Some questions from a newbie

On Sat, 19 Jul 2003 20:45:41 GMT, paul j. wrote:
The fish in there now are about 1 inch long each. I fed them twice
yesterday (the first day I had them). That page you mentioned assumes that
a person has the necessary chemicals and materials needed to set up a first
tank. That's what I need to know: what are some good step by step
instructions to setting up a tank?

The Krib page on begin-cycling is a very good guide to explain the
nitrogen cycle; the way you need to be patient with a new tank as it
slowly establishes bacteria in the filter, and in the meantime the
way that ammonia from fish waste will increase and may harm the fish.

In terms of materials the basics are what you've got; a tank, some fish,
some water (which has been dechlorinated), a filter, and usually some gravel.

The process is what you need to consider. Right now the fish waste is
causing the ammonia level to grow. As you have a brand new filter, it
isn't yet populated with bacteria which can process the ammonia. There are
two ways to get this - 1) to get some gravel or ideally filter media from
an established tank, and put it in yours to kick start the bacteria colony,
and 2) wait. If you seed your tank with gravel or floss from an established
tank you will have less long to wait, but otherwise it can be up to a month.

In the meantime while the nitrogen cycle is establishing itself in your
tank, you can do water changes to reduce the level of toxins (ammonia
and then later, nitrite) and make life easier on your fish.

So if I was you, I would do a 30% water change (always add dechlorinated
water, of course!) and also go to friends who have tanks, or the fish
store, and ask if you can have some used floss from their filter. Pop it
in yours (or even floated in your tank or tucked under a rock if it won't
fit). Hopefully that will alleviate things, and help the tank along with
the cycle. It will still take a few weeks before you can add more fish.
Get a test kit and test for ammonia and nitrite. Watch for the spikes
as described in the cycling guide you read. When ammonia has spiked then
fallen, then nitrite levels have spiked then fallen to nothing, your tank
will have finally matured. At that stage you can think about adding more
fish if they will fit your tank and your filter capacity!

You asked what you should do with the water in the tank now.
Well, if you still have live fish, do the water change to make their
lives a little easier. If they die, keep the water. It will contain
ammonia from the fish waste that they produced, and this should get
the cycle started whether they are still present or not! So you keep
the tank filter on as if there are still fish in it, and test the water
and the tank will mature in the usual way. There is an alternative
to cycling the tank with fish, called fishless cycling, where you add
ammonia and wait for the bacteria to grow before adding any fish.
If your fish die but have left behind some waste... think of it as
fishless cycling, I suppose - it would be the same principle.
Once the tank is cycled, the only issue is that the tank might only
be ready to handle a small amount of fish waste, so you should add
new fish gradually to increase the load on the filter slowly.

Hope that gives you some immediate action to relieve the situation,
until Netmax can return with his sage advice


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