how long should i keep a fish tank running before adding the fish?

Question

it's been running empty for 3 days now. want to add my baby fish in a few days will it be safe by then?

Answer 1

You should be fine now. We added fish to ours after 48 hours. If you are worried, you can do what we did and add just one fish first. That worked well enough for us.

Answer 2

I think you should have a fully prepared tank and let it runs for about 1 to 2 months before adding any fish to prevent the " New Tank Syndrome". And also when adding fishes into the tank, tried to buy in pairs, and add in fishes day by day.. It not at one go...

Answer 3

Oh good grief.. some people and their ANSWERS.. Augh.

Three days hasn't even hardly begun the cycling proccess. Go to google and type in "cycling fish tank"

Cycling the tank without fish can take weeks to a month or longer. Cycling with fish and nothing else - it can take a week to three weeks.

Personally? I LOVE this product called "cycle" it comes in a white bottle in a white box. It's beneficial bacteria to help everything out. Your tank is already set up.. so add some of this cycle product as described on the bottle/box. Add your fish in a day or something. And you are set. Keep using the cycle for about two weeks and your tank should definitely be all ready. In the meanwhile, the cycle product will keep the harmful spikes in line so your fish will probably do fine. I've never had any losses with that product. It usually only takes me about 5 days to 7 days.. but I have all the test crud to check things out.

During cycling, there are spikes in ammonia levels and other that make it harmful for fish. This explains why most people lose fish during the first week to two or a month or so of running their tank. They sometimes get frustrated, go get all sorts of chemicals and medicines and test strips., blah blah blah. I swear fish stores dont tell you about these 'cycle' products so you come back and buy unneccessary products.

Using this beneficial bacteria helps keep the harmful levels down to hardly anything. It really works. I used it on a couple of my tanks and had no fish loss. Also did tests on the water.. totally amazing. Works like a charm.

And I'm not completely anal about my fish tanks.. so I'm not being over-nutty. :)

And you don't need biowheels or balls or anything special.. whatever kind of filter your tank came with should be sufficient. Undergravel, off the back mechanical, or biowheel.. they all work just fine. There are plus and minus to each kind, but just go with what you got. I've used all and they all work well.

ADDED TIPS:

LIGHT: Turn your fish light on only when you want to see your fish. They don't need the light and it only promotes yucky bacteria to grow in your tank. Also keep the tank out of direct/indirect sunlight as much as possible. This is probably the number one problem people have. Too much light. I never turn on my light. I only do water changes maybe once a month to once every two or three months. Whereas most recommend once a week (because they have all that bacteria growth due to the light being on all the time)

FEEDING: Also.. MOST fish only need the amount of food equal to the size of their eyeball. I feed probably twice to three times that.. but the point is.. most people overfeed by FAR! This also causes messy tanks and increases the requirement for more water changes. And I only feed once a day and skip weekends.

HOW MANY FISH: Also.. recommended fish quantity? 1" of adult fish per 1 gallon of water. That is actually a really good generalization. Most people also have too many fish or not big enough of a tank. Get the biggest tank you can afford, you'll be buying it anyway - after you determine you want more fish ! lol.

WATER TEMP and ICK: Also.. if your fish don't mind.. I don't know many that do mind... but if you keep your water at around 80 - 82.. it will make it next to impossible for the parasites and other common "ick" problems to pop up. These bad critters usually can't live in that hot of water, but the fish can. It's worked for me anyway. A bit of sea salt for freshwater doesn't hurt either. It helps reduce stress on the fishies.

But all you REALLY NEED TO BUY is the 'cycle' product. and some fish.

Happy fishing! :)

Answer 4

Well three days does nothing but waste time. Any vodoo cycling product but bio-spira, will do nothing but kill fish and waste money. Think carefully. Can salt and fresh water bacteria live in the same bottle without food or air, for months? bio spira adresses all of these issues

You need to do a fishless cycle, or get bio-spira. A fishless cycle involves adding ammoniato a tank without fish in it. You add, and wait. When ammonia is at 0, add more. Wait till ammonia and nitrite are at 0, and do a 80% water change, and add fish. Baby fish will not survive the traditional cycling process. They produce ammonia, a very toxic form of nitrogen, that will kill them. In cycling, beneficial bacteria appear that convert it into nitrite. This is too toxic, but more beneficial bacteria convert it into nitrate. NitrAte, is ok, but in fry tanks should be as low as possible. Daily water changes are not that bad. Ammo and nitrite at 0, nitrate under 40, or in your case 20 For more info go here http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=113861

Answer 5

Is this a new tank?

If it is you'll have to cycle it. You may want to add some media (some rocks, or decorations, or some of the filter media) from your other tank (wherever babies are now) to the new tank. to get the bacteria growing so when babies get there the environment will be a bit more prepared for them.

After the babies are in you'll want to test the ammonia and nitrogen levels to make sure babies aren't in toxic waters. It would be nice to do it at least every couple of days; but if you don't have testers and don't want to buy them get your petstore to do it for you by bringing in a sample. Remember to do 10% water changes for the first few weeks every couple of days.

Good luck

Answer 6

Did you ad a 'water enhancer'? There are some products that improve the water quality, acidity, hardness and stuff. They take only 24 hours before water is optimum.

Basically you are fine now. A bio-filter will start working optimal only after he fish are already in. If you have some 'weaker' species you want to put in you may want to do that after a week of pretesting by the stronger ones.

Answer 7

It's safe now, but don't add more than one or two fish at a time. Your tank needs time to cycle (build up good bacteria that eat fish wastes.)

Answer 8

a strong era of time to allow it cycle in the previous including a lot of fish (extremely children) must be about a month. the boom of positive micro organism received't start up without a source of waste, regardless of the indisputable fact that, so that you'll be able to both bypass the "fishless cyling" course and upload ammonia from the keep, or upload some fish at a time and their ammonia production will commence the cycle. the benefit of fishless cycling is that you dont ought to stress about ailment and shortage of existence, or do a lot of water alterations even as your tank is cycling. maximum individuals as you could locate from the different solutions favor this methodology. the former-shaped way works purely besides, on condition that you ought to upload the children by surprise, it ought to overload the device too surely. a strong eating routine for platies, extremely youthful platies, is beaten flake, grindel worms, brine shrimp (that's an extremely many times used nutrients for fry) or frozen beefheart. Beefheart you would possibly want to in ordinary words feed sparingly, because it pollutes the water and ought to reason weight problems in fish is fed too many times, regardless of the indisputable fact that it encourages swifter boom. The frozen cubes of it at persmart are floor sufficiently small for more suitable fry. purely thaw them out in a small cup of aquarium water and shoot them round with a turkey baster. this can are available accessible for feeding the brine shrimp and worms also. you could feed youthful fish two times an afternoon on the grounds that they're transforming into, yet even as they become older, once an afternoon will suffice.

Answer 9

watch out for ick, if u dont know what im talkin about look n2 it

Answer 10

48hrs will be just nice.............i think you can add your baby fish now........