Cycling With Fish? On Yer Bike!

Welcome to thinkfish Aquamaid! And dont worry it can seem daunting at first but once u start adding fish it will all be worth it!

Hi Aquamaid 

Hi Aquamaid,  you probably won't hear much from me cos I know nowt about owt, but welcome anyway. I have found this forum so useful and everyone is very patient with us newbies!

Hi and welcome!
Lol at your electricity bills soaring! Don't listen to them, I recently did a calculation of running costs of one of my tanks, albeit the smaller unheated one, and it was negligible.
Don't worry about cycling, the method on here spells it out pretty much and there are people here to give advice when your tank doesn't play exactly by the rules! My tank was cycled in about six weeks, so alow at least that amount of time for researching species of fish, plants and invertebrates. If yours turns out to be quicker, then great!
Tbh I've no idea why I didn't get into fish keeping a long time ago, as a biology graduate who loves sciencey stuff and has A level chemistry, it seems an ideal hobby.
Good luck with your aquascaping, are you going to post photos?

I think if you try to set up a fake marine tank, that is exactly what it will look like - a fake! There are very few freshwater fish that will be comfortable in the sort of open, brightly-lit, plant-free environment of a marine style tank. One reason why people like Malawi cichlid tanks is because both the tanks and the fish rather resemble a marine set up. Fish welfare should be the first priority, before the tank as a piece of interior decoration, and that means giving freshwater fish something resembling a freshwater environment.

After keeping fish for 18 years, I finally have all live plants as of a couple of months ago. I was spurred on by all the photos of planted tanks on here. So as a recent convert, I would say definitely get some live plants in there even if it spoils the marine look 

As long as the marine decor is fake, they should be OK. Thinks like real coral will alter your water chemistry. Richard likes natural looking tanks so even non-marine decor like sunken ships and dayglo 'no fishing' signs are bad to him. But he is correct in making the fish feel safe. Their instincts tell them that as long as there is somewhere to hide when that predator comes along, it's safe to come out in the open. If there's nowhere to hide, they'll be looking out for the predator all the time and this stresses them, which in turn makes them more susceptible to disease.
As for your lighting, I see from google that your tank does come in a marine version which would have marine lighting. Can you look at the tube and tell us what the writing on it says. Then we could be sure you have freshwater lighting rather than marine.


One of the reasons I like fish forums is the opportunity to chat to other people who like fish. My husband thinks they are a waste of time, the only good fish is on a plate with a handful of chips. And I made the mistake of using the word bacteria early on so now he's convinced I'm going to catch some dread disease and die. If I splash tank water anywhere I have to clean it up with antibacterial spray or I never hear the end of it. If this is likely to happen to you, use the word micro-organisms instead of bacteria 

Haha thanks Sue, just me and the fish, so no one to explain anything too. My lights are fluorescent T8 20w i have exchanged one for blue moonlight bulb allthough now see it has a couple of little led blue bulbs in it. My  main priority is of course happy healthy fish, if the fake coral with a few real plants is a bad idea, i do quite like the "Mangrove tree root" look with maybe more real plants, and little caves, but i will give coral a go first if possible, its taken lot of time and effort lol.

Well my "great barrier reef" project may have to be scrapped anyway, as after lots of time and effort, i thought the heavy resin ornament i used for ballast would hold it down,but apparently spray foam filler is far more buoyant than i imagined  so unless i marine sealant it to tank bottom it won't stay submerded lol and i don't want it to be permanent fixture (not sure how permanent sealant is) Oh dear, back to drawing board  Thanks for the input

Oh no Colin, that's not good news! I hardly dare read the article. I spent four days on a diving boat in the GBR and it's so beautiful. I'd thought of Australia as one of the nations most likely to try to conserve it's natural assets!

How sad, you'd have thought it was the developing countries that were the worst polluters and exploiters of their natural resources, for understandable reasons.
When I was over there the environmentalists found themselves uncomfortably on the same side as the far right in wanting to limit immigration. There's just too many people in Australia for their delicate ecosystem to cope with.