Hell"o" all, some newbie Questions if I may..

Hello all im new to the site and you all seem like friendly people - which is more than i can say about my LFS..

Right I got a few Questions if someone could answer that would be fab!

1. Dechlorinator - which one would be best recommended? I have several names thrown at me but Nutrafin Cycle is always in amongst it all.

2. I recently bought a 86L aquarium - JinLong i believe from China/Japan. Just wondering about the different brands of Heaters? and which one would you recommend? I also belive a 100W would be suffiient?


I will be setting the tank up following the fishless cycle at the end of the month as I am about to move soon, so no point at the min! Will I be able to purchase the pure ammonia from LFS?

Thanks a bunch!

GeordieDave wrote:

1. Dechlorinator - which one would be best recommended? I have several names thrown at me but Nutrafin Cycle is always in amongst it all.

I use Seachem Prime - it's in a concentrated form so you only need 1ml per 40L and is thus much cheaper than the usual small bottled brands. I had to get a 1ml syringe from the chemist so I could measure out the 0.25ml per 10L bucket that I use.

Quote :

I recently bought a 86L aquarium - JinLong i believe from China/Japan. Just wondering about the different brands of Heaters? and which one would you recommend? I also belive a 100W would be suffiient?

As I have AquaOne tanks, I use the same brand of heaters. But I also have a spare Tetratec heater in case of emergency and I really like the design of those as they're more compact and streamlined, I think.

Glad to hear you're doing the fishless cycle, good for you. I think Boots and Homebase are the usual sources of ammonia. Oh and welcome to TFF btw.

Also may i quote this in a post i read on some other forum site:

" Add the bacteria according to instructions on bottle (Stress Zyme/Bacterlife, etc)"

I dont understand surely with doing the fishless cycle, I would not need to do this? Or is this also necessary too?

im soo confused

Any of those so-called bacteria products are a waste of time and money, GD. The only one that works is BioSpira but that's only available in the States as it's a refrigerated form of live bacteria. All you'll need to set up the tank is the ammonia, dechlorinator and a water test kit such as the API Master Test Kit.

Thanks for the reply Mary, erm another Question when I first put the water into the tank is it a good idea to add the dechlorinator at the end or as I add each bucket?

Probs a dumb ass question LOL

Problems is when at UNI i decided to setup a tank and i went about it TOTALLY wrong! lost an entire tank of fish within 2weeks! illnesses diseases! I do blames the UNI lifestyle with what subsatnces were found in the tank :lol:

Mary wrote:

Any of those so-called bacteria products are a waste of time and money, GD. The only one that works is BioSpira but that's only available in the States as it's a refrigerated form of live bacteria. All you'll need to set up the tank is the ammonia, dechlorinator and a water test kit such as the API Master Test Kit.

Already ordered the API thanks again!

I'm overly cautious so I add the required amount of dechlorinator to each individual bucket but I know some people do add it in one go to the tank.

Sorry for the bombing of questions - but why so many different dechlorinators? dont they all do the same job?

They do. I guess everyone just jumps on the bandwagon like every other product that's out there....there's 101 varities of everything! Some of them remove chloramine also but you'd have to check with your local water supplier to see if that's added to the water. It's not here in Ireland.

The Jager heaters are excellent and are sold here for £9.50 + p&p for the 100w (10th one down). They are fully submersible, as are the tetratec (same page, 13th down) and they are £13.65 + p&p for the 100w.
As Mary said, homebase is your best bet for ammonia but can be bought at African Aquatics for £2.50 a bottle

And to the forum

As for dechlor... some dont get rid of chloramines, only chlorine so make sure it does both. The best way is to add it to the water before you add it to the tank

hmmm I have just actually noticed looking at the boxed tanks that i actually was given a Jinlong RHS 800 in stead of the RHS 600 model. Which appears to be bigger in size!

Anyway back to what I was going to Ask, this tank has the filter built into the Hood - here's link from where i bought it - anyone have any experience of these?

Yep, all of my AquaOne tanks have a wet-dry filtration system in the hood so I'd imagine it's quite similar. Simple to set up and a doddle to maintain.

well i have had a quick look and b******t baffles brains springs to mind

Just take it one step at a time and you'll be grand.

I have three compartments in the lid and 2 pieces of of soft spongy stuff *technical term* and what looks like a long thin black pipe comes out over the seperate compartments - anyone care to explain what how and where?

The long thin black pipe is probably the spray bar so that clicks into the filter and you position it so that the holes point down. You put the soft spongy stuff (the filter sponges I'd imagine) into each of the compartments. Just read the manual - they usually give a step by step guide.

thats the problem, no manual lol ><

How can there be no manual??

yeah, exactly nothing else in box..contacting seller

Instructions were probably in Chinese...:lol:

Well on that ebay link, there are some diagrams that show how the filter is assembled so that's a start at least.

Hello all im new to the site and you all seem like friendly people - which is more than i can say about my LFS..

Right I got a few Questions if someone could answer that would be fab!

1. Dechlorinator - which one would be best recommended? I have several names thrown at me but Nutrafin Cycle is always in amongst it all. I use the Nutrafin one but Mary's Seachem Prime is good to.

2. I recently bought a 86L aquarium - JinLong i believe from China/Japan. Just wondering about the different brands of Heaters? and which one would you recommend? I also belive a 100W would be suffiient? 100w is fine. I have Hagen Tronic heaters and Tetratec heaters. Both are great but the tetra one is much nicer looking


I will be setting the tank up following the fishless cycle at the end of the month as I am about to move soon, so no point at the min! Will I be able to purchase the pure ammonia from LFS? Probably not but as said homebase and places like boots have it

Thanks a bunch!

Hope that helped but as usual everyone got there first!!

hi geordiedave i have a 230 l jinlong i took one look at the filter in the hood and got an external filter instead so much easier to deal with one thing about the jinlong is that they are deep tanks so when i gravel clean its down to a t shirt and on with a snorkle i found it good value for money also its a great forum

Oh I would love to see you do that alison! . That conjured up a great picture! :lol: