feeding cichlids

[rdomelle]

what do you guys mean by cleaning the "filter media"???

I was told not to clean the filters, or I would lose all the bacteria that I am going to get from cycling... what then is the media part ??

 

[valerie]

When i clean my filter emdai i rinse it in a bucket of dechlorinated tap water untill all the gunk is gone. Just don't rinse it with water straight from the tap and you should be fine. Also if you have 2 filters or 2 sponges clean one sponge at a time. That way even if you do kill off a bit of the bacteria you will sill have one more healthy sponge left.

I wouldnt' worry about doing a fishless cycle now since you already have fish. How big is this tank and what kind and how many fish do you have?

Do you have the water tests? I woudl suggest you test your ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. If you test them and they are high keep doing water changes. To keep the levels reasonable during the cycle that may mean daily or 2x daily water changes. If you have lots of fish in your tank you may want to see if the LFs will take some untill you are ready to add them back.

As for your automatic feeder. I dont' think they are necessary especially since you are only gone for the weekend. The fish will be completely fine for the weekend without any food. Fish can go weeks without eating and be ok, just look at when moothbrooders hold fry for 3-4 weeks at a time.

 

[daveedka]

I agree with the above, the fish will produce more ammonia than the bacteria can consume at first, once the bacteria get going, they will handle the ammonia in the tank, and you shouldn't ever see detectable levels.

As far as water changes, it's better to do too many than not enough, when you get the test kits you can use them to determne how much water to change. Like I said earlier, when the ammonia approaches 0.5 ppm do a water change to reduce it, the same with nitrites. This should only take 4-6 weeks after the fish were originally added so you won't be doing the daily water change thing for long. After the bacteria is estabilished, water changes become a once a week or bi-weekly thing depending on bio-load a feeding habits. I do once a week minimum but I'm neurotic about my fish.

As far as the cloudy water, there are many possibilities, only a couple worth wrrying about.
Could be a bacterial bloom as said which will take care of itself in a few weeks.
It could be that you need more or finer filtration to polish your water. Let us know tank size type of filter and what media you are using and we'll help you out.
It could also be the dechlorinator you are using, I use stress caot when I dechlorinate, and if you use more than the minimum dose, it tend to cause some clouding and surface film. only use what it takes to dechlorinate, don't believe the hype about rebuilding slime caot and soothing your fish.

Let us know some of these things and we'll help you out, but get the test kits ASAP it will make things much easier for you. if budget is a problem, get ammonia right away, nitrite within a few days and nitrate later. if you are doing constant water changes, nitrates will be low by default, but you will want the kit as soon as you can as it is a good indicator of many things.

 

[daveedka]

also, As far as cleaning media, do this in fish safe water, either in a bucket of tank water, or in dechlorinated tap water. The bacteria grows everywhere it can attach and get O2, Filter media is a primary place for it and depending on what type of filter, the media can house a high pecentage of the bacteria in your system Chlorine will kill the bacteria. You can forego the cleaning during your cycle if the feeding is kept low, but if you are trying to stop the cloudy water at the same time you will need to clean the media to help with this. aftr the cycle just rinse out the media when you do water changes, to keep the gunk from building up and stopping the filter flow.