Alessa

To tzqngh8 and sirdarksol, you cannot forget about the ones that "knew" about the cycle, just didnt know it "right"

I was told at petsmart that there was a cycle and was explained the whole proccess very well... the girl that was telling me that just made the slight mistake of telling me that the whole cycle would start and end "in one week of letting the tank run with no fish, and no ammonia source"...

Thats when I found fishlore

tzqng8

Ooooh, so close!

HatchetHaven

DON'T tempt yourself to give the swordtail a friend - no matter how lonely he looks!

mrsmuffin

When I started my first tank, PetSmart strongly recommended that I set the tank up and run it for one day, otherwise the fish would not make it for sure...

laurad

Hey guys,

Well, we lost our last swordtail yesterday. I really thought he was going to make it. He really perked up and swam happily after each water change.

So we are now back to an empty tank. I'd like to be sure that I proceed appropriately from here. So, it seems that I should just let the tank sit for the next 6-8 weeks (it's been running for 2 weeks already.) Is that all I need to do? Do I need to keep the filter running? Or can I turn it off? thanks for all your help. Hopefully we'll have more success keeping the fish alive in August!

-Laura

HatchetHaven

I'm so sorry you lost your last Sword.

Keep the filter running, and put flake food/ammonia (Look at the sticky on the top of FW beginners for this) in the tank. With flakes, put some in everyday. This method is much faster than cycling with fish, at the ost it should take one month. In the mean time, research and chat to use here on FishLore to work out a nice stocking plan!

Trpimp147

just give it some time add some fish food and let the tank cycle. tell the kids you'll get some new fish when you get a chance to go to the store next week. just tell them the water isnt safe for them to drink. i think they may under stand some. it happens to all of us the first few times we have a tank. i have 75 gal tank and its been set up for at least a year and i have fish die due to any thing. right now i have bare bottem fish tank for babys i had to buy a sponge to keep in the tank over the filter tube to keep fish from being sucked up in the filter. that keeps most of my bio in that tank cleaning is easy for that tank all the poop goes to one corner haha. good luck with every thing and dont let a dead fish get you down. i had a whole tank of 40 fish die due to unwanted chems in a tank.

pepetj

So sorry for that fighter swordtail!
You can actually enjoy with your kids the whole fishless cycle. My 3+ years old daugther, Camila, "helped" me counting reagents drops, checking for water marks at 5 or 10ml in the vials, double-checking the color-matching, day in day out. I remember we waited for nitrite reagents (in Tetra Laborett test kit) to turn from red (spike) to orange, and then to yellow (zero).

Pepe
Santo Domingo

laurad

Hi all,

Pepe, you asked what BullsEye is. The bottle says that it is a "Neutral pH regulator" that "automatically adjusts and buffers aquarium water to a neutral environment (pH 7.0)" Of course, that doesn't really explain what it IS, which the bottle doesn't say.

Some of you have mentioned adding fish food to the tank while it's cycling. How much and how often?

Also, Pepe, you mentioned getting some live plants. I am interested in doing that but I don't know anything about it. I would certainly prefer the look of live plants to the hideous fluorescent orange thing that was handed down from my husband's little brother. How much complexity does it add to have live plants? Are they difficult to keep? Should I wait until I have fish?

Finally, I would welcome, in advance, any tips on stocking. It seems that overstocking is a common problem and I'd like to avoid that. Of course, the kids want to fill the tank with lots of colorful, different fish. I'm looking for hardiness and fish that play nicely with others. I was thinking of trying to steer the kids toward 6 or so Cherry Barbs and perhaps one Beta. Of course, I wouldn't get them all at once. I was thinking we'd get 3 Barbs and then a month or so later, 3 more and then a month or so after that adding the Beta. Oh yes, and I'd like to get an "algae eater" too, not sure what their proper name is. Any thoughts?

We only have a 10 gallon tank so that seems like a lot of fish. But I thought that I read that for schooling fish like the Barbs, I would need to have at least 6 for them to be happy.

-Laura

Dark_Rider2k3

haha when I first started my Aquarium, it was pretty close.

The guy at Pet Supplies Plus told me all about the Nitrogen Cycle in pretty much the same details that was said here, except that I need to get a few hardy fish to start the cycle, and to keep up with water changes every other day. He told me after a week to bring the water for him to check it, and then the next week until it was completely cycled. Then he said I could add as many fish as I wanted.

HatchetHaven

Stop using BullsEye... pH changing things are bad for fish - it constantly changes pH and fish hate changes in water parameters!

Bettas don't like any other fish, although some Bettas (They all have their very own personality!) will accept Otos and Corys. The 'algae eater' you speak of is probably a Chinese algae eater. Check out the fishlore profile for that fish - you'll see why I don't recommend it. Algae eating critters aren't really necesary, although you could add 1 nerite snail onto all of my stocking plans.

I love stocking tanks... A good general rule of thumb is one inch of adulyt fish per gallon - as long as all the fish are compatible and they're minimum tank size is met. Here's a few suggestions:

Idea 1#:
4 mixed male Platys

Idea 2#:
4 mixed male Guppies

Idea 3#:
1 Betta

Idea 4#:
6 Neons

Idea 5#:
4 Male Endeler's Livebearers

As far as plants go. You need a flourecant light of at least 10watts to grow the most basic aquatic plants in your tank. 15-20W would be better. Plants wou could grow with this are: Hornwort, Cryptocorynes, Hornwort, Dwarf hairgrass, Hygrophila, Anubias, Java fern, Africa fern and Java moss. The last 4 plants need to be tied down to rock or wood, but Anubias can be 'Planted' in the substrate as long as the rhizome is not underneath the substrate. For any other plants, you will get into complex set ups that cost a lot more than you expect!

I generally put flakes in every day, about 5 flakes a day to cycle a tank.

laurad

I thought you just couldn't put Betas with other Betas? I'm pretty sure that I had a Beta in my community tank when I was a kid with no problems.

-Laura

jdhef

Depending on the personality of all the fish, occasionally it will work out. But for the most part someone will be nipping someones fins.

Like you, I remember having a Betta in a comunity tank way back when I was a kid, but I don't remember how he fared (or the other fish).

sirdarksol

Bettas in community tanks are, in general, time bombs waiting to happen. It's not always true, but most of the time, someone gets a shredded tail (or worse, dead).

I wouldn't worry too much about the pH in the tank. Most fish are okay as long as you don't have fluctuating pH. For example, I have a pH around 8.1, and I keep several fish that prefer acidic, soft water, and they do fine. In fact, they are some of my most successfully-kept fish so far. As one book puts it, playing with the pH just turns the aquarium into pickling brine. You have a lot of minerals and acidic water, which is unhealthy for the fish.
There are three very simple plants that require no special lighting to grow: Anubias, Java fern, and Java moss. They need a rock or piece of driftwood to be tied to, and will survive standard fluorescent lighting.

If your tank came with incandescent lighting, those three might not work (the lights in my 10g are actually too bright for all three of them; they burn in a week or so), but you could probably grow watersprite or water wysteria very easily. (I have wysteria in my 10g, and it's doing great.
With watersprite or wysteria, you will have to use root tabs or fertilizer spikes, but these are pretty cheap and last for months at a time.

Going beyond these simple plants is more complex, and requires further discussion. There are a few similar plants, but these are the ones that I have experience with.

mrsmuffin

I love my platys and you could bring lots of color in to the tank that way. They are also very hardy. I still have the first platy that we introduced to brand new tank the same day we bought it - before I found Fishlore and learned all of the things that I had done wrong!

HatchetHaven

When it comes to pH - keep it simple. I've heard of Apistos being bred (Which would usually require soft water and low pH according to books) in a pH of 7.5 and these are delicate fish from the amazon!

laurad

A couple of you have mentioned plants that need to be tied to rocks or driftwood. The lady at the petstore said that I shouldn't add anything to the tank that I didn't buy at a petstore. She said otherwise I might introduce high levels of minerals or bacteria that will kill my fish. So, would you recommend tying these plants to "rocks" that I buy at the petstore? Do they sell driftwood that is safe for freshwater tanks?

-Laura