The Puffer Forum

Im finally getting my fishtank this thursday! Im so excited this is finally gonna happen after weeks of waiting for one haha. Then I have to cycle it for like a week right? (ill double check that right now actually) Yay Okay, so I know what sand im gonna get but what plants would you guys recommend? Its going to be slightly brackish, and also is it bad to have a few fakes??

You need to cycle it until it's cycled. If you cycle with ammonia or food, it will take a couple weeks to a couple months. If you cycle by using the filter from an established tank, it should be instant.

I use fake plants in mine. I like them because there is much less upkeep for the fakes than real ones. Me not being real educated on how keep real plants probably doesn't help my opinion much either.

Nick wrote:You need to cycle it until it's cycled. If you cycle with ammonia or food, it will take a couple weeks to a couple months. If you cycle by using the filter from an established tank, it should be instant.

Now with this 'cycling with food' thing. Ive read where you can put fishfood into like a nylong bag (or pantyhose lol) and cycle it that way, but how long do you keep it in there? And also we used to have a pool that got tested for like ammonia and what not so we have some of those strips left, can I use those to check the water?

Test strips in general are bad, ones for a pool are nowhere near sensitive enough. Cycling with food is pretty much as you say, you take it out and replace when it's really rotten and nasty, I have never bothered to keep close tabs on the process, I just let it go until it's too gross, then replace.