Adding new water

Hey guys I am filling my 36gal tank with water and had a quick question. I have three products. Water conditioner, bacteria supplement, and redistart bacteria starter. ( the redistart was to attempt a fish less cycling because I couldn't find liquid ammonia so I tried the next best thing.) Which do I use and in which order? And if necessary how often? I am trying to restart my tank after a very unsuccessful 2 years of keeping fish. Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

I add bacteria 30 minutes after water conditioner because someone on this forum said it would kill the bacteria

 

You'd add the water conditioner to your new water before putting it in the tank. Adding the bacteria would be next but would depend on what kind of bacteria supplement you're using. I'm not familiar with the redistart bacteria starter but sounds like it's the same type of product as your bacteria supplement so I would think it's redundant.

Are you still attempting a fishless cycle? What's your ammonia source and what kind of bacteria supplement do you have?

 

Yes, I thought the redistart would take the place of the ammonia but I could be wrong bc it dosent provide ingredients :/ . I wasn't able to find actual liquid ammonia in the store. The brand of the actual bacteria supplement I have is top fin if that helps. It says to use when adding water, adding new fish, and when doing water changes

Also is it bad if the water was added to the aquarium prior to being treated....

 

You don't want the chlorine and chloramines to kill off the bacteria that's being added and that resides mostly in your filter media and on hard surfaces of the tank. This is why you would want to add the conditioner prior to adding the tap water to the tank.

However, if you haven't introduced an ammonia source in the form of pure ammonia, fish food or fish, it wouldn't matter because your cycle hasn't started. I don't know of any reliable bacteria starter that also consists of ammonia in the same formula.

I don't know where you're located but if you're in the U.S., can you locate an Ace Hardware store? They have the janitorial strength pure ammonia which many use to cycle their tanks.

 

Ok thank you! Yeah so I messed up, the water is in the tank and it's not treated. Can I just condition the water and then add bacteria and run the filter? Your right I haven't started my cycle yet, so will I be A ok? If the conditioner is added before the bacteria I should be good in theory right? I really appreciate all your help

 

There's no point to adding the bacteria because it will starve from not having an ammonia source as food to eat. You'll want to fill the tank with dechlorinated tap water and then the next day, get your pure ammonia and dose it to 2ppm and add that along with your bacteria supplement together. This way, there will be ammonia for your bacteria to eat. I highly suggest a bacteria supplement like Tetra SafeStart Plus (should say "Start Up" on the bottle) or Seachem Stability.

Do you have a testing kit like the API Freshwater Master Test Kit?

 

Yes I have that exact kit. Thanks so much!