Advice for Noob?

[Oiler3535]

Star, I did start with Colony bacteria in a bottle. Still gonna test daily until have ates, and no ites or ammonia.

 

[JackLantern]

if you are new to the hobby, do you yourself a favor and buy a couple books.
keeping fish is more complicated than one may think, but very doable if you arm yourself with some basic information.


the web is great, but you will find more conflicting advice/information than you may want to filter through.


i suggest these two books:
http://www.amazon.com/Simple-Guide-F...1V7ZFEKPGSJW5P
and
http://www.amazon.com/Setting-Tropic...S7SR91SH0RWC59


master API test kit and start logging results, you'll get experience fast enough. every setup is different.

rufio is right, you could get some filter goo from LFS, don't frett on cooties, you are geting your fish there anyway...

 

[Oiler3535]

Already ahead of you on the kit and log . Thx!

 

[Oiler3535]

Fish + 2 days and Nitrites are 0, -ates are 0, and ammonia not 0, but still noticeably closer to 0 than .25. Fed the 6 Cherries a little food this morning and they gobbled it down quickly

 

[Duckie]

Nitrates always at 0? You got something in filter to pull the nitrates out (I thought carbon would pull that out, but doesn't)? How did you figure your tank cycled and it was ready to stock with fish? Or are you trying to start the cycle with fish.

 

[JackLantern]

FWIW, i have only ever got nitrite readings 1 time. they don't stick around long.
the week by week book has some nice charts that show you what to expect.

 

[Oiler3535]

Nitrates always at 0? You got something in filter to pull the nitrates out (I thought carbon would pull that out, but doesn't)? How did you figure your tank cycled and it was ready to stock with fish? Or are you trying to start the cycle with fish.

Im under the impression the ammonia and nitrites will go up at first, then down as the nitrates go up, and once ammonia and nitrites back to 0 and nitrates up the tank is fully cycled. But even with the nitrifying bacteria kick start can take a few weeks. A big 46 gallon tank with only 6 small cherries won't likely produce ammonia quickly, especially since I'm not feeding them much the first couple of days.

 

[Duckie]

Im under the impression the ammonia and nitrites will go up at first, then down as the nitrates go up, and once ammonia and nitrites back to 0 and nitrates up the tank is fully cycled. But even with the nitrifying bacteria kick start can take a few weeks. A big 46 gallon tank with only 6 small cherries won't likely produce ammonia quickly, especially since I'm not feeding them much the first couple of days.

Yes, the bacteria in a bottle only speed the process up, and only if you actually start the cycle by adding ammonia. You are adding it with fish, which will work as long as you change the water a lot more often than with a cycled tank. Since you mentioned earlier that you monitor until you see nitrates (tank cycled) I thought you would wait with fish until then and you added a different source of ammonia. My bad.

Good luck. Be patient. Too much too fast on new uncycled tank is bad.

 

[Oiler3535]

Fish +72 hours and ammonia is about .25 (closer to the 0 side colour wise, but definitely close to the .25 now). Nitrites are still close to 0, but I'd say it' said slightly different colour than the past 2 days so might be close to going up. Nitrates still 0.

I had 6 Cherries, but went and got a 7th. I had only one male and just wanted a second one. Behaviour wise, they no longer spend most of there time on one wall but swim around a lot more. I have noticed unless they're swimming around the taller insert they tend to stick to the bottom 1/3 of the tank.

 

[Rbishop]

Not a good idea to be adding fish to a cycling tank...IMO...all new adds should be QT first.