4sticks Posted October 16, 2006 Report Share Posted October 16, 2006 On Wednesday I Filled Tank With Water (It has been in storage for over a year) Saterday we added 10 neon tetras. I have just got & am running a Jebo819 filter When should I do my first 20% water change & how offen after that Thanks Murray Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimTam22 Posted October 16, 2006 Report Share Posted October 16, 2006 what size is the tank?? is there plenty of plants in there?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4sticks Posted October 16, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 16, 2006 I think 200L 3 new Plants Each about 250mm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devon Posted October 16, 2006 Report Share Posted October 16, 2006 wait afew weeks i would think. So that you get some good bacteria growth in the filters and stones. Then just do 20% water changes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bychineva Posted October 16, 2006 Report Share Posted October 16, 2006 wait for a month until bacteria builds up in the filter...then do your water change.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evilknieval69 Posted October 16, 2006 Report Share Posted October 16, 2006 ohk, first of all, did you do what your local fish shop told you to do when starting a tank?? because it sounds like it... that is a bad way to start a tank in my opinion... The water will take a couple weeks to cycle, and during that process, there is a high chance the fish will die from the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate spikes, which all happen during the cycling process.... There are two ways to do a cycle.... The way you are going to do it, is to put a few 'hardy' fish in the tank and hope they survive whilst the cycle happens... i think this is the wrong way to do it as the fish get very stressed, and more often then not, die from the poisoning... The other way (in my opinion, the best) is to do a fishless cycle.... You put the water in the tank, heat it up, filter on etc. and then every night just feed the tank with flakes, as if you had 4 or so small fish in there... the food will start the ammonia spike off, which in turn will get the nitrites and nitrates going, You then SLOWLY add a few fish at a time after a week or two, and slowly build up the biological filtration. You can speed either of these processes up by using allready 'seeded' filter media, or even gravel from an already setup tank. I hope your poor little neons will survive the cycle, but being a 200L tank and only being 10 small neons, they *should* be alright, BUT, they may break out in a stress related disease such as whitespot, which for a beginner (you may not be a beginner, i dont know) is a very hard thing to have to fix.... Unfortunately, most fish stores these days dont give very good advice, they only try to sell you things so they get more $$ (not all fish stores are like this, but you will find ALOT are) This is why we have this awesome site with talented aquarists who are willing to help people out. HTH Rogan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herefishiefishie Posted October 16, 2006 Report Share Posted October 16, 2006 I am a fan off using fish to cycle tanks, but as stated above, neons are not the fish of choice. Being only little buggers in a 200lts of water they should be fine. Usually a good shop will get you in weekly for the first month{or longer if problems} & test your water to se how all is going. Me, when I start a new tank I still do weekly water changes, but I leave the filters & gravel alone. Frenchy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devon Posted October 16, 2006 Report Share Posted October 16, 2006 I just rippin a filter in another tank. Or use stress zyme and coat. Cycle aprenty isnt anyone good. But i havent tryed it., Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pixiejanet Posted October 18, 2006 Report Share Posted October 18, 2006 I cloned my tank from one of my others...using their water and filter sponges...and some substrate....but only as i needed a spare tank for emergency rescue.... Do LFS not give advice anymore?? how were you allowed to buy fish? did you tell them you had just set it up?? Expect them all to die unfortunately....Then, do some serious reading about setting a tank up... I hope all goes well and it`s never too late to learn how to keep fish properly...Lots of info on the web or at a library... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4sticks Posted October 19, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 19, 2006 This is how I was told to do it. I asked about just feed the tank with flakes but they said no, I asked filter media & they said dont bother, I asked about additives & was told dont worry So I done what I was told Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharn Posted October 19, 2006 Report Share Posted October 19, 2006 sadly most LFS staff dont know alot about their animals, especially 'boring fish' alot of people never find out about cycling and kill countless fish so your doing better than most 4sticks if you keep your fish load small for a month or so then slowly increase numbers (like a few small fish every 2 weeks or so) you should be fine as the bacteria wont need to increase rapidly to handle the new load and you wont get spikes. stay away from the more sensitive fish like clown loaches etc if you want them until the tank is matured well though because i have other tanks i never have to cycle (steal water and filter media) but on the rare occasion that i do have to cycle a tank i pretend there is fish in there and feed them :lol: once all the levels are fine a big w/c is done to remove gunk and away you go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted October 19, 2006 Report Share Posted October 19, 2006 You may be from Morrinsville but the pet shop is from Moronsville. There is more than one way to do it but the tank must cycle to stabilize. You cannot have too many plants as they will take a while to get established and start taking part in the chemical equation. Try to get hold of aquarium grown plants that will establish quickly and not die,rot and throw the whole equation out of kilter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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