Hi im completely new to keeping fish and as ive just bought my 1 st aquarium i have a list of questions i was hoping people could help me with as uve all been very helpful upto yet

DG is right. Clean hands fir tank entry. Just don't overdo it when fish are in as it stresses them out.
Save your plant adding until the tanks cycled as they'll suffer with a cycle big time.

You don't need airbubbles in the tank Mike. Good surface movement is all that's required so if you have a filter you can angle the outlet of then point that to the surface for agitation.

Remember there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers

Mike don't rely on nutrafin cycle to prep the tank. Cycle it properly fishless. Here's an example of how to use ammonia to cycle the tank...

Do NOT sniff your bottle of ammonia to see what it smells like! It's the main ingredient of smelling salts and will NOT smell nice!***

Step 1: Add pure source of ammonia up to a reading of 5ppm

Step 2: Measure Nitrite, Ammonia and Nitrate each day, then top up the ammonia readings to 5ppm

Repeat Step 2 until Nitrite readings spike above 5ppm.

Step 3: Measure Nitrite, Ammonia and Nitrate each day, then top up the ammonia readings to between 2-3ppm

Repeat Step 3 until both Nitrite and Ammonia readings are dropping to 0ppm each day.

Step 4: Continue to top up the ammonia reading to between 2-3ppm daily, but now measure Nitrite, Ammonia and Nitrate 12 hours after ammonia added.

Repeat Step 4 until both Nitrite and Ammonia readings are dropping to 0ppm 12 hours after ammonia added.

The cycle is now complete, keep topping up ammonia each day until the day before you are ready to get your fish. On the day you are getting your fish do not add any ammonia, instead do some large water changes to get your Nitrate readings down to acceptable levels i.e. <40ppm.

When adding ammonia for the first time add about half what you think is required to raise the reading to 5ppm, then wait an hour and take a reading. You can then easily work how much the ammonia reading is raised for each ml/drop of ammonia added. You then know what to add to raise the ammonia reading to the initial 5ppm and then the required level each day after.

Make sure you **ONLY** use a pure source of ammonia, the only products I know of that are pure are Jeyes Kleen Off Ammonia (I got this from Robert Dyers) and Boots Household Ammonia. If you cannot get hold of one of those types then check the ingredients which should just be Ammonium Hydroxide, probably something like 9%. If there is no list of ingredients shake the bottle and if there is no foam or bubbling then you should be good to go.

The best times to “seed” the tank are at Step 1 and then again when Nitrite readings start showing up. I only seeded my tank at Step 1 and it took just under 3 weeks, if you do not seed the tank it will probably take a bit longer.

When you do add fish as you have been adding 2-3ppm of ammonia each day you can add quite a lot of stock, I would say 75% of full stocking. In theory 75% of your stock will create less than 2-3ppm of ammonia each day so you will have plenty of bacteria to cope with it.

Do not do any water changes during the fishless cycle or rinse out filter media. After the cycle try to leave your filter media alone for as long as you can i.e. until flow is affected.

wow thats alot to take in lol like being back at school, just ordered these for testing the water http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160315240698&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

Edited by big-mike - 09 June 2010 at 10:14am

ive only just noticed it doesnt actually test for amonia "doh" .............. right thats that cancelled lol them api kits are pricey does it have to be api paul or will any master water test kit do what i need??

ok well ive ordered the api freshwater master test kit, the 1 with loads of different bottles lol please tel me ive got the right 1 this time?

so if im understanding this right turning the amonia into nitrate (good bacteria) is the key and the faster this happens the earlier fish will be happy and safe in the water??

u have to add enough to get a test reading of 5ppm, so add some then test, if not enough then add some more until u get it right. u cant put too much in at the moment, if u get a higher reading than 5ppm then do a waterchange to get it down then go from there. 

as my tank and filter/gravel are second hand and i read that cleaning the filter sponge with tap water wasnt a good idea i decided to leave alone and just add the water would this have helped "seed" the tank??

Edited by big-mike - 10 June 2010 at 4:10pm

I would say they were slightly damp paul??