New fish tank

[animal_lover]

Hi everyone,

animal_lover here I am real new to tropical fish keeping but I have kept Comet goldfish in the past (they all died ), so I have a few questions to ask Any replies are very welcome and I look forward to all your advice. My fish tank is 75L with a heater ad filter that I dont know the proper names :oops: but I can probably find out, and the filter is built in the lid with a pipe coming into the tank. I have a large anchor ornament and a smaller mountain ornament in the tamk with the mormal white dark brown/grey and light brown stones. I also have 4 small fake non-bendable I think polyurethane corals as well as 1 large 3 medium and 2 small fake plants. Anyway here are my questions:

1)I have filled up my new fish tank with water to start the cycling process yesturday but I have not turned on the lights the filter or the heater because I was not sure if I was supposed to or not yet so should I?

2) Also with the information from the question above shoul I be putting any thing like cycle chemicals into the tank or will i be OK?

3)I plan on putting in my tank 2 baby bristlenose catfish, 2 baby angelfish, 10 neon tetras, 7 gold zebra Danios and 4 Black widow tetras. I wanted more and was told that they would be OK at first but once they got bigger they would out grow the tank so had to cut downt the numbers! so will all these fish be OK together (I know that angelfish can become agressive towards new fish and even eat neons when they become adults) so will these numbers be ok or will I have to cut down more or get ride of some species or something (any opinions) .

4) I will be getting the neons next week and doing the whole introducing to new tank thing (i will be getting them all together because my parents think it is silly going back to the LFS and getting yet more of the exact same species)then a week later adding Danios, then a week later the Bristle noses, then a week later the Black widows, then finally a week later the angelfish! !!! So does this sound OK or does someone have a better sugestion or something!

5) How do you add pictures onto these things I have tried to find out through other questions but I just can get it right?

Well thats about it sorry for all the questions and like I said all advice and opinions needed!!!

Thanks in advance for alll your help!!! p.s. I have read about my fish and pretty much everything for the past 3 moonths and read the forums on the website so I know lots of stuff but I certainly dont have any experience!!! :lol:

Hayley

[SpidersWeb]

1) Water will be just fine Adding a product like Cycle will speed up the process, but isn't necessary. Getting a handful of stones from an established tank will certainly kick start things though.

2) Yes, heater and filter on, lights dont matter too much. The filter is what you are actually cycling, and keeping a stable temp helps the bacteria a little.

3) All good options, but personally I'd keep away from the black widows, in the past I found them to be 'nippy' towards other fish, and other club members seemed to share their dislike for them, but if you really like the look of them then sweet as

You will love the personality of angels, and it varies fish to fish, from grumpy to curious to gentle, and they interact with the owner. I guarnatee if they get too big, you'll be buying a bigger tank!

4) I'd add the Zebra Danios first. Then black widows (if I didnt change your mind), then bristlenose, then neons, then angels. Neons tend to be more sensitive than you'd think, I think they're only recommended as cycling fish because they are a dime a dozen. Danios are much hardier, and probably wont notice any ammonia or nitrite spikes while the tanks filter cycles.

5) Get an account with photobucket, upload picture, click on the box where it says 'IMG Code', then paste it in to your post, it'll look like this:

[img=http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j307/DrRabid/Fish%20Tanks/male_krib.jpg]

But once you submit it'll pop up like this:

Big welcome to the forums!

Good luck with your new tank!

[Alan]

Hi there Hayley aka animal_lover.

Welcome to the fishy forum for fishy folk.

Did you see the price for neons at that new shop just opened over Nth Shore??

Cheapest in town I would think.

I will be getting the neons next week and doing the whole introducing to new tank thing

I don't know where in Auck you are so I don't know what your traveling would be.

Guess if you want tho, you could add that to your profile.

Surprising how helpful that small piece of info can be.

[Ianab]

Hi Hayley

Spiders advice is good. The main thing is to take it slow when you are stocking a tank from scratch. But it wont cycle untill you have some fish and fish food (and hence fish poo) in there.

What I do if I'm setting up a tank from scratch is to fill it with tap water and turn on the heater and filters and run it for 24 hours. This lets the temp stabilise (adjust the heater as needed), the water settles and gives off any stray chlorine.

Once you are happy with the water add a few fish - something hardy and cheap, so Zebra danios are a good choice. Just feed them lightly and let them settle in for a week or so. You should then be OK to add a few more fish each week as the bacteria load in the filters and gravel builds up. After a month the tank should be cycled and OK to hold it full complement of fish. If you take it slow you shouldn't loose any fish during the cycling process. If you just fill it up with new fish, 1/2 them are sure to die!

If you already have a tank set up you can shortcut things by running the filter in the established tank for a week, letting it pick up a load of bacteria, then transferring it to the new tank along with some fish. This will jump start the cycle and get things set up much faster.

Then you need to settle into the maintainence schedule where you do part water changes every week or so and rinse out the filters. I just siphon out a bucket of water using a gravel vacumn (to clean up the Pleccy poo) and top up with warm tap water. The Plecos are good for keeping algae under control, but they do poo a LOT.

That will keep your fish healthy and they should live for many years. Well Neons dont live all that long, but Plecos and other larger fish can live for 10 years or more.

Cheers

Ian

[markoshark]

mnn new tank.

Basically, find anyone you know that has a healthy tank, and borrow their filter sponges for a 10 minutes. Clean them in your tank (after letting it settle for 24 hours, as that will build up bacteria.

Dainos are hardy little fish (I got mine when i bought some plants, we had to catch them by dropping the water level in the tank (substantially), and they are none the worse for wear. About the black widow tetras, i'd agree with them being nippy little buggers, i've got two females, the smaller one of the two has nipped a rather large mark in the tail of the other.

Angels are great, my mate has 3 of them, and they are highly inquisitive. They play follow the finger game - Put your finger against the glass and move it up and down. Fish go upppp, fish go dowwwn.

You can supposedly cycle a tank using ammonia, but... Confusing

If you can, find some decorations that have large holes in them, your Danios will love them

Try and get some driftwood as well for the bristlenoses.

And, most importantly, bug everyone you can for ideas on fishies. You will get varying answers, so use google. It is your friend.

[Caryl]

Along with all the other advice, anyone near you got some filter media to give you? If so, that will go a long way towards cycling the tank and making it ready for the fish.

The biggest thing is to add the fish numbers very slowly so the good bacteria in the filter has a chance to build up.

I would forget the angels and start with the danios too by the way and the driftwood is important to bristlenoses as it aids their diet.

Since this is a tropical freshwater tank, may I suugest you don't put the coral in? That looks out of place in a freshwater tank.

[davidb]

anmal lover if you need some media or substate to help cycle your tank and you are close to me then you can grab some to help your tank cycle. i have a 3ft tank full of stones which i don't need and i can give you them. saves me drying them out. i also am due to replace quite a bit of my media soon so i can give you some of my old stuff to help your tank cycle. flick me a pm if you are close to balmoral

[animal_lover]

Thanks everyone for your advice and warm welcome its very appreciated , I forgot 2 say this is a second hand :oops: 1 year (aparantly-spelling) old tank that came with the stones, in-lid lights and in-lid filter I don't know if this makes a difference or not but if it does then please tell me!! Thanks for the advice on the neons I will go with the zebras first and the neons later. Also I really like the widows so I think I will try them out and if I have any problems then I will have to make some sort of a change then but for now I will see how it goes! I have now turned on the heater and the filter. Now with the drift wood I know that it pays an important roll in the britlenoses diet but I have also heard that it clouds up the water! Is there any way to prevent this from happening or is it unavoidable? Also where could I get drift wood from and how big do you recomend it should be? Would I be able to get it from my LFS? By the way I am from the North Shore. Some of you gave me the advice to put my filter in an established tank but because this tank is second hand will I need to do this? I have however bought new filter media and the black and white sponge thingys (excuse the language I dont actually remeber what they are called right now! :lol: etc.

Also haw dependable are LFS because I have been talking to some people there but all opinions are contradicting so I think I will stick with you guys! My LFS by the way is Hollywood Fish Farm Albany!

Also What is the new fish shop you are talking about?

Also again will all my fish fit when they are all grown up? :-?

Finally SpidersWeb I still dont get how to add pictures How do you even get photo bucket? :-?

Can't wait to get my new fish I ahve been waiting sooooooo :lol: long :bounce:

Thanks Hayley (animal_lover)

[Andrew_W]

new fish shop is in browns bay, next to the RSL/RSA what ever it is. called Origin Aquatics

http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/new-au ... 20661.html

PUPUKE AQUARIUM is also awesome!!!

[Ianab]

Now with the drift wood I know that it pays an important roll in the britlenoses diet but I have also heard that it clouds up the water!

Wood can be all different species, and some will leach different natural chemicals into the water over time depending on how old it is and what type. Most woods aren't harmfull to the water and your water changes and filter should keep things under control. If you find one causing a problem chuck it out and try something else.

Also where could I get drift wood from and how big do you recomend it should be?

Well I just pick up interesting bits of wood off the beach or riverbank and wash them well and drop them in. Some recommend boiling them first, depends where they come from I guess. They dont have to be huge, especially if you have a small tank. You could put a couple of small sticks in there and a large flat rock on top to weigh them down. Make an ideal cave for the plecys too.

Some of you gave me the advice to put my filter in an established tank but because this tank is second hand will I need to do this? I have however bought new filter media and the black and white sponge

If the filter hasn't been used for a while and has new sponge just treat it like it's new and cycle it accordingly. If it's been dried out there wont be any significant bacteria left in it. Seeding from another tank is something you have to do pretty much same day. If it dries out or is left too long the bacteria die off.

Also haw dependable are LFS

It varies, some are very good, some aren't so good, and also who you get to talk to in the shop. Some simple questions ( that you already know the answer to ) can help sort out what they know. If they tell you that an adult common pleco will be fine in your 2 ft tank then they aren't one of the good shops :-?

The advantage here is that if someone gives you bad advice they will get corrected pretty quick. There might be different methods of doing things and different experiences, but those get discussed and you can see what you want to try yourself.

Also again will all my fish fit when they are all grown up?

Could be a bit of a squeeze, but if they are healthy larger fish it's easy enough to re-home some... or just do what most of us do... get another tank

For the pictures.. go to www.photobucket.com and sign up for an account. That will let you upload pictures to your own picture pages then you can link them into your posts here.

Cheers

Ian

[animal_lover]

Alan the new fish shop sounds pretty good and my mum and I will go and see it sometime this week and if the prices are god and the fish look healthy then we may even buy some fish from there!

Ian and SpidersWeb I have joined the photo bucket and I have tried put some pictures on the bottom of this reply! :-? (Hope it works)

Also my mum and I will make a trip to the beach to try and find some wood and if we can't find any decent peaces we may look at the new fish shop and my LFS to find some!

Using my test kit I tested the following:

PH=originaly 7.2 after PH down 7.0

Ammonia=0

Nitrite=0

General Hardness=60

Does all this sound good? Thanks again Hayley

My New Fish Tank With no fish :lol: :bounce:

[animal_lover]

Darn Pictures didnt work!

Cant quite figure out y! :-?

Any help?

Im confused :-?

[markoshark]

[markoshark]

few too many IMG codes

Rather than using the hotlinks at the top, it becomes easier to do it manually

once you get a few fishes, it'll get easier to see how your tank is cycling.

Incidently, Jansens sell their wood pre-bogged, and out of their display tanks. Makes it easier for you

[Ianab]

You are getting there..

The pictures are a bit big to embed in the posts (taks to long to load on slow connections etc). Can you make them a bit smaller and repost them to photobucket.

Then you can add them into your posts. Just use the Img button and put the url in there.

http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u18/animal_lover_24_26/NewFishTankPictures004.jpg

Your Ammonia and Nitrite will be Zero because there is NOTHING happening in the tank. The Ammonia and Nitrate will increase slighlty once you add fish, and should then drop to zero again as the filter bacteria start working. As ammonia and nitrite are poisonous you dont want them to build up too fast, hence just adding a few fish and letting the bacteria catch up. PH is neutral (7) and thats fine too.

Having a test kit will make life easier as you can actually watch the tank cycle. Once you add some fish there should be some ammonia present after a few days. As long as it's only a few fish it wont get too high before the ammonia eating bacteria multiply and turn the ammonia into nitirite. So then you will see the nitrite rise a little. Then the next bacteria will kick in and convert that to nitrate. Nitrate isn't very toxic, but you do partial water changes to keep it's level under control long term.

Cheers

Ian

[animal_lover]

Thanks for all the help and advice guys I will be having a play with the pictures tomorrow and sorry for the slow loading thing I didnt know how big they would come out!! :-?

P.S. I'm getting the danios in 2 days :bounce: Im so exited :bounce:

[animal_lover]

OK now the plans of fish has changed a little bit! :lol:

Now Yesturday I got 4 young Male Guppies (and 8 REAL plants) instead of the 7 Danios and in 2 weeks time I will be getting either 3/4 Platties or some more (possibly Female) guppies and then carrying on with my old plans of then getting either the 2 baby bristlenoses or If I dont get the extra guppies or Platties the I will 6 or 7 Black Widow Tetras but if I do then I do get the guppies or Platties then I will only get 4 BWTetras then 10 or a couple more neon tetras then finally 2 baby angelfish! So my plans are now more confusing and more undecided then before but I will decide on the Final fish in a week or 2 when I get the next fish!

So now I have a couple more questions thet I would love some help with:

1) One of my guppies has a sort of a rip in his tail but it wasnt there yesturday so I would it be one of the other guppies or one of my plastic plants?

2)one of my red tailed guppies has a couple of white spots on his tail but I dont know if they were there yesturday or not! :-? I have heard of White Spot and Fin rot but I dont know whether my fish has one of these or not. If he does then how do I cure him? I only got him yesturday!!!

3)Should I be getting different food for the angels and tetras e.g. food that sinks slowly? I have already got floating flakes for the guppies!!

4)When Should I do the first water change? I think I will get the bristlenose next! In 2 weeks.

5)How long do guppies live for?

6) When should I turn on the lights for the first time?

7)I fed the guppies a tiny bit last night and a little bit more this morning! When should I have fed them for the first time in the new tank?

8)My mum likes the look of a black and a white angel together so thats probably what we are going to get but I have heard that Black angels are usually deformed or diaseased usually or something like that!! :-? Any help?

Thanks Hayley :bounce:

[Ianab]

Should I be getting different food for the angels and tetras e.g. food that sinks slowly? I have already got floating flakes for the guppies!!

Angels and tetras will eat floating flakes fine too. My fish also seem to like the dried tubifex worm blocks. You just mush them onto the glass a couple of inches down from the top, they stick there and the fish go crazy eating them. Get some sinking spirulina or algae catfish tablets when you get your pleco too. Plecos generally need food with more plant mateial than normal fish food.

When Should I do the first water change? I think I will get the bristlenose next! In 2 weeks.

You should be fine just doing small water changes each week. (10-20% of the water) Maybe start that next weekend?

How long do guppies live for?

Several years with a bit of luck. They aren't a long lived species, but I think 2-3 years is the normal range.

When should I turn on the lights for the first time?

Now is a good time. If you have plants in there they will want light. You will probably get a bit of green algae growing on the glass and rocks too, dont worry, it's harmless and the pleco will love it.

When should I have fed them for the first time in the new tank

You can feed them as soon as they settle down enough to want to eat. With guppies thats probably about 10 mins Feed them small amounts to start with so they eat it all in a couple of minutes. Doesn't hurt to feed them more often, as long as it's small amounts and they eat it all.

Just keep and eye on the fish, I wouldn't panic about a ripped fin or a spot at the moment, unless things get worse. If it is white spot there will be more spots and they will spread to the other fish. Then you need to treat it.

Cheers

Ian

[animal_lover]

Thanks Ian I have turned on the light and they have eaten 3 times now and about 10 minutes ago I fed them again and this time finally I saw them all eat at the same time within a couple of seconds so I think they have settled down a bit now! I will watch out for more spots and any other injuries in the fish but they have survived a day and a half now which I'm very happy about! :bounce: I will be buying some different food for the bristlenose and will be getting some driftwood as well!! It is good to know the angels and tetras will eat the same food as the guppies!

What do you think of the platties more guppies or more widows?

Thanks Hayley!!! :bounce:

[animal_lover]

I am extremely sad to say that one of my new guppies died today!! I was just wondering if any of you could tell me why this may have happened!!! I know casualties are inevidable espesially in a new tank but I have already in 4 days become attached to the little guys and I am apsolutely heart broken! My parents found him while I was at school and already got rid of him so I don't know exactly what he was like!!! He was the biggest out of all 4 of them and seemed fine until last night when I noticed he was swimming slower and didn't eat as much as normal I thought nothing of it until now!!! He was a beautiful longer tailed silver and black striped guppy and I already miss his Presence ion the tank . Sorry about bothering you all with my sad story but I really want to know why he died so that I can save the others!!! :-?

Thanks Hayley

[dimebag]

id guess the fish would have died because of ammonia, probably caused by overfeeding. very easy to do when starting, and im sure most of us have overfed at some stage. id suggest getting your water tested, and if theres too much ammonia, do a partial waterchange. guppys arent the hardiest fish to be cycling the tank with, but in saying that ive used guppys a couple of times sucsessfully so if you keep an eye on your water quality you should be ok.

good luck and remember this is just my guess.

[animal_lover]

Thanks dimebag I have tested my ammonia and nitrite and stuff the day before last but I dont remember what they said and I will test them again tonight! What is considered a dangerous level? :-? I will be fillling up my special fish bucket tonight with tap water and letting it sit over night before changing 25-30% of the water tomorrow! Does this sound right? How do I know if I am over feeding them? All the food seems to dissapear within about a minute or two!!!

Thanks Hayley

[Ianab]

If I remember right you have a decent sized tank ?

4 guppies shouldn't have overtaxed things even when it was cycling, and it should be cycling pretty slowly and gently with only those fish in there. Generall if the fish eat all the food you give them in a few minutes then you aren't overfeeding, and I dont think a few small guppies will raise the ammonia levels very high before the filters catch up.

Do the others look OK? If they are looking stressed and unhappy then you need to worry, otherwise it might just be bad luck that one died.

Doing a small water change will never hurt anything, so go ahead and do that anyway.

Cheers

Ian

[animal_lover]

Thanks Ian The others look fine at the moment but I will definately be watching them closely over the next few days!!! I was thinking of getting a new fish with the same colouration as him because I really loved him and his colours! I was thinking of getting him tommorrow! Do you think I should or just leave the now 3 reamaining alone for a while?

Thanks Hayley :bounce:

[animal_lover]

Everyone please HELP ME!!!

One of my red guppies is now looking in very very big trouble he is hardly swimming and floating most of the time!! One of my other guppies has been following him and nudging him when he got either too close to the gorund or stopped swimming but I think he has given up!

I dont know whats wrong with him and he doesnt look like hes going to survive much longer so please HELP ME save my fish! I really dont want to loose another one!!!

What do I do?

Should I let nature take its course or save him some how or just keep him swimming and hope for the best???

Im really stressing so please HELP!!!

Hayley

P.S. I tested every thing and the results are as following

PH: 7.2 but after ph down 7.0

Amonia:0.6

Nitrite:0.1

G Hardness: 90