Hi,
Iv'e just set-up my new tank after the first try was a disaster.
I have a few questions, so that things go better this time.
[1]how soon after the dechlorinator is put in the water can I add the sacrifish to start the tank cycling?
[2]I replaced the previous coloured gravel with small crushed shells, even though they were rinsed thoroughly, when the shells were added to the water it went the colour of milk, it now has just a slight haze to the water & I would be happy to keep the oscars in this water colour, if the filters dont remove the rest of the cloudiness [which isnt very much] should I just leave the water as is, or should I put in some of that chemical that clears the water?
Can Bio-Booster be put in while the initial fish are in the tank to aid cycling, or should I put it in before they go in, and if so, how far ahead?
Ph-approx 7.8 [after adding shellgrit] normaly 7.5
Tank 280 litres
Heated to 26deg
1500ltrs per hour cannister filter
submersible in tank filter.
thanks for any help.

How many times did you rinse the shells? I don't use the de chlorinator b/c I have filtered water but I understand from friends that use it it works in a few minutes. some of the milky could be bacteria bloom plus the film from the shells. How many times did you rinse the shells? Do you know if they were cooked before? ie: removes the compounds from there existing environment. I would say let it run for an hour and than see if it settles down. If the temp is correct- I know it isn't easy to send the first fishes in, good luck
The Bio guard is a good thing I would add that to the tank per directions- finish bottle in 5 days or sooner depending on how big the bottle is.

You need to wait till the tank water heats up properly, that might take a few hours. Most of the water conditioners remove chlorine instantly so after using that, you can add your cycling fish as well as your bio booster. And then basically it's a case of keeping an eye on the ammonia and nitrite. First of all you'll find that you are ammonia starts rising. You'll have to carry out small water changes to stop it getting too high or the fish will die. And then after a while ammonia will drop and the nitrite will start rising. Once again, that will probably get quite high before it drops down and then the nitrate starts building up. When you see your nitrate rising, you know you're almost there. That's just basically put so as not to confuse you.

I shouldn't get too upset if you lose a few fish during the cycling process, the fish will produce ammonia which is highly toxic towards fish. Unfortunately, you can't cycle the tank without ammonia.

in addition to the cycling process i would keep an eye on the ph of the tank. your crushed shell might slowly rise the ph value over time.
as for the rest follow the cycling process and if you have any questions im sure someone will be able to help you.

Hi,
its not a bacteria bloom because I put the shellgrit in approx 1/2 an hour after tank ws filled with clear water, as for rinsing the grit, I put it in small batches in a net and hosed it till the runoff was no longer milk white & looked clear, however when I put the grit in the clear tank yesterday, it went milk white, the filters do seem to have cleared approx 80plus% of the water and may clear it tottaly in a day or so, so far the only differance to the clear tap water seems to be a rise of about .3 in the ph, bringing it to 7.8, but from what iv'e read Oscars can take ph from 6.0 to 8.0, so i'll leave it without any adjustment for now.