three short questions

[goldylox]

1. approximately how long does it take for a tank to cycle WITH fish in it?

2. how do you properly vacuum gravel with out sucking it out of the tank too?

3. how do you know how much to feed your fish? (my fish seem to graze instead of feeding like crazy for a few minutes so the "as much as they eat in 5 min rule does not seem to apply)

Thanks!

goldylox

 

[Jchillin]

Good questions - What size tank, what type of fish do you have? There are a number of devices that vacuum the gravel and syphon out/replace water at the same time. Gravel doesn't get caught in them.

This also depends on your fish. It is always best to not overfeed. Are all the fish getting the same amount of food?

 

[Todd2]

It took my tank with 3 zebra danios (10g) from 9/24/03 to 11/1/03 I don't know how many days that is but on the 24th I had .5 ppm of ammonia and on the 1st I had 0 ppm of ammonia and nitrite. I also did a couple partial water changes. You can save your fish the stress of cycling by doing a fishless cycle or using bio-spira. But I guess if you have fish in the tank already thats not really an option.

As far as feeding goes I try give them all they can eat in about 3 minutes. Its better to feed a couple times a day rather than 1 big feeding. What type of fish do you have? If they're not going crazy over the food try brine shrimp, my fish seem to love that. Like Jchillin said its better to under feed than overfeed. Because food not eaten can rot and produce ammonia and mess with your water chemistry. Hope this helps.

 

[Mofo2713]

I have taken Menagerie's advice for over 1 month now. I only feed once every other day and my fish are all very healthy and happy!

 

[goldylox]

My tank is 55 gallons and I have 4 tetras and 3 gouramis. The tetras seem to go wild over the food but the gouramis hang back and graze later.

I am using a vacuum that has a long tube with a large end. It works by first emerging it in water and then covering the end with your finger. Then you take the one end of the tube out and the water comes out. I hope that makes sense. The problem is that it suctions alot of gravel with it.

My ammonia is a little higher than when I first tested it but nothing else has changed. It seems to be goign slowly but my tank is VERY cloudy.

Thanks for the replies!

 

[BASSNMAN]

If you hold your vac on a slight angle and push it into the gravel slightly. This should allow some gravel to enter the mouth of the vac and then slide out. This surface disturbance allows the dirt down in the gravel to be picked up. Don't go to the bottom though, you will vac up your bacteria colony.

 

[Thaiboxer]

- I use a Python gravel vac. It hooks up to your faucet and works great to suck all the crud out of the gravel, but isn't strong enough to pull the rocks up. I highly recommend it! It takes me about 15 minutes to do a 20% water change on a 125 gallon tank!

- Cycling, mine took about a month.

- Feeding, always remember that underfeeding is better than overfeeding! I too feed my fish once a day, or every other, depending on my mood. But they're happy and the tank stays cleaner. If they're not eating it all, you're giving them too much.

Good luck!