Introduce Yourself!

Hi Donny and welcome to fishkeeping.


The largeish bio-something (biorb perhaps?) and the 80 litre - are they both brand new, and no other tanks in the house? If that's right, then I hate to have to tell you but they won't be ready for fish in 7 days whatever the instructions/shop might have said. Sorry, I hate having to say that to someone who is keen 

In a fish tank, the filter grows two colonies of bacteria to deal with the fish's waste. A brand new filter does not have any bacteria in it, they have to grow, and it can take a couple of months for this to happen. You mention bacteria treatments - you need to know that they do not cycle the filter (ie grow the bacteria) instantly. Some don't work at all, some grow one of the bacteria but not the other, and some do speed things up. Notice I said speed things up not do it instantly. Some of this last group only work if they've been refridgerated at all times since manufacture, but there is a good chance they've been allowed to warm up at some point in their journey rendering them useless.

So what can you do? First of all can I recommend that you read the following threads
http://www.thinkfish.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,15.0.html
http://www.thinkfish.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,16.0.html
http://www.thinkfish.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,17.0.html

The first explains what cycling is and gives a general outline of the various methods in use. The other two are detailed instructions for how to do two of these methods. Read them though a few times so you get your head round them, then you'll be able to decide which method you want to go with. The downside with fishless cycling is you have an empty tank for a few weeks, the downside with fish-in cycling is that you have to do a lot of water changes, daily at first. You can still use your bacterial product with both methods, just don't assume it wil do anything - and if it does, you will be pleasantly surprised!



Sorry to be the bearer of bad news! If you really can't wait for a few weeks, then do a fish-in cycle. But only a very few fish. The 80 litre tank converts to 21 gallons (it's always American gallons in fishkeeping) and the recommended maximum for fish-in cycling is 1 inch of fish for every 5 gallons - giving you a maximum of 4 inches of fish for a fish-in cycle. But that's not the size of the fish now, they are all babies/juveniles in the shop, it's the size they'll grow to. So you can have 1 fish that'll grow to 4 inches, 2 fish that'll grow to 2 inches, or 4 fish that'll grow to 1 inch. Check the fish profile in the menu above for the fish you want, or if it isn't there google fishbase.





Oh, and if your son's tank is a biorb, please be aware there are limitations on some kinds of fish. Ask and I'll tell you what they are.

Hi Donny,

Take everything a shop tells you with a huge pinch of salt. Too many of them haven't a clue what they are talking about but they are extremely good at sounding convincing. There are some that instruct the staff to make things up to make a sale. For instance, I heard someone in one shop telling a customer to add a bottle of bacteria to a brand new tank and also add all the fish he wanted at the same time or the bottled bacteria wouldn't work. I went home and googled the product in question, and it said to add a few fish at first, wait a couple of weeks and add more a few at a time. Not exactly what the shop was telling customers!

Regarding a fish-in cycle, that's right. Get a few fish, measure both ammonia and nitrite daily (twice a day is better) and do water changes every time you see either/or ammonia and nitrite. A lot of people find it helpful to make notes of the readings so that one day when you say to yourself 'I haven't had any ammonia or nitrite for a few days even though I haven't done any water changes' you can look at your notes and see how long it's been  When it's been a week, the filter is cycled for that number of fish. It could take anywhere from a month to three months to reach that stage, you just have to be patient. That's one thing fishkeeping teaches us, because these are living things (including the filter bacteria) they go at their own speed which may be slower than we'd like. Don't forget you can only get more fish slowly. If you had four fish, you could add maybe 2 more once the filter is cycled, then a week or two later, two or three more.


If your son's tank is square, that sounds like a biorb life. The main problem with stocking biorbs of any shape is the fact that the rocks on the bottom are the main part of the filter where the bacteria live and they are quite rough, so that means no corydoras or loaches. These fish like to root around on the bottom for food but they have barbels which can get cut on rough stones which allows infections in.
There could also be a problem with using one as a quarantine - it is usual to move the quarantine's filter into the main tank to keep the bacteria alive when the tank isn't in use, but you can't do that with a biorb's filter. The alternative would be to keep fish in it all the time and swap them over to the main tank when you want to use it for quarantine.

But for your 80 litre, what are the dimensions, that would give us a better idea of fish for it. Some tanks are long and shallow, others are tall and narrow. And how far away would you sepnd most of your time viewing it from? It's no good recommending tiny fish if you woud be too far away to see them  And it would also be useful to know the pH of your water and whether it is hard or soft (eg does the kettle fur up or not). It is much easier to get fish to suit your water rather than try to make the water suit the fish.

If you are in London, your water will be very hard and alkaline. Another member, SteveS, lives in the London area and he says that's what his tapwater is like. If it was my tank, I'd stick to lots of small fish, but I do know that other people like bigger fish too  I'd stick to fish that grow a maximum of 2, maybe 2.5 inches. And avoid fast swimmers as corner tanks don't have a long swimming space. There are plenty of fish that like to swim slowly.

So with tapwater like yours, the first thing to do is warn you against fish that like soft acid water - the main examples of fish that woud hate your water are things like rams. But you'll find that livebearers love your water, and if you ever get a bigger tank, so would Rift Lake cichlids. So for an 80 litre tank, fish like platies, endlers or guppies (though a lot of guppies these days have been so inbred to get their gorgeous tails that they are quite weak). Avoid mollies and swordtails as they are a lot bigger. Platies would be one of the best bets for cycling, maybe two of them. But be warned about livebearers - they can overpopulate your tank in no time at all. Females can store sperm for up to 6 months, so even if you went with just females you'd get fry if they'd ever spent more that about 5 minutes in the company of a male. You could also cycle with a couple of endlers. Most of the ones in the shops are endler-guppy hybrids but they are less delicate that pure guppy. The downside with these is that the females are plain grey-beige and with all livebearers you need at least two females for every male with mixed sexes (males chase the females contantly so more females than males gives each female time off). You can keep all male endlers - I have a group of males in one tank and a group of females in another, the males just try to mate with each other 

Non-livebearers? You'll find quite a lot of fish that have hard alkaline water at the top end of their prefered range. Fish like cherry barbs, some of the tetras (check out their water preferences in the fish profile section), dwarf rainbowfish [Melanotaenia praecox], some of the blue-eyes [eg Pseudomugil furcatus] and so on. The easiest thing to do is go round your local shops and make a note of the smallish fish that cach your eye. Then go home and look them up - check out what type of water they need and the final adult size. If they are not in the database on here, look at fishbase, though it is easier to find fish on there if you know the latin name - it's an American site and they often use different common names. Ask at the shop for the latin name, even if they don't know it they should be able to look it up on their wholesaler's list.

Above all, take your time. I speak from experience when I say you'll have a fully stocked tank then see a fish you really like and have no room for 

thought i'd throw in my hello,

like a few other people i've stuck to using my own name on forums i just find it easier in honesty, I've had fish off and on my entire life while living with my parents, started with goldfish and then tropical although I admit once i moved out and had my own family and tried fish-keeping i did so many things wrong it ended being a disaster.

This time i decided to be much more careful and alsp to do it right and avoid the disasters and so I got books and read a lot first now i have an AquaOne set up it's about 100 litre tank I think..it's 31.5" x 15" x 11.5" I've had it running for a few days now before getting my new fish which i'll be doing on Saturday...planning on 4 gourami's to start me off and working from that, adding a few fish once a week or so until i'm happy with how everything looks and is working.

I found the forum during my internet searching for knowledge so I joined it and here I am hoping for a happy informative time

Forgot to add: in a 100 litre tank, if you want four gouramis I would get 1 male 3 females. You might get away with more than one honey gourami male if the tank has lots of plants (real or synthetic) which reach the surface to break up line of sight. But I wouldn't risk more than one male dwarf or any of the bigger gouramis as they is a very good chance the dominant male will attack the other males.

Hi all good to see everyone back and the forum up and running.

Background, started keeping fish when i was 12 with the help of my dad and as i got older took a increasing role in keeping them until i had my own tanks in my room until i went o uni at 18. Was out of the hobby until 2006 when i started a small tank. Moved to my own house and set up a 160ltr tank and in the last 5 years have kept a variety of fish from south american puffers to canara pearl spot.

2 years ago i got a 25inch custom 255ltr cube aquarium, this has gone through a few setups. Last year i picked up a pair of apistogama noberti who over the last year have bred a lot and i currently have 4 fry from the last batch. I have also been breeding platinum blue angel fish although they keep eating there eggs. These are currently in my 160ltr corner unit.

My 255ltr has recently been changed it now houses 6 wild green discus 3, queen arabesue plecs, a red morph spiny eel and 8 licorice gouramis.

Hoping to see lots of pics of tanks from leople new and previous.

Ps chucklett i finaly got to trimar in august.

Okay you twisted my arm

Glad to here youve moved chucklett, have you gone far?

Ye i did it was a nice well set up shop but i wasnt wowed. They had some nice fish and the prices were good but nothing that made me think wow i need that now. Rare aquatics on the other hand blows me away everytime and its where all my latest fish have come from but i think thats because deep down south americans are where its at for me.

Should have pics up soon, most are on my phone and i cant resize them on it and it wont connect to my pc so i will have to get me camera out.

That's such good news about your husband. Living in your old flat must have been so stressful for him with everything that happened there. Moving to somewhere different with no bad memories would seem to be helping, from what you said.

A fresh start was just what the Doctor ordered Sue! And its worked a treat 

Funnily enough Don, Ive already said how a nice pond would make a lovely centre-piece....... 
My best tip for you when you come to move your tanks...... dont stress!!!!!!! 
(edit: actually, on a serious note, I have moved tanks enough times now to earn a degree in it! So, if you do have any questions when the time comes, I may be able to give you a few tips  )