[gcooke]

Hello,

I'm new to the forum and tropical aquariums. I've just started my first tank after keeping goldfish for years. It's an 84L with basic heater and filter, and the gravel and water just went in yesterday. I've put in the three recommended water treatments and plan to cycle it for the next 3 weeks at least.

The treatments are: API Stress Coat, API Stress Zyme, Kordon Amquel.

The water has been in for about 12 hours, but there is a slight green tinge to it. Should it not be completely clear at this stage?

I'm thinking of starting a blog about the progress of the tank.

Graham.

 

[djrichie]

Welcome to the site.... give it a couple of days before getting worried about the tank... It takes any were from 6 to 8 weeks to cycle. You need to add some form of pure ammonia to the tank where it be fish waste or pure ammonia from a bottle (Fishless Cycle).... you should start a tank blog or tank log

 

[gcooke]

Cheers for reply. I need to add ammonia to start the cycle? Neither the tank's manual nor the "fishlopedia" I bought mention this. Should the water treatments plus a few flakes of food a day be sufficient?

I have the tank set to 24C, is this an appropriate temperature? Also, I've read that goldfish can live in warm water tanks, is this true?

Been reading the rest of the forum, it's very useful, thanks to all.

 

[petlover516]

welcome! by far the quickest way 2 cycle a tank is 2 get some gravel from an established tank. ask a friend or a good LFS 4 a sample of their gravel. goldfish like temps. of around 60.Farenheight, im not sure about what celcius that is. u didn't say anything about using tetra aquasafe, which removes chlorine and chloramine from the water. if u didn't use this i'd reccomend u do.

 

[gcooke]

I have a well-established small goldfish tank, would some of the gravel from that be suitable to start the process in my new tropical tank?

Thanks.

 

[djrichie]

petlover he using a dechorinater in the from of Amquel. It's does the samething, its just a choice which product a person likes.

Qcooke, yes you can add a little fish food to the tank everyday to get the cycling done, as will as any organic material that will rot. I heard of people using dead shrimp or fish as will. If this is going to be a tropical fish tank you may want to use something other than gold fish waste or the fish itself. they have a different chemical make up than tropicals, it will work but IOM in the long run you end up with do more work. If you can get live plants the root system have the bac. in it as will and will seed the tank. However the bio-colony grows to the demand on the tank. This is were stocking or overstocking comes into play, if your demand is higher than the area your bio-load can grow than you are overstocked and the bio-coclony can't not convert enough bio-load to make it safe for the fish.

 

[MediaHound]

Welcome aboard! You can start a blog about the tank or you can start a thread in the "tank builds" section, much quicker and easier!

 

[petlover516]

yes, use the gravel. Flakes will give off phosphate, another toxic material. U can also use zebrafish 2 get the tank cycled, but this way is a hit or miss, since the fish may get new tank syndrome.

 

[gcooke]

Thanks for all the replies.

Okay, I've been quite busy this week (exams) so I've just been putting a few flakes in every day and testing for pH (7.6) and Nitrite (0). The pH has fluctuated slightly but the Nitrite has always been zero.

The water looks darker green now, like it used to get in my goldfish tank before I had a filter in it. But there are no fish! And the tank is not in direct sunlight.

So- Will water changes help to clear the water and is this a good idea when cycling? Should the nitrite not be increasing? (I'm thinking the 3 water treatments used on day 1 might have effected this).

All websites have conflicting information. Thanks again!

Graham.

 

[Chickadee]

As long as you do not have fish in the tank and it is in the process of cycle any water changes will set your cycle back I am afraid. I would leave it alone and not worry about the color of the water. The temperature of the water that is the most conducive fo the growth of the bacteria I have heard is about 27.7C or 82 F. Of course this is going to be too warm for the fish when you get them but it speeds the growth of the bacteria before the fish are in the tank so I would raise the temperature to at least 25 or 26 degrees C to see if it helps to promote the growth a bit more rapidly. If you goldfish tank has a filter in it and it has an active filter pad in it, then the filter pad is loaded with bacteria already. The fastest way to do the cycle is to take one half of that pad and put into the new filter with the new filter media pad and leave BOTH running together for at least 2 weeks together and the cycle will probably be pretty well complete but you will have to "feed" the tank with 10 drops of ammonia for every 5 gallons of tank size daily until you can put the fish in the tank or the bacteria will die off. You do not have to put any fish food or any other type of supplement in if you use the ammonia.

Just for future reference. Those of you who are thinking that you want to start a new tank the simplest and most complete way to cycle a new tank is to start a sponge filter twice the capacity of the new tank in your established tank bubbling 2 to 3 weeks before you get the new one and when you get the new one transfer the sponge filter and the new tank is instantly cycled and the sponge filter will "seed" the new tanks filter while you are getting it established. This gives you the option of being able to add your precious load of fish right away instead of having to wait for weeks to add a fish or two at a time. I keep sponge filters bubbling in the back of all my tanks all the time for aeration and for just this purpose or for quarantine tanks that I might need in an emergency. I consider them an aquarist's staple.

Rose

 

[gcooke]

Thanks Chickadee, I'm going to try and source some ammonia. As regards putting in some of the goldfish filter pad, earlier in this thread djrichie said that the goldfish have a different chemical makeup so that won't work, so now I have no idea.

Every source I look up disagrees with every other.

Thanks all though.