Greetings Fish gurus and fellow newbies

R300 is quite expensive. Shop around a bit.

But once everything is running smoothly, you really don't need to test all that often, so this kit lasts quite long.

 

i wanted to stick in the cross braces today so i could start the tank up on monday/tuesday. when i cut the 6mm plate and seperated it, it broke all wrong, so i just destroyed a good 10cm x 50cm strip, i'll have to take what's left to a class cutter tomorrow or tuesday. ugh.. setback, darn

i wanna have a cube of disembodied water floating on a cabinet by now!

 

Tank Progress

Here we go... i'm getting somewhere


the tank and stand in place

sand flushed and in, rocks and doodads in

my makebelieve aquarium... look at all those fish and plants... lol

 

oh yeah,, i decided i'm not gonna do the cross bracing cause i got a different idea of what to do with the glass plates, i might still do a slider effect in time...

 

WOW! Those fish looking awesome Ferryman

 

I am sure you have a shoal of glass catfish in there

 

soon... now the cycle wait begins... i decided to hook the little AquaClear on the other end too. its got a nice big sponge for bacterial growth. first i had it in boiled salt water for a bit to make sure what ever was in the filter before its shortlived retirement, stayed dead and gone... its rinsed under tap and clean now

 

BTW i want to make a mark at the volume % that will need to be drained and replaced every week or whenever (when should partial water changes happen?)
(im not planning on changing already, but just to get everything in order.
Also, are there any general stuff, medicines, things of importance that i should get in order to be prepared for general tank-problems? (like a first aid kit would be - like the ichcide i have etc)

found out my old thermometer is broken, so i'll need to replace that too...

 

Hi ,i do a 20-25% water change every week. I dont think you need to make a mark on you tank , i use 25l buckets and i know my one tank is 100L so i know i take one bucket out to get my 25% . when it comes to fish meds just take it as it comes i dont think there is a general med you can buy , idealy u dont want to add meds to your tank so just keep your water nice and clean and feed your fish with good quality food and vary there diet dont just feed one thing and thats probly one of the best things you can do to prevent illness

 

righto. advice taken, thanks. why i wanted to make a mark is, i dont have a freekin clean bucket that hasnt had handy andy or something in it, so i'll be using the gravel siphin to suck water out, then i can stop when i see its reached the mark... btw. i havent yet thrown ANYTHING in the tank cept water... should i add the nitrivec to help the tank cycle? or feed imaginary fish? i currently havent bought fish food, so ill be using my dad's koi food stash? i havent bought plants yet either, sorta focussing on finishing my draft dissertation...

 

If you feed the imaginary fish the food decaying will produce ammonia and the cycle will start

 

how much food, its those green and red pellet things. do i chuck it in once only, or keep doing it for a week/s or how do i do it?

 

Chuck in a SMALL handful and leave it - that is all there is to it

 

Righto, i'll quickly go grab some, i need a break from this screen, i'm starting to FEEL like a dissertation.

 

To update, the water was clear before starting, and i just noticed walking by, that the water has now become a tiny bit milky/murky... i'm guessing its only the food dissolving or breaking up in the water? i'm guessing you cant actually see ammonia in water

 

Your milky water is the cycle beginning - should be milky for about 3 or 4 days and then clear

 

ah, great to know its gross and milky for a reason

Those pellets are still slowly dissolving and breaking down... yum yum

 

Loving the progress on this Ferryman!
Looks good so far. Good luck with the cycling process, I'm doing the same at the moment. :bigsmile:

 

Ferryman have you got test kits?

 

not yet veegal... i'll go find some during the week's end Thur/Fri. Uni is keeping me a bit busy at the moment, work work work play

lol, thanks ruan, its a work in progress, and the first time ever that i'm actually doing things by the book... sort of.. when i was in primary school, i had a tropical tank, id fill it up with water, run the filter for a few day and then start populating the tank, cleaning out the filter as the medium got dirty, fed the fish a staedy diet of flakes, and that was about as far as my maintenance knowledge ever went... now, i'm aiming for not having to replace a fish every other week see, progress