# Just barely got a new fish tank! 16 gallon bow front aquarium.. could use advice!



## sammies4787

Hi, so, I just barely got a new aquarium! It is a 16 bow front aquarium. The only thing is it is missing a strip light apparently. Is it terribly bad if it does not have a strip light? What could I use instead of buying a $40.00 strip light? I will get one if I do need one but I was just curious. Does it have to be a specific strip light for a bow front aquarium?

Also, what are some starter fish you would recommend? I have never had fish in my life but I went to PetsMart and asked a ton of questions and I guess I know the basics. You need to have the water chlorinated first and then set everything up in the fish tank, the heater, the filter and put the rocks in and stuff. Then, you need to let it run for 48 hours before you put fish in. Then you put 3 fish in, and then 3 more fish in every 2 weeks? How many fish can I have in a sixteen gallon fish tank if I want to put in some Molly fish and maybe some other schooling fish? I am excited for my new fish tank but worried I will kill them all so any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!


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## aunt kymmie

Welcome to the forum! I took the liberty of doing a * cut & paste* of the information that helped me learn about cycling a tank. After reading if you have further questions (I did!) ask away 

"Cycling a tank is the process of culturing colonies of beneficial bacteria in your tank. Fish waste (urine and feces), decaying plant and animal tissue and decaying fish food all create ammonia in your tank. Ammonia is highly toxic to fish and can kill them even at low concentrations. In order for your fish to survive in a fish tank, they can't be exposed to ammonia. Luckily, there is a type of bacteria that converts the harmful ammonia into another chemical called nitrite. As ammonia is introduced to your tank (either by adding fish or another ammonia source) these bacteria multiply. Eventually, there are enough of them to completely convert any ammonia that is introduced to the tank into nitrite. Unfortunately, nitrite is just as toxic to your fish as ammonia, if not moreso. However, there is a second type of bacteria that converts this nitrite into nitrate, a chemical that is only harmful to fish in very large concentrations. As the first type of bacteria convert ammonia to nitrite, the second type of bacteria begins to grow in number. After more time, there are enough of these bacteria present to convert all of your nitrite into nitrate. After both types of bacteria are established, your tank is "cycled." At this point, you should never have detectable levels of ammonia or nitrite in your tank and you only need to do water changes to keep the nitrate levels in check. 

There are two ways to cycle a tank, fishless and with fish. When cycling with fish, the fish you add act as the ammonia source during the cycle. However, because the ammonia and nitrite that are produced during the cycle are toxic, you need to do water changes frequently when cycling with fish to keep them alive. The second way is to cycle without fish and use some other ammonia source, such as pure ammonia, fish food or even an uncooked shrimp. This is the preferred method as it allows you to stock the tank as you please (instead of with the fish you cycled with) and also doesn't subject any fish to ammonia or nitrite poisoning. 

The best way to monitor the progress of the cycle is to get a good liquid test kit like the API Freshwater Master Test Kit. It contains tests for pH as well as ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Testing the water lets you know exactly how far along the cycle is and when it's over, and therefore when it's safe to add fish. 

Since the bacteria that you grow during the cycle aren't waterborne (they live on surfaces in the aquarium like the gravel, decor and especially the filter media) you can transfer some of these items over to a cycling aquarium from an established tank to help speed up your cycle."


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## willow

covered the cycle very nicley there 
the only thing i would like to add is Welcome 
and if there is any chance that you know anyone with an aquarium,ask them if they would
be willing to share some filter media with you.


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## onefish2fish

sammies4787 said:


> You need to have the water chlorinated first and then set everything up in the fish tank


welcome.
just wanted to clarrify, you want to DE-chlorinate the water of chlorine and chloramines.

mollies,guppies and swordtails are all livebearers and reproduce like jack rabbits. they wont really school but will more or less swim all over the tank.


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## veganchick

WOW!!!! NEVER EVER ASK PETSTORE PEOPLE FOR ADVICE!!! WAIT ATLEAST one week before adding fish. don't ask them what kinds of fish go in a 16 gallon either cuz they once reccomended a 2 foot pleco 4 my 5 gallon!!! only add 2 fish at a time unless they are small schooling fish. I would go with 3 ottos, 4 guppies, ten ghost shrimp, 1 mystery snail, 5 zebra danios IF you have real plants in your tank. if not than you are severly limiting to number of fish ou can have an the tank. Oh, and wait about 3 months before you get the ottos cuz they need a well established tank!!!!!


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## dramaqueen

Don't you have to wait until the tank is fully cycled to start adding fish?


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## onefish2fish

veganchick said:


> WOW!!!! NEVER EVER ASK PETSTORE PEOPLE FOR ADVICE!!! WAIT ATLEAST one week before adding fish. don't ask them what kinds of fish go in a 16 gallon either cuz they once reccomended a 2 foot pleco 4 my 5 gallon!!! only add 2 fish at a time unless they are small schooling fish. I would go with 3 ottos, 4 guppies, ten ghost shrimp, 1 mystery snail, 5 zebra danios IF you have real plants in your tank. if not than you are severly limiting to number of fish ou can have an the tank. Oh, and wait about 3 months before you get the ottos cuz they need a well established tank!!!!!


 
first off drama is right, cycling a tank come first. your right about "petstore people" to a certain extent. Not all "petstore people" dont know what they are doing but when it comes down to it they are all sales people trying to make sales.
As you contradicted yourself about ottos you are right, they are sensitive fish and need algae present in a tank to graze on.
Guppies are good begginer fish but if you get males/females plan on having babbies.


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## sammies4787

So, I guess I am confused about cycling. I put tap water in the tank and then what? Sorry, I've never ever had a fish tank before so I don't know all the fancy wording. I understand how they need the bacteria I think. Sorry, thanks for helping me!


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## mags2313

Sammies...
Invest in two buckets that will only be used for your aquarium, or just one if you want, I use on that has litre marks on the side, my bucket is 15 L.(3 gallons)
DEchlorinate your water and fill your tank only20% full. Rinse your grave or whatever you're using l (aka substrate) really well and put in your tank gently. Add your decorations. Fill your tank completely( or just half and then here you can add live plants if you want). You can use a plate to break up the stream of water so don't damage or move anything around.
When you tank is full, make sure you got good spots to place your heater and your filter and your hose for your air pump. Heaters usually need like and hour to calibrate with the temperature of the water BEFORE it is plugged in so read your manuals. Make sure you've got your filtration all together by reading the manual , NEVER turn a filter on without water in it.

For they cycling, either use fish food, uncooked shrimp , or live fish like danio's to be your source of ammonia in your tank. (ammonia = bad and harmful)
The ammonia will soon be converted to nitrite (nitrite = bad and harmful)
The nitrite will soon be converted to nitRATE. (nitrate = not so bad and not so harmful)

Help?


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## dramaqueen

And invest in a good test kit to test your water parameters. The API Master test kit is the one that is usually reccommended.


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## jeaninel

You need an ammonia source in your tank to start the cycle. You can use pure household ammonia for fishless cycling. Make sure it has no soaps or other additives in it. It's actually a much cleaner way than using fish food or a raw prawn. The fish food or prawn tend to get moldy and can get stinky. And since your not cycling with fish in the tank you won't have to do water changes day after day to keep the fish healthy.

Here's an article on how to do a fishless cycle.
Fishless Cycling - Article at The Age of Aquariums - Tropical Fish

HTH


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## sammies4787

So when is the best time to do all of the tests with the water? What should the schedule be like for testing the water? How often should I do a 10% water change, every week? When I do a full water change, should I re acclimate the fish to the new water as I do when they are brand new such as letting the bag with the old water and that's carrying the fish float in the new water? Also, how long do I need to let the brand new fish float in the water before I net them out? And... finally does anyone know where I can get a relatively cheap light strip about 20" long?


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## sammies4787

wow that was a really good article. Thanks a lot! I am going to definitely going to do fishless cycling now. Thank you.


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## sammies4787

so after you do all of the fishless cycling process and you have fish do you just continue to check for nitrite and ammonia every other day or are there other tests you need to do?


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## jeaninel

sammies4787 said:


> So when is the best time to do all of the tests with the water? What should the schedule be like for testing the water? How often should I do a 10% water change, every week? When I do a full water change, should I re acclimate the fish to the new water as I do when they are brand new such as letting the bag with the old water and that's carrying the fish float in the new water? Also, how long do I need to let the brand new fish float in the water before I net them out? And... finally does anyone know where I can get a relatively cheap light strip about 20" long?


So are you cycling with fish? What kind of fish? Only start with a few fish. Then don't add anymore until your tank is fully cycled. You'll need to test the water daily and watch for ammonia and then nitrites to rise. You'll need to do a water change whenever these get above .5 or so. You want to keep the ammonia and nitrites .25 or less while cycling. You don't need to remove the fish or do a full water change. This would be very stressful for them. Cycling with fish is a lot of work and you will be testing the water daily and probably doing water changes almost every day. Once your ammonia and nitrites drop to 0 and you have some reading for nitrates then you're cycled. Then you'll do weekly water changes of about 25% or so (depending on your stocking/nitrate reading) to keep nitrates low (under 40ppm). 

When adding new fish float the bag in your tank for about 20 minutes to allow the bag's water to equal the temp in the tank. Then open the bag and add about a half cup of your tank water to it. Wait about 5-10 minutes and add another 1/2 cup of your tank water to the bag. Do this a few times and then net the fish out of the bag into your tank. Never dump the bag water into your tank. You don't want to introduce any nasties from the LFS water into your tank and it will be full of ammonia.

You sure you don't want to try a fishless cycle? It would not involve so many water changes and you don't have to worry about any fish dying.


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## jeaninel

Oops...you must have posted at the same time I did! lol

Glad to hear you're going to do a fishless cycle. Once your tank is cycled you just test once a week for nitrates. You can check ammonia and nitrites once a week also just to make sure nothing has happened to your bacteria. But the ammonia and nitrites should stay at 0 in a healthy tank. You'll have some reading for nitrates but these are diluted by doing weekly water changes.


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## sammies4787

oh ok, lol, thank you for helping me. I have a lot of questions. I am excited to start the fish tank. So, I am missing the strip light on my fish tank, is this important?


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## sammies4787

By the way, when I test for nitrates, what is the optimal level or reading I want to have for nitrates?


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## jeaninel

You don't have to have the light to start the cycle unless you have live plants. You can add the light later. Not sure on where to get one for cheap. Seems like most strip lights start at 24". My 10 gallon is a 20" long tank and it has the full hood with lights in it. Originally it came with incandescent bulbs but I switched the bulbs to compact fluorescents because incandescents put out too much heat and will overheat your tank. I bought my hood at Petsmart for I think like $15. The fluorescent bulbs were about $5 each.

Ideally nitrates should be kept under 40 ppm with under 20 being preferred. Mine are usually around 5-10ppm by water change day. The lower the ppm the cleaner the water. 

Do you have an idea of what fish you want? While your tank is cycling is a great time to do lots of research on what fish you want. And don't be afraid to ask lots of questions. That's what the forum is here for.:-D


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## sammies4787

well I was thinking I did want some mollies, just 3 to start off with; then some bottom feeders, and probably three more fish after that. Do you have any suggestions? 

So, do I need to check the PH level? How often do I check the PH level because I am kind of confused about what exactly I need to test the water for when the fish are in the fish tank. 

Thanks a lot for answering my questions!


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## jeaninel

What are the dimensions of the 16 gallon bowfront? Some mollies like the sailfins can get pretty large. They also breed pretty easily so you may be overloaded with babies. Just something to keep in mind.

It's good to know what your Ph is but most fish will adjust to whatever your Ph is as long as it's not totally off the chart. Sometimes during cycling your Ph will go up or down and then stabilize. Once the tank stabilizes you don't really need to check it that often. I check my Ph maybe once a month just to make sure nothing has changed. Kh and Gh are good to know also.


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## sammies4787

So, really fast, I just set up my aquarium this morning with the water and everything. And, you know how the instructions for fishless cycling say to turn the heater up to 86 degrees? Well, I did, but was I supposed to go up in degrees gradually not turn the nob directly to 86? I'm wondering because here it is almost 9 PM and the water temperature has not gone up. I did feel the heater to check for any heat, and there is some heat coming from the heater. Is it supposed to take a long time because if it heats it up too fast it could be dangerous for fish? Just curious.. thanks. Its been almost 5 hours. So, I just barely turned it down so it could heat up at a slower pace. I really hope the heater isn't broken.


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## sammies4787

*Fishless Cycling*

So I received an article about fishless cycling: Fishless Cycling - Article at The Age of Aquariums - Tropical Fish. I am really excited to start this. I have my aquarium all set up with everything running without any fish in it. Currently though, my temperature is at about 78 or 79 degrees. Would it be alright if I start the fishless cycling at this temperature? 

I also wanted to hear a little bit more about fishless cycling, how others feel about it when they tried it and if there is any more suggestions. Thanks!


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## sammies4787

*Fishless Cycling*

So I received an article about fishless cycling: Fishless Cycling - Article at The Age of Aquariums - Tropical Fish. I am really excited to start this. I have my aquarium all set up with everything running without any fish in it. Currently though, my temperature is at about 78 or 79 degrees. Would it be alright if I start the fishless cycling at this temperature? 

I also wanted to hear a little bit more about fishless cycling, how others feel about it when they tried it and if there is any more suggestions. Thanks!


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## sammies4787

Sorry, i can't figure out how to delete those last two posts. I was just trying to start another thread. What do you think about starting it at about 80-82 degrees? Thats where the temperature is about now. You have been a really big help by the way. Thanks!


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## jeaninel

Yup, that's perfect. Go ahead and get that cycle started.:-D


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## sammies4787

Hey, so what if the water is evaporating too quickly? It says in the instructions to not do any water changes until the cycle is over. But, if the water is evaporating quickly, I need to make sure there is enough in there for the filter to work properly right?


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## jeaninel

You can add water to top off the tank. Just make sure to add your dechlorintor before you put it in the tank.


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## Livelifelaughlove

I have nothing to add other than welcome, and don't worry about asking questions. Ask as many as you like, lol god knows i have asked some "stupid" questions... Good Luck!


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