20G High didn't wash the rocks good enough

MySpace Mike

MySpace Mike

MySpace Mike Creative Media Founder
Jul 8, 2007
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Denver, CO.
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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?
 
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.
 
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.........:)
 
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.
 
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
 
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.
 
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.
 
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