loads of help and equipment info needed

[Price839]

Okay i am sixteen years old and too this point ive only had some goldfish here and there

i got two convicts...i was WAY underprepared

i dont even wanna go into details its way too embarrising

i want to raise some fish that arent goldfish id like to really get into the whole fish scene

the question is what do i need? i mean please if you can dont leave anything out, you have to realize all ive ever done is put some rocks in a bowl, had a couple goldfish in them and fed them

and after we get the nessecary stuff down...what should i have? what should i look into getting extra that will help?

any feedback will be GREATLY appreciated
thanks

 

[Price839]

loads of help needed

i would like to start seriously getting into fish
all ive ever had is goldfish in a bowl

i know nothing..and im not exagerating...literally i know nothing about raising fish, if someone could give me the most simple guide to getting started id appreciate it..i mean simple, you will have to explain everything i know nothing

ive tried reading other help posts and i dont have enough prior knowledge to fully understand what people are saying

really assume i just moved here from jupiter and have never seen a fish before...dont assume i already know something...odds are i dont...

thanks for any feedback

 

[EdgarMedina1010]

What Is the Nitrogen Cycle?
Like all living creatures, fish give off waste products (pee and poo). These nitrogenous waste products break down into ammonia (NH3), which is highly toxic to most fishes. In nature, the volume of water per fish is extremely high, and waste products become diluted to low concentrations. In aquariums, however, it can take as little as a few hours for ammonia concentrations to reach toxic levels.
How much ammonia is too much? The quick answer is: if a test kit is able to measure it, you've got too much (i.e., it's in a high enough concentrations to stress fish). Consider emergency action (water changes and zeolite clay) to reduce the danger. (A more detailed discussion of ammonia toxicity can be found later in this section.)

In aquaria-speak, the ``nitrogen cycle'' (more precisely, the nitrification cycle) is the biological process that converts ammonia into other, relatively harmless nitrogen compounds. Fortunately, several species of bacteria do this conversion for us. Some species convert ammonia (NH3) to nitrite (N02-), while others convert nitrite to nitrate (NO3-). Thus, cycling the tank refers to the process of establishing bacterial colonies in the filter bed that convert ammonia -> nitrite -> nitrate.

The desired species of nitrifying bacteria are present everywhere (e.g., in the air). Therefore, once you have an ammonia source in your tank, it's only a matter of time before the desired bacteria establish a colony in your filter bed. The most common way to do this is to place one or two (emphasis on one or two) hardy and inexpensive fish in your aquarium. The fish waste contains the ammonia on which the bacteria live. Don't overfeed them! More food means more ammonia! Some suggested species include: common goldfish (for cold water tanks), zebra danios and barbs for warmer tanks, and damselfishes in marine systems. Note: Do not use ``toughies'' or other feeder fishes. Although cheap, they are extremely unhealthy and using them may introduce unwanted diseases to your tank.



During the cycling process, ammonia levels will go up and then suddenly plummet as the nitrite-forming bacteria take hold. Because nitrate-forming bacteria don't even begin to appear until nitrite is present in significant quantities, nitrite levels skyrocket (as the built-up ammonia is converted), continuing to rise as the continually-produced ammonia is converted to nitrite. Once the nitrate-forming bacteria take hold, nitrite levels fall, nitrate levels rise, and the tank is fully cycled.

Your tank is fully cycled once nitrates are being produced (and ammonia and nitrite levels are zero). To determine when the cycle has completed, buy appropriate test kits (see the TEST KIT section) and measure the levels yourself, or bring water samples to your fish store and let them perform the test for you (perhaps for a small fee). The cycling process normally takes anywhere from 2-6 weeks. At temperatures below 70F, it takes even longer to cycle a tank. In comparison to other types of bacteria, nitrifying bacteria grow slowly. Under optimal conditions, it takes fully 15 hours for a colony to double in size!

It is sometimes possible to speed up the cycling time. Some common procedures for this are detailed later in this section.

Warning: AVOID THE TEMPTATION TO GET MORE FISH UNTIL AFTER YOUR TANK HAS FULLY CYCLED! More fish means more ammonia production, increasing the stress on all fish and the likelihood of fish deaths. Once ammonia levels reach highly stressful or toxic levels, your tank has succumbed to ``New Tank Syndrome''; the tank has not yet fully cycled, and the accumulating ammonia has concentrations lethal to your fish.

here's some info hope it helps


How Much Ammonia Is Too Much?
In an established tank, ammonia should be undetectable using standard test kits available at stores. The presence of detectable levels indicates that your bio filter is not working adequately, either because your tank has not yet cycled, or the filter is not functioning adequately (e.g., too small for fish load, clogged, etc.) It is imperative that you address the problem (filter) in addition to the symptoms (high ammonia levels).
The exact concentration at which ammonia becomes toxic to fish varies among species; some are more tolerant than others. In addition, other factors like water temperature and chemistry play a significant role. For example, ammonia (NH3) continually changes to ammonium (NH4+) and vice versa, with the relative concentrations of each depending on the water's temperature and pH. Ammonia is extremely toxic; ammonium is relatively harmless. At higher temperatures and pH, more of the nitrogen is in the toxic ammonia form than at lower pH.

Standard test kits measure total ammonia (ammonia plus ammonium) without distinguishing between the two forms. The following chart gives the maximum long-term level of ammonia-N in mg/L (ppm) that can be considered safe at a given temperature and pH. Again, note that a tank with an established biological filter will have no detectable ammonia; this chart is provided only for emergency purposes. If your levels approach or exceed the levels shown, take emergency action IMMEDIATELY.


Water Temperature
pH 20C (68F) 25C (77F)
_________________________________
6.5 15.4 11.1
7.0 5.0 3.6
7.5 1.6 1.2
8.0 0.5 0.4
8.5 0.2 0.1


here's more

 

[Menagerie]

Well, you have some reading to do
Nitrogen Cycle
Stocking Guidelines for Newbies
Freshwater Ich
That will get you started. Knowing about the Nitrogen Cycle will help when you start a new tank (and may help with those convicts, if the tank is not cycled). Stocking Guidelines is a good starter. Usually, members research the fish they think they want, come back for advice and then adjust accordingly. The Freshwater Ich article is very informative especially since you are currently dealing with it. Although AA is a great resource, we encourage members to do their own research. A general book on fish keeping from the local library is another great start (just make sure it is fairly current). I will caution you that too much reading will get confusing. Maybe a member can recommend a good starter book that lays things out in clear terms.

*edit: I merged two threads that were in different forums to help keep the information together. As embarassing as it is, for the sake of getting you the neccessary information, everyone should know the background. Currently you have two convicts and are treating them for ich (we can all thank the LFS employee for starting you are the "right" track ).

 

[EdgarMedina1010]

'Minimizing Fish Stress During Initial Cycling'
Should ammonia levels become high during the cycling process, corrective measures will need to be taken to prevent fish deaths. Most likely, you will simply perform a sequence of partial water changes, thereby diluting ammonia to safer concentrations.
As a final caution, several commercial products (e.g., ``Amquel'' or ``Ammo-Lock'') safely neutralize ammonia's toxicity. Amquel does not remove the ammonia, it simply neutralizes its toxicity. Biological filtration is still needed to convert the (neutralized) ammonia to nitrite and nitrate. Thus, adding Amquel causes the ammonia produced by the fish to be neutralized instantly, yet still allows the nitrogen cycle to proceed. Using Amquel during the cycling phase has one significant drawback, however. Amquel (and similar products) may cause ammonia test kits to give false readings, making it difficult to determine exactly when cycling has completed.

It is also possible to cycle a tank without ever adding fish. The role fish provide in the cycling process is simply their steady production of ammonia; the same effect can be achieved by adding chemical forms of ammonia manually (e.g., ammonium chloride). However, it is a bit more complicated than using fish because the water chemistry needs to be monitored more closely in order to add the proper amount of ammonia on a day-to-day basis.

 

[Alshain]

Equipment you will need to decide on:

Tank - size/shape. Bigger=Easier, Smaller=Harder. Water parameters are easier to control when there is more water.
Stand - NOT NORMAL FURNITURE. must support the weight of water.
Light - For a beginner, I would reccomend a low light planted tank. Check out the planted tank forums for guides to lighting. Plants will help control water parameters.
Heater - A simple submersable heater will do.
Filter - This is tricky, depends on the size of the tank. For a planted tank you will want less surface aggitation but some HOB filters will work. Cannister filters are expensive but are usually the best choice. I would steer clear of UGF.
Substrate - My suggestion for a planted tank will always be Eco-Complete. Otherwise there are many different kinds and it is up to you.
Ornaments - your fish will need places to hide when they are stressed. Provide caves as well as obstacles to swim through.

Preperation

Cycling - Everyone here will STRONGLY reccomend the fishless cycle method. You can find guides for this method everywhere but it takes patience. Everyone will want to dump some fish in as soon as they can but in the long run, this is a bad idea.

Patience - think out what you want ahead of time before buying a thing. Look at pictures, get suggestions, don't jump the gun.

 

[EdgarMedina1010]

Speeding Up Cycling Time
(For the Impatient)
The nitrogen cycle can be sped up or ``jump started'' in a number of ways. Unfortunately, they require access to an established tank, which a beginning aquarist may not have available. The basic idea is to find an established tank, take some of the bacteria out of it and place them in the new tank.
Most filters have some sort of foam block or floss insert on which nitrifying bacteria attach. Borrowing all or part of such an insert and placing it in the new tank's filter gets things going more quickly.

If the established tank uses an undergravel filter, nitrifying bacteria will be attached to the gravel. Take some of the gravel (a cup or more) and hang it in a mesh bag in your filter (if you can), or lay it over the top of the gravel in the new tank (if it has an UGF).

If you have a box, sponge or corner filter, simply connect it to an established aquarium and let it run for a week or so. Bacteria in the water will establish a bed in the new filter. After a week, move the now ``seasoned'' filter to the new tank.

More recently, products containing colonies of nitrifying bacteria have become available at pet shops (e.g., ``Fritz'', ``Bio-zyme'', ``Cycle''). In theory, adding the bacteria jump-starts the colonization process as above. Net experience with such products has been mixed; some folks report success, while others report they don't work at all. In principle, such products should work well. However, nitrifying bacteria cannot live indefinitely without oxygen and food. Thus, the effectiveness of a product depends on its freshness and can be adversely effected by poor handling (e.g., overheating). Unfortunately, these products don't come with a freshness date, so there is no way to know how old they are.

Some (not many) aquarium stores will provide aquarium buyers with a cup of gravel from an established tank. A word of caution is appropriate here. Due to the nature of the business, tanks in stores are very likely to contain unwanted pathogens (bacteria, parasites, etc.); you don't want to add them to an established tank. For someone setting up their very first tank, however, all fish will probably be purchased from the same store, so the danger is relatively small, as the newly purchased fish will have been exposed to the same pathogens. If possible, seed a filter with bacteria from a non-store tank.

Of course, there are many variations on the above that work. However, it is a bit difficult to give an exact recipe that is guaranteed to work. It is advisable to take a conservative approach and not add fish too quickly. In addition, testing the water to be sure nitrates are being produced eliminates the guesswork of determining when your tank has cycled

 

[Menagerie]

EdgarMedina1010, please go back and list the source of your information. We do not allow plagarism here at AA.

 

[EdgarMedina1010]

ok sorry......all of the info is from ..... http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-cycling.html

 

[Menagerie]

 

[Price839]

thanks to all im going to read this all and than i dunno i guess i got a lot to do specially since i have a dying fish in way to small of a tank right now i appreciate all the help

 

[joannde]

There's aot to read and learn and you should be very proud of yourself for doing all this beforehand.
At times the information will seem daunting, just hang in there and come back to the forum with any questions you have - the folks here are great and I've learned so much from them.

Welcome to fishkeeping and WELCOME TO AA !!!

 

[noncentric]

Hi Price, a couple things that I didn't see mentioned in this thread (or in the articles Menagerie provided links to):

BioSpira.
This is a product that will dramatically speed up your cycle. Many people have reported success with this product, as it is different than other products (ie, Cycle, Bio-Zyme).

BioSpira can be difficult to find in many corporate pet stores (PetSmart, PetCo), so it's more likely that you'll find it at independent pet stores. The product should be kept refrigerated until you use it, so make sure the store is storing the product in a fridge.

If you can't find it at any stores in your area, then here is a place that you can order it from.

Directions are pretty clear on the packaging, so this may be something to consider if you don't have the time to go through the cycling process (the nitrogen cycle).

Test Kit
Liquid reagent test kits (use test tubes and liquid drops) are better than dip-strip tests (paper strips that are dipped in the water). The liquid tests are more cost-effective on a per-test basis and are more accurate than the dip strips.
This is the preferred test kit
It's usually available at most pet stores, including the big corporate pet stores. It tests all of the water parameters that you should know in your tank: ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, and pH.

Heater
Alshain has already mentioned that you'll need a submersible heater (one that can be fully submerged underwater in the tank). These are better than the heaters that attach to the rim of the tank.
What wasn't mentioned is wattage and placement.
- Most heaters are either 25, 50, 75, 100, 150, 200, or 400 watts. The wattage you need will depend on the size of the tank, but you should have around 5 watts per gallon. The reason for not using a higher wattage heater on a smaller tank is this: a 200-watt heater will increase the temperature of a 10 gallon tank much quicker than a 50-watt heater will increase that temp. Plus, it's harder to make small adjustments in temp when using a higher wattage heater on a smaller tank. Rapid temp changes can be stressful for fish.
- Placement of the heater depends on current flow in the tank. You want the heater to be located somewhere that water will flow past it, or above it. This is because you want the heated water to move throughout the tank - you don't want to have some parts of the tank that are cold and others that are hot.

Thermometer
You'll need one of these. Some people use the kind that stick to the outside of the tank. I don't like those myself. Instead, I like the glass thermometers. Something like this, which are easy to find at pet stores. The reason I like these is because it can be easily moved to different places in the tank, so you can easily check if there are cold/hot spots.

I think most of the other info you'll need has already been posted or linked to.

Good luck and welcome!