Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => New Fishkeepers => Topic started by: Yorkshireadam on October 05, 2014, 09:50:33 PM
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Hi everyone, a bit of background, I kept fish all the time I was growing up, years I had tanks running but then life got in the way but now I've settled down it was time to invest again.
I have a 120lt 90cm tank with an oversized internal filter box, the tank has been running approx 3 weeks, 1 week empty, 2 weeks with fish (6black neon tetras) I have 4 small plants (apologies but I know not what they are), 2 lumps of bogwood and 4 medium pebbles (off Brighton beach), everything was boiled for about an hour before placing.
I have approx 60% gravel and 40% sand ( I've always loved Julii corys so planned for them with the sand).
Now you have an idea of my tank I get to the confusing bit, nothing is happening, or it appears nothing is happening with the cycle, I added a bacteria booster when I added the fish and test the water twice a day (morning and evening) nothing is showing up, no ammonia, no nitrites and only slightly more nitrates than the base I get out of the tap. I've even bought 3 different testers to factor out getting a duff batch still no results whatsoever, not once.
Anybody have an idea what's going on? I'm at a loss and wondering if I should be concerned, any help anyone can give would be amazing.
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You don't have very many fish in your tank which is a good thing, but it might take a bit longer for the ammonia levels to start to increase because 6 little tetras really don't produce all that much waste. I would say just leave everything as it is, keep testing the water, and soon you will start to notice some change.
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Hello Adam, and welcome to the forum.
Yup - just keep testing and don't be tempted to add any more fish for a while yet. Patience you must :isay: :))
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Thanks for your input guys, I know the waiting game must now be played, everything is going ok in the tank, I had to rescue a tetra from one of the filter intakes, swam around in circles for a bit but since then has seemed perfectly healthy, maybe it was asleep to close to the filter?! I have no idea! I'm still getting nothing in any of my testers I change 25l of water every 3 days, just to keep it turning over, I'm getting a few bubbles out of the substrate every now and then, should I invest in a couple of trumpet snails to keep it turned over?
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If you are not getting any reading above zero for ammonia and nitrite you can do water changes less often. 6 black neons in 120 litres aren't going to make very much ammonia at all. Try dropping your water changes to once a week, keeping a daily eye on those levels. If you haven't seen as much as a blip in for the next couple of weeks, you could get a few more fish - maybe equal to 3 black neons - and watch those levels daily again. If you see ammonia and/or nitrite, do water changes to lower them.
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Thanks Sue, I'll drop it to once a week maybe, it's just a preference I have to keep it nice and clean. Are snails a good idea instead of fish to increase the load? I want to keep it as healthy and natural as possible no signs of algal growth just yet.
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Oohh missed the bit about mts :-[
I would hold off those a couple of weeks as well. 2 would be a good number. They will breed quite happily and if you overfeed the fish you'll end up with hundreds ;)
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Ok I'll give it until payday ;D before I get some, then I'll get an assassin snail or two the month after, then maybe a loach!
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then maybe a loach!
Just to warn you, loaches need to be in shoals of at least 4 with more being better. And there aren't many that will fit in a 90cm tank, dwarf chain loaches being the only one I can think of.
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That was me just extrapolating as I'll have an explosion of MTS then if I get assassins I'll have an explosion of them, hopefully it'll get to a point where they would balance each other out as I don't actually want any loaches, other than Kuhli.
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Kuhli loaches also need to be in a group, very unhappy on their own, so don't buy "a loach". They also need places to hide and enough sand to bury themselves.
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Yeah my bogwood is soon to be drilled full of holes for them to wriggle through etc I'm thinking 5-6 kuhli, 5-6 cory a few bristle nose obviously my neons and one or two peaceful specimen fish which are tbc.
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Here's a pic of my little habitat, if anyone's interested!
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I see you've managed to get the substrate stuck to the side of the tank - that's pretty advanced aquaculture in my book! :rotfl:
Sorry - couldn't resist. ;)
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Not sure if kuhlis, corys AND bristlenose wouldn't be a bit over the top for bottom fish. There could be conflicts.
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I'm not having much luck with the substrate, I've managed to lose most of the delightful black sand I had >:( through siphoning, I don't have the hang of it yet. I'll skip the Kuhlis I think, although I do like them I much prefer corys, so much personality from a fish.
I'm still getting zippo on the readings although Nitrate spiked during the day from my morning test to evening, and then levelled out the next day.
If I want to slowly reduce the hardness of my water, my back garden backs onto the South Downs so if you turn the tap on chalk comes out, with a bit of water added in. How would I achieve this, RO water or is there another way.
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The only realistic way to lower hardness is with RO water I'm afraid. Either mix it with your tapwater to get the hardness you want or use just RO with added remineralisation salts.
As for losing your sand, do you siphon the tank water into a bucket or down the sink/out of the window with a hose? If it's into a bucket, carefully pour the water away and wash the sand with tapwater then put it back in the tank. The tiny bit of chlorine with the sand won't do any harm. That's what I do.
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I do it into a water bottle, one of the big ones from an office water cooler. It's pretty difficult to get it out of the bottle, I think I can take the hit on it as Ive changed my mind, again, and would now prefer a full yellow sand substrate, I think that'd be a more natural South American look/habitat that I'd like and hopefully my fish would prefer. Thanks for the tip though Sue.
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I use rain water from a water butt to dilute my liquid chalk. It's OK as long as the level in the butt doesn't get too far down.... and then I use RO. I wash out the gunk from the bottom of the butt once a year - which reminds me.... it's that time of the year again.
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I forgot to mention rainwater!
But if you live in an area with a lot of pollution, rain water isn't a good idea.
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Pretty rural W Sussex so not really any issues with pollution round here, so I might use a water butt, garage roof is covered in moss so that should reduce any nastiness in the water. On the topic, the midge/ mosquito larvae that inhabit the upper reaches, would they be a viable food for my tank? Just want to feed them as natural and varied a diet as possible.
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I've used the mosquito larvae from a water butt that gets rainwater from the roof of a shed on my allotment, fish love them.
But if you have the larvae in your water butt, I wouldn't use that water in your tank. For the larvae to develop, there has to be enough algae and protozoa etc for them to eat, which implies quite a lot of organic matter in the bottom of the butt. It should be cleaned out and only relatively fresh water used in the tank, not that which has been standing for months/years.
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Consistent results for 4 days now, think I'm getting there now, time for a few more tetras? Also an Assassin snail, I'm starting to see snails pretty much every day now whereas before it was once a week.
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Those results look good so yes, a few more tetras are fine :)
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whats the name of that kit?i am looking for one on amazon.
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It looks like the API master kit as that's the one I have and it's identical to that.
Thankfully my results look like that now too :afro
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whats the name of that kit?i am looking for one on amazon.
As Gav says, it's the API Master test kit.... make sure you get the fresh water one, they do a salt water one as well.
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Quick stupid question about water. Can you used bottled spring water from the supermarket???
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It's the API master test kit. This one (http://www.apifishcare.co.uk/product.php?sectionid=1&catid=4&subcatid=0&id=874). It contains tests for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH from 6.0 to 7.6 and also a high range pH from 7.4 to 8.8. You'll only need one of the pH testers, depending on which range your water falls into.