Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => New Fishkeepers => Topic started by: Negseven on July 11, 2022, 10:10:42 PM
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Hi, purchased these recently for new tank build, bit confused as what is used for what bit of the process?
If I am filling the tank with tap water is it correct I would add the aquamaker first to condition the tap water?
And then I would use the Easystart after the tank has been filled to sort out the tank cycle so I can introduce the fish? Have I got this correct? Thanks for your input….
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A water conditioner, also called dechlorinator, must be added to any water put into an aquarium. Water companies add chlorine or chloramine to kill bacteria, which will prevent the good bacteria growing, and it will irritate fish once they are in the tank.
If the tank is filled with buckets, the dechlorinator should be added to each bucket of water at the dose rate for the volume of water in the bucket. This applies to the water added when the tank is set up and to the water added during a water change.
If the tank is filled with a hose, the full dose of dechlorinator should be added to the tank before any new water is put in. When doing a water change some brands say to use enough to treat the new water only, some say to treat the entire tank. If the bottle doesn't say, email the manufacturer to ask.
Bottled bacteria. There are only 2 brands known to contain the correct bacteria - Dr Tim's One & Only and Tetra Safe Start. These two companies hold the copyright on methods of detecting the nitrite eating bacteria. You can use the Easystart but don't be surprised if it doesn't work.
Even with the two which do work, they don't do it instantly regardless of what the bottle says. The bacteria need to be fed to get them to multiply. The best way to use these products is to speed up a fishless cycle.
https://forums.thinkfish.co.uk/fishtank-filtration-and-cycling/fishless-cycling-how-to-do-it/
Ammonia is not easy to obtain these days. It must be free of detergent, surfactants and perfume. Dr Tim's Ammonium Chloride is available on eBay and Amazon, the dosage on the bottle gives an ammonia level of 2.4 ppm. This is different to the level quoted by the company as they use a different scale from our test kits.
The alternative is a plant cycle. The idea behind this is that plants use ammonia as fertiliser and if there are enough fast growing plants they can remove all the ammonia made by a tankful of fish. One or two slow growing plants won't be enough, there needs to be a lot of fast growers, and floating plants are particularly good - they are near the lights and they can get carbon dioxide from the air.
With this method the tank is planted, then left for a couple of weeks. If a photo is taken of the newly planted tank it gives something to compare the plants to later. Once the plants are obviously growing, the first batch of fish can be added, and ammonia and nitrite should be tested daily to make sure they stay at zero. If either read above zero a water change needs to be done to get them back down to zero. When both have been zero for at least a week, the next batch of fish can be added, again testing daily afterwards.
Bacteria and other micro-organisms will grow in the background but not as many as in a tank with no live plants.
Bottled bacteria can be used during a plant cycle, but most of them will not be needed.
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Bottled bacteria. There are only 2 brands known to contain the correct bacteria - Dr Tim's One & Only and Tetra Safe Start.
A third is Waterlife Bacterlife, which was the first bottled bacteria product, and has been working well since the late 1960s. IMO its still the best, and usually cycles much quicker than the two Sue mentioned.
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@Hampalong
What does Bacterlife contain?
I know that in a mature fish tank there are more micro-organisms than just Nitrosomonas and Nitrospira species dealing with ammonia and nitrite, but bottled bacteria seem to concentrate on just two bacteria species, with many containing Nitrobacter instead of Nitrospira.
Does Bacterlife contain anything the others don't?
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@Sue I’ve no idea what it contains.
If you also add Biomature (a slow-release soup of ammonia and bacterial nutrients) it will cycle in an average of 2-3 weeks. None of the others comes close to that.
Nitrosomonas, Nitrospira and Nitrobacter are the main culprits involved in a cycle (relatively high ammonia concentrations). In a mature filter, Archaea tend to take over from bacteria.