newbie question

Hello,

this might sound bit offf but here is my question, by the way i am from sydney australlia.

i used to have tank when i was little kid and ever since i dream of having a large and big tank. so now i start working i bought a new 250 Gallon tank.

The question is. How do I start cycle. I checked ph and it is 7.8. What do I need to do to start the aquarium running. Is there any web site referenced to australian water system and things I need to do.

Thanks very much

I already answered this in another newsgroup. Check the groups!

Save yourself a lot of time and work, do a fishless cycle. http;//www.angelfire.com/or2/cichlid102/Tank_chemistry/ cycling.htm

That link is no-longer valid .

Dang - well it *was* a great site! For a couple of years I used to tell people how to do what I thought was the fastest way to do a fishless cycle. There was only 2 or 3 sites on fishless cycling, which I disagreed with untill Kent opened his site. It sure was faster/easyer to just type in his site address, than to type out the whole thing over and over..... The short of it, just add ammonia (5ppm) *one* time and let it cycle.......Frank

But not if there are plants in the tank! Fishless cycling works OK if you don't have plants. With plants and lighting, your plants will simply get overrun by algae. If you want to cycle with plants, the best way I know of is to get hold of a handful of media from an established tank filter and put that into your filter. You get an almost instantly cycled tank that way.

Cheers,

250 Gallon Tank? You don't do things small and work you way up do you? That's over a tonne of water

I'm up in Newcastle (1.5hrs north) just about to setup a new tank after being out of the hobbie for 4 years so I'm not sure what the water is like here yet. But the general gist is the same

water from tap chlorine / chloramine remover cycle the tank

take things slowly...

Sydney water has a lot of chlorine in it so be sure to add that remover...

Cheers,

grin ..... that is a fishless cycle. Enough media, there wouldn't be a cycle at all.

A few plants just helps the cycle to go a little faster - some plants, like the java fern, work better than others. The last tank I set up was a *fully* planted 90gal. with two hang-on filters. The fishless cycle still lasted a little over a week, with no mini spike when the fish were added, although only half the fish load was added. I started adding the other half slowly 5 weeks later, as they came out of quarantine, as most of them did better in aged water (tetras, elephant nose, etc.). However, _If_ I was going to put a _full_ fish load in a well planted tank, that I was doing a fishless cycle on, I would add a few drops of ammonia to the filter box for the first 5 days - with eather case, the established filter squeezing (seed) should be put into the new filter, not the tank.....Frank

Why do plants inhibit a fishless cycle? I thought they improved it by bringing in some of the bacteria on their leaves?

I was going to fully plant my tank and run a fishless cycle, does this mean I should only put in a few? The more I learn, the less I know

TIA Claire

A planted tank is much better to look at than an empty one.

I _always_ dip new plants in a 3% bleach solution from 1 to 3 mins. (depending on plant) to kill any hitch-hikers, which of corse would also kill any bacteria.

It's sure a lot easyer on you and the fish, if your fully planted tank is planted before any fish go into the tank. ... The reason we 'cycle' a tank/filter, is so harmfull ammonia (fish waste and uneaten foods) can quickly be removed. What is the difference of the plants removing harmfull ammonia, or the filter? ... I have a friend that has a very fully planted 55gal. tank that houses mabe (guessing) 24 cardinals, white clouds, and head & tail lights. The tank has *no* filter, just a small power head for water movement - ammonia is removed by the plants.......Frank

Hi Frank,

Thanks for the explanation, just to clarify (cos I'm a bear of very little brain) the ammonia that would help build the bacteria colony in the filter is being used by the plants and therefore the colony in the filter is smaller, causing an ammonia spike when you add fish.

Does this sound about right?

Does the 3% bleach solution have any negative effects and could the 'hitchhikers' be disease as well as snails?

Thanks Claire