New 10 gallon tank

I am no expert, so by no means take my advice for gold, but from what I gather about cycling, running an empty tank without an ammonia source will do nothing to cultivate a bacteria colony. It certainly will not harm anything, but running an empty tank for a week will just delay the beginning of the cycling stage.

As for the "stress" reducers in water conditioners, there is heated debate currently whether this does any good or not, check out the recent posts regarding this in the forum.

I have never kept danios, but I understand that they are a schooling fish. Getting only two might stress them a little bit, but getting more would not be good for cycling, so I suggest a different fish to begin with. Two platies might work, but be warned that livebearers breed like rabbits. This is not a huge problem, but you might have a little trouble explaining to your boys that the fry have disappeared because the parents ate them (and if they do manage to survive, your tank will be quickly overrun with them).

If you are considering a betta (sorry, I'm partial to them), this would make an excellent fish to cycle with. So would some white cloud mt. minnows (I think) but they do better with cooler temperatures and it sounds like you want a tropical tank.

Of course I am not too experienced, maybe the Elder Gods of the forum want to make some other suggestions? They never steer me wrong.
 
Originally posted by Anne L.
I talked to a lady at the fish store yesterday and she suggested adding the water, plants, decorations, etc., letting the tank run for a week, and then adding 2 hardy fish. She also mentioned adding something called cycle, the water conditioner, and something else which is supposed to lessen the stress on the fish.

Is she on the right track with this, or does it seem like a bit much?

:confused:

Edit: Aquarius, I'm thinking of getting some platies, danios, or such. The lady at the fish store told me to get 2 cheaper hardy fish to start with, but I'm not sure which one she meant. I intend to go back there tomorrow and find out more.
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Danios are hard to kill (so are diamond tetras - and they are beautiful and do well with only 2-3) Danios are schoolers, but in my 55 I have 7 of them, and after day 3 in the tank, they just stay in pairs 99% of the time...

for cost effectiveness, I'd say run the tank for 24 -48 hours (using just water conditioner) put in two danios and let it ride for a 2 weeks if possible (Christmas will be upon you and you can add one fish per child on the 23rd)...

Just check your water and do any needed water changes (50% max in a day 20-25% preferred).

FWIW, I'd get my test supplies from www.bigals.com for US buyers they are 4.50-4.99 for each test bottle vs. 15 bucks aer the local places...

Good luck, don't rush things and it'll be fine!
 
Thanks for the replies! Well, we're going to set up the tank this weekend sometime and probably let it run till next weekend, just because we won't have time to get out during the week to the fish store. We're pretty busy with Christmas activities and all that stuff.

I've talked to the kids about not rushing to get a bunch of fish right away and they're really interested in doing this the right way. So we should be o.k. with just a couple of fish for the first 2-3 weeks or so.

It's very reassuring to know that I can come here for advice at just about any time and someone will respond.

Well, wish us luck tomorrow on our new adventure into aquaria!

:)
 
Well, we set up the tank today with all of the plants and such. I need to pick up a power bar tomorrow though as we thought we had a spare one, no luck.

However, the filter and air pump work. We'll wait until tomorrow to plug in the heater as the tap water was so cold. We'll put in the water conditioner tomorrow as well.

pH was 7.4, on the top end of the test kit I have. Is this o.k. for most fish; according to the little book I have, it should be. Will this change once the water conditioner is in? I plan to test again anyway to see what happens.

The kids picked out some fairly gaudy plants and a little castle, but it looks pretty nice even without the fish.

Onwards and upwards for now!
 
Glad to hear everything is working out.

The pH itself isn't as important as the pH stability, and 7.4 is ok for most fish. If your test maxed out at 7.4, then you may need a high-range test kit if you want to be sure.

Graeme
 
How often should we do water changes and why? Also, what should we be testing for; pH, ammonia, nitrates/nitrates, or what? And how should the water changes be done?

I did get a pH kit and ammonia test kit, but now I'm not sure when to start doing water changes and when to clean the tank and how.

Boy, this seems a lot harder than I thought, although it likely isn't once you get into it. I know some people just buy an aquarium, throw fish into it and hope for the best, but I'd like to do this right the first time and not have to learn the hard way by having the poor fish die.

Sorry if I'm asking a lot of questions, but this is a little intimidating to me at first.

What we'd eventually like to end up with is 3 corys, 2 tetras, and a couple of others.

Thanks for all the expert help on here.
 
Originally posted by Anne L.
How often should we do water changes and why? Also, what should we be testing for; pH, ammonia, nitrates/nitrates, or what? And how should the water changes be done?

I did get a pH kit and ammonia test kit, but now I'm not sure when to start doing water changes and when to clean the tank and how.
Click to expand...

Water conditioner won't change your pH.

Water changes will start after your start-up fish are in. What to expect. Ammonia will spike. Do water changes to keep it within acceptable levels ( below 2ppm. at 2ppm fish are in big trouble) Next the nitrites will spike and ammonia will drop... (thats good things are working) do water changes to keep nitrites at or below .5 ppm (above .5ppm fish are in trouble at 1.0 they start to die quickly). Next the water changes will be alot easier since you'll only have to do them to remove nitrates. Which should be kept below 40 ppm ( Preferably below 20ppm, but durring the inital cycle I find my tanks nitrites rise quickly)...

Just bear in mind that all this work is temp. and the daily testing turns into weekly testing soon enuff...

Cleaning the tank. I vacumm the gravel with a $5.00 vacumm hose thing. The 'vacumming' of the gravel draws out the water, and I kill 2 birds with one stone... I just vacumm until I reach my desired water removal level.

If everything is kept fine thats about all the cleaning it needs (after several months a 'wipe down' ( no chemicals) of the inside of the filter intake tube(s) ect. to remove some of the gunk...
 
bettas are not

Bettas aren't definitely for the community tank.Please do not
expect them to get along with other fish living side by side.
Bettas are only for betta tanks.See it for yourself at your nearby pet stores.Great looking fish they are,but it doesn't mean they are supposed to be treated just like others.They have absolutely different characters with others.Cylcling and recycling until the fish finally arrive is surely the most important thing but choosing the type of fish to put in later is much important as well.
 
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Actually, two of the LFS keep bettas in tanks with other fish, usually with cories or something that hangs out in a different "zone" of the aquarium. This is a much better idea than keeping them in tiny cups, but alas, they do that, too. I would not treat a betta terribly differently from other fish, except for keeping them in slow moving water and away from tiger barbs. In fact, bettas are a lot like gouramis and paradise fish in that you should only keep 1 male and the fact that you do not need highly oxygenated water (because of their labyrinth organ).
 
When I used to keep bettas, they never bothered my other fish. They just did their own thing. The only thing is that, like Aquarius said, males can't be kept together.

For water changes, if you want to make things a bit easier, you could pick up one of those Python-type hoses. They hook up to your tap and you can empty, vacuum, and refill with the same hose. It's not too necessary for a 10 gallon, but it will make things simpler, expecially if you end up getting more tanks.

Graeme
 
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