yes... another cycling thread, + a little more

[dlee9707]

i'm sort of new to fishtanks, i've had 2 smaller ones before but never really gotten any more information than from some smelly guy at petco. After moving i decided to get a more serious tank, either a 55 or 75 (out of the classifieds, still need to go and see the 75)

after reading around for a while i've got a good idea what it is, and also understand why my oldest fish at my old house was 3 months.

i just wanted to confirm what i've read. I want to cycle it w/o any fish atfirst. Basicly i'll just add bottled regular amonia (?) and possibly add a chemical like cycle (i used to use that but never understood what it did lol) and wait for it to go down and keep adding more untill its able to clean the fishes waste

Also, after it is cycled should i continue using bacteria adding products in the water changes?

thanks for help in advance

[Jay]

Hi dlee9707 welcome to our forums!!

We use these things called Stickies to post information asked by almost every beginner. There is a basic one in the freshwater forum.

Here -> http://www.fishtankforums.com/5-fres...-aquarium.html

Arron posted a much more technical article in the saltwater forum.

You are certainly on the right track trying to learn about this stuff BEFORE you jump in . I am definitely an advocate of fishless cycling.

Read the articles and get back to us with questions.

Regards,
Jay

[dlee9707]

yeah, i read that and a few other articles, just wanted to make sure i got my facts straight. once thats going you could expect to see another post such as the one above on choosing fish. i never knew it was such an art untill reading some of the things people have said.

[Loman]

Hi dlee9707,
In your initial post you mentioned cycle. That product is not really required in mst cases. There is some question if it has any bacteria in it or not . I use it occassionaly and it is what would consider benign in that it does not do harm but may not do any good either. The real cycle really mostly need time and chemicals do not fix that. You do want to treat the water and/or age it to remove the chlorine at other chlorine byproducts. Personally I think the best think there is to leave the water open for 24+ hours

[Jay]

In your initial post you mentioned cycle. That product is not really required in mst cases. There is some question if it has any bacteria in it or not .

I love it when you talk like that

Jay

[jd@ga]

Loman That was smokin` great advice!

[dlee9707]

Heres a question... Calcium hardness. I havnt tested the water here, but my water all comes from a well under my house /w pumps and all, i would imagine it would be fairly hard (or am i wrong). good news is no clorine, bad news could possibly be the risk of infection (the house i moved from had a well too, when we sold it they found e-coli in the water >.<)

Anyway, would water hardness effect anything other than a calcium buildup problem? would it harm the fish at all?

[Loman]

dlee9707,
I hope Jay chimes in here but I do not think Calcium hardness would be all that impactful to the fish. It does leave stains and is harder on equipment and such as it leaves deposits. However, if the water is hard from minerals in the earth and plumbing system of an old house I am not sure how you can be sure it is calcium. If you are picking up heavy metals, copper, lead, etc. all potential from a well and older plumbing you could have a problem. I would favor softer water for convenience but if it is a well I would want to know what is in it for the tank as well as human consumption reasons.

[dlee9707]

well i it isnt an especially old plumbing system, no lead pipes or anything. we probably have the water tests from the inspection around somewhere that'll have accurate measurements of most every possible contaminate.

It also does get filtered somewhere along the way up.

Is buying hardness reducer even worth the time? i was interested in filling it /w cichlids (my old tank was full of 99cent mollies and what not >.<) and i dont know much about anything currently, if they prefer hard water or not or dont really mind either way.

[Jay]

Before we can advise on the water we really do need a set of parameters. Well water sometimes requires some adjustments.

Calcium hardness aka GH is the measurement of Calcium and Magnesium in the water, well water is frequently hard but it is really the KH GH pH relationship that could matter to the fish.

Does your house have a water softener?

I would stay away from water softening chemicals (hardness reducers) as most are special resins that exchange Na (sodium) ions for Ca and Mg. Without going into the chemistry this is not necessarily a good thing for an aquarium.

Jay