I recently had an unexpected surprise of cory eggs in my 55 gallon community tank. I ran out and purchased a 10 gallon tank, heater, sponge filter, black sand substrate for it, and transferred the eggs. They've all hatched, and the babies are about 2.5 weeks old now. There are 11 of them (but they're still very tiny, so it's not an issue of an overstocked tank, it's just uncycled). 1 of them I moved to a breeder in the 55 gallon though because he was about 1/4 of the size of the others for some reason, and I thought it might be better if he was by himself. The problem I'm having is the tank was obviously uncycled. There wasn't really a whole lot I could do about that. I did transfer some plants from my 55 gallon, 2 baby java lace fern sprouts, some rotala indica, and some bacopa, hoping it would help. I can't see that it has at all. It's basically impossible to feed the babies without overfeeding them (this is my first experience with fry that aren't raised in the floating breeder in the larger tank). I'm doing daily 50-60% water changes, sometimes more than daily, and I cannot get the ammonia to below 0.25-0.5 ppm. It's driving me nuts, and I'm worried about the babies. I also kind of feel like it's probably not that great for them to be doing such huge water changes all the time. I put some rocks from the big tank in to hopefully help and it doesn't seem to be doing anything either. I have a bag of zeolite for the canister filter in my 55 gallon, that I decided not to use because of some negative things I heard about zeolite leaching chemicals back in, and because I didn't think it was necessary in a fully cycled planted tank, and it might actually take nutrients the plants need. Anyway, it's a decent sized bag of zeolite is the point, and I added it to the 10 gallon this morning. How long will it take to reduce the ammonia? Is there anything else I can do? It seems like other people have to have had this problem with fry tanks before.... I hate it!
Zeolite - fry tank - ammonia
- Thread starter Regen311
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
CatatonicBug
Aquarium Advice FINatic
I would suggest simply grabbing some of the filter media from the cycled tank's filter and strap that to the sponge filter.
I don't have any experience with Zeolite, but I don't really see the need.
I don't have any experience with Zeolite, but I don't really see the need.
As far as zeolite - I don't either. That's why I wasn't using it in the big tank. But I'm just desperate to get the ammonia down! I've got to clean the canister out tonight or tomorrow anyway, so I'll probably try to do that. I'll just cut off a piece of the filter and float it in the tank. Hopefully something will work. The babies don't seem to be suffering or anything as of now though, but I hate seeing ammonia. I haven't dealt with this in years. Having the big planted tank, I can do almost anything as far as stocking goes and not see any spike in ammonia or anything else that's bad (I have a full test kit and test everything regularly).
CatatonicBug
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Rather than floating the filter media, I think strapping it to the media on the sponge filter would be better. That way, the bacteria don't have to travel through the water column to get to their new home.
SpeedEuphoria
Aquarium Advice Addict
Dont take me too serious but I read about people keeping fry in empty bottom tanks, just so they could keep them clean easy, b/c like you said its basically recommended to overfead.
Also on my API test kit the ammonia was like an "ON/OFF" switch, meaning it would be zero or like .5ppm or higher, nothing in between. Since I'm realitively new at this stuff so I tend to question everything, thats my nature, so I have done multiple tests on many different waters to find some answers.
Oh yeah BTW, nice work on those fry the pics look nice
Also on my API test kit the ammonia was like an "ON/OFF" switch, meaning it would be zero or like .5ppm or higher, nothing in between. Since I'm realitively new at this stuff so I tend to question everything, thats my nature, so I have done multiple tests on many different waters to find some answers.
Oh yeah BTW, nice work on those fry the pics look nice
Last edited:
Thanks 
The reason I didn't go with a bare bottom is because I read on some website someone saying that, with the eggs, having a bare bottom seemed to increase the likelihood of fungal disease or something crazy. I have a terrible memory. There was a reason though! The other issue is that, even with the small gravel vac I have, I can see the babies getting sucked in towards it when I do a water change. i try to be as careful as possible, but they are just so tiny. They've never actually gotten all the way sucked up (I count and double check before dumping any water) but I feel bad for them. Oh well, it's a workout for them I'm going to see if adding the filter media helps at all, and if not, I may take your advice and try the bare bottom.
The reason I didn't go with a bare bottom is because I read on some website someone saying that, with the eggs, having a bare bottom seemed to increase the likelihood of fungal disease or something crazy. I have a terrible memory. There was a reason though! The other issue is that, even with the small gravel vac I have, I can see the babies getting sucked in towards it when I do a water change. i try to be as careful as possible, but they are just so tiny. They've never actually gotten all the way sucked up (I count and double check before dumping any water) but I feel bad for them. Oh well, it's a workout for them I'm going to see if adding the filter media helps at all, and if not, I may take your advice and try the bare bottom.
When I have to move eggs out of one of my main tanks, I throw them into a 3 gollan tank with a heater, sponge filter, light, ect.. just like you have.
On top of that, I add a ton of fast growing plants and some used filter media. I have a 15 watt bulb over the tank (CF spiral). Anacharis seems to be the best helper.
I pretty much vacuum the bare bottom a couple of times a day just after feeding. I use airline tubing for that and not a normal gravel vac.
Raised quite a few fish that way.
On top of that, I add a ton of fast growing plants and some used filter media. I have a 15 watt bulb over the tank (CF spiral). Anacharis seems to be the best helper.
I pretty much vacuum the bare bottom a couple of times a day just after feeding. I use airline tubing for that and not a normal gravel vac.
Raised quite a few fish that way.
Similar threads
