Test Kits & Basics

1.
The most commonly used test kit is the API master test kit which contains testers for ammonia, nitrite nitrate and pH - both 6 to 7.5 and 7.5 to 8.something. Only use the one which applies to your pH.
There are other makes as well, and the Rolls Royce is Salifert which uses powders rather than liquid reagent.
Liquid/powder types are better than strips and they cost less per test.

2.
Give rocks a scrub under the tap to remove dust etc. Wood should be soaked in a bucket of water to remove the worst of the tannins. Some types of wood take weeks, others don't leach brown at all. Some types of wood need to be soaked to get them to sink. Soak it to find out which you've bought.

3.
Yes, dechlorinate the water and warm it as these are tropical plants, but only to the temp they'll be after cycling. You can turn the heater up when you start the cycle.
You'd probably be OK without dechlorinator as chlorine would gas off before you start the cycle, but unless you are certain you water company uses chlorine rather than chloramine it is safer to add dechlorinator. Chloramine doesn't gas off.

Only the strips test for chlorine.

Thinking about it, use dechlorinator. Plants, unless they are grown in sterile media, will have the bacteria we want on them. You don't want to kill those bacteria off by putting them in undechlorinated water. Anything that can seed the cycle is worth preserving 
And you'd have to add it anyway before starting the cycle so you may as well add it as you fill the tank rather than a week or two later.


If you are in England rather than Wales, Scotland, NI, look at this document http://www.dwi.gov.uk/about/annual-report/2014/index.html First select your region then look in the index for 'Drinking Water Quality Results - Chemical Quality. The chemicals are in alphabetical order and you need the section on Nitrate and  Nitrite. It's there rather than the section on chlorine because "Nitrite may be formed when chloramine is used as the residual disinfectant"

This from my area and is the kind of thing I expected to see

Northumbrian Water uses chloramine in the Middleton in the Tees area (Lartington works) and Yorkshire Water supplies water with a chloramine residual to consumers living in and around Doncaster, Skipton, Whitby, York and Pateley Bridge.

I've just looked at the western section and it doesn't give a list of places that have chloramine rather than chlorine. Does this mean nowhere has chloramine or everywhere does?




You could always ring them and ask if your tap water was treated with chlorine or chloramine. My experience with emailing them to ask just results in them sending a water quality report which doesn't answer the question.

It also helps to know the hardness of your tap water. While you can buy test kits for GH (general hardness) and KH (carbonate hardness) you can find GH from your water company's website. Since you mentioned Bristol water I had a look. They say that all their water is hard or very hard. If you want to know which yours is, go to their website and do a search for hardness. At the bottom of the first section you'll find a link for 'postcode search facility' Clicking on that takes you to a map. Locate your town on the map and the box in the top left will say either hard or very hard.

When researching  fish you need that hardness. On the page before the map they give a table saying what they mean by hard and very hard. Look at the figures for mg/l calcium carbonate (also called ppm) and German degrees. These are the two units used in fish keeping.

Or to get a more precise figure rather than a range, get a shop to test the GH for you.



Because you have hard/very hard water you will almost certainly have a high KH. This is good for cycling as the bacteria we want to grow need it. It will also hold your pH stable during cycling.

I understood him to mean he would plant the tank, wait 2 to 3 weeks to start the plants off, then start the cycle 

Hi Sue, my readings are as follows from Bristol Water info:

PHH avg 7.55
Degrees German 11
Total Hardness mg/l CaCO3 189

How do I view the outcomes?

thanks Simon

Littlefish has hit the nail on the head.

It is fine for cycling (lots of KH likely with that GH) and the pH is above 7. And provided you avoid the few species that must have soft or very hard water, you main problem is going to be deciding which fish as there are so many suitable species 

Thanks guys for the responses, many advantages living in the west country, didn't appreciate lots of rain straight off the Atlantic being one of them. Great re the fish options.

Matt, seriously I am being 'nagged' to do the bottled stuff, they are telling me the plants and the bottled bacteria would be absolutely fine, and these seem like serious independent retailers. I have now read and heard enough, on here alone, to be patient and do it the 'proper' way.

It depends on whether the water is likely to be contaminated with industrial air pollution, farmers spraying things, the substance your roof is made from, and birds using your roof as a toilet.

If the answer is that the water butt is safe from all those, you can use it. But it will be pure water and there are no fish in the trade that can survive in pure water. They all need some mineral content. The solution to that is to use remineralisation salts (fresh water ones, not marine) of the kind used by people who use RO water in their tanks. You would need to experiment with a bucket of water and a GH tester to find out how much remin salts need to be added to get the hardness you are happy with, then use that strength at every water change. It also means you could never use tap water for water changes if the butt runs dry; you would have to buy RO water from a fish shop, or an RO device to make it yourself

(RO = reverse osmosis, a process which removes everything from tap water leaving pure water)

Hi Sue, my initial point 3) above, about heating the water. Can I plant, then fill the tank with cold water from the tap, to then heat in the tank? I don't know how long it takes for the heater to bring the temperature to the desired 26C. My tank is 256L.

thanks