Schwack
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Posts posted by Schwack
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22 minutes ago, quirkylemon103 said:
I would add floating plants, normal plants, old filter media,
This is how I do it too. Plants, clippings, floaters and a seasoned filter.
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45 minutes ago, GUPPY92 said:
Should I go back to regular feeding cycles?
Once a day isn't a regular feeding cycle? A hungry fish is a happy fish!
I'd keep doing what you're doing while monitoring nitrites. Once you end up with ammonia AND nitrite at zero after a few days of normal activity, you can consider your tank cycled and good to, slowly, add more livestock.
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5 minutes ago, GUPPY92 said:
Hey my tank is showing 0% Nitrite!! I'm feeding once a day. Should I still do a 25% water change every day for a couple more days? Is it going to effect my good bacteria growth?
If ammonia and nitrite are at 0, I would not do a water change unless nitrates are crazy high. Sounds like your cycle is starting to turn a corner.
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56 minutes ago, H.K.Luterman said:
A healthy aquarium will have a pond smell to it, especially one with live plants. It's just a product of the little ecosystem going on in there. It's when it starts to smell BAD is when things need to be fixed.
Someone here described tanks as smelling like roots, which is probably the closest I've come to describing how mine smell. Loamy? Forest-ish? Smell is definitely one of those parameters which can't be measured and shouldn't be ignored. The only time I've had water foul, due to feeding broccoli, the smell was obviously wrong.
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I'd agree with @Lowells Fish Lab that cooler temps seem to suit them best. I keep mine without a heater. Their tank wobbles from 72F-74F and they've been breeding like rabbits. As far as pH, my group have been thriving at 8.0pH, so I'd be willing to cross that off the list.
The fact that they died one a time certainly sounds like parasites. I had a similar experience with camallanus worms and forktail rainbowfish. I'd lose one every 2-3 weeks, generally the smaller ones first. They'd behave normally until ~12 hours before dying when they'd hover at the bottom and swim strangely. It's possible that treating them with ParaCleanse killed the parasites, but the damage from the infestation finished them off. Did they come from a local fish store?
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35 minutes ago, lefty o said:
have substrate the poop blends in with.
My largest pleco lives on a bed of white sand. I used to try and vac things every week, but the shrimp colony has gotten so large that I can't do much vaccing without fear of sucking up little shrimplets. These days, I just live with it. It does break down over time, occasionally I'll stir some of that mess up when I do tank maintenance so the filter can pull it out. They're just poop machines.
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Since you've got fish in there, I'd stick to the 50%, but there's also the possibility that your remaining fish are a bit hardier than the ones you've lost and are handling the elevated nitrite OK. You're unlikely to starve out your bacteria, especially since you have a ready source of ammonia. Right now, you're in the awkward spot of needing enough ammonia/nitrite that your bacteria colonies can grow out to support livestock while also needing to keep things at a level which won't harm your fish. Trying to find a water change schedule in a fresh, uncycled tank is a real challenge, it's part of what makes fish-in cycles tough to get through unscathed.
Like I said before, if you're at 2 ppm right now, a 50% water change today brings you down to ~1ppm. As fish expel waste, that's gonna get bumped up. By the time you come back for a second 50% change, nitrite might be sitting at 2ppm again. In your shoes, I'd probably subject the fish to one day of stress by performing a few 50% changes several hours apart. Three of those gets you down to ~.5ppm, a range which is a bit more bearable for most fish. A fourth would probably have things below .25ppm, from that point you'd be golden to do daily maintenance changes and just wait on the cycle to finish. That said, you're balancing the stress of water changes vs the stress of less-than-desirable water parameters and I'm not sure there's a clear-cut correct answer for you.
If you were a more experienced aquarist you could try watching your fish for signs of stress (labored breathing, gasping at the surface, laying on the bottom, etc) before intervening with a water change, but since you're new to the hobby I'd recommend a schedule over observation. Obviously, if you see any of these signs, that's probably a signal to change water.
Based on some discussions from a week or so ago, I'm not sure how helpful dosing Prime to "neutralize" ammonia/nitrite will be, but it's unlikely to harm anything so 🤷♂️.
edit: Also, stop feeding these guys if you haven't already. Give 'em a sprinkle every other/every second day. This should slow down their waste production and give your beneficial bacteria time to catch up.
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That looks great! I've got an old 38 gallon tank I don't trust enough to keep in the house, I've envisioned keeping it on my deck with a big ol' goldfish and a heater to get through Oregon winters. The glass holds up OK under all that temperature change?
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Bear in mind, however, that no amount of acclimation will help if the water you're acclimating them to is full of ammonia/nitrite. Both chemicals interfere with a fish's ability to process oxygen. Until your tank is cycled, you'd be best to avoid adding new fish. The 3-4 you have at the moment will be more than enough to provide an ammonia source to get your cycle moving.
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3 hours ago, GUPPY92 said:
I dont have any prime but I have AquaSafe. I did a 25% water Change and the nitrite is shill not 0. What do I do?
You can sort of guesstimate how much water you'll need to change out to hit 0 nitrites. A 50% change should bring you down to ~1.5ppm. Another 50% and you're in the .75ppm and so on. You're in for several weeks of frequent water changing, so make sure to pick up things that might make them easier on you (buckets, siphons with nice, flexible hoses, dosers for your water conditioner, etc.) edit: Typically, folks recommend smaller, more frequent changes to avoid stressing the fish, but in your case I'd be willing to do enough to get things down to less than .25ppm.
Assuming the remaining two recover from what sounds a lot like nitrite/ammonia poisoning, don't add any more fish until you've managed to cycle the tank. It's a bit tougher with fish in there, but there are lots of resources available to solve exactly this problem, likely because lots of people end up in the same situation.
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3 hours ago, Tyler LaZerte said:
@Fish Folk Pool Filter Sand. I prewashed it very well but I accidentally started filling on the sand and it was bad news from there haha. I poured the water off of a rock in the aquarium to help but it didn't do much.
I've had good luck using pie plates while filling tanks to prevent this. I used to try and sort of bounce the water off hardscape, but as you found, it's never quite as easy as imagined. I'd second just letting it settle out. Fish won't care about a bit of debris floating around, assuming you're looking to stock the tank sooner rather than later.
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Leave it in there! If your tank is cycling, lots of beneficial bacteria will be growing in that filtration media. I wouldn't change that stuff until absolutely necessary.
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I dump all my aquarium water into the yard. Typically it goes into the garden, or raised beds, but the lawn works if I don't feel like swamping smaller plants. I've been at it since I started fishkeeping, but that scare with zebra mussels a few months back has made me much more cautious about what I put down the drain. Plus, water is scarce, I'd hate to waste it if I can help it!
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2 hours ago, Betsy said:
Absolutely!!!!
Dose it up!
I used to use Prime to dechlorinate, but ended up switching to Fluval AquaPlus because the Prime measurements were too tiny for a 5 gallon...let alone a one gallon water change! Out of curiosity, how do you measure it out?
I use 2mL plastic syringes, without needles, from Amazon for almost all my meds/dechlorinators. They work fantastically for measuring out tiny amounts. Eyeballing that stuff is probably fine, but I just can't bring myself to do it.
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I tend not to check the cup daily, but the fact that you're seeing them do a little dance is a good sign. Give it a few days before you check again. It helps me to use a light shining from the bottom of the cup, the eggs are impossibly tiny and difficult for me to see without help.
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15 minutes ago, Solidus1833 said:
you got me wondering so I went and grabbed my bottle of Prime. As you say they don't list their ingredients, all it does say is : Contains complexed hydrosulfite salts. So not 'just' salts, there is something else like you theorized.
Whelp, all I know is it did work for me. When I had an ammonia spike after the Texas Freeze, I dosed Prime and my fish did not show any signs of distress or burns while my tank cycled 2.0ppm Ammonia out of the aquarium over two days.
Otherwise I guess its black magic hehe.
Of all the major dechlorinators I've come across, Seachem seems the most secretive about their ingredients. Hikari seems to be the most open, but even they, understandably, withhold some of their proprietary chemicals.
I'm willing to admit I've bought in to the marketing, and the multitude of anecdotal evidence behind Prime's detoxifying effect. I'm not sure there's a humane way to test their claims unless someone has a means of measuring NH3 and NH4 separately.
edit: I'll add that the common knowledge passed around the internet is that Seachem is able to ionize NH3 into NH4+. My chemistry knowledge is long out of date, but that's typically what I see repeated.
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I found this discussion of praziquantel on a reef forum from a couple years back. It sounds like the prazi will kill active worms, but not their eggs. They suggest doing a food soak to treat internal parasites. I attached the whole thing, even though some of it is only applicable to marine aquariums. Hope some of that helps!
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4 minutes ago, DShelton said:
The prime is absolutely preventing your cycle from continuing. Prime (and other de-chlorinators for that matter) are reducing agents (usually sodium dithionite). Chemically they provide free electrons to Cl2 to "reduce" it to 2Cl-. The only way to "detoxify" ammonia is through oxidation, i.e. our friendly neighborhood nitrogen cycle that we are familiar with. By keeping the concentration of the reducing agent in the water very high, you are preventing the oxidative processes from taking hold, i.e. those Nitrobacter and Nitrosomas colonies from establishing themselves.
I've seen speculation that Prime uses sodium thiosulfate to dechlorinate, does that change any of the chemistry? I'm curious to know the process through which Prime works, but I know it's difficult to get a concrete answer when the makeup is unknown. Speaking for myself, I'm often forced to rely on what is essentially marketing jargon when it comes to many aquarium chemicals because information regarding the chemistry is difficult to find.
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You could always try not adding Prime and just monitoring the water. I can't imagine the addition of Prime is harming the development of bacteria, but it's the only thing that stands out as odd. Cut feedings to once every other day or two and give the water a check every so often. In conjunction with this, I'd stop doing any kind of regular water change. Let the parameters tell you when it's time to change. Unless ammonia hits ~.75 ppm I'd let things go. Nitrites should trigger a change as they close in on .5 ppm. While doing this, I'd consider buying some plants that have been in a cycled tank. Even big box stores have these. Plunk them into your tank without any treatment to preserve the bacteria growing on the plant. If you can find one, a plant grown in rock wool is a great source of bb. Handfuls of substrata are another great, and possibly free, option.
The fin rot really does complicate things. Do you have another tank or bin the betta could go in for treatment? A plastic tote will do in a pinch. That would let you easily medicate with an anti fungal, anti bacterial, salt or all three. If you add live plants to your current tank, that sort of takes salt off the table as a treatment. Plus, you can do water changes without affecting your cycling.
A healthy betta can typically make it through a fish in cycle, but I'm not sure I'd subject a sick fish to that level of stress. Trying to cycle the tank while treating your fish is going to be a challenge. It's a pain but I'd separate the problems.
There's a good chance you'll need an ammonia source during cycling if you remove your fish. I'm a big fan of ammonium chloride, but fish food dropped into the empty tank works too.
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I ended up with hydra in my fry box, and eventually, celestial pearl danio tank. As far as I can tell, the hydra never killed any of my fry. I lost ~7 out of 50 to various weak swimming maladies/failure to thrive, but I can't imagine that was linked to the hydra. I was just about to order some No Planaria from Amazon, but decided to wait it out. Cutting back on feedings of baby brine shrimp has essentially eradicated all the hydra in the tank. It took a while, maybe 3-4 weeks, but starving them out is an easy, med-free, option.
edit: I didn't have any luck getting ramshorn or bladder snails to eat my hydra. I purposely added bunches of them to the fry box to help clean up leftover food, and they would frequently cruise right by the hydra.
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When I dosed the ammonia up to 4ppm, my nitrites ended up off the charts. Based on cutting with tap water, nitrites spiked to ~15ppm for several days with no damage to any plants, or snails, in the aquarium. I did end up doing several water changes to bring the nitrites down to the test's range and keep the cycle moving, but that was more for my own impatience more than anything.
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I've accidentally spiked empty, but planted, tanks to 4ppm while cycling with NHCl before, to no ill effect. You might see a rise in nitrites while the bacteria colonies grow to process the ammonia, but 1ppm ammonia won't harm your plants. If you're consistent with your dosing, things will catch up given a bit of time.
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Oof, looking at the photos of the assembly, I'd be wary continuing to use the tank. Bowing is normal for most tanks, but in this case I'm changing my answer to drain and attempt a repair/replace. Really unfortunate because the tank looks like a neat setup.
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Huh, I wonder why more manufacturers don't use a straight piece of glass to strengthen things. Does anyone know the manufacturer of this particular tank? I'd be curious to see how the whole thing fits together.
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Instant cycling a aquarium
in General Discussion
Posted
Are those plants from a fairly established tank? I typically grab a fat handful of hornwort, guppy grass or elodea and they bring along a bunch of floaters. Stocking the tank, lightly, is probably fine if you've moved stuff from a more heavily stocked, seasoned tank.