20G High didn't wash the rocks good enough

[MySpace Mike]

Ok I know I feel like a moron, I set up my 20g High with water from my 44g so its already cycled water, however I didn't wash the gravel good enough and now I have a cloudy smelly tank. I moved the 2 baby Convicts to my 44g, placed them in a 10inch fry nursery net so my FireMouths and Green Terror won't try to kill them.

I'm letting the gravel from the 20g soak in hot water, it's been so long since I have bought new gravel, how long should I soak the new gravel for so it won't cloud up the tank for my Convicts?

I soaked the gravel when I first bought it for 2 hours, but it obviously wasn't enough time, so how long should I re-soak the gravel for now?

I'm thinking 4 hours should good enough time, is this adequit time?

[MySpace Mike]

Also, it's been 30 minutes since soaking the gravel, and I thought I would check on my baby Cons, and I noticed my small male FireMouth is gaurding them. He keeps attacking any other fish that gets near the baby cons, is this normal for another fish to guard babies that aren't theirs?

It seems a bit strange to me, but then again life isn't exactly what it always seems.

[Weezer]

We've just rinsed ours to get it clean, of course that will kill off most of the beneficial Bactria, even if you have an established filter you may see a mini cycle, unless your trying to kill off some kind of germ, rinsing it should do.........:)

[MySpace Mike]

Ok so I decided to move my Penn Plax Cascade 150 Power Filter to my 20g and move one of the whisper 5/15's to the 40g which already has a whisper 20/40 on it. I think putting the cascade 150 on my 20g will help in this issue, it has a sponge on it for extra cycling of bacteria and has a activated carbon bag in it. I think this should do the job and help clear my tank up.

[Mgamer20o0]

well the water wont do much good on cycling it. a couple water changes will help you.

[MySpace Mike]

I just cleaned out the entire tank, and got it set back up, again i used cycled water from my 44g set up, and replaced it fresh water in the 44g(i.e. water change on the 44g) and now the 20g looks good so far, if it does cloud back up i'll just get the stuff from the LFS to help clear it up and do a 25% water change to it. So far the baby Cons are doing great in it, stress so far on them appears limited at best as they are swimming around happy as can be. Here are some frshly taken pics of the set up, as i changed a bit of the decor around. Now the tank I think looks as natural as can be(minus the orange plant in the middle), and has a good filtration flow with the Penn Plax Cascade 150 on there.


1. The entire tank
2.left side
3.right side



http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/9414/pic0714071sr2.jpg

http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/5959/pic0714072ja7.jpg

http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/9024/pic0714073oz3.jpg

[Mgamer20o0]

taking water from one tank and putting it in another is just putting dirty water into the new tank.

[MySpace Mike]

Thats true, but its 60% cycled from the 40g, and 40% fresh water. And it beats leaving my baby cons in the big tank with my bigger fish for a couple weeks while the small cycles enough to move them back. My baby cons could fit right into my Green Terror's mouth easily, and well my FireMouths are just plain vicious to new fish. My FireMouth killed off a new Texas Cichlid I got a few months back, they imediately attacked him right off the bat, and was dead within a couple of hours. Yes the Texas Cichlid was big enough to be in the big tank, but the FireMouths are just mean.

[Nolapete]

The water isn't cycled. The bacteria live on the surface of the gravel, filter media, etc. Filling a tank up with old water doesn't cycle the tank. It does make it easy to move fish from one tank to the other. You have to move a filter that was running on the cycled tank to the new tank.

This is what I did when I setup my 90. My 110 had 5 filters running on it, so I moved three of them to the 90. I didn't want to acclimate fish to new water, so I filled the 90 half way with new water treated with Prime then filled the rest of tank with water from the 110. This made it like the 90 just had a 50% water change. I finished the 50% water change on the 110 and voila identical water conditions.

[Plecosterone]

Maybe he is just protecting his future dinner.:grinyes:

[Rbishop]

You should just have used new water that has had a conditioner added. All you did was put dirty water in the new tank.

[wataugachicken]

rinse gravel instead of soaking it.

[jm1212]

keep rinsing the gravel until the water flowing through it runs clear. take media from the established tank; the water has very little bacteria in it.

[wackydan]

My rams will defend fry that isn't their own.

[Weezer]

if it does cloud back up i'll just get the stuff from the LFS to help clear it up


Just as a side note, i would let it clear up on its own, it should only take a day or two, adding chemicals is always risky..And you said you were going to use carbon, that should help also....:)

[MySpace Mike]

Well I woke up this morning, to find the 20g clear as a bell. Adding the Plenn Plax Cascade 150 from my 40g to my 20g has worked as I hoped. The baby Cons seem so much happier now. The water is really clear now.

[jm1212]

dont add any more water clarifier though. it kills the bacteria that are blooming in the water and often tha bacteria that have taken hold in the filter

cascades clean the water pretty well.

[MySpace Mike]

I didnt add any Water Clearifiers to it. I set it up, and set up the cascade power filter on it. All i used was Tatra AquaSafe Water Conditioner and Tetra EasyBalance Water Treatment to stabilize the water in the tank. No clearifiers were used to clear up the water for any cloudyness, I left that to the cascade filter and new carbon bag in the filter.

[jm1212]

is the "balancer" supposed to cycle the water? most cylce products dont work.

[J double R]

recommend not using the EasyBalance anymore. it has pH modifiers, which are more harm than good, and it claims to 'produce' CO2 as well as have a phosphate removing 'effect' (i dunno about you, but i dont want an effect.. i want the REAL thing.)

these facts were taken straight from tetra's homepage. :)

[cdfishie123]

i just took a handfull of gravel from my old tank then put it in my new tank, and i also put my old filter in the new tank and the new filter in the old tank. that made my tank fully cycled and crystal clear in about an hour

[MySpace Mike]

I've been using Tetra EasyBalance for about 4 years now. I have never had a problem with it, or anything happen to my tank or fish because of using it. I think it works great. It helps keep the tank biologically balanced and helps reduce frequent water changes. Since I have been using it, i do water changes every 2 weeks 25% changes. So I think in my case I'm a satisfied customer of the product, and think i will continue to use it.

[beefsteak]

Just out of curiosity, in what way does it keep the tank "biologically balanced"?

[MySpace Mike]

it means it help keep the water stable, and clear so you dont have to do so many water changes to the tanks. since ive been using it in my tanks, it has worked like it says. my water changes have been cut in half, i now do a 25% every 2-3 weeks, the water remains clear, and stable ph balance. i check my water balances weekly, and so far it has stayed in the same range since using the easybalance.

[Star_Rider]

what tests do you do on your water?

(just curious)

fyi, water changes remove TDS(total dissloved solids) there are no chemicals we can add to the tank to 'lock' up pollutants. these can only be removed with water changes.

many folks use nitrate readings to help determine build up..however, this is not always accurrate as in heavily planted tanks..nitrates may go to 0. indicating a safe tank.but the reality is..it is a ticking time bomb. at some point tds will become toxic.

the problem you may encounter by doing 25% changes every 2 weeks..is a slow build up of said tds. 25% will not remove enough and may eventually lead to larger problems.
25% water change every two weeks is not entrely bad..but every once in awhile you may want to bump those to 35-40% ;)

[MySpace Mike]

I have a full test kit for PH both low and high range, GH, KH, Nitrates, and Ammonia. i check them every week to see how stable they are. And so far they havent changed much.