Hi All Newbie here

[chrispower1980]

Hi all,

I joined this site as I am a complete novice to keeping fish, however my 7 year old daughter wants to keep fish but wasn't content with a goldfish in a bowl, she wanted tropical fish and in particular neon tetras. So anyway I guess this will mean i need to get myself up to speed of all requirements as i will play a big par tin the up keep. I suppose it will be good daddy daughter bonding time .

I have just purchased an Aquael Classic 60 Aquarium starter kit and would love for those with experience on how to cycle the tank. From what i have read so far I cannot add the tetras straight away, would it be better to introduce a hardier species for this process? If so what kind of fish will work in a community with a school of neon tetras? For tank size was thinking 8 neon tetras and 2 other fish (not sure what is compatible)

As i said i am a complete novice and all advice welcome as i don't want to do it half arsed and for the fish to suffer.

Hopefully speak to some of you later

Thanks

Chris

[bgmann12]

Ok so welcome to the forum, so as I understand it is 15 gallons or so if I were u to keep down waste in the tank I would do 5-6 neon tetras and a snail on the bottom to help with left over food which can cause high nitrates.

As for cycling a tank I would suggest to do a fishless cycle but u still Ned a source of ammonia so I would buy a cycle starter from a fish store leave it sitting till u
Your test kit reads 0 ammonia, 0 nitrates, less than 20 nitrates, and u want ph to be from 6.5 to 7.8.

Good luck!!!


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[BigRedsReefs10]

Originally Posted by bgmann12

Your test kit reads 0 ammonia, 0 nitrates, less than 20 nitrates, and u want ph to be from 6.5 to 7.8.

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He meant nitrite instead of the first nitrate. Your cycle will be complete when you see an ammonia spike and nitrite spike and both fall to 0 ppm and you'll have high nitrates which you bring down through water changes. How you cycle is up to you (I'd personally never do a fish in cycle but jmo) either way read up on both, fish in/soft cycling or fish-less cycling. A lot of lfs will give you some used filter material to jump start your cycle if you ask, just keep it wet and throw it in the filter and it should speed up the process

[chrispower1980]

Thanks for the advice?

How long does the fishless cycle typically take?

Bgmann is it two small to handle any more fish than you suggested?

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[bgmann12]

A good site for general stocking advice is aqadvisor is pretty close most of the time so plug in fish u like and see what it says


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[bgmann12]

http://aqadvisor.com


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[bgmann12]

it would be at a 40% stocking level and that is where I would stay to avoid large water changes


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[chrispower1980]

Fintastic!! I'll have a look on there thanks for your help.

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[Aliray]

I set up a 10 gal tank a few weeks ago based on neon tetras. I filled the tank with gravel, a piece on mopani driftwood from the petstore as I wanted a blackwater tank. Added live plants and lets the tank run with the heater and filter for a week Then I tested the water with the API master test kit my ph is 7.6 the amonia, nitrates and nitries were all 0. I have never tested the hardness but my tap water runs through a whole house water softener. I bought 6 neon tetras ,floated them in their bag for an hour with the lights off to reduce the stress. At the same time I dumped in a whole bottle of Tetra Safe Start which helps to get the tank going in the cycle if you want to do a fish in cycle. After one hour I netted the fish out of the bag and into the tank and discarded the water from the fish store. After 2 weeks the tank was cycled ,all 6 neons are doing fine, I did twice a day head counts. I have their temp set at 76. The only water I added during the 2 weeks was just to replace evaporation. After the two weeks and water testing I added 3glowlight tetras then again in a couple of weeks 4 ghost shrimp then 3 ember tetras and now 4 more. the tank is now complete and I am aware that it is heavilly stocked, but with testing, water changes and lots of plants I am not worried about it. Alison

[emeraldking]

Hi Chris,

I like to welcome you as well...
I'm a newbie at this forum as well...

Take care,
Stan