Do i add anything else after water ager?

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sealife

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Aug 7, 2013
Messages
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Location
Australia.
Hello everyone,
First post here *waves*

Im starting a new American cichlid tank. Possibly anything like; black belt, jack dempsey, texas, red devil, convict, flowerhorn, etc etc. Not sure which kind yet. But i do want 1 bristlenose catfish in there, as i love catfish. Hope they are compatible.

I had some questions:

1.
I wanted to ask. I am currently doing fishless cycle with ammonia, and after that, apart from the water ager (that i already used before the cycle, and after) to remove chlorine, what else is best used for these type of fish?

2.
Do i add some kind of cichlid salt and KH buffer etc etc? (how high should GH and KH be?)

3.
Is normal tap water PH fine? or should i lower it? (local store said it needs to be lower than tap water of 7.6ph)

4.
And water average water temp should i have. I set it to 23.5 to 24 degrees.

5.
Also do i need an air pump? i have a large filter over 11 times the water flow rate of my tank size. (store said its fine with no air pump)

6.
When I am done with fishless cycle, I heard I need to do a large 70 to 90% water change to get rid of nitrates. I don't want to kill off my bacteria with new water that holds chlorine. When I empty tank and add new water in tank, can I put water in bucket with ager for 15 minutes, to clear chlorine, then pour into tank? is 15 minutes enough with ager to get rid of chlorine?

I have searched everything online, and keep getting different results all the time, from different websites.
Most local fish stores also recommend buffering water and using salt, but im not sure if they are just after my money....

i just want the best for my fish health.

Thank you.
Kind regards,
sealife.
 
Hello everyone,
First post here *waves*

Im starting a new American cichlid tank. Possibly anything like; black belt, jack dempsey, texas, red devil, convict, flowerhorn, etc etc. Not sure which kind yet. But i do want 1 bristlenose catfish in there, as i love catfish. Hope they are compatible.

I had some questions:

1.
I wanted to ask. I am currently doing fishless cycle with ammonia, and after that, apart from the water ager (that i already used before the cycle, and after) to remove chlorine, what else is best used for these type of fish?

2.
Do i add some kind of cichlid salt and KH buffer etc etc? (how high should GH and KH be?)

3.
Is normal tap water PH fine? or should i lower it? (local store said it needs to be lower than tap water of 7.6ph)

4.
And water average water temp should i have. I set it to 23.5 to 24 degrees.

5.
Also do i need an air pump? i have a large filter over 11 times the water flow rate of my tank size. (store said its fine with no air pump)

6.
When I am done with fishless cycle, I heard I need to do a large 70 to 90% water change to get rid of nitrates. I don't want to kill off my bacteria with new water that holds chlorine. When I empty tank and add new water in tank, can I put water in bucket with ager for 15 minutes, to clear chlorine, then pour into tank? is 15 minutes enough with ager to get rid of chlorine?

I have searched everything online, and keep getting different results all the time, from different websites.
Most local fish stores also recommend buffering water and using salt, but im not sure if they are just after my money....

i just want the best for my fish health.

Thank you.
Kind regards,
sealife.

Hi and welcome!

When you say water ager do you mean a dechlorinator?


You should de chlorinate all water before it goes into your tank (say your adding 5 buckets of water to your tank, you can de chlorinate it in the bucket, then add it to tank( dose size for the individual bucket))

And i don't know about the PH, or temp

The air pump is optional, but remember the warmer the water, the less air in the water.

And yes you need to do a large water change after the cycle, you should add some de chlorinator ( water ager) before putting the water in the tank


Do you have a test kit to test your water parameters?

Hope this helps!
 
Hi and welcome!

When you say water ager do you mean a dechlorinator?


You should de chlorinate all water before it goes into your tank (say your adding 5 buckets of water to your tank, you can de chlorinate it in the bucket, then add it to tank( dose size for the individual bucket))

And i don't know about the PH, or temp

The air pump is optional, but remember the warmer the water, the less air in the water.

And yes you need to do a large water change after the cycle, you should add some de chlorinator ( water ager) before putting the water in the tank


Do you have a test kit to test your water parameters?

Hope this helps!

Hello bubbles, and thank you for the reply.
I used seachem prime as ager/dechlorinater. How quick does that work? So I know how long I should wait, before I pour bucket of water solutioned with Prime, back into tank?

Yes I have API test kit. My ammonia is currently at 3 to 4 ppm, nitrites and trates at 0ppm. Water temp will stay around 24 degress.
Once I see nitrites growing, do I only add half the amount of ammonia, to keep it at 1 to 2 ppm? ( in drops, using clear pure ammonia)
 
As far as i know, it works pretty quickly. I don't personally use prime as a de chlorinator, but i just add the right dose, give it a swirl and pour the water in.
 
The prime works instantly.

No air pump is necessary.

The temperature should stay in the mid 70s Fahrenheit

Your tap pH is fine at 7.6

KH should be 4 - 10 ish

For dosing the ammonia i would add enough daily to keep the ammonia level at 4ppm. You will eventually see this falling faster and faster while seeing nitrite /nitrate rise faster and faster. Once the tank cycles 4ppm of ammonia fully to nitrates then your cycle is completed and you should do a 95% water change to get all the nitrates out. Don't worry about the bacteria because almost all of it is located in the filter and on the substrate.
 
The prime works instantly.

No air pump is necessary.

The temperature should stay in the mid 70s Fahrenheit

Your tap pH is fine at 7.6

KH should be 4 - 10 ish

For dosing the ammonia i would add enough daily to keep the ammonia level at 4ppm. You will eventually see this falling faster and faster while seeing nitrite /nitrate rise faster and faster. Once the tank cycles 4ppm of ammonia fully to nitrates then your cycle is completed and you should do a 95% water change to get all the nitrates out. Don't worry about the bacteria because almost all of it is located in the filter and on the substrate.

Thank u very much. That was very informative.
I'm on my 3rd day cycling with ammonia.
Ammonia still the same, looks more like somewhere between 2ppm to 4 ppm. Can't really tell.
No nitrites yet.
 
Been cycling my tank with clear ammonia for a week now.
No nitrites yet. How long is the normal time frame for them to show?
 
Hello everyone,
First post here *waves*

Im starting a new American cichlid tank. Possibly anything like; black belt, jack dempsey, texas, red devil, convict, flowerhorn, etc etc. Not sure which kind yet. But i do want 1 bristlenose catfish in there, as i love catfish. Hope they are compatible.

I had some questions:

1.
I wanted to ask. I am currently doing fishless cycle with ammonia, and after that, apart from the water ager (that i already used before the cycle, and after) to remove chlorine, what else is best used for these type of fish?

2.
Do i add some kind of cichlid salt and KH buffer etc etc? (how high should GH and KH be?)

3.
Is normal tap water PH fine? or should i lower it? (local store said it needs to be lower than tap water of 7.6ph)

4.
And water average water temp should i have. I set it to 23.5 to 24 degrees.

5.
Also do i need an air pump? i have a large filter over 11 times the water flow rate of my tank size. (store said its fine with no air pump)

6.
When I am done with fishless cycle, I heard I need to do a large 70 to 90% water change to get rid of nitrates. I don't want to kill off my bacteria with new water that holds chlorine. When I empty tank and add new water in tank, can I put water in bucket with ager for 15 minutes, to clear chlorine, then pour into tank? is 15 minutes enough with ager to get rid of chlorine?

I have searched everything online, and keep getting different results all the time, from different websites.
Most local fish stores also recommend buffering water and using salt, but im not sure if they are just after my money....

i just want the best for my fish health.

Thank you.
Kind regards,
sealife.

Welcome, all the fish you mentioned are Central American with the exception of the Flower horn which is a Hybrid and should be avoided IMO.

What size tank are you working with here? That will determine stock.

No cichlid salt or any PH up/down is needed just tap water treated with prime. Your PH is fine need to mess with it, Centrals will do fine at a PH range of 7.0-8.0 . Your local fish store only said that because A: They or trying to sell you stuff or B: They don't know what they are talking about.

24-26 deg should be perfect.

No air pump is needed unless you feel that you don't have enough surface agitation. The filtration sounds spot on.

Once you see the presence of nitrates continue to add ammonia until the ammonia goes back to 0 once you dose it. A large water change will be needed if the nitrates are above 10 ppm

When doing water changes dose the entire volume of the tank with a dechlorinator such as Seachem Prime after you've removed the % of water you wish to change. This will keep any chlorine in the tap water from killing of any of the BB.

There's no need to add salt like I mentioned before. They are after your money.
 
Been cycling my tank with clear ammonia for a week now.
No nitrites yet. How long is the normal time frame for them to show?

It certainly varies from tank to tank. One week for the start of things isn't unheard of. What is your ammonia level at?
 
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