Calling all fish tank owners

[uchiha_itachi]

Hiya,

was just hoping for some help from any fish tank owners on the forums. I just bought a new fish tank, complete with starter kit. It will be for tropical fish and has all the heating and filtration sorted. Just my main query. Is it ok to use tap water to fill up the water tank as at the moment I have one fish tank with gravel and ready to go. Just no fish at the moment.

Would like to fill it up as soon as possible. Just have been told that you cannot use tap-water unless it had been treated. Any advice?

Thanks in advance.

[Nick]

Yeah, you can use tap water but you need to get a treatment that you drop in before the water is suitable... most any pet shop will sell it.

[Funkstar]

Slightly different, but related. My cousin was fed up with having to go to the pet shop to get new filters for her little tank, they cost a fortune too (i hvae no idea how much they actually cost, but she said they are a lot). Her tip is to use a scrunched up 'pop-sock' instead. If you don't know what they are, ask a woman, they will point you in the right direction (into the underwear department!)

My uncle could never get his tank anywhere near as clean as hers after she discovered this one...

[~©~]

Tap water is ok, but remember to let the water settle, warm-up, & de-chlorinate for at least 48 hours. The last time I had a tropical fish tank I set-it-up 3 weeks before the fish went-in. (salt water setups can take months). And remember to wash the gravel.

[tim_n]

Being an ex-fishkeeper now (I still have them, if you're around the southend area I have plenty of kit you can buy dirt cheap) I can advise as following:

- A filter need never be replaced, just wash it out with tank water and give it a couple of good squeezes. I've never bought a replacement filter and haven't had a fish die on me because of it. Water cleansers such as activated carbon filters obviously require replacement at regular intervals, but I've never used 'em and had crystal clear water.

- Talk to a reputable dealer about fish stocks and who plays well with each other - if you're in the south of the country, swallow aquatics have a terrible website but are very knowledgeable imho - pets at home etc will only rip you off. many fish will actively kill each other. The boring ones tend to get on well with each other, but the beautiful ones are generally killers and/or damage other fish.

- Tap water is fine, you can use chemicals to remove clorine, but the real killer is the cloraminates which aren't removeable. tbh the best and cheapest way is to go buy yourself a large food bin approx the size of you tank and a pump & airstone. The airstone will create movement in the water and encourage the clorine to 'evaporate' out of the water. You can get away with 24hrs with this method.

- To begin with you'll be replacing 10% of the water in your tank on a daily basis as there will be no bacteria to breakdown deposits. Use a normal length of cheap hoze and give it a good suck. The general feeling of fish keepers is that if you mind getting a bit of fishtank water in your mouth, it's probably not the sort of place you should keep fish.

- if you want to jump start the bacteria in your tank, find a nearby fish enthusiast and steal a bit of their filter material. That'll impregnate the tank with good bacteria and will get you going in 2-3 weeks instead of 2-3 months.

- don't get hundreds of fish. Your tank will go into shock and you'll probably loose about 95% of your fish. Start with a small number 4-5 of a single variety for a large tank and they'll start off the bateria. Build up slowly over a few months.

- quaranteen all new fish for at least a week. Many types of large scale fish farms will bring parasites in the water, so it's always best to hook them out with a net.

- once your tank settles, you can stop doing 10% daily water changes - your enthusiasm will probably waine as well. after about 2-3 months, reduce to weekly 50% water changes.

- Don't stick it by the sunlight, the fish turn evil and will eat your children. (or algae will start to bloom in your water. It's an either/or situation).

- Give me a shout if you get into trouble or want some advice. Otherwise there's a couple of fantastic newsgroups (rec.aquaria.freshwater?) with plenty of people with good advice.

[Ferral]

Get a bottle of water conditioner from you're local petstore, it declorinates the water so its safe for the fish, it has measurements on the bottle so you know how much to put in.

I would set it up and for tropical fish have it around 21 - 25 Celcius set for the heater, during the winter keep an eye on the temperature of the water though, if youre house tends to get a little cold overnight it will effectively drop the tanks temperature so if you notice this happening knock the heater up by a few degrees.

Once tank is setup leave it alone for about a week with everything running so the bacteria can start to grow in it, you are creating a small eco system so the bacteria helps the fish.

Filter, personally I prefer undergravel with a carbon head to keep mine clean, should imagine that you will have a filter that has the foam sponge stuff in it. Change the sponge once every 6 weeks, however when you clean the tank and do you're water changes take it out and give it a good clean under the cold tap to get the thick of all the muck out during each six week period.

On a night, make sure you turn the light off ! Fish need to sleep also, give them a 12 hr cycle approximately. Feed them once per day and feed them well (dont go overboard though) if you feed them more than once per day and they dont eat all of it you will notice youre water will get pretty foul pretty quickly. If this happens knock it back down to once per day (I keep BIG cichlids and they get fed once per day and are just fine with that)

Cleaning, all depends on how dirty it really gets, if it gets bad quickly do 25% water change weekly, otherwise if its not to bad at all you should be able to do that amount fortightly.

Dont bother with live plants, yeah they look really nice but fish like eating them and before long you will find bits of plant floating about the tank and rotting which can and will cause problems.

Make sure with youre filtration that you have a decent steady flow of oxygen all the time, the oxygen breaks the amonia down (fish poop basically) and stops it being harmful to the fish, if you have a carbon filter also to run along side this you are sorted.

Get yourself a water testing kit. Essential this one is, it costs around £20 but means you can test you water quality at home rather than taking samples into a local store. This tells you if PH etc is to high or low and at least if you know you can rectify it, queries phone a local independant dealer.

Finally get yourself into a local dealer for livestock and queries, they are always pleased to help. Dont bother with the big stores like pets at home etc., they are literally given basic training and most the time are a bit clueless. You need a specialised dealer.

[tim_n]

And as ferrel has pointed out, everyone has different practices and the industry is torn with inconsitancies! There doesn't seem to be a straight line between right/wrong. There's definately a wrong, but mainly right is quite cloudy...

My real advice is read read read read and read! Lots of research never hurts!

[Ferral]

Dont think you will have crystal clear tapwater in youre tank all the time also !

It will be really clear but probably have a slight coloured hugh to it, reason why in shops it looks that way is because they change water frequently. Dont panic this is quite normal. It can depend on positioning of tank, water quality in youre area (hard or soft) and also lighting.

If you are doing a tropical setup and you are going to get a few fish to start I recommend getting 6 Tiger Barbs, they are really interesting to watch and eat really well, you have to get 5 or 6 of these though or they will fight with each other if only 1 or 2, they need the school to co habitate.

Dont make the mistake my parents made, they have a full tropical setup with Mollies, Guppies, Swordtails etc but they seen this lovely looking Blue fish and bought it. What the store owner didnt inform them was that it was and African Cichlid, it grown pretty fast and was soon killing the other tank inhabitants !

Keep away from Cichlids when you first start out, they are specialised fish and require a bit more care and attention, get used to the hobby before trying with them, if you do decide to try with them you get alot of satisfaction from it.

You will notice myself and Tim N have gave very similar advice with regards to this, so plenty reading up on the fish you get and how the eco system cycle works etc and you should be just fine.

Most of all have fun with it, theres always someone about that can help you out or advise if needed.

[tim_n]

and bogwood looks pretty, but you'll need to boil it, stick it in a bucket for a week for the tannins to come out (otherwise your water will look like tea) and then change water regularly to take out more and more tannins.

My bogwood has taken over a year to settle in my tank and leave it crystal clear.

Reminds me, my tank needs cleaning :- (

[shelley bda]

We used to have a fish tank, we had a four foot tank set up in our lounge, we took it all down when our Plec died, bought him when he was a few inches long, he ended up being a foot long, he also attacked everything else in the tank didn't think Hypsotumus plecostomus were that territorial, thought they were peaceful creatures

Anyway i still have the four foot tank, it's going to be a home for one of these beautiful corn snakes sometime soon

[uchiha_itachi]

I can't believe how many replies this has got. Thank you so much!!

I do very much appreciate all the invaluable advice and help offered here. Sorry that I haven't replied any earlier, been at uni.

So, will let you know what tank and equipment I have so you know. Was given a Juwel 96 fishtank with cabinet. Complete starter set with filter, heater etc. I added the gravel on the night that I got the tank, and I did rinse the gravel. I just kept grabbing handfuls from the bag and would wash in a sieve until the water ran clear. I went to a fish shop/aquarium and picked up some things. Got the aquasafe to treat the water, and bought some plants. Also got some bogwood. Saw your comment about the bogwood Tim, could you give me some more info on how to get it clean? Have been soaking it in boiled water since late afternoon. How often should I change the water? how long should I leave it to soak? How many times should I add boiled water?

At the moment I have the water in the tank, and the plants, (all 3 of them) and a rock. The fish tank is on and have been told to just leave the filtration system on for at least 48 hours before any fish go in.

I have tried the newsgroup you suggested Tim, but have found out my isp doesnt support newsgroups. So hopefully would it be ok if I post any questions in here? I have been trying to read up as much as possible, just have been very busy.

[Ferral]

Yeah, just keep posting here. Will help as much as possible.

With my experience of Bogwood, boil it in saltwater, it apparently stops the colour from coming out of it (notice I used the word apparently) Had mine soaking in it for nearly 3 weeks and then kept rinsing it for a few days and it still made my tank look like coffee after all that !

Just see how it goes basically.

Water changes, basically do it when needed, me at the moment I do approx 50% weekly (sometimes get away with fortnightly) with having big fish, my tank can get quite messy in that short amount of time, I replace the carbon twice a week as I have filter heads for my undergravel system (I drop the head in a glass of water with Steradent in it to clean it, that way you dont have to be buying carbon frequently and can reuse the head after its been rinsed thoroughly).

Keep an eye on youre plants like I mentioned in one of my previous posts, in the wild thats what alot of fish eat. If they are picking at them all the time its best to just get rid of the plants and go for some of the more realistic plastic plants as when they start getting picked at bits come off and get caught in the gravel and literally rot causing unwanted bacteria in the tank that could end up causing disease. I went for the artificial plants due to this and since I got rid of the live my tank setup has been alot more stable and cleaner.

Now youve set youre tank up, make sure heater and filter and everything else is going to get the oxygen into the water and help the good bacteria start to grow.

[tim_n]

You're boiling the wood in the water to kill any parasites - some bogwood is already treated, but it doesn't do it any harm to get rid of anything else that might be lurking! Then I soaked mine in an unused washing up bowl for ages changing the water pretty much daily - the weaker the tannins are in the water, the more it'll leach it out (the quicker that is - osmosis all over again!)

I'd use google - (http://groups.google.com) which'll give you access to the groups!

[Ferral]

Yeah, you never know how long its been sitting on the floor / shelf of the petstore.

Personally I dont like using it, I used to have it in my African Cichlid setup and even after all the boiling it still my my water horrid.

[uchiha_itachi]

How do you boil it? I mean the pieces I have are fairly large, and I don't think the missus will let me use her pots to be boil it. All I have been doing is boiling some water, and pouring it into a bucket with the bogwood soaking in it. Would that be ok?

I'll try to take some pictures of what I have acheived so far, maybe you can let me know if everything is looking ok. At the moment the water is looking fairly misty, but the tank has only been on for about an hour or two.

[tim_n]

I've always been told to boil for 15mins to remove crud - I have a large metal container to do it in. If you've soaked it though I guess it'll be ok and any chemicals used in treating it will wash off. Just leave it to soak in normal water (clorinated is fine for the first few weeks) and just keep it soaked and change daily until water isn't dark brown :- )

You can put it in the tank, but it'll look crap. Fish live in that enviroment naturally so it won't do them any harm.