Your current Fish tank Setups!

Get yourself an API fresh water test kit, can be bought for around £20 or so. Pretty straightforward way of testing for Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate & pH. Comes with some glass test tubes and it's a liquid drop test. It'll give you an indication as to when you should be changing the water (i.e. any sign of Ammonia/Nitrite).

Do you know anyone with a filter that's already established?

When I started my tank I did it fishless. Soaked my filter sponges in a jug with filter sponges from an established tank and then dosed the tank with Ammonia to get the cycle started off.

I started my ~55ltr tank once it was happily breaking down Ammonia and Nitrite, I then added 5 Black Neon tetra and 5 Cardinal tetra to get it started off.
 
Last edited:
Agree with above. Do it fishless, it spares the fish any suffering that they will go through and you can add your full stock when its complete, knowing they are going into a safe environment.

Also, you will need to do much more than 10-15% water changes every few days if you do decide to do it fish-in. You would have to do anywhere between 30-60% every few days at a minimum.

I'm two weeks into a fishless cycle and waiting for the nitrites to drop. Please be soon :(
 
A week isn't that long to fully cycle? :s

Also, that video of the tank is insane!

How often are you having to change the water in that? Those look like fake plants too? :/
 
andy_mk3 said:
Whether it was long enough or not, the ammonia, nitrite, ph etc were all fine and fish have been perfectly fine for about 2 months now.
Click to expand...

Of course the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate were all fine. Unless I'm missing something there was nothing present to produce ammonia in the first place, thus nothing to promote the growth of nitrifying bacteria :confused:

Your very lucky that your fish are still alive to be honest, unless you've been doing daily water changes.
 
Baz said:
So with the fishless cycling, you add ammonia and let the filter start to work?

How long after starting would you consider putting fishes in?
Click to expand...

There are multiple ways of doing it really, but it can take quite a while so you have to be patient plenty. Basically your promoting the growth of nitrifying bacteria by artificially adding ammonia, which you can get from Boots (but it must be pure ammonia and water, no dyes etc.).

This explains the ins and outs of the whole process:

http://www.fishkeeping.co.uk/articles_51/fishless-cycling-article.htm

Also there are some really good and helpful articles on fishforums.net :)

I've been doing mine for 2 weeks and I don't expect to be putting fishies in till around about October. I know its a pain and you need patience, but it does pay off in the long run, when you can add your full stock all at once :)
 
Cheers Gizka :)

Thats a good article explaining it simply..

I like all new aquarium owners wanted fishes asap, but this by far looks a much better method for them. Will go to the centre at lunch and get a testing kit and some ammonia :)
 
_Gizka_ said:
. I know its a pain and you need patience, but it does pay off in the long run, when you can add your full stock all at once :)
Click to expand...

you cant add your fill stock all at once...

you need to add fish a few at a time to give the system chance to produce more bacteria to match the new amount of ammonia being produced by the fish.

if you add all at once you will have an ammonia spike and have started a new cycle and then be at the same spot you were a few weeks ago.

once your tank has cycled at a couple of fish every couple of weeks.
 
I currently have a goldfish in a 60 litre tank which is way to small for it as it has grown to 7 inches in the 4 years we have had it so am getting a 300 litre tank this week.

The 60 litre was bought due to bad advice from the pet shop: we were told it would be fine for 3 goldfish & would have to do 20% water changes every 2 weeks. Since then 2 of the fish have died & I am doing water changes almost every day, but the remaining fish has developed fin rot. I have been treating it with a fin rot & fungus treatment which appears to have stopped it getting any worse, but has not got rid of it.

I was going to do a fishless cycle on the new tank when I get it and try to cure the fin rot before moving the goldfish over to the new tank, but am now wondering if it would be better to do a fish in cycle as I dont think I can get rid of the fin rot while the fish is in the current tank as it is to small for it.

What do you guys think would be the best thing to do in this situation & are there any better ways for treating or treatments for fin rot as I would need to put almost a whole bottle of the current chemical in the new tank every day if I move the fish over & at £5 a bottle thats not going to be cheap if it takes a while to cure.

I will not be adding any more fish to the new tank for at least 3 months, or 1 month after the fin rot has cleared up, which ever is longer.
 
imo goldfish should not be kept in tanks, they grow to big and really need a pond.

if you are getting a new tank i assume you are also getting a bigger filter (i reccomend a Fluval External Filter 305 for a 300L tank), place one of your new filter pads in with your current filter to try and seed it.

also use the water from your changes to fill the new tank and run the new filter with this water to seed the rest of the filter media.

it should help speed up the cycle process.
 
utajoker said:
imo goldfish should not be kept in tanks, they grow to big and really need a pond.

if you are getting a new tank i assume you are also getting a bigger filter (i reccomend a Fluval External Filter 305 for a 300L tank), place one of your new filter pads in with your current filter to try and seed it.

also use the water from your changes to fill the new tank and run the new filter with this water to seed the rest of the filter media.

it should help speed up the cycle process.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply.

I am getting the tank second hand and it comes with a Superfish aqua pro 4 external filter which is rated for tanks upto 300l & with a flow rate of approx 800l/h. Unfortunately the tank has already been drained and everything has dried out so any bacteria that were in the filter will have died & I will have to start from scratch doing a cycle.

With regards the fin rot problem what would people advise move the fish over and treat in the new tank, or dont move the fish over until it has been cured?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom