tjohanso
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Hello to all of my NEW BFF's!!! hee hee This is the coolest forum I have ever found. I got my 1st 55Gal FW tank at the age of 13 and had it until I was 20. I don't know what ever got into me but I got rid of it. I'm now 34 with an 11yr & 7yr old Son's who LOVE animals like myself. For my birthday this year the hubby & sons got me a brand new FW 29G kit from Petco. Great deal & perfect starter set for me. Set it up 8/23/11 & had it running for a whole week without any fishies. Took a water sample to my LFS(pet$*%$) & they said the water was perfect & ok to add fish. Bought 1 HiFin Spotted Pleco(1inlong), 5 LongFin Red Tetra's, & 3 Cremesicle Mollies. AGAIN, the LFS said it was perfectly fine to do this. Within a week 3 tetras and 2 mollies DEAD. FOUND THIS FORUM trying to research the deaths before going back to petsmart with dead fish.
Low and behold the Ammonia was threw the aquarium lid(DUH!!!) and petsmart would not refund or replace because MY WATER KILLED THEM and it wasn't there fault. ALSO discovered that my HiFin Spotted Pleco will very soon outgrow my tank & I will have to rehome him. Again it was too late to take him back to Petsmart so now I just have to watch him grow & then rehome.
He's so darn pretty too.
So, no new fish and a month later with my new found knowledge of CYCLING YOUR TANK WITH FISH and my ammonia is .25ppm and I am almost completely cycled. YEAH!!! YEAH!!! YEAH!!!
I wish I would have found this site during the week of my fishless cycle and I would have been without poor fish deaths and a much easier cycle. I have told everyone I could get to listen about cycling your tank and the benefits. When I was 13 I got the tank from my Uncle for my birthday and he had had it set up for over 2years before giving it to me so it was cycled without me ever having to know about that. He was always there to help me clean the tank when needed so I didn't realize why we were rinsing the filter instead of buying new...Hmmmmmmm I wish he would have explained it but then again I was only 13.
Thank you again for opening my eyes to CYCLING and now I have an almost cycled 29G, a 5G QT tank that is in my son's room, and now I was a 55G again. hee hee Little over a month and I already want to UPSIZE the tank. I will tell everyone I know about this site to educate as many people to the proper keeping of FW tanks.
Low and behold the Ammonia was threw the aquarium lid(DUH!!!) and petsmart would not refund or replace because MY WATER KILLED THEM and it wasn't there fault. ALSO discovered that my HiFin Spotted Pleco will very soon outgrow my tank & I will have to rehome him. Again it was too late to take him back to Petsmart so now I just have to watch him grow & then rehome.
He's so darn pretty too.So, no new fish and a month later with my new found knowledge of CYCLING YOUR TANK WITH FISH and my ammonia is .25ppm and I am almost completely cycled. YEAH!!! YEAH!!! YEAH!!!
I wish I would have found this site during the week of my fishless cycle and I would have been without poor fish deaths and a much easier cycle. I have told everyone I could get to listen about cycling your tank and the benefits. When I was 13 I got the tank from my Uncle for my birthday and he had had it set up for over 2years before giving it to me so it was cycled without me ever having to know about that. He was always there to help me clean the tank when needed so I didn't realize why we were rinsing the filter instead of buying new...Hmmmmmmm I wish he would have explained it but then again I was only 13.
Thank you again for opening my eyes to CYCLING and now I have an almost cycled 29G, a 5G QT tank that is in my son's room, and now I was a 55G again. hee hee Little over a month and I already want to UPSIZE the tank. I will tell everyone I know about this site to educate as many people to the proper keeping of FW tanks.
