New Tank

[TimTam22]

Wow how exciting I just brought a new 300ltr aqua one tank(I think they are called bullet tanks) I think its 4ft

So exciting!!! Anyway I brought it for my discus and my ghost knife and a few others so they would have plenty of room to grow in it (well for a while anyway) :lol:

I have got the filter and heater and a few smaller plants but if anyone has

got cheap gravel (I like white gravel but I'm on a tight budget so I can't be too fussy) I could buy off you it would be great and also any large pieces of drift wood would be great aswell

and anything else that I need that I haven't thought about???? :-?

Thanks in advance

[Caryl]

White is not a good colour as it makes the fish go pale and never show their colours well.

[TimTam22]

what colour do you recommend? I have dark grey ones in two of my other tanks but thought I would never be able to see my my black ghost knife if I used dark ones in his tank :-? , I do have alot of other rocks and plants and drift wood covering most of the white stones in the tank they are currently in so you can't really see alot of the stones anyway if that makes any difference?

[Faran]

With many discus like pigeon bloods or marlboro reds white is preferred as it decreases the amount of "peppering" that the fish displays. Not sure what strains you have, but it's not a bad choice for discus at all. I don't think the BGK will care much either way

I had a discus tank with white gravel and it was pretty stunning. Only ripped it out as I made the tank a grow out/breeding tank instead of a display.

Bullet tanks are the bomb. Not sure why Aqua One stopped making them. Some people say that people prefer the in-hood filters but I think they're horrible and these bullet tanks with an external canister filter are the way to go.

I'm running a Jebo 819 on mine, what are you planning for yours?

[TimTam22]

Great thanks for all that,

I have 2 red melon, 2 golden marlboro, 2 red turks, 1 white pearl?, and I think there might be a couple more called red marlboro :-? , I'm not totally sure as I brought all of them except the red melon discus as a group of four but there gave me some free ones, and when I picked them up they were ready to go in a poly box as I picked them up in auckland, so I didn't get to double check. :oops:

I'm picking up the filter tonight aswell and I can't remember what the exact name is but I definately know its a jebo and 819 is ringing bells but I can't be sure , yea the tanks looks great, I have 3 of the other aqua one tanks with the in built filters and yea I wouldn't rate them compared to the external canister filters

[Faran]

If they're charging you $150 for a used Jebo 819 and heater you may want to rethink that. Brand new 819s are currently $150 at Hutt Pet Centre and a brand new 300W heater can be picked up for $30-$60 depending on brand and seller. My opinion is to NEVER trust a used heater after one cooked a tank of baby fish last month. There's a place not too far from me that a 300W stainless steel heater can be purchased for $55 or $65 (little fuzzy on the exact price, been a while) but Hutt Pets has good prices on heaters too.

[TimTam22]

I paid $100 for the filter and its in real good condition as I saw it before I brought it 8) and I brought a brandnew 300w jebo heater for $22, I agree with the heaters I didn't want some old crusty one :roll:

[SpidersWeb]

Careful with the Jebo heater, they're known to leak, you can often remove the top cap with a small tug. Friend of mine strongly discourages them, saying that one lady had hers catch on fire inside the tank.

But I have a pair of Jebo 2010 150W heaters in my tank and haven't had any problems yet. Just wanted to point out that Jebo heaters aren't as good as the filters.

Congrats on the new setup

[TimTam22]

ok thanks I will keep an eye on it

[ocean4freedom]

Just back to the gravel question, here's what I did with my tank:

I went down to Island Bay a while ago when I set up my tank and picked up a whole lot of fine gravel from the beach, chucked out any stones that were too big and all bits of kelp etc, gave the gravel a wash with loads of freshwater, soaked it in sterilizer and gave it a final rinse with tank water (possibly a bit of an overkill, but figured it would be safer ). Ended up nice and clean and my tank now has a great dark substrate that's also all rounded so won't damage delicate fins. 8)

Now I'm certainly not advocating stripping the beach bare but its there, freely available and looks natural. You also get choice of anything from sand through to boulder size. What you think?

[sharn]

i thought taking sand from the beach was illegal?

[ocean4freedom]

i thought taking sand from the beach was illegal?

Really?! Never heard of that! I know that the beach isn't a protected area since people fish there all the time, but cheers for the warning!

However, the gravel does still look great in the tank ... (And its gravel not sand, so maybe thats alright!)

[Caryl]

Technically I believe it is illegal but nobody minds if you just sneak a bit. If you backed up with a massive truck and front end loader you might get into trouble though!

[TimTam22]

That does sound like a good idea as I do actually live in island bay so would be very convenient

Blue and Kim helped me out with some white stones he had in his bullet so worked out really well (and driftwood and plants) THANKS :lol:

But I will keep that in mind next time as I did go out to makara beach after the yuky weather and picked up some nice bits of driftwood and some nice big stones, I don't know how to make them fish tank friendly though? so any help there would be great the driftwood would be to big to boil :-? How did you sterilize it?

I think its illegal from any beach but yea its not like your were filling a sandpit or anything

[TimTam22]

Hey also swapping over the fishies from the smaller tank to the larger tank advice would be GREAT

The tank is second hand (so used before) but I did disinfect it for 24 hours,and now the tank has been set up with plants driftwood and stones for 2days, the filter is the jebo 819, is brand new and has only been set up going for one day (there was a problem with the one I intended to get so I returned it)

Anyway when and how many fish do you recommend I add at a time?

And would it effect the fish at all if the water is a tiny bit cloudy from the stones (they were rinsed but my helper got tired haha)

I don't want to over stock it and don't want any dead fishies because i'm too hasty :-? And I was really hoping I wouldn't have to wait too long as me and the fishies are excited about there new home :lol:

[sharn]

if you can put some of your existing filter media (from the old tank) into the new tanks filter that would help. personally i dont like adding fish until the cycle has finished but some people will slowly add it, no advice on that one :lol: cause i never do it- any ammonia and nitrite is stressful for for fish, why do that if you can avoid it? if you could let the new filter with a bit of old media in it run for 2 weeks or so and test weekly you could probably start adding after that depending on readings. all new stuff needs time (and gunk) to start the cycle and by jump starting it you could take a week or two off.

as long as the murky water isnt like sharp dust (from the stones) it probably wont matter too much but if it is it could irritate fishs gills.

as for sterilising i soak in boiling water, or pour lots of boiling water over it and let it sun for a few days.

have fun with your new tankies!! :bounce:

[TimTam22]

Cool thanks,

The water has all cleared up now so I don't think I will have any problems with cloudy water .

Will do today with the driftwood thanks for the advice, so hopefully I can add before the fishies are ready to go in.

I will definately let it run its cycle then, as is seems like a stupid idea not too :oops: I definately don't want stressed or dead fishies

I do have this ammonia and nitrite remover (it is a little blue tea bag look alike) I got in this pack of free stuff for spending over a certain amount at animates on saturday Did anyone else get one? if so are these ammonia and nitrite removers recommended?

The pack also had in it- fish net, fish food, algae scuber, ammonia and nitrite remover, a little bottle of cycle and aqua plus, and a couple other things. it was a starter pack for a fish tank (but I didn't buy a fish tank? :-? )

[suphew]

Dont use the ammonia remover, when you are doing the cycle you want this in the tank it is the first stage of food for the bacteria. When doing a fishless cycle people even add liquid ammonia to speed up the process.

If you are going to do a fishless cycle you need to add something to the tank to give the bacteria something to eat. Feeding fish food, like you would if there were fish in the tank works, or as I said pure ammonia, piece of mussel etc etc

[Caryl]

DO NOT USE THE AMMONIA REMOVER as it will stuff up your cycle and give false test readings.

[TimTam22]

ok i'm glad I didn't put it in then why do they have these then? and what should I use it for?

The tanks heater was smashed into a thousand little pieces when it arrived today so I will have to go and buy a new one now that was a big waste of money :evil: but at least I hadn't added anything to the tank thinking I was getting it going faster since i didn't know when the heater was going to arrive.

When doing a fishless cycle people even add liquid ammonia to speed up the process

Is it recommended that I add one or two small fishies to get it going?

[Caryl]

If you have a properly set up and maintained tank that has cycled you should not need any other products at all (unless you have chlorine in your water).

Some people cycle a tank by slowly adding a few hardy fish. As they produce waste, this is drawn into the filter where good bacteria grow to turn the waste into nitrites then nitrates. This is cycling. As you slowly add more fish, the waste grows slowly too and so does the bacteria in proportion.

A fishless cycle uses pure ammonia (many in supermarkets have additives) instead of getting the ammonia from fish wastes. Do one or the other, not both.

[sharn]

i prefer fishless, its easy enough to avoid stress put on fish by being patient and it gives you time to fine tune and get everything perfect before the fish go in. the ammonia way is a good one and used alot, not sure exactly how to go about that but theres alot around on the net bout it.

good luck with your cycle :lol:

[Discusguru]

Hi Tim Tam,

I would put 4 fish into the new tank to cycle it. Being a 4 footer the volume of water in it will cycle the tank with minimal stress on the 4 baby discus. You have to have fish or something in there that will produce ammonia to cycle the tank or you can add pure ammonia to the tank to do a fishless cycle as pointed out by other members.

Cheers,

Ronnie

[TimTam22]

Ok thanks for that, once the replacement heater arrives (mightent be till next week) I will try doing it just like ronnie said. And if I see any signs of stress I will remove them and do it fishless.

thanks for everyones help!! I will post a pic of the tank once theres a few fishes in there :lol:

[alanmin4304]

When I set up a tank I plant it all out and leave it for a few weeks to establish the plant then add fish very slowly. If you do it slowly the balance is maintained and the fish are not stressed. The ammonia comes from the bacterial breakdown of urea from the fish so if you cant easily get ammonia you could add a very small amount of urea from th garden shop. You would only need about one small piece and you need to be aware that it will end up ultimately as nitrate so having established plants helps to get rid of that and complete the cycle. Ammonia from the shop is usually a cleaning agent with ammonia added and will not do your fish any good.