New to this

[BAD_Habit]

Cheers all,

I had 2-10 gallon tanks given to me about a year ago....well I decided to give it a go on one of them and went out and bought a under-gravel filter , Only installed one riser with a powerhead pump .
Also bought a hang on the back filter , and a heater and set the tank up .

I was told by my brother who has had a tank ever since i can remember that i need to wait 2 weeks before putting any fish in...is this true??

Also the first day and a half it was crystal clear now Day 3 it has a light milky haze..... I did alittle research on the web and found a write up that said this was common and to preform a 10-15% water change... thus I did...

But in reading that I also seen where someone had said that you could put fish of a hearty type (no more than 2 for 10 gallon) as soon as 2 days as it will help the cycle get established Is this true?

Can I in fact go out and purchase a couple fish and put in the tank...It sure would be nice to see something in it...

I am truly a newbie when it comes to this and would like some input other than my brothers

Thanks in advance for any input....

Carl

[reefman_MC]

The milky color is most likely a bacteria bloom. It's not a bad thing, but it's not too pretty to look at. If I were you I would leave it alone for two weeks without doing water changes or adding any fish.
in 2 weeks add 2 small very hardy fish and start doing a 2-3 gallon water change weekly. Do you have any test kits? If not I would suggest you go out and buy the following: Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia, and pH test kits. You can fully stock your aquarium when Nitrate reads under 40, nitrite reads 0, and Ammonia reads 0. You should definitely be sure your aquarium is fully cycled before adding your main attraction fish. What kind of fish do you plan on going for? I would suggest livebearers or a school of tetras. Also what city you in? I'm in the Myrtle Beach area. If you have any more questions just ask.

[hoodoo]

hm, reefman, I'm not sure he understood what you just said

BH: do you know what the nitrogen cycle is?
(if not, read about it in the net). I just give you a short version.
fish poop (and other garbage) produces ammonia. This is very toxic to fish.
The are bacterias in the tank to make nitrite out of it. But far too little to handle fishpoop yet. You'll get more when you have ammonia in the tank. (you can just feed the empty tank with fishfood to get that). That just takes time and because of that the ammonia levels will go up and would kill most fish.
After a while they go down again because you have enough bacteria.
well, now you get nitrite from the bacteria. That's still bad. So you need a second bacteria that transforms it into nitrate. (just the same this as before).
So you'll get first an ammonia bloom, then a nitrite bloom. And then you'll get nitrate. That's far less toxic to the fish, but still not good. Water changes are pretty much the only thing you can do to keep that low.

Now you see why you need testkits. You NEED to test the water before adding any fish (even the hardy ones). If you add anything in the middle of the cycle it is a far too big shock for any kind of fish.

In my opinion you should get the testkit reefman was talking about and see, where you are in your cycle. Test a lot and wait until the ammonia and nitrite are back to 0. And I would feed the tank in that time to produce ammonia.
And before you add your fish make a PH test. Make sure the fish you like are ok with what you got there. (sometimes it makes sense to decide what to get by looking what your water starts with. It's no fun to change the PH. But that's just my opinion)

Yvonne

[Scuba]

Take a look at this for the nitrogen cycle.
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/jump_start.php

And this one for the cloudy water
http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/cloudywt.htm

And here is karma for asking a good question.

[BAD_Habit]

Thanks all ...

Reefman im in the Lexington Area (south of Columbia)

Will get the test kits and start checking the water.....

Is it bad to do water changes right now...will it stall the cycle?

I know the tank cant hold alot due to its size but I wanted to get something like the balsa shark or catfish along with a few smaller schooling fish..

I told my wife if this all works out then I would like to invest in a 200 or 300 gallon tank..

baby steps first...

thanks again ...will advise of my findings...

Cheers,

Carl

[BAD_Habit]

Picture of my 10 gallon

[Birdlady]

That looks nice!

[reefman_MC]

It will not stall the cycle. It will interrupt it. It will take longer for your cycle to finish up if you do water changes right now.

Bala sharks are aggressive unless given large quarters, lots of plants, and driftwood. I would definitely stear clear of the Bala.

What kind of catfish were you thinking of? What kind of schoolong fish were you thinking of?

[BAD_Habit]

LOL ..

now did you forget already that I have never done this before

Seen your correction of that shark name...LOL guess I read the walmart tag wrong

I haven't a clue honestly ... It would be like going to walmart or petsmart and looking to see what they have..... Kinda like when I need an air freshener for the truck.. See whats available.

I can see it now I'm gonna end up putting the wrong fish together and have a fish episode of the soprano's....



I'm all ears though what would you recommend???

[Birdlady]

Tetras! I love tetras! White cloud tetras, cardinal and neon tetras! red eye tetras!!!!

Did I mention, I love tetras!!!!

Here is a link with some info and pics.

http://species.fishindex.com/15

They are small and relatively easy fish. Plus, I would get a small pleco once you start getting algae. These guys get big but your pet store may let you trade them in as they get bigger