New to the forum

[777james777]

Hello all.

I have just joined today! I have purchached my new tank which is 160 Litres. 100cm x 40cm x40cm. Iv joined up as I plan on keeping tropical fish for a long time so want to learn as much as possible.
Below is the tank on its stand. My tank is now full of water and is currently doing its 2 week water cycle.

 

[Geoffrey]

Welcome to the forum! Looking forward to seeing your progress on that tank!

 

[Slaphppy7]

Welcome to TFF

Cycling a tank usually will take more than 2 weeks, depending on the method you use...be sure to see here: https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/

 

[Wills]

HI James, welcome to the forum Just to add to the above make sure you read up about cycling as 2 weeks may not get you to where you need to and when I've heard people say 2 weeks before its often a process that does not achieve anything long term either.

What kind of fish are you hoping to keep

Wills

 

[777james777]

I’m looking at a community of tropical freshwater fish.
Everyone I have spoke to and what I have read has said 2 weeks is plenty. To be honest because I’m going on holiday, it’s actually going to be 3 weeks…
How long should it be?

Currently the pump is running and the water is sitting there. My local aquarium shop is giving me some bacteria to add to the tank

 

[jaylach]

Depending on the 'feeder bacteria' source the cycling time can be cut a lot but, doing from scratch, you would probably be looking at a minimum of a month.

What bacteria is the store supplying? If bottled solutions most don't really do much good. If populated substrate and/or filter media the 2 weeks is not all that out of line.

Check your water parameters before adding fish. At first you would want to see just ammonia. Then ammonia and nitrites. Then no ammonia or nitrites and a low amount of nitrates. At this point it is fine to add fish.

 

[Essjay]

Many people believe just letting the tank run is cycling. It's not. Cycling is the process of growing two colonies of bacteria which 'eat' the ammonia waste made by the fish.
To grow these bacteria, we add ammonia from a bottle. There are a few ammonia eating bacteria in our tap water and feeding ammonia to the tank grows more of them. These bacteria 'poop' nitrite then the nitrite eaters have food so they too can grow a lot more of them.
These bacteria are slow growing and it can takes several weeks to grow enough of them to 'eat' the waste made by a tankful of fish. When I did a fishless cycle it took 42 days.

If fish are put into a tank that is not cycled, as soon as they go in the tank they start excreting ammonia. Because there aren't nearly enough bacteria, this ammonia builds up in the water and burns the fish's skin and gills. Eventually, ammonia eating bacteria multiply enough and they make nitrite. This binds to the oxygen receptors in the blood so the fish suffer oxygen starvation - in basic terms nitrite does to fish what carbon monoxide does to us.
Both ammonia and nitrite in the water will permanently harm and even kill the fish.

My local aquarium shop is giving me some bacteria to add to the tank

There are only two brands known to contain the correct species of nitrite eaters - Tetra Safe Start and Dr Tim's One & Only. Even they do not cycle a tank instantly and are best used to speed up a fishless cycle.


One final thing - never, ever believe anything a shop worker says. They won't tell you about cycling in case you go to another shop. They'll sell you a bacterial starter which doesn't work - if your fish die you'll buy more. They'll sell you fish which get too big for your tank. They'll sell you fish unsuitable for your water. And so on.

 

[777james777]

Welcome to TFF

Cycling a tank usually will take more than 2 weeks, depending on the method you use...be sure to see here: https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/

I have had a read through this and there’s a lot to take in. Is there a more “bullet point” way of looking at this that anyone can explain?

Currently-

Tank is full and pump is running (72 hours in)
I’m going to go to the fish shop on Saturday and he is going to give me some water with good bacteria in…

What’s next ?

 

[777james777]

Many people believe just letting the tank run is cycling. It's not. Cycling is the process of growing two colonies of bacteria which 'eat' the ammonia waste made by the fish.
To grow these bacteria, we add ammonia from a bottle. There are a few ammonia eating bacteria in our tap water and feeding ammonia to the tank grows more of them. These bacteria 'poop' nitrite then the nitrite eaters have food so they too can grow a lot more of them.
These bacteria are slow growing and it can takes several weeks to grow enough of them to 'eat' the waste made by a tankful of fish. When I did a fishless cycle it took 42 days.

If fish are put into a tank that is not cycled, as soon as they go in the tank they start excreting ammonia. Because there aren't nearly enough bacteria, this ammonia builds up in the water and burns the fish's skin and gills. Eventually, ammonia eating bacteria multiply enough and they make nitrite. This binds to the oxygen receptors in the blood so the fish suffer oxygen starvation - in basic terms nitrite does to fish what carbon monoxide does to us.
Both ammonia and nitrite in the water will permanently harm and even kill the fish.



There are only two brands known to contain the correct species of nitrite eaters - Tetra Safe Start and Dr Tim's One & Only. Even they do not cycle a tank instantly and are best used to speed up a fishless cycle.


One final thing - never, ever believe anything a shop worker says. They won't tell you about cycling in case you go to another shop. They'll sell you a bacterial starter which doesn't work - if your fish die you'll buy more. They'll sell you fish which get too big for your tank. They'll sell you fish unsuitable for your water. And so on.

Thanks for taking the time to explain that, I think I need to read it a few times before it sinks in!

I am a very patient person and the last thing I want is for my fish to suffer. So I’m happy to take the time and do it right…

So if I get the bacteria (I believe that this is actually water from another fish tank) and add that… is that to speed it up.
It’s then been explained that I need to add a few fish at a time ?

 

[jaylach]

I have had a read through this and there’s a lot to take in. Is there a more “bullet point” way of looking at this that anyone can explain?

Currently-

Tank is full and pump is running (72 hours in)
I’m going to go to the fish shop on Saturday and he is going to give me some water with good bacteria in…

What’s next ?

This is a case of misinformation from a store. The bacteria you want resides in filter media, the substrate and on surfaces. Adding water from a cycled tank does very little if anything.

 

[777james777]

This is a case of misinformation from a store. The bacteria you want resides in filter media, the substrate and on surfaces. Adding water from a cycled tank does very little if anything.

When he explained it he was saying about squeezing a filter into the water.

 

[jaylach]

When he explained it he was saying about squeezing a filter into the water.

That will help some but the little buggers are pretty clingy and few will actually end up in the water by squeezing filter media. This is why you can re-use filter media by cleaning in old tank water when doing water changes. Get rid of gunk but most of the bacteria remains with the media.

BTW, if your filter system uses carbon don't bother. Replace the carbon with more filter media if possible. Carbon is more of a sales gimmick to get more of your money than anything else.

 

[777james777]

That will help some but the little buggers are pretty clingy and few will actually end up in the water by squeezing filter media. This is why you can re-use filter media by cleaning in old tank water when doing water changes. Get rid of gunk but most of the bacteria remains with the media.

BTW, if your filter system uses carbon don't bother. Replace the carbon with more filter media if possible. Carbon is more of a sales gimmick to get more of your money than anything else.

There seems a lot more to this than meets the eye. Sorry I’m new to this.

Could you possibly give me a bullet point step by step of what’s best to do? I currently have a tank full of water that’s been pumped around for 72 hours

 

[Wills]

Really good advice here already and great to see you are listening

In short - bullet point nitrogen cycle

• Fish poop in the tank
• Poop creates ammonia - ammonia is toxic to fish and can kill in a few hours/days in a range of 0.5 - 5 parts per million
• Bacteria in our filters turns the ammonia to nitrite - nitrite is also toxic to fish and can kill in a few hours/days 0.5 - 5 parts per million
• Different bacteria in our filter and substrate turns the nitrite into nitrate - nitrate is slightly toxic to fish over 20 parts per million
• We do water changes to reduce the nitrate with the goal of keeping it as close to 0 as possible

To cycle a tank without exposing fish to ammonia and nitrite

• Fill tank with tap water and set up filter and heater
• Buy bottled ammonia (approx £5) and API master test kit (approx £25)
• Work out a measurement of ammonia to add to the tank with an online calculator (google fishless cycle calculator)
• Raise the ammonia to around 5ppm on the ammonia test chart
• Keep doing this over time and you will start to get a nitrite reading
• Keep doing this more and you will get a nitrate reading
• Once you get ammonia and nitrate to 0 within 24 hours of adding liquid ammonia you are ready for fish

Few caveats around this, you can add fast growing aquatic plants which will speed up the process - the fishless cycle process also takes on the basis of adding in the full stock of fish very quickly so if you want to add fish gradually IMO you dont have to wait for the final step of getting ammonia and nitrite to 0 in 24 hours.

Wills

 

[777james777]

Really good advice here already and great to see you are listening

In short - bullet point nitrogen cycle

• Fish poop in the tank
• Poop creates ammonia - ammonia is toxic to fish and can kill in a few hours/days in a range of 0.5 - 5 parts per million
• Bacteria in our filters turns the ammonia to nitrite - nitrite is also toxic to fish and can kill in a few hours/days 0.5 - 5 parts per million
• Different bacteria in our filter and substrate turns the nitrite into nitrate - nitrate is slightly toxic to fish over 20 parts per million
• We do water changes to reduce the nitrate with the goal of keeping it as close to 0 as possible

To cycle a tank without exposing fish to ammonia and nitrite

• Fill tank with tap water and set up filter and heater
• Buy bottled ammonia (approx £5) and API master test kit (approx £25)
• Work out a measurement of ammonia to add to the tank with an online calculator (google fishless cycle calculator)
• Raise the ammonia to around 5ppm on the ammonia test chart
• Keep doing this over time and you will start to get a nitrite reading
• Keep doing this more and you will get a nitrate reading
• Once you get ammonia and nitrate to 0 within 24 hours of adding liquid ammonia you are ready for fish

Few caveats around this, you can add fast growing aquatic plants which will speed up the process - the fishless cycle process also takes on the basis of adding in the full stock of fish very quickly so if you want to add fish gradually IMO you dont have to wait for the final step of getting ammonia and nitrite to 0 in 24 hours.

Wills

Thank you very much, this is great information. I will read it a few times and make sure I understand it. So I guess the next step is to get to the bottles ammonia and the API tester kit? Any specific brands? I see one or two got mentioned above