know whatever is written on the external filter - the big black box in the photo with the dog's head in it. Members who have the same filter will be able to help with that.
Don't worry about choosing fish yet - unless you want a day out at your local shops fish window shopping, but just make a note of fish you like and don't listen to the shop workers who will try to tell you to get fish straight away.
And most of all, keep hiding the tank from your parents and their advice
The first of the photos shows an encrusted built in filter but the second shows an external (with a cute dog's head in the photo). You don't need both. If you have an external I would use that and remove that black box that's stuck to the glass to create more space in the tank. It's a bit fiddly but I did it with a Juwel tank. It's stuck on with 8 blobs of silicone, 4 on each side next to the glass. Using a long flexible blade, saw through the 2 silicone blobs at the top of one side then ease it away from the glass and do the bottom two. Now do the other side. It will leave bits of black on the glass but they can be scraped off with a razor blade/Stanley knife bade. Be careful not to touch the silicone joining the panes of glass together.
I don't have an external filter, so someone who used those can help you set it up. Do you have the manual for it? If you don't, tell us everything written on it and we'll see if we can find the manual for you.
The box of assorted bits -
I can see a box labelled Tetra test NH3/NH4 - that's an ammonia tester. Our testers measure ammonia (NH3) and ammonium (NH4) combined. I can explain that more if you want (don't want to overload you too much at once). Check the use by date as it can give false readings if it's out of date.
If you use the external filter, don't bother with all the things with Juwel on them, they are probably spare media for the built in filter. And you don't need the CD.
The black thing with a cable looks to be an air pump. These are used with an air stone to create bubbles, but they are not necessary, you only need it if you like the looks of a lot of bubbles.
Milton is obvious
The various bottles in the corner could be anything!
I've used your postcode to look up your water quality - then I deleted the postcode from your post as it identifies your home to within a few properties.
The hardness is the main thing, and you've given that already.
Your water quality report lists:
nitrate 7.66, that's nice and low
nitrite 0.002 which is so low our test kits won't be able to detect it
pH 7.3.
they don't give ammonia
The reason for looking at these is ammonia and nitrite need to be zero in a fish tank. Nitrate is made by the beneficial bacteria from the ammonia excreted by the fish and that should be kept below 20 - you should find that easy with your tap water level.
It's a steep learning curve and you are probably feeing overwhelmed at the moment. Take it slowly; read everything several times till you get your head round it all.
Concentrate on getting the tank set up - decide if you want gravel or sand on the bottom - look at the photos of tanks on here. We have a section for photos and videos and one for journals which contain lots of photos.
Let us know whatever is written on the external filter - the big black box in the photo with the dog's head in it. Members who have the same filter will be able to help with that.
Don't worry about choosing fish yet - unless you want a day out at your local shops fish window shopping, but just make a note of fish you like and don't listen to the shop workers who will try to tell you to get fish straight away.
And most of all, keep hiding the tank from your parents and their advice
PlasticGalaxy
Fish Gatherer
Wise words to live by.And most of all, keep hiding the tank from your parents and their advice
I missed your post about the sand 
Those ornaments have cleaned up well! if you like them use them. Or slowly change them for ornaments you prefer.
Those ornaments have cleaned up well! if you like them use them. Or slowly change them for ornaments you prefer.
The
Thank you for your detailed reply. Great news about the water. Do I need to buy a specific type of ammonia?Ignore my link to the Juwel tank - yours is a Vision not Rio (Visions have curved fronts, Rios have straight fronts).
The first of the photos shows an encrusted built in filter but the second shows an external (with a cute dog's head in the photo). You don't need both. If you have an external I would use that and remove that black box that's stuck to the glass to create more space in the tank. It's a bit fiddly but I did it with a Juwel tank. It's stuck on with 8 blobs of silicone, 4 on each side next to the glass. Using a long flexible blade, saw through the 2 silicone blobs at the top of one side then ease it away from the glass and do the bottom two. Now do the other side. It will leave bits of black on the glass but they can be scraped off with a razor blade/Stanley knife bade. Be careful not to touch the silicone joining the panes of glass together.
I don't have an external filter, so someone who used those can help you set it up. Do you have the manual for it? If you don't, tell us everything written on it and we'll see if we can find the manual for you.
The box of assorted bits -
I can see a box labelled Tetra test NH3/NH4 - that's an ammonia tester. Our testers measure ammonia (NH3) and ammonium (NH4) combined. I can explain that more if you want (don't want to overload you too much at once). Check the use by date as it can give false readings if it's out of date.
If you use the external filter, don't bother with all the things with Juwel on them, they are probably spare media for the built in filter. And you don't need the CD.
The black thing with a cable looks to be an air pump. These are used with an air stone to create bubbles, but they are not necessary, you only need it if you like the looks of a lot of bubbles.
Milton is obvious
The various bottles in the corner could be anything!
I've used your postcode to look up your water quality - then I deleted the postcode from your post as it identifies your home to within a few properties.
The hardness is the main thing, and you've given that already.
Your water quality report lists:
nitrate 7.66, that's nice and low
nitrite 0.002 which is so low our test kits won't be able to detect it
pH 7.3.
they don't give ammonia
The reason for looking at these is ammonia and nitrite need to be zero in a fish tank. Nitrate is made by the beneficial bacteria from the ammonia excreted by the fish and that should be kept below 20 - you should find that easy with your tap water level.
It's a steep learning curve and you are probably feeing overwhelmed at the moment. Take it slowly; read everything several times till you get your head round it all.
Concentrate on getting the tank set up - decide if you want gravel or sand on the bottom - look at the photos of tanks on here. We have a section for photos and videos and one for journals which contain lots of photos.
Let us know whatever is written on the external filter - the big black box in the photo with the dog's head in it. Members who have the same filter will be able to help with that.
Don't worry about choosing fish yet - unless you want a day out at your local shops fish window shopping, but just make a note of fish you like and don't listen to the shop workers who will try to tell you to get fish straight away.
And most of all, keep hiding the tank from your parents and their advice
The external filter is a fluval 207. I will have a look online to see what’s what.
I have only just noticed but it looks like it doesn’t have a heater. Which would would you reccomend for my tank.
Thankfully I’m not even thinking about buying the fish as yet as I want to make sure I’ve got everything set up just right.
Funnily enough my mother popped down not long after I’d posted and started with the whole master aquarium advice ? I reminded her that I’m a grown up and will run my tank as I want to run my tank. Apparently you just need to chuck tap water in with a little bottle of water conditioner leave it for a week and then stick all your fish in. No water testing required ? to be fair they’ve always had aquariums since I was a child (many moons ago) and I can’t remember any fish disasters ?
Oh really, hadn’t noticed...
The tank seems to be in decent condition. I would get someone to help you and carefully set it on it’s side in the bathroom or over tile. Give it a good scrub with hot water.
Is that white stuff on the glass powder? Or calcium deposits?
—-
The white stuff on the equipment can be removed with white vinegar.
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