Best critters for new tank??

[Mumma.of.two]

Those links were great... I don't have any questions... yet... lol... thank you!!!

Your welcome glad to help.

 

[librarygirl]

Then WHY do they say to get the ammonia to 0-ppm and why all the "fixes" for high ammonia in the store.... is there more than one kind of ammonia, like there is nitrites/nitrates? I'm so confused....

lol it can be confusing. You may have already figured it out from reading the links given, but here's a summary:

When you put fish in a new tank, the tank doesn't have the bacteria it needs to convert the ammonia so that it won't hurt the fish. So when the fish are added they naturally poo and pee ammonia. The ammonia will allow the bacteria to start growing but in the meantime the ammonia is toxic to the fish, so that's why you'd have to do daily water changes for up to 8 weeks until enough bacteria grows to keep the ammonia at 0 (the ammonia removers at the store are a waste of money; clean water through water changes will save the fish). That's for a fish-in cycle.

In a fishless cycle, you obviously don't have fish in there but need an ammonia source to feed the bacteria to get them to grow. That's why you introduce ammonia like through adding pure ammonia from a bottle. This will feed the bacteria and allow them to grow. Eventually you grow enough bacteria to drop the ammonia you add to 0. This too can take up to 8 weeks but the difference is no fish are hurt by it and you dont' have to do daily water changes.

There's a bit more to it than that as I didn't mention nitrites, etc (it's in the links if you've read them) but that's basically the jist of it.

 

[texaspepper]

oooooooo.. my head is gonna explode.... and to think I got fish because it is so peaceful to watch them swimming... got more stress over my tanks than I do from my job... lol...
I'll do my best to follow suggestions.. thank you!!!