The "new Guy"/hi All :d

[waterdrop]

The early stages of fishless cycling are the luckier times to be gone on vacation. First of all, just leaving it for a week is not likely to set you back much and is not a big deal if it does. As you get closer to time to leave you will know whether you've happened to have enough initial bacteria that regular drops in ammonia level are beginning to happen and based on that you may be able to optimize your situation further.

If the ammonia level is just basically still sitting there at 4 to 5ppm or whatever or only going down very, very slowly then you hardly need anyone to re-dose it. If it is slowly going down over multiple days then you could opt to have someone dose it mid-week or every couple days or such. If you happen to have an interested person then you of course could train them up in what you yourself are doing and have them come in a couple times, test ammonia and dose as necessary.

Another nice addition if no one will come in much or at all would be to grind up a medium small pinch of flake food and swirl it in to the water before you leave. This will slowly break down over the week and provide a little ammonia plus it will have the benefit of a bit more organic complication, which can also help the bacteria sometimes.

WD

 

[KkAaNnEe]

Personally I wouldnt advise putting flake food in, I had a bad experience with this and actually didnt get any ammonia from it decaying over two weeks, its just makes a big mess!

 

[Wigster]

I will see how it is nearer the time then, having no donation of filter media, judging by the comments here my cycle won't be that progressed by then anyway. Worst comes to the worst I'll just have to get a friend/realtive to add a dose or 2 of ammonia.

Cheers once more for the advice all.

 

[Wigster]

One more thing - Can you keep Bala Sharks and Red tailed shark within the same tank, I personally prefer the bala/silver shark, whereas my girlfriends prefers the red tail. However reading in my fish book it says that red tailed sharks are not to be kept with other "sharks", although this video seems to contradict that: http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9a2sRSFjSw
Any thoughts?

 

[botia]

bala sharks grow large eventually about 30cm corydoras are cool little critters and help keep the substrate clean as for the algae eater a gold algae eater could suit your tank

 

[moochy13]

One more thing - Can you keep Bala Sharks and Red tailed shark within the same tank

did you actually totally ignore the info we gave you earlier. your tank is about a quarter of the size needed for bala sharks. its not even big enough for one, let alone the group they need to be kept in. red tail sharks aren't much smaller, but are kept singuarly. they are pretty aggressive though, you need to very seriously think about what else you want in the tank, as most things will get bullied by it. red tail sharks dont like anything the same shape as them. they also dont like anything the same colour as them. so other sharks, black fish, red fish, and fish with a similar body shape will all get hassled.

really, really, i wouldnt bother with either of them. too big, too aggressive, too unsuitable for your tank.

 

[Wigster]

One more thing - Can you keep Bala Sharks and Red tailed shark within the same tank

did you actually totally ignore the info we gave you earlier. your tank is about a quarter of the size needed for bala sharks. its not even big enough for one, let alone the group they need to be kept in. red tail sharks aren't much smaller, but are kept singuarly. they are pretty aggressive though, you need to very seriously think about what else you want in the tank, as most things will get bullied by it. red tail sharks dont like anything the same shape as them. they also dont like anything the same colour as them. so other sharks, black fish, red fish, and fish with a similar body shape will all get hassled.

really, really, i wouldnt bother with either of them. too big, too aggressive, too unsuitable for your tank.

Forgive my ignorance, I didn't mean to directly ignore you. I was so set on having a silver shark, but I guess I'm just going to have to except my losses and not have a silver shark . My fish book does say 36 inches is minimum tank size, and mine is larger than that - but I guess from what yourself and some others are saying my 160L still won't be big enough.

Tank is very slow to start cycling atm, so I've got ages left to decide my fish anyway .

 

[-FighterFishh]

If you pick a suitable centre piece fish, we can help you think up a stocking to put around them.
You could look into some cichlids, maybe a male betta, or possibly a pair of gourami. Pick something you like and research it to see if it's suitable, or you could give us it's name and someone will probably be able to tell you

 

[Wigster]

Updated my tank journal also .
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/367500-wigsters-tank-journal-cycling/

 

[moochy13]

its not so much the size of one fish, although really can you imagine a fish 12 inches long. imagine it in your tank, sat in the middle, with only its own length left either side of it. its not going to get to move about much. then you have to consider that they need to be in groups, can you imagine 2 12" fish in your tank ? let alone a group of 6 ?

 

[Wigster]

Hmmm noticed this fluffy white thing in my tank today, its dotted all over mainly the bogwood. I'm not really worried as there's no fish in there atm, but just wanted to check, as I couldn't seem to find a name or answer for it through Google. So opinions on this please:

 

[-FighterFishh]

Hmmm noticed this fluffy white thing in my tank today, its dotted all over mainly the bogwood. I'm not really worried as there's no fish in there atm, but just wanted to check, as I couldn't seem to find a name or answer for it through Google. So opinions on this please:

That stuff appeared on my tank too. It just appears on new tanks for some reason, something to do with the aquarium silicone, just keep rubbing it off and with time it won't appear any more

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

Looks to me like mould coming from the bogwood, that is quite normal and fish 'enjoy' eating it.

 

[coldcazzie]

Yeah its really common on new wood in new tanks. It will eventually go, but if you don't like it then scrub it off when you see it

 

[Wigster]

As mentioned in my tank journal thread I found a snail in my tank tonight, which I'm quite happy about in some sense as at least I know my tank can sustain life of some sort haha.
But my only concern is will I wake up one mornign and find thousands of these? I know normally snails would be a sign of over feeding... but seeing as I don't have any fish to feed I can't be too blame there

This is the snail, if anyone could possibly I.D it, and maybe say whether or not it is likely to re-produce a-sexually then I can put my mind at rest, as to remove it or not.