Restarting In The Hobby!

HI everyone, new member to the forum!

So like most I had goldfish as a kid in the 90’s in a grossly undersized tank doing full water changes every week.....those 2 goldfish lived for over 10 years in my folks house. Fast forward to 2014 and I bought my 2 year old daughter a 14 litre (3.7 gal) mermaid theme tank. We put a comet and fantail in there and I did twice weekly water changes for the last 3.5 years.

I never knew about the nitrogen cycle until earlier this year when I researched more into fishkeeping and decided to get a larger tank and give the fish a better life....until we had a catastrophic tank crash while we were on holidays and both goldfish died of ammonia poisoning.

I scrubbed the tank clean and threw away the filter pump and gravel, planning to take a break. But I decided to restart fresh with proper knowledge. So I built my own external canister style filter with mechanical and bio media, new gravel and a new pump. I decided on a fishless cycle and as of today am 6 weeks into attempting to cycle. I used flake food to seed the tank and 3 weeks ago bought the apI ammonia and nitrite test kits. Then just today bought the apI strip test kit too.

In the meantime I have acquired a 54 litre (14 gal) aquarium (2x1x1). I am 1/2 way through building a stand for it and will be doing an internal sump (is that called an aio tank?).
So my questions are do I abandon the small tank as it refuses to cycle. Been 6 weeks and ammonia is 2ppm with 0 nitrites and 0 nitrates, and start fresh in the larger tank? Do I keep going with the fishless cycle in the small one to have cycled media to jump start the larger tank? I have wood bought from the lfs in the small tank, I boiled and drained it for 2 weeks before putting it in so it's only leeching small amounts of tannins now. Does that effect the cycle?

I appreciate any help, there is so much info out there, wading through is quite daunting!

 

Welcome to the forum!
You could do a fish in cycle with any of your desired stock, you just need to get a bottle of Seachem Prime and dose everyday until your tank is cycled. I would also get a bottle of Seachem Stability, it's beneficial bacteria in a bottle it would help out your cycle.
Prime is a de-chlorinator, protects your fish from ammonia Nitrite and nitrate levels for 24-48 hours and adds slime coat to the water which would help out your fish.

Once your 14 gallon is cycled, which is easier to cycle than the 3 gallon you could get some of the cycled filter media from the 14 gallon and put in the filter for the 3 gallon.

As for stocking wise the 3 gallon could hold a male or female betta.

For the 14 gallon we can try to stock around the fish you are interested in, but nothing too big like Goldfish. A single Goldie would need at least 20 gallon tank

 

Thanks for the quick reply!
I was planning on a handful of danios minnows or tetras with some amano shrimp as stocking for the small tank until I researched stocking levels and decided to just use the small tank for a fishless cycle. Once the bigger tank is up and running the smaller one will be packed away to keep as a backup tank.

In the larger one I was thinking 8 to 10 of the above with maybe 4 amano shrimp, that way they have plenty of room and the tank won't look too bare. I do really like angels and Chiclids but the tank is just too small unfortunately.

My lfs just started selling prime but that's it so far. I'm in Ireland so don't have all the same brands as the states.

Thanks again for the help!

 

That's fine if there's no stability, just Prime would work. But it'll be longer though.

I would just cycle the bigger tank because it'll be easier for the beneficial bacteria to establish (the cycle). It would be way harder in the 3 gallon.

I would only keep Shrimp, Snails and a betta in a 3 gallon. All those fish you mentioned above are too active for that tank and need to be in at least groups of 6.

For the 14 gallon, you can have a small group of Ember Tetras. They're quite a good size for your tank. A group of 8-10 would work. You could also add 3-4 Amano shrimp as you mentioned.

I don't live in the States, I live in Jakarta, Indonesia but I'm currently in Singapore on vacation. We don't have all those fancy brands like Seachem in Jakarta as well, we just stick to fish markets. However, I know of a English guy who imports Seachem products into his store and that's where I buy my Prime And Stability. Now I'm in singapore I'm buying Prime, Stability and Flourish lines of Seachem just because it's cheaper here.

 

Welcome Alan, I too would start the larger tank. Just do a bare bottom tank until your stand is complete so you can jump start the cycle, save the water and media than reset it up the way you want it.

 

With the dimensions of your 54 litre, you could consider a dwarf cichlid Perhaps an apistogramma, nannacara, German ram, or Bolivian ram?

 

Welcome. I can attest to the size Comets will get to given the space. We have five 2.5 year old Comets in our 2600 gallon tank. The smaller fish are six inch nine month old Brook trout fingerlings.

 

Welcome!

 

Thanks for all the replies folks! Really appreciated! So I did some water tests today, one from the tank and one straight from the tap.

TAP TANK
Ammonia 0 2
GH 180+ 180+
KH 180~240 120~180
pH 7~7.5 7.5
Nitrite 0 0
Nitrate 0 0

Used Tetra SafeStart and water left sitting overnight in an open bucket to de-chlorinate when I set it up.
I have a few more things to pick up for the 14gal before I start it up.
Any recommendations for my tap water? Where I live it is ridiculously hard, one of my neighbours is on his 4th washing machine and 3rd dishwasher in the last 7 years!

 

Hey Alan, I'm from Ireland too! I haven't had any problems with water hardness. I currently have 2 Fancy Goldies and a Betta both doing great. I use Seachem Prime as my conditioner. I also used Tetra Safestart, it worked well enough for me. Also I see that you like cichlids and that someone recommended dwarf cichlids. You could try adverts or donedeal and get a 100 litre tank (I got mine for 100 euros, came with a filter and heater). It'll be plenty of space for a dwarf or two.

 

Hey Gar where are you? I’m in Co. Meath. My water is crazy hard. My folks live in Dublin and the water there is very soft. Different supplies cause that issue I guess.

I did look at donedeal and adverts but this 14l tank was only 30 Euro new as it was from a kit missing the lid and heater (colleague gave me a lid for free with a light in it too). My other issue is space at the moment, and the wife ha!

 

Hey Gar where are you? I’m in Co. Meath. My water is crazy hard. My folks live in Dublin and the water there is very soft. Different supplies cause that issue I guess.

I did look at donedeal and adverts but this 14l tank was only 30 Euro new as it was from a kit missing the lid and heater (colleague gave me a lid for free with a light in it too). My other issue is space at the moment, and the wife ha!

I'm actually up in Dublin ha. Yeah space can be an issue sometimes even for a 100L. You could try to convince her it'd nice for the house and the kids, haha.

 

She still doesn’t know about the 54 litre yet gonna finish the stand and set it up with the tank some weekend soon...... easier to ask forgiveness than permission! Best marital advice ever given

 

If your wife is like most women, she'll be fine with it if it looks nice. If she has a good eye for decorating, let her help with scaping it. It's not like it's an enormous tank that -ahem- takes over the living room.

 

Yes if it looks well she won't mind at all but if I bring the stand in half finished aggro will start she likes decorating the house and is very artistic but has no interest in fish whatsoever but getting her to help might be a good start

 

My -ahem- enormous tank that takes over my living room is the centerpiece of my decorating If she's artistic, she might enjoy helping pick out rock, driftwood, and plants to build the scape--I'm artistic too and that's one of my favorite parts of fishkeeping! There are so many amazing planted tanks out there to inspire you.

 

I’d love to get a big aquarium.....baby steps first. Make it a whole family thing and we will go from there! I’m sure I’ll find a way

What reading would you give this? 1? 1.5?

 

difficult to tell, but there or lower. That's even more accurate scale than my API master test kit reads.

 

I have the apI ammonia and apI nitrite kits. the scales have good wide range for sure. I just use the test strips then for the other parameters.

I’ll have to try during daylight tomorrow and see if it looks different...

 

Good luck with the tank! ^-^

 

Thanks!