hi everyone im paul,ive been given a 45 gallon tank,fluvall 3 pump,air pump and a heater and 34 fish,ive filled tank with water added aqua safe left put heater on and filter and left it for 3 days and gradually added fish,ive checked ammonia nitrate and nitride levels and they are spot on..am i doing it right as im new to fish keeping..fish are 2 clown loaches,2 kissing guomies,red fin shark,blue guomie,various small school fish,ie zebra danios,neon tetras.water temp is 78 degrees,
45 gallon setup
- Thread starter lov3rman
- Start date
You've got test kits so you're ahead of the game for a lot of new aquarists. At this point, keep a close eye on the ammonia and nitrite levels, and if they start to rise be prepared to change out a good portion of the water with fresh dechlorinated water. Was it a currently running tank when you got it? If it was currently running and you just moved it and set it back up, you should have a minimal cycle, whereas if it was a brand new setup (or was completely dried out in between uses) your cycle may be just at the beginning and you will likely see the ammonia start to rise since you've got quite a few fish in it for a new tank.
Some of those guys are going to get big for that tank, so keep that in mind (kissing gouramis, clown loaches).
Some of those guys are going to get big for that tank, so keep that in mind (kissing gouramis, clown loaches).
Hard to say whether your bottles of stuff are any good without knowing the actual products - there are a lot of cycling products, most of which do little or nothing (keeping live bacteria in a bottle and expecting it to work is difficult), generally biospira is a good product if it is "fresh."
Nitrate minus - not something I'm familiar with, but I wouldn't use it especially when cycling. Nitrate has to be in VERY high levels to harm fish, and changing out some water is easy enough and a surefire way to reduce nitrate levels. There are also products to remove ammonia, such as Ammo-lock, which are more useful in an emergency because ammonia can reach damaging or fatal levels relatively quickly - keep in mind if you use these products, a lot of times the ammonia will still show up on the test as it has simply been converted into a non-toxic form.
Fish tonic could be anything - I wouldn't use medications for a fish unless you are treating something specific. More likely to be harmful than beneficial. Especially if it is something like an antibiotic, which will kill off the good bacteria you are trying to encourage.
Nitrate minus - not something I'm familiar with, but I wouldn't use it especially when cycling. Nitrate has to be in VERY high levels to harm fish, and changing out some water is easy enough and a surefire way to reduce nitrate levels. There are also products to remove ammonia, such as Ammo-lock, which are more useful in an emergency because ammonia can reach damaging or fatal levels relatively quickly - keep in mind if you use these products, a lot of times the ammonia will still show up on the test as it has simply been converted into a non-toxic form.
Fish tonic could be anything - I wouldn't use medications for a fish unless you are treating something specific. More likely to be harmful than beneficial. Especially if it is something like an antibiotic, which will kill off the good bacteria you are trying to encourage.
Honestly lov3rman, I wouldn't rely on any chemicals. I tried the same thing when I started and I learned the hard way that you just have to keep doing water changes until the cycle finishes, hopefully a couple weeks. Just watch for ammonia and change the water when it spikes and you'll be fine. One thing I do know about chems is that bottle of living bacteria is totally worthless and anything that gets rid of ammonia is only temporary so you'll have to do a water change anyway.
Some people may not agree with my method but I have had the same filter media on the same four filters for a year and haven't cleaned them once. All I do is take them out once and a while to get the accumulated gunk in the filter tubing and impellar, but as for the media I don't mess with it for fear of upsetting the bacteria. I havn't had any issues with this method.
For the few weeks while you are cycling, I wouldn't clean the filter at all (unless it is in danger of clogging). But if you do rinse the gunk off in tank water, you'll take the solid waste off with some bacteria, but the majority of bacteria will be living within the filter floss, and eventually gravel, etc. As long as you don't bleach or dry out or chlorinate the filter, you won't kill off all the bacteria but right now you want to let them multiply as easily as possible.
I replace my filters about every 3-4 months. I have two in my Emperor 400 so I swap them every other time. About three times a month a rinse one every other time very thorough in my vacuumed out water. What this does is removes particles that cause higher nitrates. When the water is allowed to run over and over this old dead material it contaminates the water and produces nitrate in the end. Your tank has plenty of BB in it so replacing a filter is normally not a problem. Old filters are not a real big issue either but can make the nitrates creep up if you dont rinse out the old dead material.