Tala:Wolf In Chains;3389921; said:
I am going to get a 10 gallon tank kit as a first tank. I don't have any idea how to set it up. The tank comes with heater, filter, hood, lights, aquarium (of course), 4 inch net, food samples, and chemical samples.
Can any one give me any tips. How long I should wait to put fish in or any thing. I'm going to get gravel fake plants and a few decorations to and I'm only going to put around 4 to 6 guppies a pleco or two and 1 female betta in. Should I get test strips? Is 7.0 ph really neutral. What chemicals are best for starting up a new tank?
Any advice you have for me would be great. I have looked up alot of information on line about the fish in general, and the tank ph and amonia and reverse osmoses etc.
Thank you for your time.
Get a liquid test kit that does at least ammonia and nitrite. Most of them will do nitrAte and pH as well.
Don't get fake plants! Go real. Get easy, low-light plants, specifically anubias or java fern. Rubber-band these plants to driftwood or rocks, and they'll have attached themselves firmly within a month or two. Alternatively, they can be planted in substrate so that their rhizome (where the leaf stalks join the roots) is exposed to the light. Plants come with nitrifying bacteria on them and will speed up the cycling process, which I explain below:
Here's an explanation of the nitrogen cycle in an aquarium:
Fish and any rotting waste both release ammonia, an extremely toxic chemical. This chemical is metabolised by bacteria into nitrIte, which is another very toxic chemical. NitrIte is metabolised by a different kind of bacteria into nitrAte, which is relatively non-toxic but must be kept low (<40ppm typically) by water changes. The bacteria live on surfaces in the aquarium, not in the actual water.
The process of growing the necessary colonies of bacteria to keep ammonia and nitrite near 0ppm takes between two and six weeks.
My recommendation is to fishless cycle the aquarium. First, set the aquarium up with everything but fish, and turn the heater up to 85 if it's adjustable. Get some pure ammonia in water from ACE hardware if you have one in your area, most places only have ammonia with detergent in it, which you DON'T want. It took me 1.6 capfuls of ammonia to get to 5ppm in 75 gallons, so I recommend dividing that by 10 and going for a little over a tenth of a capful, then test. If over 5ppm, do a water change, if under 3ppm, add a little more ammonia. After that, wait a week and test for ammonia and nitrite. Ammonia should be lower or gone and nitrite should be present. If not, keep waiting, otherwise add some drops of ammonia to keep the ammonia->nitrite bacteria happy. Repeat until nitrite is zero, do an 80% water change and stock the tank completely with as many fish as is reasonable.
Keep ammonia away from children, avoid breathing the fumes and avoid dosing it with children in the room. Store it in a locked cabinet or take it home with you.
The reason for fishless cycling is because ammonia can burn fish, causing permenant injury if it doesn't kill them. It can be a lengthy process, but after it's complete you can be confident that your fish will be healthy and happy, provided the proper water temperature and regular water changes to keep nitrAte down.
That said, you can cycle with fish. You have to monitor ammonia and nitrite levels carefully, and do regular water changes to keep them below about 0.25 ppm. You DON'T need or want to add additional ammonia when cycling with fish in the tank.
Also, don't forget water conditioner to remove chlorine and chloramine. I recommend conditioning the water in a bucket outside of the tank so that you don't kill the aforementioned bacteria.
Lastly, make sure the tank equipment is connected to a GFCI. This is a seriously important safety device that cuts off the power if there are any dangerous problems with the equipment or if the power strip gets splashed. This could save the school from a fire or the children from death. The things cost about $10 at lowes, but here's a page with a picture of a few examples:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...m?pcatid=18026
also itll help you make sure amonia and nitrites are always at ZERO, that is probably the most important thing when trying to keep your fish healthy and happy.the betta and the guppies should be fine though. there are all sorts of ways to start a tank cycling, it should take a bout a month to cycle fully and you should probably put fish food or ammonia in during the cycle to give the bacteria some food, you can also use bio spira to seed bacteria and shorten up the cycle or eliminate it completley. (the best way to cycle is use filter pads from an established tank or gravel but this dosent sound like an option for you)