Bio-Spira and my tank!

[theblueprint]

I got a 72 Gall Bow and friday, and put Bio-Spira in it, and let it sit for 24 hours....BUT...my tank still got cloudy and one of the cichlids died anyway...what can I do to fix this faster??? HELP PLEASE! Also would it be safe to take the cichlids out and put them in my Oscar tank with a divider until the tank is fully cycled to prevent anymore of my fish dying?

[kanakaia]

Is the water parameters the same for 72 and the 55? And what kind african cichlids do you have?What the reading on your tests? Need to give more info.

[theblueprint]

what do you mean by water parameters...and I experimenting with mixed cichlids....malawi, kenyi....

[wataugachicken]

ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph, temperature?

you should be doing water changes daily to reduce ammonia and nitrite levels. keep them below .25 ppm

how were you handling the biospira? did you add any anti-ammonia chemicals to the tank before you added the biospira? were you keeping it in the fridge until you used it?

[kanakaia]

So I guess that 72 gal has a high ph,GH and KH so putting them in the 55 is out.Best to leave them in there anyway and do daily water changes like wataugachicken said.If you take them out the nitrogen cycle will need to start all over again. Hang in there and goodluck.

[theblueprint]

I put them in the 55 anyways...they are doing fine....I will just wait til the ater clears and try try again!

[mooman]

Keep "feeding" the empty tank as you would if there were fish in it. check ammonia,nitirite and nitrate levels every few days untill ammonia and nitrite are at 0 and you have nitrates showing up (nitrate levels above what is in your tap water). Do a good gravel vacuming and large water change and you should be ready to go.

[theblueprint]

the 72 gallon is brand new, its going thru new tank syndrome...

[mooman]

With as many tanks as you have you should never have to put up with NTS. I advocate keeping an extra filter sponge in every tank. When a new tank is set up, you can simply move the sponge right into the new filter. This should give you plenty of biological filtering capacity to lightly stock the new tank right off the bat. Aquaclears are the best for this due to thier custamizable media compartment. You can also buy pre-filters that fit over the intake of any HOB filter. these work great to because you can place them "upstream" of the filter you wish to collonize.

[theblueprint]

The funny thing is that I did use an old sponge but it had been dried up and out of the tank for a while...and it didnt do its job...but I cut it in half instead of using the whole sponge.... :duh:

[mooman]

Once it dries up all the bacteria die. It doesn't need to stay wet, just moist.