Beginner Tank Set Up. Help Appreciated!

[Dan1981]

Hello everyone! I am a beginner who recently won a 10 gallon aquarium set up and would like to dive into caring for fish! I have done quite a bit of research and learned quite a bit on the way. I am still somewhat confused in certain areas. I will list everything that I will be getting to get started and then try to explain what I am thinking to do to get started. Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated!

ITEMS:

10 gallon fish tank with LED hood, quiet flow filter, preset heater, thermometer.
(above was all free)

What I will be purchasing:

Fish Food
Gravel Siphon with bucket
Seachem Prime
Seachem Stability
Easy test strips
Ammonia test strips
Artificial plants
Air pump with stone
15 lbs of gravel
5 Male Guppies

This is all I can think of to purchase. (if I am missing anything please let me know)!

I am wanting to do a fishless cycle to get the tank ready for the fish.

Here are the steps I am thinking about doing. Please advise as much as you guys/gals can please!


1. Get tank set up with gravel, plants, pump ect.

2. Fill tank with tap water (ph levels will be checked and fixed in the range of
6.5 - 8). Then directly add the directed amount of PRIME to the water to
remove the chlorine from the water. (the filter, heater and
everything else will be on). Wait 2 days?

3. Add directed amount of STABILITY to tank water and wait 2-3 weeks while
checking the ammonia, nitrate and nitrite levels. I was told to not add any
fish until there is 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and some nitrate (0-40ppm). Is this
correct?

4. Once levels are safe I will add all 5 fish into aquarium. Then preform 25%
water changes every 2 weeks. While preforming water changes, I will be
using tap water in a bucket and then adding in PRIME, mix and then add
to tank. Once new water is added to the tank, I will add some STABILITY
directly into the tank. Does this all sound correct?

5. Once a week preform water tests using strips to keep an eye on
everything and cleaning gravel in tank. Lights will be on a 10 hour timer.

I am sure I am missing some steps or I could just be going about this all wrong which is why I would love to hear any advice for a beginner like me.

Thanks everyone!

[Aiken Drum]

Hi Dan

In the list of things to buy.

A net.
If you are set on a fishless cycle, an ammonia source. I use aquarium specific ammonium chloride. Dr Tims ammonium chloride is a common one, but there are others. You could go for pure bleach, but thats risky. If it has any additives (perfumes, surfactants etc) that would be bad for your tank. Really cheap thin bleach, check the bottle for added ingredients, test the product to see if it produces any bubbles before using it. Another option is a cocktail shrimp.
If you are planning on a fishless cycle and regular testing, get a decent test liquid test kit. API freshwater master test kit is easy to use, easy to read, more accurate than strips, and although a little more expensive than strips up front, as you get 100s of tests for your money, long run much more cost effective.
I would also consider real plants. Not much more work and the benefits are worth it.

[Aiken Drum]

Ill move onto cycling the tank.

First off are you sure you want to do a fishless cycle? If you check through this forum there are lots of threads about problems with fishless cycles. They dont understand how to do it (ill come onto that), they dont aporeciate how long it takes, they think fish in cycles are cruel (they arent if done properly).

Setting up a tank, adding some water conditioner (prime) and some bottled bacteria (stability) and leaving for a few weeks wont cycle your tank. You need a food source for the bacteria to grow. All that will happen if you do that is when you test, all you will see is whatever is in your tap water because its never had any waste in it.

A cycled tank can take that waste and filter out the bad stuff. Testing tap water won't tell you if you are cycled. You need to know that the water has had sufficient waste in it, if so and your water tests safe, then you are cycled.

With a fish in cycle, your fish poop will produce ammonia and that ammonia will feed the bacteria so it grows and your tank cycles.

With a fishless cycle you dont have fish waste, so you artificially add waste through an ammonia source. This way off cycling typically takes 6 to 8 weeks.

Lets assume you are going the ammonia/ammonium chloride route.

Set everything up. Add your water conditioner and bottled bacteria. Also add 4ppm ammonia to the water. Test daily for ammonia until it drops below 1ppm then redose back upto 2ppm. This can take a few weeks. Start to test daily for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Every day ammonia drops below 1ppm redose it back to 2ppm. What you should start to see is the levels of ammonia dropping until you are no longer seeing ammonia, and nitrite starting to rise. You may also see some nitrate. Keep topping up ammonia to 2ppm if it drops below 1ppm. Over time the amount of nitrite you see should also stop rising and eventually that too will disappear. When you are able to dose 2ppm ammonia and 24 hours later see 0ppm ammonia and nitrite you are cycled. You know there is enough bacteria in your system to remove the ammonia and nitrite in a timely fashion. Your nitrate will be very high now, so do a big water change to get that down (say to 10ppm) and get your fish. This is typically a 6 to 8 weeks process.

Did i explain a fishless cycle clearly? Any questions?

I would really research pros and cons of fish in and fishless cycles if you havent already. Fish in cycle is more work with water changes but seems to lead to less frustration and is relatively safe if done properly. Im an advocate of fishless cycles, but its not for everyone and i think it puts a lot of newcomers off with it not working how they think it should, or takes longer than than they thought, and generally they get bad advice on how to do one, ie your add some products, wait a couple of weeks and add fish. That wont do anything apart from waste a bottle of stability and 3 weeks of time.

[Dan1981]

Thanks very much for the info! I have decided I am going to attempt the fishless cycle and see how everything goes. I am not in a big hurry to add fish at this point so waiting is no an issue. I am sure I will be back on here when I have some more questions. I will def. take your advise on the test kit and the aquarium specific ammonium chloride.

I looked on amazon and found these.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...KIKX0DER&psc=1
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...0UCAZUR8&psc=1

Are these the correct items to purchase?

[Aiken Drum]

Yes. They are the correct ones.

[Dan1981]

Thanks for checking that out for me! Also, as far as fish food would go, is this stuff any good for guppie fish?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...KIKX0DER&psc=1

[Aiken Drum]

I dont keep guppies, but i do use that fishfood. If i had guppies they would be getting that.

[Dan1981]

Thanks again! You are very helpful!

[Magaratz]

I second Aiken. My only advice is don’t add five fish at once. On a 10 gallon, that could overload the balance cycle right away.

[RiverMango96]

Dude this is perfect.