Hoorah! New fish tank for me.
- Thread starter Hate
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I heard that urine contains ammonia and that ammonia breaks down the harmful waste from fish and other nasty things in the tank. Hence urinating in the tank helps to establish a good water condition before introducing fish.
Soldato
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Anyway, fish tank looks great!
The tank does look really nice but I feel that it needs a lot more plants as it looks rather sparse at the moment.
You could always just use....amonia
Amonia is given off from fish waste & uneaten food etc, and is very toxic. Part of the cycling process includes getting your filter to build up enough amonia bacteria (a bacs) to keep the amonia level in your tank at 0.
Soldato
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Amomonia doesn't break down the the fish waste it is the fish waste fish produce ammonia just like us so you have to get a source of ammonia in the tank to start the cycle going. Years ago this use to be done by adding a hardy speices of fish which could survive the conditions but it now mostly done on a fishless cycle.
Don
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The system goes like this: Ammonia -> Nitrite -> Nitrate
Ammonia - Fish waste. This is converted by stage one bacteria to Nitrite
Nitrite - Waste product of stage 1 bacteria, converted to Nitrate by stage 2 bacteria
Nitrate - Why we do water changes normally. As this requires either live plants, or physical removal to reduce levels.
Generally speaking at the start of the cycle you will get an ammonia spike (reducing to undetectable levels), then a nitrite spike (which will reduce to undetectable levels) and finally a slowly rising nitrate figure which can be reduced by water changes.
Even the lowest detectable levels of ammonia are enough to kill fish after a few days of exposure.
Ammonia - Fish waste. This is converted by stage one bacteria to Nitrite
Nitrite - Waste product of stage 1 bacteria, converted to Nitrate by stage 2 bacteria
Nitrate - Why we do water changes normally. As this requires either live plants, or physical removal to reduce levels.
Generally speaking at the start of the cycle you will get an ammonia spike (reducing to undetectable levels), then a nitrite spike (which will reduce to undetectable levels) and finally a slowly rising nitrate figure which can be reduced by water changes.
Even the lowest detectable levels of ammonia are enough to kill fish after a few days of exposure.
It should also be said that to do a fishless cycle you basically add amonia(the pure stuff that you can buy from Homebase etc) into your tank until it reaches 5ppm. when the amonia level reaches 0 you add another 5ppm. you do this until the both amonia and nitrite levels reach 0 within 12 hours. You then do a large (80% ish) water change to remove the built up nitrates. Then your tank is classed as cycled.
Bit of advice for anyone setting up a new tank.
If you want a more natural look then get sand instead of gravel.
It makes it easer for the plants roots to grow.
The best part is though you can use Argos play sand which is £2.89 a 15kg bag.
That was more then enough to do my 2 small tanks with an inch of sand and i still have half a bag left.
On my next day off Im going to get another bag and do my big tank.
If you want a more natural look then get sand instead of gravel.
It makes it easer for the plants roots to grow.
The best part is though you can use Argos play sand which is £2.89 a 15kg bag.
That was more then enough to do my 2 small tanks with an inch of sand and i still have half a bag left.
On my next day off Im going to get another bag and do my big tank.
Soldato
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could we see some fish please DSLR optional
DSLR optional