tfoster Posted April 22, 2005 Share Posted April 22, 2005 Hey all, I have finally stained my cabinet and hood for my 4 footer, so this weekend I'm going to set it up and start cycling. I plan to have africans and wanted to ask a few questions about the inital setup to get the tank right for fish. I am using river sand for my substrate and colac honey comb for my rocks. I have a canister filter and it has 3 baskets. It came with noodles and active carbon, should I use both in the filter? After reading the many filter questions on this site I came up with the following for the filter but I may need other items. ie the carbon. Start with a layer of coarse medium and fine mechanical in the first basket ( can this be the carbon?), then noodles or another form of biological in basket 2 (what do you recommend), then finish with a buffing basket of coral or shell grit. Do I need to add buffing and other salts initially. I'm not sure of the water in melb so it may need them. What fish should i use for cycling guppies or some other fish? Cheers Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ant Posted April 22, 2005 Share Posted April 22, 2005 Gold fish are great for cycling a tank. Carbon is optional, it can prove beneficial to use when cycling a tank. I add shell grit to my substrate and also put it in a medium bag and place it in my cannister filter. I was using sechem tang buffer as well but i am now using just bi-carb and a bit of marine salt. The shell grit will buffer the hardness from the bi-carb. Get your parameters right in the first week (do it slowly so as to not kill the goldfish), check the parameters after the second week to see if they are sitting stable, Then just wait another week until your tank is cycled. How many litres per hour does your filter do? Anthony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tfoster Posted April 22, 2005 Author Share Posted April 22, 2005 It does 1200lph and the tank is a 4' x 18" x 18" which if I could fill it to the very top would be 255 litres. Does the temp of the water affect the ph, hardness etc in regards to the time it takes for the chemicals and buffing salts etc to take affect. Cheers Tim. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ant Posted April 22, 2005 Share Posted April 22, 2005 I don't think so, but im not sure, that's one of the reasons i suggested you change the water perameters slowly and to check to see if it remains stable after the second week. Your filter is about right in terms of lph. Anthony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roo Posted April 22, 2005 Share Posted April 22, 2005 you should look at fishless cycling. I did it with my very first tank and it worked a treat. if you do a search you will find some good info. One of the benefits, is that once cycled this way you can fully stock the tank in one go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Posted April 22, 2005 Share Posted April 22, 2005 G'day Tim I would go and get some substrate from an established tank. Mix this into your tank and the add some Brstlenose cats. The bacteria in the substrate will kick start you new tanks bacteria colony and you should be able to add additional fish a lot sooner. Keep an eye on Ammonia and Nitrite levels, this will increase if you add too many fish too fast. Matthew... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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