New Tank, Wrong Order?

Hi all

I've been wanting a tropical fish tank for a while and recently treated myself!

I bought a Juwel Lido tank (120l) recently as it fits nicely in my living room and have since (guided by my lfs ) put a clay base substrate followed by a small 2-3mm (diameter) top layer of substrate. This setup was advised by the guys at the shop because I said I would like to grow live plants rather than use plastic.

I went back to the shop and they next advised me to get some plants in now and then fill with water straight away. I chose my plants and all say they're 'easy' to grow and I wasn't advised otherwise so hopefully they'll stand a chance. I also bought some liquid aquarium fertiliser.

I live in south yorkshire and our water is very hard, the assistant told me they sell aquarium water (they call it trop' mix). This apparently has alot less heavy metals in it and will be better for the fish and plant growth. I decided to give it a go but I'm not 100% on it. Is this just a con or is it worth using this water? It only cost 12 pence per litre...

I've planted the plants in the substrate after removing them from their pots and removing the cotton wool around the root ball. Then I filled the aquarium with the 'trop mix'. The pump/filter is running now, the heater is set to 24 and I've got the lights on a timer for 12 hours at the minute. Ive added 15ml of the aquarium fertiliser.

So at the minute I have an un-cycled aquarium with 9 aquarium plants. Have I set it up drastically wrong or can I think about adding a few fish soonish?  I'm thinking I'll have to do a fish in cycle from reading through this forum today?

Spotted a little snail so far and a few of the plants look to be putting shoots into the substrate already :-)

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Mike

Hi Colin, thanks for the reply.  I read this fishless cycling post earlier this evening and thats when it occurred to me I may have gone about this the wrong way. Towards the bottom there are reasons not to have plants in whilst cycling your tank. Thats what made me think the fish-in method was my only option now?

Hi mikewilde I live in West Yorkshire my water is medium hard.I have a heavily planted tank and had no issues with my water just use tap water and add your dechlorinator  your plants will do fine. Like sue says the best option is to a silent cycle that's what I did as I was wrongly advised, I planted heavily to start with then added 5or6 fish a week and checked my water parameters Dailey I had no problems fish were fine. I  did plenty of water changes to keep all my parameters right . Good luck

Do you know what exactly this 'trop water' is? Some shops sell RO water (reverse osmosis) which is water that has had everything dissolved in it removed. The problem is that no fish in the trade can survive in pure water so minerals have to ve added back in, either by mixing with tapwater or by adding remineralisation salts. The amount of salts added make the water soft (only a bit of salts) or hard (lots of salts). What I'm wondering is, is the shop selling RO water that has had some minerals added back in to make it safe for softish water fish, which is less hard than your tapwater. I would be inclined to give them a ring and ask, but don't be fobbed off by some vague thing like it's water that your fish would be happier in.

The only downside to using this 'trop mix' is that you will have to use it all the time or the difference between it and your tapwater could cause problems for the fish if ever you have to use tap for an emergency water change. Ammonia and/or nitrite in the tank water when you have fish, or the fish are showing unusual behaviour, or you've had an unexplained fish death all need big water changes and if you couldn't get to the shop you'd have to use tapwater


Nitrate result - if the tester is a liquid one, one of the bottles will say to shake it hard before use. All the makes have a reagent which settles out and has to be shaken really well to redissolve it. The only difference between brands is which bottle. Just making sure you did shake the bottle in question really well    If you have zero nitrate in the tank, you will have to add it for plants to do well - I do know that much 

pH - I know you said the tank and tap pH are the same, but just in case I would leave a glass of water to stand overnight and test again. pH often changes on standing. Since you used the 'trop mix' it will be different from your tapwater and you need to know what the tapwater does on standing.

Do you know exactly how hard your tapwater is? It should say somewhere on your water supplier's website. There are many fish that 'need' soft water that actually do well in hardish water, it's just that they won't be able to breed. Other fish prefer it hard such as livebearers and Rift Lake cichlids (if ever you decided to go for a rocky, plant free decor)

In fish keeping, it is usual to use german degrees - that's what most GH test kits use. That or ppm.

The problem with hardness is that depending on where you look, different degrees mean different words. Your GH of 15 (or 268ppm) is 'slightly hard' on one scale and 'hard' on another. The good news is that 15^oGerman is not 'very hard' but the bad news is that your water may be a bit too alkaline and hard for the rosy finned tetras you mentioned in the Introduction thread.
When looking at what a fish species requires, hardness is more important than pH. I have softish, slightly alkaline water. I can keep soft, acid liking fish better than hard, alkaline liking fish.

Whether you decide to do a fishless cyle with ammonia or a silent cycle, you'll have time to decide what you want to do. It'll take a few weeks to do a fishless cycle, and you need to get your plants growing well before getting fish with a slient cycle - though I think you need a lot more plants for a silent cycle. Natalia would be the one to advise on that if she ses this thread 

Regarding heavy metals, every dechlorinator I have seen also removes them. So if you could cope with the hardness and pH of your tapwater, the dechlorinator you would add to all new water would get rid of the metals for you.
As to the question of chlorine in the 'trop mix' that would depend on exactly what it was. Unless you could find out for certain, I would use dechlorinator.

Hi Sue and Don

Thanks for the info. I've been back to my lfs yesterday and asked about their water. They supply two types, both RO water with specific mineral mixes put back in. One mix is for tropical tanks and the other is a marine mix.

Mike

Yikes! Mixing my own RO formula is a bit over my head atm. Plus an extra expense after all my new tank, substrate and plant purchases.

I think I'll give my plants some time to establish themselves then try the silent cycle aproach.

Mike