Help!

[Freakinfreak]

I'm getting a 90 litre tank soon and it's got a filter and light already in/on it, it's an aqua one 620.

First time ever owning anything in water, except sea monkeys! So would really appreciate some help!


I don't want complicated things which will die on me within 2 days but I'd like some reasonably nice fish and a mixture of them. I don't want goldfish, I really, really do not like them!

Firstly though, I've looked at the whole cycling thing etc and it's just gone waaaaaay over my head and I understand absolutely... nil
I have no idea about media and filtration or anything like that, total novice here and would appreciate any help possible.

I'm getting the tank in a few days from a member off here which has been used before so I don't know if this will affect anything I need to do to make it suitable for fish.

Please can you give me a dummies guide to fish? I have looked through old posts and things but I can make no sense of it at all! Thank you

[Freakinfreak]

Noone?

[reptile_man_08]

I am a fish god.
There's plenty of fishies you could go for. Cycling is a really overcomplicated aspect of fish keeping, and it can be skipped completely by obtaining some 'mature filter media' from a cycled tank and putting it in your new filter...This is called 'seeding' or 'cloning', depending on how much of the cycled media you use.

What filter has it got?
What size/type fish do you want?

[Freakinfreak]

Originally Posted by reptile_man_08

I am a fish god.
There's plenty of fishies you could go for. Cycling is a really overcomplicated aspect of fish keeping, and it can be skipped completely by obtaining some 'mature filter media' from a cycled tank and putting it in your new filter...This is called 'seeding' or 'cloning', depending on how much of the cycled media you use.

What filter has it got?
What size/type fish do you want?

Dunno what filter, just an aqua one... one
And not sure, smallish ones, I quite like guppies, they're pretty!

[Morgan Freeman]

Cycling isn't too complicated once you get the hang of it.

Ammonia + bacteria = NitItes. Nitrites + A different kind of bacteria = NitrAtes. The "cycle" is getting your ammonia into nitrATes and then getting the nitrAtes at the right level (with water changes) so it's safe for your fish.

Ammonia is in the fish waste, so you need to get those bacteria thriving before you add fish. So you use ammonia from a bottle to get the bacteria started rather than using fish, as obviously the "cycle" will be harmful to them. Once your cycle is complete, the ammonia produced by the fish will have enough bacteria ready to noom it all up.