Starting brand new 10 Gallon

[IsisP]

I have API Quick Start and a Tap water conditioner. Fake plants, because I am still studying live plants to start with them later.

 

I want to form a community of 1 guppy, and 3 Platys to begin in this hobby.

How often do I have to put fish food after using AI Quick Start? I am a little confused at this point.

thank you.

[Fish Folk]

To quickly cycle a new tank, what I do is (1) transfer in a cycled sponge from an existing tank, or (2) thoroughly squeeze a cycled sponge out in a new tank. I also (3) use live plants and wet driftwood for bio, add (4) FritzZyme 7 active bacteria, and use bio-filled substrate.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

@IsisP Welcome to the hobby! It’s a magical thing, albeit confusing at first. Here’s my thoughts:

-If you look online, lots of websites will tell you that you need to dose your aquarium to 2ppm+ ammonia. I simply do not believe this to be true. You need to dose/cycle your tank to what you will feed it on a daily basis is more applicable

-Considering it seems like you’re brand new, the next question would probably be “how do I know how much to feed my fish?”  Valid question, for sure! 
 

-If I was you, I would “ghost feed” your tank. Meaning, you have no fish, but you still add fish food like you would if you have fish. Give it your best guess as to what you think you will feed your tank when you actually have fish. This will allow the tank to adjust/cycle to what you will be feeding your fish when it’s safe to add fish. 

-For now, ghost feed your tank. Add food for 3-5 days like you anticipate feeding your fish, and then stop. It takes time for the food added to decompose and produce ammonia. 
 

-Test your tank daily. Once you see ammonia start to show up, that’s a good thing! The ammonia will continue to rise, and eventually it will peak. At this point, the first type of bacteria you need should have begun to colonize, and will begin to bring the ammonia down. 
 

-Once ammonia starts to come down, you should start to see nitrites. Again, just like ammonia before it, nitrites should continue to rise as ammonia continues to come down. Eventually, nitrites will peak, and then they should start to come down as the second type of bacteria you need begins to colonize. 
 

-Eventually, nitrites will come down, and you should start to see nitrAtes. This is a good thing! This means that both bacteria colonies you need are working and are converting ammonia to nitrites, and then nitrites to nitrATes. 
 

-Towards the end, your tank will continue to read 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and nitrAtes should continue to rise. This is exactly what you want! Eventually, your tank will be able to take fish food, covert it to waste (ammonia), convert that ammonia to nitrites, and then immediately covert those nitrites to nitrAtes. Over time, your tank does this conversion almost immediately meaning you should always read 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and a healthy amount of nitrAtes. 
 

-At some point, after you read ammonia, you will need to continue to feed the tank. You will need to “build a cycle” that will eventually handle all the waste (from food) that is produced. It’s hard to give an exact time frame, but you should be cautious to not “overfeed” the tank on the initial ammonia production. 
 

- @Fish Folk has great suggestions on how to quickly cycle a tank, but you may not have established gravel/media/filters at your disposal to quickly speed through the process. 
 

-The API Quick Start should help you build bacteria colonies through this process, but honestly I’ve never used that product so I can’t speak to it with confidence. 
 

-Hopefully this all makes sense. Cycling your first tank can be confusing and weird, but know you have lots of people around you here that are willing to help you through every step of the way. Holler at us as you have questions and we can offer our insight and what has worked for us!

-My final thought is to try to have patience, and enjoy the journey of cycling your tank. Cycling can feel like it takes forever (like 6-12 weeks), but overall, on the complete timeline of your tank, those few weeks become a blip on the timeline and you can really learn a lot! Cheers to you having success with your tank!

Edited July 17, 2023 by AllFishNoBrakes

[FrozenFins]

Welcome @IsisP!!! The hobby when you first start off is a confusing one. You've come to the right place, this community and forum is very helpful and will take you through every step to take to start a sucessful aquarium. You'll learn more every day that you explore this site.

Follow what @AllFishNoBrakes says - all really great advice. 

I find when using additives such as API quick start, or the 'ghost feeding' method as mentioned above, you can cycle your tank within a week. Take a sample of  your water into you local fish store for testing and they can help you determine if its ready for fish. If theres no amonia or nitrites but a little bit of nitrates your good to go! I like to start off with a smaller amount of fish to begin with. I might start off with only getting 2 platys. After a week of getting the platys, if everything seems fine then you can finalize your stocking with your guppy and other platy! 

I would like to warn you of getting three platys however. Platys are considered livebearers, meaning they give birth to small live fish instead of laying eggs. With this being said, if you end up with a female and male they will most defintley breed. This may sound fun to some, and to others not so much. Only problem I would have with this is that the potential babies may overstock the aquarium, but adding plants will certainly help with that. When stocking platys I reccomend this stocking ratio:

1 Male : 2 Female

3 Males

I wouldnt do any other option. With more males then females, the female will be constantly picked on because the male would like to reproduce. If you have more females then males, the aggression gets spread out. 

There is a good chance that any females you buy will be pregenant already. Which is why I suggested 3 males. However 3 females would work too, just be prepared for a whole lot of small babies. The platys will eat their babies. So if you dont want the babies, let them eat them. If you do want the babies, provide lots of dense hiding spots for the babies.

You can get your fish store employee to sex them out before bagging them up. They are quite easy to determine sex wise. 

Good luck! 

 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

If you are starting from scratch with no existing tank or media yes you can follow the instructions on API QuickStart but I’d get a testing kit or strips to monitor the tank as you start. Ghost feeding as suggested by @AllFishNoBrakesand @FrozenFinsis an excellent way to help the  API work better and faster. 
Cyclinh a tank and maturing a tank are two different ideas and concepts. Cycling means you’re setting up the tank to minimum tolerances to hold a group of fish. Maturing a tank is building up the colonies of beneficial bacteria and  other organisms that will allow the tank and its inhabitants to thrive. This plays into the topic of plants 
Fake plants are fine, I think if I was you I’d grab a sword plant and maybe some Java fern as well they are easy plants and just feeding your livebearers will probably be enough for them fertilization wise. But that’s me I’ve got very heavily planted tanks and have been doing this awhile and don’t think you should be afraid of plants. 
I would choose either guppies OR platies - do all male guppies or male platies if you don’t want to deal with breeding. There are dwarf platys, variatus platys ( probably don’t need a heater in their tank ) and they tend to be hardier than guppies. Endlers are a member of the same genus as guppies but because they’ve not been in the hobby as long their genetics are a bit better. Loads of color and action with male Endlers and they’re also a bit more temperature hardy. 
Great suggestions from the other posters. Have fun and welcome to our NERM family. 

[Lennie]

On 7/17/2023 at 7:14 AM, FrozenFins said:

There is a good chance that any females you buy will be pregenant already

Or carrying sperm for a long time for the future. My female endlers have given birth 4 times without a male. Now the males from the first batch are ready to mate at this point 🤣

 

For the guppy choice, in my experience with 7 species rn in different species only tanks, 2 being albinos(silverado red tail and plat white), well, albinos eat their babies meanwhile others( japan blue tails, pandas, pingus, black moscows and red grass) usually don’t care at all. I wanna breed them all but mostly albinos are a failure if left alone. We also talked about this with @Cinnebuns and she has similar situation with her albinos as far as I remember. Another  irl friend of mine has albino full reds and hers also eat all the babies.

If your concern is babies maybe give albino guppies a shot as 1m:2/3f and any baby that survives will be a happiness for you. I personally dont like full male setups, they can be a lil bullies sometimes

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/16/2023 at 4:06 PM, IsisP said:

How often do I have to put fish food after using AI Quick Start? I am a little confused at this point.

 

On 7/16/2023 at 8:56 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

-If you look online, lots of websites will tell you that you need to dose your aquarium to 2ppm+ ammonia. I simply do not believe this to be true. You need to dose/cycle your tank to what you will feed it on a daily basis is more applicable

-Considering it seems like you’re brand new, the next question would probably be “how do I know how much to feed my fish?”  Valid question, for sure! 
 

-If I was you, I would “ghost feed” your tank. Meaning, you have no fish, but you still add fish food like you would if you have fish. Give it your best guess as to what you think you will feed your tank when you actually have fish. This will allow the tank to adjust/cycle to what you will be feeding your fish when it’s safe to add fish. 

I second this method. I will try to explain the quick and easy of how I personally do things and maybe it makes some sense compared to adding liquid ammonia.

First, setup the tank, get water moving via air stone or filtration.

Then, after it's been at least 1 week start your ghost feeding (drop in a pinch of food once) and add in your bacteria from a bottle, API quick start.

Every 2-3 days you will add a little bit more food but you do not need to add a lot! You want to see the filters working and the tank doing it's normal thing. After 7-14 days of bacteria and ghost feeding you should see some nitrite and nitrate in your water testing. You would continue this until there is 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite.

Finally, SLOWLY add fish. Don't add a ton of fish right away. If your goal is to have 2-3 fish, then you can add them at once, but if your goal is to have 3-4 schools of fish, add one school and give the tank 2-3 weeks to adjust to the new bioload. Then add the next group of fish.

On 7/16/2023 at 11:55 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

I would choose either guppies OR platies - do all male guppies or male platies if you don’t want to deal with breeding.

Agreed! Livebeares can be misleading as a beginner fish because it is very easy for them to bread and produce fry. If you go with a single species group of all males it will be a beautiful tank, but no added fish from breeding.

On 7/16/2023 at 4:06 PM, IsisP said:

Fake plants, because I am still studying live plants to start with them later.

I would suggest starting with a plant called anubias. It's very easy and you shouldn't need anything special to have success with this plant. It doesn't get planted, but can be tied or glued to the hardscape. It's a very low demand plant that does really well in a variety of setups.

My favorite to start with is called anubias nana.

[_Eric_]

Welcome to the hobby!  

here’s my two cents:

Getting the bacteria going in your tank is often referred to as “cycling” your tank.  YouTube has a lot of content on what this means if curious but guys above have given great advice.  Get an API test kit to help.  Will be less stressful if you cycle tank before adding fish - although it can take a while (even with QuickStart)

For a 10 gallon first tank- I would try to get all same sex of Platy so you don’t have to deal with a population overload.  

[IsisP]

Thank you a lot for your advice! I'm glad to feel so welcomed by experts in this hobby, I'm sure I'm gonna learn a lot with you. 🤗

[IsisP]

On 7/17/2023 at 3:59 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

 

I second this method. I will try to explain the quick and easy of how I personally do things and maybe it makes some sense compared to adding liquid ammonia.

First, setup the tank, get water moving via air stone or filtration.

Then, after it's been at least 1 week start your ghost feeding (drop in a pinch of food once) and add in your bacteria from a bottle, API quick start.

Every 2-3 days you will add a little bit more food but you do not need to add a lot! You want to see the filters working and the tank doing it's normal thing. After 7-14 days of bacteria and ghost feeding you should see some nitrite and nitrate in your water testing. You would continue this until there is 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite.

Finally, SLOWLY add fish. Don't add a ton of fish right away. If your goal is to have 2-3 fish, then you can add them at once, but if your goal is to have 3-4 schools of fish, add one school and give the tank 2-3 weeks to adjust to the new bioload. Then add the next group of fish.

Agreed! Livebeares can be misleading as a beginner fish because it is very easy for them to bread and produce fry. If you go with a single species group of all males it will be a beautiful tank, but no added fish from breeding.

I would suggest starting with a plant called anubias. It's very easy and you shouldn't need anything special to have success with this plant. It doesn't get planted, but can be tied or glued to the hardscape. It's a very low demand plant that does really well in a variety of setups.

My favorite to start with is called anubias nana.

Do i have to test water weekly after putting the API into the water?

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/17/2023 at 9:07 PM, IsisP said:

Do i have to test water weekly after putting the API into the water?

About that, yes. First week there isn't any real reason to test water. Week 2 you can test every few days to see how things are going.

[Stef]

And know that during this cycling phase, things in your tank are gonna get funky. As in potential cloudy water, biofilm growing on surfaces, algae, etc.   All normal stuff that will pass. Be patient. 

[IsisP]

Thanks. And, into which phase I could introduce live plants? I'm planning to buy Anubias 

Edited July 19, 2023 by IsisP

[_Eric_]

On 7/18/2023 at 11:38 PM, IsisP said:

Thanks. And, into which phase I could introduce live plants? I'm planning to buy Anubias 

You can add plants whenever.  Doesn’t need to be cycled first or anything 

[Peaceful Fish]

I converted 3 tanks to planted tanks about 3 month ago. I bought a lot of Anubis and 75% had rizhome rot and died. Ironically, only the ones I bought from Aquarium CoOp survived.  I know Corey stopped selling them because they were seeing rot issues but his were the only ones that didn’t rot for me. 

[IsisP]

On 7/17/2023 at 3:59 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

 

I second this method. I will try to explain the quick and easy of how I personally do things and maybe it makes some sense compared to adding liquid ammonia.

First, setup the tank, get water moving via air stone or filtration.

Then, after it's been at least 1 week start your ghost feeding (drop in a pinch of food once) and add in your bacteria from a bottle, API quick start.

Every 2-3 days you will add a little bit more food but you do not need to add a lot! You want to see the filters working and the tank doing it's normal thing. After 7-14 days of bacteria and ghost feeding you should see some nitrite and nitrate in your water testing. You would continue this until there is 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite.

Finally, SLOWLY add fish. Don't add a ton of fish right away. If your goal is to have 2-3 fish, then you can add them at once, but if your goal is to have 3-4 schools of fish, add one school and give the tank 2-3 weeks to adjust to the new bioload. Then add the next group of fish.

Agreed! Livebeares can be misleading as a beginner fish because it is very easy for them to bread and produce fry. If you go with a single species group of all males it will be a beautiful tank, but no added fish from breeding.

I would suggest starting with a plant called anubias. It's very easy and you shouldn't need anything special to have success with this plant. It doesn't get planted, but can be tied or glued to the hardscape. It's a very low demand plant that does really well in a variety of setups.

My favorite to start with is called anubias nana.

Hello, I hope you can read this.

I have been following your method for 4 weeks in a row. But on the third week, I had to change my filter cartridge because it got clogged with something, so I did and put more API QUICK START. In the same week, I introduced 2 anubias and 2 java ferns, and one mystery snail in the tank and continued some ghost feeding, but then I stopped because my fish food contained a little copper and I read that could be lethal to the snail. Recently on my 4th week, I had an ammonia spike of 0.25 and used Seachem Amguard to solve it..I didn't know what else to do. 

i haven't do any water changes since I started cycling. Some people told me that I will need another ammonia source to speed up the cycle if I wanna put fish on my tank. I amnot had any nitrite or nitrate lectures yet, I am not sure what to do now.

[Lennie]

On 8/12/2023 at 12:51 AM, IsisP said:

Hello, I hope you can read this.

I have been following your method for 4 weeks in a row. But on the third week, I had to change my filter cartridge because it got clogged with something, so I did and put more API QUICK START. In the same week, I introduced 2 anubias and 2 java ferns, and one mystery snail in the tank and continued some ghost feeding, but then I stopped because my fish food contained a little copper and I read that could be lethal to the snail. Recently on my 4th week, I had an ammonia spike of 0.25 and used Seachem Amguard to solve it..I didn't know what else to do. 

i haven't do any water changes since I started cycling. Some people told me that I will need another ammonia source to speed up the cycle if I wanna put fish on my tank. I amnot had any nitrite or nitrate lectures yet, I am not sure what to do now.

One adult mystery snail should be sufficient to keep cycle going in a 10g. They have a big bioload. 
 

As commercial food you can feed your snail hikari crab cuisine and repashy. You can offer veggies and see what it likes. Broccoli, grean beans, spinach, collard greens, carrot, pumpkin, zucchini, sweet potatoes, Peas, etc. give them a try and see what it likes. Peel everything you can, wash them good, get organic stuff, avoid pesticides, salt or additives. Blanch them to make them softer for consuming and it helps with sinking.

Uncycled tank is also harmful to a snail just like it is dangerous to a fish. Probably more than the food you cut bcoz there is a tiny bit of copper to be fair. 
 

Best you can do is lightly feed your snail until you see no ammonia and nitrite and only nitrates. Then you can increase your snail’s portions to normal, if it seems fine, yoh can slowly stock your tank
 

 

 

[Galabar]

On 8/11/2023 at 2:51 PM, IsisP said:

Hello, I hope you can read this.

.... But on the third week, I had to change my filter cartridge because it got clogged with something, ...

How did you change the cartridge?  With a hang-on-back filter that uses a cartridge, the biological filtration will usually live on that cartridge.  Replacing it my negatively affect your cycle.

[IsisP]

Thank you for your help. My snail has been doing well despite his introduction in the middle of a cycling tank, he is very active and explores, poops, sleep, and Devore what he founds including occasional veggies like the ones you mentioned, he loves zucchini. 

My other water parameters have been at a "normal" level, hardy water, stable ph of around 7.5, so I don't think my tank is too dangerous right now but I will keep an eye on it every day.

So, I just.. wait ? or can I add more API bacteria? Sorry, i´m a total beginner on this, and working on my patience.

[IsisP]

On 11/8/2023 at 18:00, Galabar said:

Como cambiaste el cartucho? Con un filtro colgante que usa un cartucho, la filtración biológica generalmente vivirá en ese cartucho. Reemplazarlo puede afectar negativamente su ciclo.

I had to, I didn't want to damage the filter, I had a red light sparkling and that was a signal of a clogged filter. But that happened in the second week when I put the API Q Start, and I don't think there were some significant colonies yet. That's why I poured another cup of the bacteria into the tank.

I´m still learning about this, and I don't wanna give up, I really want my aquarium established.

[Galabar]

On 8/11/2023 at 4:08 PM, IsisP said:

I had to, I didn't want to damage the filter, I had a red light sparkling and that was a signal of a clogged filter. But that happened in the second week when I put the API Q Start, and I don't think there were some significant colonies yet. That's why I poured another cup of the bacteria into the tank.

I´m still learning about this, and I don't wanna give up, I really want my aquarium established.

What type of filter is it?  You might be able to rinse the cartridge in tank water and reuse it.  Also, if we know the type of filter, we might be able to recommend alternatives that might work better and save you money. 🙂

[IsisP]

On 11/8/2023 at 18:19, Galabar said:

Que tipo de filtro es? Es posible que pueda enjuagar el cartucho con agua del tanque y reutilizarlo. Además, si conocemos el tipo de filtro, podríamos recomendarle alternativas que podrían funcionar mejor y ahorrarle dinero. 🙂

I have an AQUEON QUIETFLOW 10 LEDPRO. I washed the cartridge but the light was still flashing, so I changed and the light was finally off. 

[Galabar]

It looks like there is a small sponge at the bottom, which would act as biological filtration.  I'm guessing that cartridge has carbon in it and can't be opened. If you want to keep going with those, it looks like they are less than $3.00 each in bulk.  You could also just insert filter floss or a sponge back there.

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/11/2023 at 2:51 PM, IsisP said:

But on the third week, I had to change my filter cartridge because it got clogged with something, so I did and put more API QUICK START

Yeah, that's kind of the struggle of the cartridges. Unfortunately.

One thing to consider is "modding" your filter with something more permanent like sponge and ceramic media.

On 8/11/2023 at 4:32 PM, IsisP said:

I have an AQUEON QUIETFLOW 10 LEDPRO. I washed the cartridge but the light was still flashing, so I changed and the light was finally off. 

You can lift the LED out of the little chamber and just "ignore it" so to speak for the time being. Check the filter every day or every few days to see how the flow is going. It should be fine. The maintenance indicators are pretty fun, but sometimes they can be misleading. Just something to keep in mind. I will try to find a video or make a sketch about the specific filter you have (one of my favorites) and how to set it up.

[nabokovfan87]

I can't seem to find a good video. Essentially everything goes from left to right.

Red = sponge

Blue = ceramic media location

You just get the sponge that would fit appropriately and not let the water overflow (taller than the water line, but shorter than the height of the back wall) and add in some ceramics to the right side.

On 8/11/2023 at 4:03 PM, IsisP said:

So, I just.. wait ? or can I add more API bacteria? Sorry, i´m a total beginner on this, and working on my patience.

You've been adding bacteria, so ultimately you're still waiting. Try to find some foam and stuff to "mod" the filter and that way you have a more permanent media solution. Once you have that, especially the ceramic, then you can add in the bacteria directly to the media chamber.