Well, this is slightly amuzing.....

[AngelLeah1981]

The tank in these two photos is going to be my sump and is now being temporarily used as a freshwater fish tank. I'm moving in 6-9 months....thought I'd put that in there since this seems so weird. lol. ha ha. My husband just deployed and since I can't use my fantastic 120 gallon yet I thought I would put this 40 gallon to good use. I figured the fish could keep me company and give me something to do. Anyways, it's very bare and I'd like to keep it that way because the more I buy the more $ I'm out when I give my fish to the lfs and move about 1,000 miles away and set up my saltwater tank. I have some questions because I've never done freshwater fish before. I told the lfs I would rather not have any gravel or sand and they told me to let the tank sit for 2 days and bring a sample of my water in and they will test it and tell me if I have to get sand or gravel....that it all depends on my water quality. Is this true? I'm hoping to get away with no sand and gravel.....b/c of money and hassle. I want this to be as simple as possible but I also don't want my fish to die. I put 2 handfuls of marble rocks and a teeny tiny plant in there just because I had it from years ago from a very small tank. Also, as you can see in that first pic after I put my water conditioner and PH balancer in the water some of it settled on the bottom and is just sitting there like sugar or sand. Will this go away? Is this bad? These are the chemicals I put in and the equipment I have:
Tetra Aqua - Aqua Safe water conditioner - new with BioExtract and Tetra Easy Balance water treatment with Nitraban. 40 gallon tank, 20-40 Aqua Tech water filtration, heater rated for 30-60 gallon, large air stone with old very small pump, a glass cover and basic lighting, and a thermometer. Any advice would so be appreciated.


Thanks.
Leah

[blue_eyes53813]

Im sorry Im not gonna be any help with the freshwater stuff but you dont need substrate. Many people have bare bottom tanks. . Welcome to RS

[tippMANn98]

Usually with F/w tanks, you want to add you dechlorinator(like you said, tetra aqua and stuff) then usually let it run with the filter(NO FISH) for 3-4 days....then have them test it...just make sure there isnt any ammonia, then add slow, 1-2 fish to start for a 10 gallon tank FOR 2 WEEKS. do not rush it!, and you can double that formula for larger tanks...

[boozeman]

you dont need the substrate. if you were gonna leave the tank empty with the airstone running for two days you really didnt need the aquasafe either, as the chlorine wouldve dissapated by then. but you will need it for the continued water changes once your fish are in. you need to know what the ph of your tap water is, that will determine the type of fishies you can keep unless you are planning to keep adding the buffers.

[mps9506]

I told the lfs I would rather not have any gravel or sand and they told me to let the tank sit for 2 days and bring a sample of my water in and they will test it and tell me if I have to get sand or gravel....that it all depends on my water quality

This is kinda silly on their part. There is nothing to test for if you are letting the tank sit for two days except for pH. I'm assuming you have some kind of bio filter on there?
Bare bottom will be fine, you just need to be careful on your bioload, and add decorations in there for the fish. A bare tank like that will be very stressful to most fish. You also need to start the cycle out with something. Either one or two small fish, some food put in their to start the ammonia cycle or chemical product like Hagen's Cycle.
Things that will need to be tested for include pH, then ammonia will need to be tested daily until it spikes and goes back down, then test for nitrites daily until it spikes and goes down. After your ammonia and nitrites are zero you are good to go. Your pH will dictate what kind of fish you can keep, or what you need to add to the water depending on what kind of fish you want to keep

[PEMfish]

Ok, no substrate is fine IF you have a good bio filter. This means alot of ceramic bio media. Second, if you go bare bottom, your fishes colors might not look as good. ( dark colors are best... ) And no decor is stressful to your fish, plants will just float around so a good 20lbs of rock from your LFS would be highly beneficial. It will curve aggression too. Also, the PH buffer won't help as much as hurt. It makes the PF flux like mad. Stop using it. Then test your PH after a few W/Cs ( don't do a W/C till your tank is cycled ) and find fish that live in your PH. ( Btw ( By the way ) W/C = water change. )
Testing weekly is important. But until your tank is cycled test once every other day. Test for; PH, GH, KH, Ammonia, Nitrite, & Nitrate. Other weekly maintenance would be siphoning gravel ( if you have it ), Cleaning glass ( IF need be ), and a 15% W/C.
Cycle; Your tank will have amonnia producing fish. Ammonia ( NH3 ) is toxic. Bacteria ( in your Bio filter ) will transform it into nitrite ( NO2 ) witch is also harmful, but not quite as. It will be further transformed into Nitrate ( NO3 ) with is yet, a little less toxic. Any one of these compounds is deadly in high concentrations. So cycling your tank means growing bacteria to get rid of deadly ammonia,,, You must do this before adding fish or there ammonia will build up and kill them. So every other day, test for ammonia, It will go way up, then back down as bacteria grows. Then test for Nitrite until it gos up then down. And the same for NO3. Now SLOWLY add fish. ( 5 inches total per week ) You can have 20 2" fish in there, such as Guppy's, Neons, Cherry barbs, and White clouds to name a few. But remember PH ( and GH, and KH ).
Can you tell me your exact filter please?

[lcstorc]

Sounds a lot like cycling a SW tank. How interresting.

[AngelLeah1981]

I have a biofilter in the 20-40 Aqua Tech water filtration. It just looks like a black plastic fiber filter. Be careful with my bioload??

Things that will need to be tested for include pH, then ammonia will need to be tested daily until it spikes and goes back down, then test for nitrites daily until it spikes and goes down. After your ammonia and nitrites are zero you are good to go.

How will I know what to do when I get the test results?

you dont need the substrate. if you were gonna leave the tank empty with the airstone running for two days you really didnt need the aquasafe either, as the chlorine wouldve dissapated by then. but you will need it for the continued water changes once your fish are in. you need to know what the ph of your tap water is, that will determine the type of fishies you can keep unless you are planning to keep adding the buffers.

(light bulb on top of head) lol. ...so if I put water in a garbage can and let it sit for 2 days I won't have to put water conditioner in the water? That's probably more healthy for the fish, right? Also, if I find out what the ph is in my tap water then you can tell me what fish are best? That would be AWESOME! and then I wouldn't have to add chemicals at all !? I would like that. When I do my saltwater aquarium I wasn't going to use ANY chemicals b/c I know what to do with it and am willing to spend more money on it and have been told over and over to not use any chemicals. How often and how much water do I change out?

Oh, one more thing if I leave water in a trash can would it HAVE to have an airstone or anything? or would it be ok by itself for 48 hours? ...that way I wouldn't have to buy more stuff. lol.
THanks.

[PEMfish]

Yes, you'll need a heater. The sudden drop in temp when you do a W/C will cause the mucus coat to fail.

[SubRosa]

You may or may not need a heater.First determine the fish you want to keep and adjust temp accordingly.As far as stocking levels go the old "one inch of fish per gal of water" is a crock.One four inch fish makes alot more waste than four one inch fish.Worry about the weight of a fish not its length.If you are willing to do large weekly water changes you can stock that tank much more densely than common wisdom would recommend,but you must build up slowly.As an example I once raised in a 29 gal tank over the course of a year a Black Ghost Knife from 3" to 14",a Fire Eel from 6" to 16",in the midst of a breeding pair of Rainbow Cichlids that were 3"-4" each,and 10 assorted Cory cats around 2" each.All fish were added as small fry and grew till I traded them in.But I changed 33% weekly without fail.Water changes are easy and cheap in FW.The solution to pollution is dilution!

[AngelLeah1981]

How do I know when the tank gets established and when do I do water changes after adding the fish? I think somebody said to wait a month and then do water changes once a week....a 1/4 of the water. Is this correct?

I'm SO MAD at my lfs. I bought that PH stabilizer when my PH is already PERFECT and it caused BIG problems. Sure wish I had consulted you guys before I ran out and bought that doomsday stuff. lol. It's slowed progress down considerably.

If my PH is PERFECT then can I just put some warm water in a bucket and let it sit until it gets to the temperature of the fish's needs (checking with thermometer) for a few minutes to an hour or so....and add water conditioner, stir it up, and then add the water to the tank? Will this be ok?
Thanks.
Leah

[mps9506]

Yup, I'm not a big fan of the pH stabilizer. I prefer to use buffers that lower or raise pH and hardness. I would suggest purchasing a pH test kit to test on your own as well as ammonia, nitrite and nitrate test kits. It will save you runs to the LFS and let you test on your own time. Always test the pH in you tank and water change water before doing the water change.
What kind of fish are you planning on?

[SubRosa]

You should contact your local water company and see what form of chlorine they use.If they use regular chlorine the water is ready after sitting 24 hrs.If they use chloramine you need to use dechlorinator or filter through carbon.25% weekly changes will do nicely.

[CMG]

Welcome, sorry to hear your husband is away, I am a Marine and have left my finace behind also but she didnt go into fish like me! haha.

Anywyas, I had a 40g Freshwater tank too before I converted it into a salt water tank. I don't know where you are located but if you are near sonoma county in CA then I have a 5g bucket full of rock left over from my tank if you would like it. I think the rock helps the tank astheticaly and you need one for an undergravel filter which you arent running anyway.

I think your vacum/water change will vary depending on the amount of fish you have. My tank was stocked heavily and so I vacumed once a week and changed 10gallons with it once a week. But like I said, I had a lot of fish in that 40g. When the tank had 4 fish in it it was oncly cleaned once a month and was hardly dirty. But the fish didnt produce a lot of waste. Say you buy an algae eater, well they produce lots of waste so you may have to clean more often then if you bought 3 other fish that produced a lot less. You just have to watch the tank and watch how much nasty stuff comes out as you vacuum to get an idea of the level of waste, this will help determine your cleaning schedule.

My advice with regard to your fish store people is to do all your research online before you go in there, that way once you get there you can just walk in and tell them what you want and walk out without having to worry if they are going to give you bad advice.

Good luck.

[Aquadelight]

anything that comes in contact with water in your aquarium is a potential source of the good bactiera needed for a helathy environment for fish. No different than SW. Not having a substrate dramatically reduces the surface area that can harbor the bacteria. So..... the only additional advice I would give to the above is to be very careful to not clean the filters too rigorously. If you remove too much of the bacteria, your tank will cycle again. De-chlorinators can remove more than chlorine. Many remove or deactivate nitrites, nitrates and amonia. Overuse can prevent your tank from completing the cycle.

Just as with a reef system, the entire tank is part of the living environment.