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We have just set up a 75 gallon on sunday, the water seems cloudy, I am being told so many diffo things from the strore, arghhhhhhhhh.
We put the conditioner in and the antibacterial stuff. Any suggestions? Its been running for almost 5 days now and I would really like to add some fish to it but i am scared.
You'll need to cycle the tank.. the tank could cycle if you just put fish in it, but they'd probably die.. it's best doing a fishless cycle with ammonia before adding fish in. There's lots of information about fishless cycles on google. :)
It is reccomended that you cycle your tank for at least 7 days before adding any fish. Even then, you must base your purchase on hardiness, not beauty. a beautiful fish will most likely die because of the benifical bactieria has not yet multiplied enough to consume the harmful ammonia and nitrite still present in the water after 7 days. Also, NEVER add medication to the water of your tank! adding meds will kill the benificial bacteria and the bacteria will take more time to re-establish itself.
It will take much longer then 7 days to cycle your tank. It will take forever to explain how and what cycle is so look at www.petfish.net. They will also help you with good fish choices. Not all fish get along and you don't want to overstock. I pretty much never trust petshop employees.
Hagen makes a product, Cycle (duh!) which I have used for years. It helps because you are adding the helpful bacteria rather than waiting for them to develop. I use it every water change.
Make sure you have a good test kit and test the water before you even consider adding fish. You can buy test strips which include all the tests on one strip: PH level; ammonia level; nitrite; nitrate; and water hardness.
Here is just one of many links for Cycle, so you can read about it:
http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/214950/product.web
The product Cycle is just dead bacteria. Sorry to tell you Freedom, but its not actually doing anything for your tank. Bacteria is a living being and needs a source of ammonia and oxygen to live. Cycle's bacteria is dead overnight in that bottle, a product called Biospira is in the refridgerated section of pet stores and has a shelf life of a week or so if kept cold.
I do agree that you'll want to wait until the ammonia and nitrite part of the cycle is done before adding fish. Nitrite is highly toxic and a lot of fish don't live through a large spike. The cloudiness right now is either ammonia or bacteria.
You'll want to buy a liquid test kit because the chemicals on the strips start to degrade once exposed to air.
thanks everyone for your replies. We did use cycle and a conditioner....
I spent about a month and a half cycling my 95gal tank before putting fish into it, and still ended up with an Ammonia cloud for a little while. It will eventually clear as the bacteria grow.
One thing you can try is to see if your local fish store has some used filter material that you can put in your filter to give the tank a boost, since it will be full of bacteria.
I'd get the testing kits like Freedom and Irescue452 recommended -- Aquarium Pharm makes a set of liquid testing kits that will show you the Ammonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates - you will get different spikes as the tank goes through the cycling process.
Lorn, I don't have any advice for you, but I had to know....is your username from the Black Jewels Trilogy?
yikes no sorry i have no idea what that trioloy is....
My favorite books in the world...there is a dragon named Lorn. :)