newbie

[ryanTEXAS]

hi. im a newbie to the fish keeping hobby. i always wanted one of my own. recently my friend has given me his 10 gallon fish tank, filter (im not sure what brand but will post here later), bubble wall, and hand siphon.

i wanted to start cycling my tank asap so i set everything up and filled it with tap water. last night i went to walmart and bought a brand called cycle to start the cycling process. the instructions are to put two capfulls once a week for three weeks to complete the cycle process, it then instructs to use one capfull a week thereafter to maintian the water.

i recently read somewhere that any brand except bio-spira is useless. i also read that it must be kept refrigerated or else it will also be useless.

i plan on using black sand as the floor, plastic plants, and a cave. as far as how the tank will look, i am skeptical it will be attractive with green plastic plants and black sand. what do you think of this? im sure the type of fish i would like to keep will be a factor in how my tank setup will be. i plan on keeping one green spotted puffer. i have read online and done my research. i understand they are a brakish water fish and that they need a 30 gallon tank to thrive (i plan to get one soon after christmas). all that set aside, i would like to focus on the beginning stages of my tank, decorations and the cycling process. i would also like to know if i need a specific filter or bubble wall (im not sure what you call the thing that blows bubbles). i also would like to know if a heater would be optimal for my tank (keep in mind i will be keeping one GSP).

if anyone can guide me in this process that would be helpful.

edit: i just read the guidelines for posting, this is the second time i screwed up and i just joined. sorry!

[kiokie72006]

Welcome! I personally don't know much about puffers,But if it gets cold there you probably would want to get a heater. Your layout plan sounds really cool, would like to see pics after you get it up & running!:)

[avatar]

Welcome ryanTEXAS. I have to say that while the product you bought probably isn't the best your on the right track for doing a fishless cycle. First off do you have city or well water? If you have city water you will want to buy a de-chlorinator, and treat the tank every time you do a water change. Ok back to cycling, the best way to do a fishless cycle is to add a few drops of ammonia (you will also want to get a master test kit, I suggest API) and after a few days test the water for ammonia. Here is a link to a cycling article that will go into much better detail than I can.
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81388&highlight=cycle

I have a GSP, they are great fish. It sounds like you have done some good research about them. GSP however do transition to full marine in adult hood. Also you might want to think about getting a slightly bigger tank than 30g as they can get up to 6". I have found this website useful in the past for GSP.
http://www.aquatic-hobbyist.com/profiles/brackish/gsp.html
Good luck

[ryanTEXAS]

i dont know if the tap water was from city or well. all i can tell you is that i got it from my bathroom sink.

i put black gravel instead of the black sand i initially wanted into my tank. i figured it would be much better for cleaning since gsp are messy eaters. my friend gave me four plastic plants from his tank which i hope will speed up the cycling process. i also went to petsmart and bought 18 ghost shrimp for the tank because i was bored of it being empty (and my gsp will have food when i get him)

will the shrimp contribute in speeding up the cycling process? i plan on buying some algae wafers for them. how many wafers and how often should i feed the shrimp?

the gsp i plan to get will be just 1". i read they should be fed dialy at this size. how many ghost shrimp a day should i allow him to eat?

[avatar]

You will need to find out if you have city or well water as fish cannot live in city water unless you treat it with de chlorinator.

The plants may help a little but you will still have to wait for a cycle. Its not the same as adding filter media from a running tank. Also just adding bacteria with out adding ammonia will not cause a cycle as the bacteria will have nothing to eat.

Yes shrimp will add to the cycling process as they produce waste, however shrimp are very sensitive to ammonia and will most likely not survive the cycling process as their equivalent of gills will be burned by the ammonia and they will not be able to breath.

They will not make the cycle go any faster than adding a few drops of ammonia to the tank.

At this point since you have animals in there I would recommend a 50% daily water changes, this will help your shrimp survive and it wont have an appreciable effect on the cycle.

GSP's should be fed a shrimp or a snail a day, feeding snails is extremely important. Puffers rely on the snails shell to file their beak down. If they don't get enough snails their beak will get overgrown.

[mdel747]

welcome Ryan , do you live in town or out in the country ? and if you live IN Ryan Texas , then i would say its well water , but it will not hurt to use prime in well water and a must in city water ,

[ryanTEXAS]

oh my name is ryan. i actually live in houston, texas which is a major populated city in texas. i guess it is city water then.

what is a good brand for a de-chlorinator?
what is a good brand for ammonia?
ppm means parts per million, correct me if im wrong. how would i go about measuring this?
as far as the heater i asked about in my first post, should i get one? it is december and the temperature here has dropped to 45F and could go lower throughout this month. what is a good brand for a heater and what type of thermometer should i get? i heard glass ones are bad.

i really appreciate all the helpful comments. please be patient with me. i am an eager learner!

[mdel747]

hi Ryan prime is all you need ,,, or all i use , you can do a search for it ,,
for more info on it ,,
you should get a test kit i use API master kit it has every thing you need for testing the water

yes on heater , you can get one at the pet store walmart also has them there all made for underwater now so just get a adjustable one

the thermometer ..i have the glass one that sticks on inside of tank and i have digital ,

[OldMan47]

Ryan, most of the liquid reagent test kits work fairly well. API is often recommended but other companies make them too. You want to be able to test for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. Any kit or combination that elts you do that will be fine. The only additive that you want in raw tap water is the dechlorinator. Prime is often recommended because you need so little of it that it is the cheapest to use in the long run. Since you have added living things to the tank, you cannot use ammonia to cycle the tank and will need to rely on the waste from your shrimp to do the job.

[mdel747]

good point oldman

[ryanTEXAS]

today i bought prime, bio-spira, and a 55 gallon tank setup.

i will just use the 10 gallon setup to hold shrimp and snails for my green spotted puffer. are "pest snails" safe to feed to my fish?

i want to do it right this time. so i wont set up my tank until you guys give me the go. the guy at the lfs told me to fill the tank with tap water, add prime and wait 2 hours, add the bio-spira and he said i can add in my fish right away after i follow these steps. if this is false info let me know. i want to start right away but like i said, i will wait for your approval.

thank you for all the help btw!

[vmprlrd]

if you read about cycling then you know when the cycling process is done. you can safely add fish after your cycling is done. so the guys at LFS was wrong and I would not follow his advise. i would also cycle your tank with brackish water. if you cnat get hold of ammonia, hanging any sort of meat in your tank until your ammonia goes will work too. (this is what i do to cycle my tank).

[ryanTEXAS]

i have read about the cycling process but i have also been told that bio-spira instantly cycles a tank. correct me if i am wrong!

the gsp i plan to get is kept in freshwater as it is still 1"

[Lucky]

i have read about the cycling process but i have also been told that bio-spira instantly cycles a tank. correct me if i am wrong!

the gsp i plan to get is kept in freshwater as it is still 1"

When they say "instant," it's not quite "right this second" kind of instant. Instead, it shortens the cycle to a couple of days or makes it very mild so that you don't really notice it. The bacteria still need to establish themselves inside your filter and on the surface areas of the tank decorations, etc. You should still be providing an ammonia source (pure ammonia, a piece of meat, etc) and monitoring your water conditions daily until you notice nitrates appearing, to be sure nothing goes wrong.

Also, you can dechlorinate your water that way the first time (fill it up, then add Prime, wait, then add Bio-spira) - but after that, you need to be adding Prime to the water before you put it in the tank.


i will just use the 10 gallon setup to hold shrimp and snails for my green spotted puffer. are "pest snails" safe to feed to my fish?

Not sure what you mean by "pest snails." If they're tank-bred aquatic snails, probably so. If it's something out of the garden, probably not.

[ryanTEXAS]

well i went to pets mart and the tanks were littered with them. the floor of the tank was completely covered. i asked a sales associate if i could have some and asked her how much it would be. she told me that they were free because this type of snail is bad for a tank because they reproduce to quickly.

[OldMan47]

The stuff all over their tanks where I live are common pond snails. They were correctly named as pests. If you are not careful with them, they will grow completely out of control in your tanks. I have some in most of my tanks but I take the necessary care to not let them breed to the point that they obscure my view of the fish. The way that makes sense to use biospira is to treat the tank as if it were in a fishless cycle but add in the biospira. When the fishless cycle looks complete, by the usual standards, then and only then is your tank cycled. Depending on how well the biospira was stored, it could be less than a week up to the usual month or even two months. You could look at it this way, you are trying to set up a tank as part of a potential lifelong hobby so you may as well start out on the right foot. A month is not much out of a lifelong hobby. So far for me it's only a 50 year hobby but who knows, it could become a lifetime in the future.