Sorry it’s been a busy week!!

Welcome back everyone,

Firstly let me apologise for not posting more recently but the past 10 days seem to have flown by. Mainly, I think due to this white stuff falling from the sky and this coinciding with a terrible bout of man flu I have contracted!!

Anyway back to the tank. When I last posted I explained that intended to increase the fish stock from the two zebra danios I had, well I did exactly that. I allowed the tank to settle for a few days, monitoring the levels daily. Still nothing changed and so on day 14 I purchased two leopard danios. These are great fish and instantly settle with the two zebras. I went for leopards so that I could maximise the variety in the tank and secondly so that the pair were more settled with a larger group. The group has been extremely active and clearly enjoy playing together and swimming in the stream of the filter.

The introduction of these extra fish has been superb and in fact I have seen now increase in levels suggesting my bio filter is matured well and coping. It has been 10 days since the introduction of these danios and the only change is the generation of algae. The tank has formed brown spots, most noticeable on the smallest plant and largest ornament. I very quickly found that this algae is common in newer tanks and it was suggested that light levels play a part as with all algae. My tanks is never in direct sunlight but is fitted with a day and night light. So I am now switching the day light off earlier to try and control this.

However, today I have again increased the fish stock. I have bought two albino cory catfish. I was keen to get a bottom dweller as the danios are mid to top fish. But many bottom dwellers grow far too large for my tank. While researching I found a great article called; Cory Catfish: Great little vacuum cleaners. After reading this I was set, but then I had to decide which species. I did the dangerous think and let my wife decide this!! Cleverly she selected the albino, which looks wonderful in my tank and a great contrast to the danios.
They have been in the tank only a few hours and have proven to be very active fish. They have also been feeding a lot from the substrate and ornaments. I’m hoping that this addition will also aid in managing the brown algae.

The addition of different species also raises issues around food. It’s well documented that tropical fish thrive on a variety of food. I have been using flake food but now that I have different level fish I need food that will reach and benefit all the species. As yet I haven’t had a chance to purchase anything else but I will be buying pellets so that the cories can gain the food they need. Obviously feeding lightly to avoid uneaten food piling up.

Hoping your all good and those in the UK are staying warm.

Day 10

Good evening all, hope everyone is well.

Today is day 10 of my cycle and I think that with my current stock levels the tank cycle has settled. The current situation is that the tank has now been running for 11 days and 10 days with fish. I have been monitoring it every day with a liquid test kit and in the last three days the results appear to have settled. I have completed 4 partial water changes in the last 10 days of about 20%. The current results are this Ammonia reads 0, Nitrate is 5 and Nitrite is less than 0.1. They have read very similar for the last 4 days.

Therefore my plan to progress is to add another two danios to bring the pair I currently have up to more of a school and increase the bio load slightly. As I am doing a fish in cycle the source of ammonia are the fish and their waste to I intend to add two more later this week. The reason I’m waiting slightly is to allow the bacteria that is present to mature slightly, hopefully allowing the increase in fish to be easier and less stressful for the fish.

However, I have been considering my stocking slightly more as I am considering more fish. I have decided that I shall be looking at danios still as I need to increase their school. There are a number of species within the Danios and I understand that they will all school so for variety I am a planning on looking for two leopard danios to accompany my zebra danios.

I have also been looking into more scaping of the tank. I really need another plant but want a larger one to help hide the heater, but I am considering a real plant. My only real hesitation is the fear is snails and their eggs on the plant. However, having researched it many people have suggested that snails will aid the tank. This is something that I will carry on considering.

Will next blog once I have the new fish or unless something dramatic changes before. Enjoy.

Two zebra danios

Quick pic of my two Zebra Danios. Not a great pic I know but just a quick one from my phone.

Day 6

Hello to all.

Today is day 6 of my cycle and it has been confusing and hard work.

Despite my research I have sought advice from forums as my liquid test kit are showing rather odd readings.

On day 4 I sadly lost a fish. I believe that this had nothing to do with the levels in the tank. After getting the fish home I noticed that said fish had a damaged tail and had likely been nipped while at the shop as they had angelfish with the danios. His swimming was poorer than the others and expected to lose him.
When I woke up I could only see the two fish and searched high and low but after a cup of coffee I located him stuck in the filter switch.
It has been suggested that this death could still of been due to the levels in the water and he had been stuck after his death. But I have checked the switch and it has no suction so I believe the little fella had been exploring and become trapped.

Anyway, on to my levels. After 6 days of fish in my tank I have had zero ammonia according to my test kit. Yet have shown reasonable levels of nitrates and a few nitrites.
This to me could only mean two things either my test kit is faulty or my tank is processing the level of ammonia being produced.

I have sought advice and more experienced people seemed to suspect that in fact my tank is past the first stage of cycling and is indeed processing the ammonia in the tank.
I have been using a filter boost by Love Fish daily and can only imagine that this is actually working and bacteria have grown in the tank.

On day 3 I had a very cloudy tank and this appears to have been a bacterial bloom which supports the idea that the cycle is going well.

I have completed 4 partial water changes of about 20%. Which is slightly more than I expected but I did one following the death of the fish to prevent any possible spikes in the levels from the death.

The mrs is still keen to get more fish but I have been able to resist. I am however considering real plants. Two reasons, firstly the obvious benefits to the fish and water and secondly as I think they would look nicer than all plastic.
However, I’m reluctant due to the possibility of having snails as a result of the plants. I have read that often plants have snail eggs attached and despite the best searching they usually appear.
I have not yet found any I thought looked particularly nice so have not taken the plunge.

Would love to hear from anyone and welcome to fishtanx2011!!

Interpet Fish box 40

This is the tank I am using. Priced about £90 but worth some shopping around a haggling for a great deal.
The tank is equipped with day and night lights, comes with heater, filter, tap safe and filter start.

Decisions Decisions

My first post is going to look at the choices that I made and you are probably considering and the decisions that I finally decided on.

The most important and first decision is whether I could actually be a fish keeper for a tropical aquarium. I won’t lie, I had no idea the level of involvement required. You have to be prepared to put time in certainly to begin with while you tank cycles (will discuss a little later). You need the space for your tank, the plugs for the heater, filter and lights and storage for the various pots, kits and gizmos you will end up with. Consider and plan at this point, location, location, location.
Your tank needs to be on a strong flat and level surface because once it is full it will weight a hell of a lot!! You must also think about sunlight, direct light on your tank will effect temperature and promote algae to grow. Both not a bad think but all considerations and things to manage.

That leads us onto equipment. I actually ended up buying a kit from a large pet store. My reasons were simple, it was a bargain and the right size for me and the space I had available. My tank is a Interpet Fishbox 40 which came complete with heater, filter, tap safe and filter start. Plus the deal came with a stand, food and a filter boost formula. All that for less than £100!!!
The tank is actually a 48 litre tank which is a little misleading from the name but the 40 refers to the dimensions. This is a great starter kit and ideal for what I needed. It gave me all reasonable products without having to spend hours searching and comparing each product.

Once you have your kit it’s about setting it all up. That’s relatively simple and usually the core kit is the same on all tanks. But your individual side comes out when it comes to the decorating. Substrate, plants, rocks, ornaments, lights, bubbles, and the list goes on. This will depend on what you want your aquarium to be for. I personally went for a simple community aquarium so my decoration is pretty much my choice. I have black and white gravel, two fake plants, a rock and a swim through barrel. This still leaves plenty of space for more as and when I want to.
Now for the water, which will usually be from your nearest tap but you need to remember that our drinking water has an awful lot added to it for consumption. Including chlorine which is designed to kill bacteria, good for humans, bad for tropical fish! So you need to add a tap safe solution to balance the water ready for the fish.

I completed all this then ran the tank with the filter and heater running. This allowed me to ensure that everything worked and begin circulating the water and allow it all to settle. This was the first frustrating bit for me as I wanted to start stocking the tank. However, the manufacturers advice and it seems that of the experienced is to allow this to take place for 3-4 days. Needless to say I waited for 1! This day did allow me to actually sit down and read about what it was I was undertaking.

Now this is the point I nearly fell over. The nitrogen cycle, not exactly what I had in mind when buying a fish tank. The bare basics seem to me that fish obviously produce waste and along with excess food this all builds up to a combination of dangerous chemicals in the water. If this build up is too much then it is fatal for the fish. The way this is managed is by allowing the tank to cycle through the nitrogen cycle and thus allowing the build up of good bacteria to process the waste. A bit like Activia for fish.
There appears to be a number of ways to do this process but essentially there seems to actually be two, fish in or fish less. Fish less cycling requires ‘seeding’ of bacteria in the tank. The source of this can be from a mature cycled tank, such a a small amount of gravel or other item, shop bought filter media or a liquid additive. Once in place the tank needs to run allowing the bacteria to grow usually takes about 6 weeks to fully complete. Fish-in cycling is often suggested as a bit cruel but my understanding is that if done careful and properly it shouldn’t be cruel at all. The process is to place a small number of hardy fish into the tank and through monitoring and water changes allow the process to take place without the chemicals rising too high and the bacteria to grow.
I decided to go with the fish in process. My thoughts being firstly, I’m far to impatient to have a tank sitting here with no fish. Secondly, the mrs was not impressed with the idea of it either. I was also concerned at seeding bacteria with items from a tank I didn’t know and the possibility of spreading disease. Once you have decided on your process of cycling its actually time to think about fish.

When looking at fish this is obviously going to be dictated by your process of cycling. As I have gone for cycling with fish I needed a small number of hardy, tolerant fish. Upon reading there are a few out there but I also wanted a fish that was entertaining and attractive. I settled on three Zebra Danios. These are very tolerant and very active so ticked every box.

This brings me up to date. Today the fish were added and seemed to settle very quick, I also completed my first batch of monitoring tests and the results were as follows;
PH – 8.0
Ammonia – 0
Nitrate – 0
Nitrite – 0.

This is what I expected as the cycle hasn’t started yet but tomorrow the hard work begins.