Aquarium: freshwater tropical fish, Tips/Advice

[dibbers]

sad, not at all, in fact you should be ashamed of your self as you've re-ignited my passion for fish......dam you! must n-n-n-not buy one, must not buy one, repeat after me...lol

ha, you'll enjoy the hours and the like watching them, go sparingly on the food and that way your fish will be healthy, it's even good to let them go a day once every now and then without a feeding all though a small pinch in the morning and a small pinch in the night will be more than sufficient. (Wait till you get them a bag of live feed and plop that in, your fish go crazy for it) it's like a scene out of one of them piranha movies..!

Also one other important thing is get some oxygen into the water, your fish will love you for it....like come up to the glass with a smile on there face....ok, ok, but you get my passion for them now....ha!

 

[Firemouth]

Ill be filling the tank tomorrow is there a preference with Water Conditioners?

there are 2 main sellers it would seem Aqua Plus Water Conditioner by Nutrafin and Aqua Safe Aquarium Water Conditioner by Tetra

either ? or is one better than the other

again Rat, you'll not go far wrong with Sechems Prime.
truth is, any quality conditioner, with metal binding, will do fine. most times its down to cost. but Sechem wins there too.

 

[Mick]

Lol @ dibbers, mate I know what you mean about addiction.

I have been keeping marines maybe 6 years now, and don't want to know how much I have spent.

As said be careful Rat, you never know where this can lead you lol... keeping fish is difficult but rewarding

I started with a 12 gallon nano reef, that turned into a 40 gallon nano tank, that turned into a 130 gallon acrylic tank (that was made poorly and almost burst), which then turned into a 220 gallon x 2 sump reef, who knows what is next?

Infact I have spoken with the wife about moving a little out of london for a bigger property and the house has to have a garage that can be converted into a fish room lol that joins to the living room for an in wall tank... happy days

Mick

 

[Rat]

get a good one. one which bind heavy metals too. (thats most good quality ones) it aint always expensive, either. Seachem Prime costs, roughly, a penny to treat 200l of water.

I took your advice mate after speaking to the guys in the shop, I bought the Seachem head start aquarium conditioning pack thanks

 

[dibbers]

man, went to the local pet store today and bought a new sandstone for the air, I recommend getting a one that's about 2" - 3" in long rather than a small round one, they give out a lot more air and a very good range of bubbles in the water, also bought a new filter, some new filter medium, and a treat for them, some dried bloodworm! ha..happy days.....I was even looking at some more tanks today, can't believe you've got me started, seen some nice ones, some like kind of free standing ones, the ones that kind of don't have any borders around the glass and then seen the cost, and then, had a thought, I'll sleep on it...ha!

@ Mick, man that sounds awesome your set up, I can imagine what it looks like, and also the work that's gone into (and does) keeping them tip top. sounds like some size tanks that you have there and had mate, bet there are wicked when they are full, a woman near me that was leaving to go abroad had a full set up and she wanted only about £200 quid this was a few years ago, so wanted it, just at the time I'd got rid of the marine tank probably about a year before she offered me it, was so close to getting it. (and you've talked to the mrs about moving for the love of them, that's dedication man!


right off to give them a pinch of this bloodworm!

here's the air stone that I got, pretty neat for a small tank, give much more oxygenated water to them..



all though I've seen something called a Bubble Disk Airstone Air Stone, look good, think I'll get one...round sand stones they are, create a whirl of bubbles.

 

[dibbers]

just put the new INTERPET FILTER PF PF1, in (With some very fine medium in it, some new carbon and the like filters) then me new bulb's on it's way! ha..they love you for this thread Rat!



Now looking to replace the air pump as it's kind of noisy, had it a while and it's in rubber legs even on carpet and it's noisy, we had a one at school that was a mechanical one, like a really small steam engine and that was totally silent...wonder if you can still get them.

also ordered me bulb and changed it to a PL11W mix Sunlight 7.1k & Tropical 8k Tube Original Aqua One replacement Sunlight and Tropical Mix Fluorescent Lighting Tube.

Happy days..

Sorry to hijack your thread but you started it and you making me spend some coin...

good going though, bought time I revamped the old tank.

 

[Rat]

Love it Dibbers Be like a brand new set up

Update on mine
Tank has been set up a few days now with gravel, pebbles, plants, pump etc going through the cycle
Added the prime to initial setup and adding stability daily for first 7 days as per instructions

Bought an attachment today that fits onto the pump to add bubbles/aerate the water (air diffuser)
all in all it's coming along

 

[Mick]

Just a note about air stones, they are not that great at putting oxygen into the tank and can be quite noisy.

They do put oxygen into the tank but only because of the surface movement that is generated when the bubbles pop at the top of the water surface.

You will get a much better oxygen intake from your filter being pointed at the surface.

But you have a cycle to worry about mate before anything else

I am actually having a little issue with my tank at the moment, I have high phosphate and nitrate levels, not had allot of time and I think a cannister filter I was using for phosphate control has leached all back into the tank, nothing is dead but its gonna take some time to get my levels back in check... a couple of weeks I reckon. My anemones are sulking a little, I added some vodka as a carbon source, and I kinda milked the tank lol... good job its a big tank with lots of surface movement to keep the oxygen flowing into it! and my Skimmer has gone mental two cups came out today.

Mick

 

[Rat]

I dunno if there just trying to sell me fish but most aquatic shops I speak to say put fish in now :err: hardy fish like platies or mollies
but I think Ill wait a bit as advised by you guys

 

[dibbers]

@ Mick, really? Well I never new that, So point the filter to the surface even though it's submersed? I have all ways pointed it at the furthest point away from the corner that it''s in, all ways pointing downwards, I got that filter and you can raise above water level and the like, I'll point it upwards to the roof of the water, is that so it breaks the film on the surface?

It's only a small tank for me, 2 goldfish and that's the lot.


There's one of them bubble disks here.

[video=youtube_share;3zJSS3Gwsgs]http://youtu.be/3zJSS3Gwsgs[/video]


Hope you get that spike down Mick, and yeah Rat, they want you to buy fish, they all ways do, if they were a good pet shop that cared then they'd not have advised you to buy and stock the tank straight away.....

ah just read that back again...

Just a note about air stones, they are not that great at putting oxygen into the tank and can be quite noisy.

They do put oxygen into the tank but only because of the surface movement that is generated when the bubbles pop at the top of the water surface.

Interesting, I never knew that.....

 

[Mick]

Well they are kinda right mate, because bacteria needs to colonise your tank, and a fish producing waste will excelerate the process.

That is a question for you lol, do you speed up the process... Or does your conscious get the better of you?

To be honest if my fish shop that I have been using for a very long time now said that, it would worry me about how they actually treat there fish, let's be honest the biggest worry is fish disease like fungus etc, it can literally kill a whole tank if you put just one infected fish in and it will take up to 6 months before you can restock.... As that is how long some of the diseases can stay dormant waiting for another fish to feed on.

If you stress out a fish it's immune system breaks down, and at that point any small infection can turn into a full blown wipe out of a tank, and touch wood I have not had that happen to me.

However I did once have a coral with brown jelly and that coral took out every coral I had, and I nearly chucked in the towel right there and then!

Take things slow, let the tank mature a little, keep on top of nutrients by testing your water for basic things like phosphate and nitrates and you should be good to go mate. It's not all doom and gloom.

Mick

 

[Mick]

@ Mick, really? Well I never new that, So point the filter to the surface even though it's submersed? I have all ways pointed it at the furthest point away from the corner that it''s in, all ways pointing downwards, I got that filter and you can raise above water level and the like, I'll point it upwards to the roof of the water, is that so it breaks the film on the surface?

It's only a small tank for me, 2 goldfish and that's the lot.


There's one of them bubble disks.

That bubble disk will work well, but its the surface where the exchange happens, the bubbles come up break the surface and the oxygen is then pulled into the aquarium.

When a filter is pointed at the surface it will push the water up then bring it back down into the tank this will pull the oxygen into the tank at the same time as the exchange.

I am no expert, I read allot and it was something I read some time ago by some expert lol... there is allot of them

It could be wrong, and I find allot of the time that what someone believes now, they will discredit it later (it's a little bit like politics lol).

Mick

 

[Rat]

Had a water test done today to see how the water cycle was going
Ammonia is 0% but the is still a trace of Nitrate, the guy said that it should be fine by next week and to take another water sample in (still got to run the course of chemicals anyway)

He also said that the fish and food will raise the Nitrate a little so next week should be low enough to start introducing a hardy fish

At least I know now the cycle is going well

 

[earwig999]

I did a 4 fish in cycle and lost 2 of them due to the stress of it. The other 2 I have are doing great now though. With a fish in cycle though you have to change the water much more often, which is fun at first but soon becomes a problem when you are doing it every day and sometimes twice a day to keep the ammonia level down.

Be patient John, you haven't had your Nitrite spike yet, have you?

Also with filters don't rinse them out under the tap in fresh water, use the siphoned off tank water and just give them a few squeezes to get the slimy stuff out, otherwise you will loose the 'friendly bacteria'.

 

[Rat]

its the first water test Ive had done Craig so no idea about spike

I washed the new plants I got with the tank water maybe adding the plants pushed the Nitrate up a bit ? I really dont know tbh
but Im happy to wait until next week then do another water test and go from there

 

[Mick]

John what is your Nitrite reading (NOT NITRATE)

First off you should be testing DAILY to start with, 1 it will get you into a habit of testing, and two it will allow you to see the actual cycle (well measure it anyway), its important to understand what the cycle is.

The cycle is bacteria, you want good bacteria to convert the nasty piss and shit (plus the excess food you put in) the fish let out all the time in the aquarium, that is done with the good bacteria turning the piss and shit (ammonia) into a less deadly substance (nitrite) then into an even less deadly substance (nitrate)

That is the cycle, it happens all the time every second of the day, so its good to take readings regular.

In my opinion you should document your test readings to begin with and going forward, and especially when you add stock, equipment, anything you put into the tank.

Because once you do get lets say a NITRATE spike of say 30ppm (or above) then you can go back to your results and see what you have done to the tank, in say the last 2 weeks.

Once your cycle is over you wont really need to test for ammonia/nitrite anymore unless things die, or something die's, I would however at a minimum test for nitrate and phosphate, once a week.

Ammonia - will kill everything!
Nitrite - is also deadly.
Nitrate - is deadly at really high levels... however it will stop your plants from growing and produce nasty algae all over the place! (fish normally can deal with high levels of nitrate - but its not right lol)

Can you please post some pics of your tank

Regards
Mick

 

[Rat]

I took a sample of water into the aquatic shop mate and they tested it in like a test tube thing, never actually gave me a reading as such just said what I posted above
I got my test sticks today and done a test and according to colour chart the 6 tests were all in safe margins

I will take another sample of water into the aquatic shop tomorrow for him to do his test tube test

but after what he said Saturday and my test today (I think) I could maybe introduce some hardy Platys tomorrow ?

my daughter has been really good in understanding that we have has the tank running for nearly a week with no fish and is happy to wait like I am, but I also want to add the fish to get the bacteria also cycling and as you said that needs fish

the trace of nitrate he said is what the fish will produce so when entering the fish it will push it up so he wanted to do another test in a few days to see if it had reduced to a level that fish could be added
like I say after the srtip test I did today I think it could be there but we will see tomorrow

Ill get the camera charged and take some piccys mate

 

[Mick]

safe margins .

Ammonia safe is 0
Nitrite safe is 0
Nitrate safe can be 100 for fish but plants etc its not safe and below 10ppm would be a decent start

Mate I know you want to put fish in but I would suggest you have not had a cycle yet, kick start the cycle with a tiny pinch of food mate not a fish.

The bacteria will start to populate from that.

what kelvin are your bulbs for growing plants pal?

Mick

 

[Rat]

OK Ive added a pinch of food

I have no idea what the kelvin is mate all I know is that they are Juwel High-Lite Day 28w 590mm T5

Thanks mate

 

[Mick]

Daylight will be around 5500k - 7000k, I believe that is a good choice for plants