New 75 gallon tank

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You should post your question in the "cycling" board. You will get more answers there. What bacteria did you use?
 



Feed it with what? Sorry, we are totally new besides my daughters Beta fish in her 10 gallon that we have kept alive and healthy for almost a year and then we have a small 10 gallon that has been set up for over a month and we just added 4 mollies on the 19th (one already died this morning) but we never have luck with keeping fish alive in it so trying to do this new tank proper.
 
Articles to Help you Get Started with your Aquarium

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/showthread.php?t=154837

Beneficial bacteria need ammonia to survive. It's what they eat. Toss some fish food in.



Okay, yes I had put a pinch of fish food in there this morning and also took a plant from my daughters beta tank and put it in, but I was not sure how much food to put in. Thank you for the link, I will go read it now!
 
I don't know how much to add. Sorry. Some people use pure ammonia but that isn't always handy.
 
I don't know how much to add. Sorry. Some people use pure ammonia but that isn't always handy.



No problem, thank you so much for the help! We didn't really know about all of this when we got our tank and fish, the lady at the shop said cycle for 24 hours so we thought we were going but then I got looking into it more. So problem is I have fish arriving today (was supposed to be tomorrow but she left early) that need a place to go, so now I'm sorta panicking learning all of this!
 
No need to panic, a fish-in cycle can be done. Research the fish-in cycling, it just requires extra water changes to keep fish safe and some patience (I have none, & I have done fish-in. Lol).

A fish-in cycle can be easier with a bigger tank because you have more water therefore it takes longer for the fish waste to build up to toxic levels. Water changes will reduce fish waste (ammonia and nitrites) to safe levels when they get high.

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No need to panic, a fish-in cycle can be done. Research the fish-in cycling, it just requires extra water changes to keep fish safe and some patience (I have none, & I have done fish-in. Lol).

A fish-in cycle can be easier with a bigger tank because you have more water therefore it takes longer for the fish waste to build up to toxic levels. Water changes will reduce fish waste (ammonia and nitrites) to safe levels when they get high.

We're here and we all like to help.
Your not alone!



Okay! Thank you! So they arrived one seems hurt on its fin already I am guessing from the trip. They are all hiding out under the drift wood. I have a liquid test kit arriving Friday which I'm feeling a bit better about! Until then would I just do 25% or 50%water changes? There are 5 angelfish in 75gallons.
 
Do you have seachem Prime, if so I would dose 3x the recommended dose(this is an emergency dose, wouldn't go higher) until your test kit arrives.

If you don't have prime do a 25%change because you really don't know where your at till you test, but you don't want to change all the water and cause the cycle to stall. If you're fish show signs of ammonia poisoning you can do another 25% water change every 4hrs. But again if you remove all ammonia you will stall the cycle.

Highly recommend getting prime as it detoxifies ammonia and nitrites to keep your fish safe.
I believe it only detoxifies 1ppm, the ammonia or nitrites still show up during testing but are safe. If they're higher than that do water changes to get them lower.
 
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Do you have seachem Prime, if so I would dose 3x the recommended dose(this is an emergency dose, wouldn't go higher) until your test kit arrives.

If you don't have prime do a 25%change because you really don't know where your at till you test, but you don't want to change all the water and cause the cycle to stall. If you're fish show signs of ammonia poisoning you can do another 25% water change every 4hrs. But again if you remove all ammonia you will stall the cycle.

Highly recommend getting prime as it detoxifies ammonia and nitrites to keep your fish safe.
I believe it only detoxifies 1ppm, the ammonia or nitrites still show up during testing but are safe. If they're higher than that do water changes to get them lower.



I don't have prime, I do have API test strips. They are reading:
NO3-20
NO2-0.5
PH-6.5
KH-40
GH-0/30
 
OK the test strips are not real accurate, and they're hard to read.
That being said I use them but mainly for gh&kh.

The .5 nitrites is a little high would do a change 50% water change should lower it to 0.25.

Not sure I would trust the results, because although possible I find it hard to believe you have 20 nitrates after 5 days. Most cycles take 4-6 weeks to finish and nitrates for mostly near the end. I used bacteria awhile back and cycle still took app. 3-4 weeks.

Would highly recommend getting the prime as anything over 0.25 ammonia or nitrites is extremely toxic long term for fish. 3-4days exposure can be deadly IMHO.
 
OK the test strips are not real accurate, and they're hard to read.
That being said I use them but mainly for gh&kh.

The .5 nitrites is a little high would do a change 50% water change should lower it to 0.25.

Not sure I would trust the results, because although possible I find it hard to believe you have 20 nitrates after 5 days. Most cycles take 4-6 weeks to finish and nitrates for mostly near the end. I used bacteria awhile back and cycle still took app. 3-4 weeks.

Would highly recommend getting the prime as anything over 0.25 ammonia or nitrites is extremely toxic long term for fish. 3-4days exposure can be deadly IMHO.



We just took out 25% and are adding back water now. Should I take more?
 
As I said earlier the amount of reduction in nitrites is proportional to amount of water you change (example 0.5,due 50% change and you should be at 0.25).
But since you're getting your test kit on Friday, 25%will be OK, you will probably be changing water every day or every other day until your tank completes its cycle.
 
As I said earlier the amount of reduction in nitrites is proportional to amount of water you change (example 0.5,due 50% change and you should be at 0.25).
But since you're getting your test kit on Friday, 25%will be OK, you will probably be changing water every day or every other day until your tank completes its cycle.



Okay, perfect! Thank you so much![emoji171][emoji171][emoji171]
 
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