Intro - Hi All

[Capella]

Debbie from Kansas here. Consider myself a rank beginner in the art of freshwater tropical fish keeping even though I had a 20 gallon tank for several years in the 80's. I kept it going until the Angel fish got too big and I had to re-home them with a friend. The tank then became home for the next 10 years to our first tarantula.

I tumbled on to a used 55 gallon with all the gear about a month ago. We just set it up today. It took me that long to obsess over a stand for it. Found a perfect dresser for it at the thift store today, got the gravel, a bottle of stuff called "Prime", some test strips and have just been delighted watching the empty water bubble. I will be using the search function to read until I'm bleary eyed about this "cycling business". Egad.

Have always been an animal person. I turned 51 today and this aquarium was my birthday gift. The kids are grown but my husband & I do not suffer empty nest syndrom. We are the human slaves to six parrots, three dogs, two cats, one tarantula and now this empty bubbling tank!

Am looking forward to the learning while patiently waiting for the time I can do Angel fish again.

[Zagz]

Hi and welcome to AA. Here is one of our articles on how to fishless cycle, here is another. The SW article works the same for FW, you can use pure ammonia instead of shrimp to get things going.

[Purrbox]

Welcome (back) to the addiction! You are among those who understand!

I would recommend being careful using a dresser that wasn't designed to hold an aquarium. If you found an older one that is very heavily built, you'll probably be fine. Many however are not built to hold the all the weight of an aquarium filled with gravel, water, and decor.

[neilanh]

Welcome to AA, and

[pitt420dude]

Welcome Debby. Thats quite the zoo you've got there. I'm confident you will find this community knowledgable, kind, and tight. (Vote for us on aquarank!).

Cycling is probably the hardest thing in fish keeping b/c it requires the most patience when it is hardest to have. Just keep up with your testing and you should see your parameters sort out in a month or 6 weeks usually. I havent had to cycle a tank from scratch in a while. Some fishstores can give you gravel or filter media to jump start your cycle. I've also heard good things about BioSpira.

Prime is good stuff BTW.

WELCOME TO AA!!!

[marchmaxima]

Originally Posted by Capella

The tank then became home for the next 10 years to our first tarantula.

Eeeeek! I never understood some people's fascination with keeping pet spiders. Uuuugggghhhhh! *shivers*

HAPPY BIRTHDAY and congratulations! I can think of nothing better than to get aquarium gear as a birthday present. Welcome to AA and please don't be afraid to ask questions.

[Capella]

Thanks everyone for the nice welcome and birthday wishes! Yes, we do kind of have a zoo, but four of the birds and two of the dogs are rescue animals. Not that they are any less of a joy to us, simply that things have a way of find me

Zagz I appriecate the direct links to the articles. The gal I got the tank from has several. I'll bet she would let me have some established gravel. (thought for later, how come your AG shows up and the site keeps telling me the link to my tiny cockatoo pic says "link invalid" I really do know how to link photos?)

Purrbox, I very much appreciate the concern about the dresser, but I really thought this one out. It's long rather than tall (as is the aquarium) and unholy heavy. The aquarium is in the bedroom we use as an office. It replaces a gastly piece of furniture and the six drawers make it very functional to store things in. I looked at in person, and on line, every imaginable aquarium stand. This dresser is made of much more solid construction than the offical furniture type stands I looked at.

neilanh, thank you for the birthday greetings. I always enjoy my birthdays and haven't hit one of those milestone ones that bothered me yet - even the big 50 last year.

pitt420dude, I kept seeing the vote thing. I guess this helps bring the site to the top of Google searches??? Of course I'll be happy to vote. Glad to know the Prime was a good choice. The fish lady recommended it (the seller of the tank).

marchmaxima, come now! You too can keep a tarantula. What else are you going to do with an empty 10 gallon tank??!! You have to work pretty hard to have something go wrong with them unless you spring for a tiny "sling" (baby).

I may have forgotten to mention when I put my fingers on the keyboard, I babble - sorry! Thanks again everyone. I'm on vacation this week and will prowl the threads to up my aquarium/fish keeping IQ. Debbie

[lynda orourke]

Happy Birthday

I used my empty tank for mice, spiders give me the creeps

[roka64]

Welcome to the site and Happy Birth Day! You know, it's not too late to become a "saltie"! LOL!

[Purrbox]

If the file is on your local PC you'll need to upload it to the site instead of linking to it. If it's on the web, then it needs to be in a publicly accessible location to link to it. Another tripping point is making sure to link to the file itself and not just a page that it is displayed on.

Glad to hear that the dresser is nice and solid.

Empty 10 gallon aquarium is perfect for a heavily planted aquarium as a home for a shrimp colony. Spiders... ewwwwwww!

[cmor1701d]

[Sahabo]

Welcome to the site! Really glad you have joined us

[MisticX]

first thing first, noting that most of your animals are rescue pets, i sugest that you turn your tarantula and your new fish into rescue pets too.
if you need a specialized trainer pls PM me, i have the highest certifications

second thing, tarantula ROCK ... there you go girl ... high 5

third thing, you want your cycle process cut in half, take your filter sponge, get it in a bag of water and ask the LFS (local fish store/shop) to put it together with theyr own filters. after 2-3 days go back and bring it back to your tank
SETBACK: you will also bring back all the diseases that they have in theyr tanks, but i guess that if you will buy fish from them it won't matter that much
do not forget, if the bacteria looses water contact for more then a couple of minutes it dies. (that ofc means complete water contact)

[MisticX]

oh forgot ...

first thing first

WELCOME IN THIS CRAZY COMMUNITY OF ADDICTS

[marchmaxima]

Originally Posted by Capella

marchmaxima, come now! You too can keep a tarantula. What else are you going to do with an empty 10 gallon tank??!!

As someone who is constantly battling to keep THESE Huntsman Spiders out of my house, I'd rather go to jail than keep a tarantula

[Capella]

You guys are a hoot and I thank you for all the nice welcome messages. It'll probably be a long time before I can contribute anything helpful, but this board's wealth of information is sure helpful to me.

Sorry to have started the spider debate - LOL. MisticX, I have yet to see a T. needing a rehome. They are way cool. Mine is a Colbalt Blue female. We live very close to a US nationally well known breeder. I'll bet he gets those calls. Although I wouldn't object to doing some rescue fish, all I really see is offers for are those mean chilids and huge Oscars that have outgrown their dwelling. Thank you for your offer of help and will keep it in mind. Will think about the tip for jump starting the tank. All I really want is three Angel fish and small community of peaceful fish to live with them.

You guys are awesome!

Debbie

[MisticX]

Originally Posted by marchmaxima

As someone who is constantly battling to keep THESE Huntsman Spiders out of my house, I'd rather go to jail than keep a tarantula

woooo that's CUUUTE (wouldn't marry it though)