yorkshiregoth said:
Don't be in too much of a rush to add the fish to the water. Make sure you 'cycle' the water first before adding the fish otherwise they are likely to be ex-fish rather quick. Also don't add too many fish as this will mess up the Ph of the water.
Yep, thanks! I've done a lot of reading in the last couple of weeks, and have gone the safestart route (bacteria in a bottle) with a couple of guppies. It's perhaps not quite the purist way, but there's not a hint of ammonia or nitrite in sight, and nitrate is slowly increasing.
When I started the tank without fish and with some flakes, a bit of nitrite came into being after a few days, and the safestart brought that to undetectable within a couple of hours.
Chris, wow that's lovely! And complicated and expensive I'll bet!!!