Didn't go with a fishless cycle. Now I'm worried. Any suggestions?

itswoodie

itswoodie

AMMAGAD IMA NEWB
Jan 31, 2005
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Hey guys/gals,
As some of you may know, I'm relatively new to this forum, and am still learning my way around. :thud:

I have recently purchased a 20 gal starter kit from my LFS, and have purchased 2 rosey barbs and two (white) tetras. I was informed that this was a bad decision on my part, and I should not get too attatched to my fish, as they may very well die because of my anxiousness. :eek:

On my previous post I was directed to a test kit which I can use to test all the important levels in my fish tank (ph, nitrate, nitrite, ammonium, etc). However, I was wondering if any of you guys had any other product suggestions which will help the chances of my fish's survival through this rough time. :confused:


Also, if any of you have any other tips to help make the cycle a little more easier on my fish, I would be greatly appreciative. I was told I should do frequent 20% water changes about every other day or so. But is there anything else I can do? :sad

Thanks again for all your help!
 
Welcome from one newbie to another! Unfortunately I did the very same thing you did about five weeks ago when started my Eclipse 12 back up. Since finding this forum a week or two ago I've learned volumes about cycling, water changes, and proper stocking poulations for a particular size aquarium.

You'll likely get some very good advice from others with more experience, but I'd say you're greatly improving your odds of getting your tank and fish through this with the daily water changes. Take the previous advice and get a good water testing kit and use it to monitor the cycle. Lastly, I highly recommend reading the cycling sticky in the newbie forum. That helped me tremendously. Good luck!
 
Keep an eye on your NH3 and NO2 levels. Keep them at the lowest conc. your kit measures, should be around 0.1ppm. Do your water changes accordingly. If necessary, be ready to do 2x50% changes daily, it can be necessary, but you're fairly lightly stocked, so it may not come up.

You've kept the initial amount of fish in the tank reasonable, so you should be able to pull off the fishy cycle without too much harm to your tennants.

A small (like 2tsp.) of table salt can help a little with NO2 toxicity. Increasing the dose will not help more than the small dose.

Basically that's it, water changes and lots of 'em.

If you know someone with an established, disease free tank, offer to buy them some new filter media and take some of theirs (not all!). This should get your tank cycled almost instantly. If you can get Bio-Spira (I think it's made by Marineland, but don't quote me on that) it can help a great deal.
 
BioSpira is indeed made by marineland, but one packet cost 14 bucks!!! It's SOO expensive and until recently it has always been out of stock due to high demand in my area.
 
Bio-spira is a product that provides you with the live bacteria your tank needs to deal with ammonia (NH3) and nitrites (NO2). In essence it instantly cycles your tank. I don't know if you can buy it online due to the fact it must be kept refrigerated until its used.
 
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