Brand new Tropical aquarium

[AndyandNat]

Hi Guys
We have just set up our first tropical aquarium We used our mates fully matured water (one year old) and his fluval three filter along with our new one and ran it for two days. Added Two dwarf gourmis and 6 Harlequin,unfortunatly they all died the next day. We have now learnt that although we used matured water this still was not a good choice of starter fish, could anyone advise if Plattys are a good choice and if we should do anything else before adding them?
cheers

 

[Mr. Limpet]

Hi Guys
We have just set up our first tropical aquarium We used our mates fully matured water (one year old) and his fluval three filter along with our new one and ran it for two days. Added Two dwarf gourmis and 6 Harlequin,unfortunatly they all died the next day. We have now learnt that although we used matured water this still was not a good choice of starter fish, could anyone advise if Plattys are a good choice and if we should do anything else before adding them?
cheers

Welcome aboard!

The first thing you should understand is that water from another tank doesn't really help get you cycled. If you got filter media from your friend, that will help a lot, but it does take a while to cycle a tank even with seeded material.

One thing that will really benefit you is a water test kit, so you can monitor the quality of your tanks water. I prefer tye API FW Master test kit.

My suggestion is to read thru the link below to help get your tank properly prepared for fish.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/artic...ks-for-your-fastest-fishless-cycle/Page1.html

 

[AquaOne]

A&N,
Get the water right first, then the fish do the rest.
There are 'short-cuts', but really the best option has to be letting your tank settle (& cycle) itself, my 95L took about 6 gruelling weeks to get the water just right. I have a reliable source for livestock where they are quite particular about who they sell fish to (ie: having good water condition). They have a well presented 'starter-fish' section and 'Platys' are included there, Guppies are a hardy fish too. Numerous others, but the real answer is not to put too many fish in your tank in one go, the filter needs to catch up with the new ammonia levels it will need to deal with. The more water your tank holds, the more fish you could potentially add in one go. As a guide (although other's may have their own idea's) I would say adding no more than 6x platy's at a time into a 20g tank, give it a week or two before adding more fish. It's always worked for me (with some free advice from the fish stock retailer). Hope this helps

 

[AndyandNat]

Thanks Guys for all the Advise

 

[AquaOne]

There are a number of threads here with detail about fish species, all worth a look. Some species are a bit more 'particular' about water condition, not just the ph or temp, although these are probably the main two attributes. In UK, most suppliers condition their stock at 'local tap' ph, so that they don't require any ph buffers. Some species will tolerate a wide ph range, but some are better in lower or higher ph ranges. You need to check out the numbers before committing to certain species, but a general community tank will probably work out okay. The API test kit is accurate for water condition testing and will help you to maintain good water for the fish to thrive happily. I have three tanks, originally planning to 'buffer' ph for species-selective, but still ended up doing 'local-tap' (7.2ph) because it's far less fuss especially when doing 'pwc'.

 

[melosu58]

Moved to the FW getting started forum.