Tank

[donrose]

Ive had my tank up and runnning for just over 2 weeks now, when i set up my tank i only had my tank running without any fish for 24 hour, then whet out and brought my fish, and they seem to be find, ive takin a water sample to my local pet store bout a week later and everythings fine. When ppl are on bout have to cyle yr tank for between 4 to 6 wks i thinks its stupid. Now me mum she had her tank for three months never left it runnin with out fish not even just for 24 hour, not treated the water with tap safe and when her filter is dirty run it under the tap which i have heard u shouldnt do as u should clean it in sum water u have takin frm yr tank, her fish are healthy and swimming round really happy. I mension this to the pet store and they said it could be because by the time her water supply reaches her house all the calcium as gone out of the water, but we have the same water frm the same water supply, is this all just a money making scam, where u have to treat yr water.

 

[plecostomus-mad]

hi and welcome to the forum.


il give you a few pointers as why we use water treatments and why we cycle our tanks before putting fish in there...



basically calcium isnt really a huge factor for fish, not as much as chlorine is. there will be plenty of chlorine in everyones tap water to kill bacteria etc so we dont become ill etc. now chlorine burns the fish's gills and thus makes it harder for them to breath. there are other reasons but this is the main one.

now leaving a tank running for 24hrs wouldn't do a thing, hell leaving it running for 12 months wouldn't do much either. the reason for this is that you need to colonise your filter with friendly bacteria by cycling your tank....there are 2 ways of doing this, fish in cycle and a fishLESS cycle.

now with a fish in cycle you buy some fish that you will expect to die. i mean they may live through it but its doubtful they will live to there maximum age and be 100% healthy and happy. basically what happens here is you buy a tank, set it up, add water and water treatments, heater and filter, gravel / sand and some plants if you like.leave it running for 24hrs JUST to get it to the correct temp etc, then buy some fish suitible for the tank and hope for the best. you will need to do water changes and to help you know when the right time is you buy a water test kit that tests for Ammonia, Nitrates, Nitrites and the ph. each test has a color chart and in a nutshell the darker the color the worse the water conditions are.( depending on kit ) eventually the tank will become cycled. cycled means that there are sufficient bacteria in the filter to cope with the bioload in the tank.

a fishless cycle is almost the same as above apart from there are no fish involved. you buy pure ammonia usually and add it to your tank.you will notice after a while and alot of water tests for ammonia that the ammonia level has dropped from say 5ppm to 4ppm, which means there are bacteria in the filter/s. the cycle continues and you add ammonia until it cycles the set amount of ammonia in 12 hours. when it does its ready for your fish but you cant put loads in the tank in one go, this will cause an ammonia spike and all your hard work was for nothing, it would end up being a fish in cycle which is what we try and avoid.

i havent gone into much detail here but there are threads on the forum about how to cycle your tank.