What Products Should I Buy?

[ryandoc]

I got a tank for my Christmas. Its a Tetra one that came with a disc. On the disk it gives u some products that will be required but I dont know what they are! I have a liquid that turns tap water into fish friendly water. I need some more gravel as well then I need to buy some plants. Would someone be kind enough to give me a list of stuff I should buy this weekend so I can prep my tank and get it ready to be turned in and then left for the 3 weeks before I add some fish?

Many thanks
Ryan.

 

[Scotty001]

I got a tank for my Christmas. Its a Tetra one that came with a disc. On the disk it gives u some products that will be required but I dont know what they are! I have a liquid that turns tap water into fish friendly water. I need some more gravel as well then I need to buy some plants. Would someone be kind enough to give me a list of stuff I should buy this weekend so I can prep my tank and get it ready to be turned in and then left for the 3 weeks before I add some fish?

Many thanks
Ryan.

I'm guessing you have not cycled your new tank as yet. almost all the chemicals that are on that disk do one thing and thats take money out of your pocket and put it in theirs!!, the only chemicals you are going to need at the moment is the dechlorinate, (the liquid that you have that makes tap water safe for fish. The other chemical you will need is a small amount of ammonia to kick start the cycle.

You are also best to buy a liquid test kit such as API Master, you will need this to determine the progress of your cycle and when everything is all good to introduce fish, Setting up a tank isn't the case of adding water, plants and gravel then leaving for 3 weeks. below is a link for fish-less cycling
HERE which goes into much more detail.

The disk you have is likely to mention chemicals that have bacteria in them that will "speed up the process, this is not the case. have a read up on how to cycle a tank HERE
This link gives you a step by step guide on how to do a fish-less cycle.

Scott

 

[ryandoc]

ahh cheers for that mate. read up on it and it appears fairly straight forward. im in the right place should anything go wrong.

1 question I do have though is when I am doing this cycle and generating the bacteria to the tank, why do I do a water change? I was of the impression that we were preparing the water. are we infact preparing the tank and filter rather than the water? a problem i may have later in the year is having to move house if my mrs gets her way! but thats a while down the line. I always did think that the water was the main part of the cycling process.

 

[Scotty001]

ahh cheers for that mate. read up on it and it appears fairly straight forward. im in the right place should anything go wrong.

1 question I do have though is when I am doing this cycle and generating the bacteria to the tank, why do I do a water change? I was of the impression that we were preparing the water. are we infact preparing the tank and filter rather than the water? a problem i may have later in the year is having to move house if my mrs gets her way! but thats a while down the line. I always did think that the water was the main part of the cycling process.

Even though were trying to cultivate good bacteria and need the amonia to start with which then converts to nitrite and then onto nitrate the only method we have to remove the nitrate is the water changes. i tdo belive this is the reason for the water changes ( It certainly is when the tank is stocked) but not 100% sure while cycleing, think it will also have something to do with not having WAY TOO MUCH ammonia in the tank to give the bacteria a chance of developing.

With regards to moving house it may not be as bad as you think lol, what size tank do tank in Ltr or UK / US GALLON do you have as depending on the size i can give you some meathods that i use.
Scott

 

[waterdrop]

ahh cheers for that mate. read up on it and it appears fairly straight forward. im in the right place should anything go wrong.

1 question I do have though is when I am doing this cycle and generating the bacteria to the tank, why do I do a water change? I was of the impression that we were preparing the water. are we infact preparing the tank and filter rather than the water? a problem i may have later in the year is having to move house if my mrs gets her way! but thats a while down the line. I always did think that the water was the main part of the cycling process.

Ah, very perceptive! It is the -filter- (specifically the media in the filter that functions as a "bio-filter") that you are preparing for your future fish environmental system. The tank water used during fishless cycling is just a tool to do this filter prep. The two species of bacteria you are trying to grow only grow well when you correctly maintain their "growth media"(ie. the temporary tank water!) Its temporary because if you notice at the end of the instructions, it will mostly all be changed out for fresh dechlored tap water.

During fishless cycling it is often advised to do a large water change if your pH gets down to 6.0 (the water getting more acidic like this happens sometimes to people with softer water, the cycling process can cause the pH to drop lower than ideal for growing the good bacteria.) If you do one of these water changes you have to be sure to dechlor (you don't want the chlorine to kill any of the bacteria you've been growing in the filter, right?) the replacement water and recharge it back up to 4-6ppm of ammonia (to continue feeding the bacteria.)

Keep re-reading those fishless cycling instrucs and testing and Good Luck! ~~waterdrop~~

 

[iihay]

For dechlorinator I would recommend getting Prime. It's a really good product and really concentrated so effectively way cheaper than a lot of others on the market. It also can help later when you are adding fish as it detoxifies ammonia and nitrite (simplistic statement but effectively true). Proper fishless cycling is the best method but you may get a small spike if too many fish go in and the equilibrium isn't quite right so for piece of mind it's a good thing to have. Better to have it in first than test and discover a small spike has happened.

But for cycling you can't go wrong with the advice given by others and a good test kit. I'm fairly new to this and have found the advice on here to be absolutely spot-on

 

[ryandoc]

thank you very much to everyone who has helped me here. im going to go to the pet shop on saturday to pick up my things. I may be on later looking for some advice on how many plants I should get!!