50 Gallon tank setup help

A

aviator79

AC Members
Sep 2, 2008
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Derby, CT
Hello,
I don’t want to be spoon-fed, but figured I start my own thread while I work at getting this tank set up. I went to Long Island over the weekend and started collecting rocks on the beach. There was a lot of translucent quartz like rocks and other nice ones and I thought it would be good to have something that you could shine light thru it and came up with if I could put it in a clear bottom fish tank and shine a light thru the bottom of it. So got back and someone gave me a nice 50 gal tank so I rinsed then boiled all the rocks for a short bit and put them in the tank filled it with the hose last night. I have not tested it with anything and just have it running on the 30-60gal Wal-Mart pump. Not sure if this pump will work or if it is junk. I have a second one that is of the same delign except a little better build but it is missing the motor magnet/pump wheel part. They are both just charcoal filters so not sure if I need to upgrade.
So I don’t know if these rocks will be bad for the tank....
And we set the tank up for my girlfriends 3yo daughter and wanted to get here some fish right away, thou I know it is a bad idea, but just today am doing all this research on "fishless cycle" and such. I cant find and bio spira as it is discontinued.

So can I get a few fish and do a fishy cycle tonight?

Do I need a better bump now? Later or will this one be ok? Should I run both pumps?

Anything I need to add to the water to get it ready?

Should I put the old aquarium gravel in a cheese cloth or stocking and put them in the tank to help build the bacteria or will it all be dead by now?

How do I check to see how bad the water is now? Like too much chlorine or any bad minerals from the rocks I got from LI Sound shore.

I will get a API master test kit and report my findings, but I am noob, though I have had other tanks in the past.
 
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in order to see what effect the rocks had on your water, you'll have to get a baseline, or before reading. You need to test your tap water.
test for
PH, Ammonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates.
You could also test for Gen Hardness, and Carboate hardness.

If your water is chlorinated, if it is city water it most likely is, then you'll need to dechlorinate it EVERY time you do a water change or add any water from the tap. Most people would suggest using PRIME for this.

get a 5 gal bucket, and fill it with tap water, that has been dechlirinated if necessary. test the things listed abouve with an API liquid test kit. Please avoid using test strips as they are quite inaccurate, and basicly near useless.

AT least test the PH, Ammonia, Nitrate, and Nitrites. Let the water sit in the bucket 24 hours and retest. See if the Ph changes. test the ph to see if it stabilizes.

Then add some of the rock, and retest again in 24 hours to see how the rock will effect the water parameters..


Bottom line, for now anyway, if you arent sure if it is bad for the tank, leave it out.

Doing a fishy cycle will take a while to accomplish and may kill some fish. Most people advise against it. the easiest wat to establish a bio filter is to seed your filter with used media from an established tank, and SLOWLY add fish.
watch the Ammonia nitrIte, and NitrAte levels.

NitrItes will kill fish, ans will Ammonia. NitrAtes are less harmful to them.
Usually when cycling a tank, when you first see nitrAtes in a tank that previously had none, it is cycled.

Look at the stickeys in the freshwater Noob section of this site.. Lots of info there.
 
Quartz is silicate base so it shouldn't change the pH. I was thinking some of your rocks might be glass. The waves breaking on the shore make for a pretty good rock tumbler and can "polish" the sharp edges off glass.

Zigman pretty much nailed down all the key points. If you have some muriatic (hydrochloric) acid, a drop on a rock can indicate whether or not it contains carbonates, which will change your pH. If it fizzes quickly, it's a safe bet to use another rock if you don't want to change your pH.
 
Thanks for the help.
I already had the rocks in the tank and had it filled so I went and got a master API test kit ($24) and started testing. My frist test showed the PH of the hose water to be 7 and of the tank to be 7.8 and all other levels were 0. SO im thinking the PH in the tank was high due to the rocks so I add the conditioner and some medium to the filter and let it run and re test and get the same ph. SO I drain the tank and refil and it is the same and then I retest the hose and it is also now 7.8 so basically my first tap water test was off due to possibly the water sitting in the hose and did not give it time to flush that old water thru. Either way It has been holding stable so I think the rocks are fine and will just watch the PH. I know it is not an ideal PH, but so far the 4 small jellybean parots and 1 orange colored tetra are doing great. So I will just test daily and hope the medium I got from the shop does well.
 
More fish?

Everything has been going great so far. I havent done any water changes and am not sure I need to as all my levels are good. Every thing is at 0 still except nitrate is at 10, ph is stable. I had the water about 8 gallons low to create more bubles, but thinking I could put it up to full and still have enough O2 in the water. Just the lower level creates more bubles. Wanted to get some more fish and not sure what to get next. Any recomendations with what I have?
4- jellybean parots (very active and flayful, chase and ram eachther)
1 orange fish that I thought was a tetra but it has these loke lower wiskers so I dont know. He's a loner
I assume the tank has not stabelized yet, but thinking a water change and a few more fish would be good.
Now for the water change will it be ok to just drain 75%, add the water then treat it? The last time I did that was right before I added these 5 fish and they adjusted just fine so the water is fairly good and you cant really taste chlorine in it.
Thanks
 
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sorry fixed, ment nitrate is just orange as it has been sense I added the fish and biomass.
And the orange fish looks to be a dwarf gourami
colisa_lalia_red_neon_1(1).jpg


So I guess I should shoot for something like this:
Stock 1
[FONT=&quot]6 platys[/FONT]- they are awesome little fish. Peaceful, colorful, hardy, and great beginner breeders, they are really the perfect community fish, and are highly recommended for new hobbyists. They will breed readily in a community tank, but the other fish in the tank will take care of the babies . Males will grow to be around 2 inches, while females grow to around 2¼ inches long.
[FONT=&quot]24 neons[/FONT]- the classic colorful little tetra. They are schooling fish and are happiest in bigger groups. Also peaceful, they will add some activity to the middle portion of the tank. Grow to about 1 inch- 1½ inches long.
[FONT=&quot]8 Schwartz’s corydoras[/FONT]- corydoras in general are peaceful and are most active when they are in groups. Schwartz’s corydoras can be substituted with three-line, peppered, sterbai's, Julii, or panda corydoras. They grow to about 2½ inches long.
[FONT=&quot]1 dwarf gourami[/FONT]- dwarf gouramis are great beginner centerpiece fish for they are colorful and easy to find. They grow to about 3 inches long, but only one should be kept per tank because two males will fight.

Stock 2
[FONT=&quot]6 zebra danios[/FONT]- zebra danios are extremely hardy; some say the most of all freshwater fish. Zebras are hyperactive and like to be kept in groups so they can chase each other around. They get to around 1½-2 inches long.
[FONT=&quot]20 black skirt tetras[/FONT]- another extremely hardy fish. Like neons, they like to be in groups. Grow to around 2½ inches long. They are available in albino, long finned, and albino long finned versions, to help mix it up a bit in your tank. Can be nippy, but is virtually nonexistent when kept in sizable schools. Stay away from any that are pink or blue, as they are dyed.
[FONT=&quot]6 Schwartz’s corydoras[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]1 dwarf gourami[/FONT]


But change it up a bit for the 4 parrots I already have so not sure what I can get.

from here
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1459108#post1459108
 
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