I brought out the old tank..some I have some questions?

B

Bluegill

Registered Member
Jun 26, 2004
2
0
0
60
Visit site
First of all, This is a great board!!

My 10 year old son and I have been raising tadpoles to frogs this summer and he asked if we could get an aquarium. I told him that I had one in the attic and then had to put it together in his room. I bought the tank about 20 years ago and had pretty good success with it back then without knowing anything about cycling. I have been reading all I can about this all night. I understand the concept but now wish I hadn't already bought some fish.
I have a 20H tank with an undergravel filter and a Wisper 2 HOB filter and always used both. I washed everything (tank, filters, plastic plants, etc) with plain tap water and rinsed the gravel. I then filled the tank added the plants and used "start right" to kill the chlorine. I then let the filters and heater go for four days, today I bought 2 zebras, 2 platy's, and a cory.
This evening I got on the internet to read up on Ghost shrimp and came across this site. I now wish I cycled the tank first and feel bad. I hope I didn't sentence these fish to death. I don't ever remember having all the fish I bought die out on me. I always had pretty good luck with fish.

I know I can't return these fish now, what can I do to keep them health and happy while my tank cycles?

I want to buy a test kit to watch the levels, which kit do you recomend?

Is there any chance I there could be any of the good bacteria left in the old tank?

Should I try and get some filter scraps from a LFS to make this go faster for the fish?

Thanks all!!

Chris
 
Get the filter scraps if you can. If not go get some zeolite (it's mixed with charcoal and sold as "ammocarb") and add that to your filter. The fish you bought are reasonably tough and unless you have a huge ammonia spike they shouldn't have too many problems.
 
The best kit I've found to test water chem is made by Aquarium Phamaceuticals. http:\\aquariumpharm.com I bought a kit off of Bigals.com for about $16 with shipping that included PH, Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate. Real good deal in my opinion plus I've found it the easiest kit to read (out of the 5 I've gone through) and at only 5 mins a test for how accurate and easy they are not to time consuming. What you need to do now is focus on doing water changes to keep the ammonia down to arround .25 ppm. Once the first part of the cycle kicks in you'll have to focus on keeping the NitrItes below .25 ppm, the last leg is NitrAtes being maxed between 20ppm and 40ppm. So for example when you read zero ammonia, zero NitrItes and 20-40ppm NitrAte. You're cycled and can do weekly water changes or as needed. My tank just hit full cycle after a long run (mainly my own doing here but I changed and added alot to the tank that prolonged my cycle). Figure 4-6 weeks of hard work to make it past the first cycle, watch how much you feed, keep up with the water changes (1/3 to 1/2 every other day) and your fish should do ok. You might lose afew fish as you go but don't get discouraged. As far as any bact surviving storage, don't count on it. You're starting new just keep reading and keep the faith so to speak. I have alot of trust in the folks that post here and I wouldn't have made it with out the support here. You definately found a great site here. Hope things work out.
-Neo Sithlord
 
Welcome to AC, I am one of those who operated with some success for years and didn't know much about anything I was doing. You'll find ( or at least I have ) that this hobby is far more enjoyable when you know what is going on.


I hope I didn't sentence these fish to death. I don't ever remember having all the fish I bought die out on me
Click to expand...

Always remember that most of us have done fishy cycles, and fishy cycles can be accomplished without harming the fish. It's a matter of your work load. Fishless is much preferred because it is easier and poses less risk, as well as the fact that it prepares a tank for a large fish load all at once. If you haven't already read the cycle sticky, there is a lot of info cycling of all types in there.

2 zebra's 2 platy's and 1 cory is not the normal huge load that many would drop in. In other words you haven't set yourself up for rapid spikes and massive die-off. you should be able to control the chemistry pretty easily if you don't feed too much and monitor well. Just don't add any more fish until the cycle is done, and then add slowly until you reach your desired stocking levels.
HTH dave
 
The only issue I have is the corydora catfish you have in that aquarium. They are probably one of the worse fish to get to cycle an aquarium. They are sensitive and it doesn't always take a huge ammonia spike to send them "over the edge". I don't know what more to tell you, that hasn't already been said. :confused:

I will say that fishless cycling is much easier and less stressful on any fish you get, as they can be put in an already established aquarium. While many people do fishy-cycle a tank, many of us learn from our experiences and unless you are wanting to do daily (or every couple days) water changes on the fishy-cycle aquarium, its not very practical.

The choice is yours, however. Make the best out of a potentially bad situation. ;)
 
You don't have a really heavy stock for a 20g, so you're not doing too badly. With daily water changes, you should be able to slowly build up your bio-filter without exposing your fish to high levels of ammonia or nitrite.

Don't spend money on stuff like ammo-lock or any of that stuff. All that it will do is keep the ammonia away from the bacteria you're trying to colonize.

Keep up with water changes, that's the best way to ensure your fish's health. Try really hard to get old filter media or squeezings.
 
Local fish clubs

You didn't mention your location, but there may be a local fish club that can give you some filter squeezin's that will accelerate the cycle for you. You might try a Google search for your city and aquarium clubs or fish clubs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom