Don't know what to do

[fddlss]

Well, as some of you have seen, I posted about a new Red Zebra cichlid that I got last week and I needed help identifying it.

The issue now is that I set up the QT the same day I brought the fish home because it was an unexpected gift from my LFS, so I had to rush and set up the quarantine tank.

The last time I've used the quarantine tank I used some filter pad from my established tank and it was cycled within a day, this time I did the same thing, but I think I messed it up because I added the filter pad before putting Prime on the water and I think that that killed the beneficial bacteria that was in the pad, because it's been over a week and the tank is not cycled.

Actually, yesterday I saw the first nitrite reading of 0.25 PPM, and ammonia dropped from 0.50 to about 0.25 PPM. I was doing daily water changes (70%) to lower ammonia, which was in the range of 0.50 to 1.0 PPM. Last night, after reading nitrites, instead of doing a PWC what I did was add Prime (3 x the normal dose) to detoxify nitrite. I checked nitrate and it was at 5.0 PPM. Another thing I did last night was add a mesh bag with a handful of sand from the established tank to see if it helped; However, this morning (about 11 hours later), nitrite and ammonia were both still reading 0.25 PPM.

My question is what should I do at this point, if when I get home tonight the sand didn't help in speeding up the process?

Remove the fish and place it in the main tank risking the health of the other fish if this fish happens to be sick?

Continue with the daily PWC? (70% is fine?)

Any other ideas?

I need to treat the fish for Ich because when I first got it he was flashing and I suspect he has Ich (didn't see the salt dots, yet), I will treat with heat + salt, but if I have to do daily water changes that is not going to work very well. Also, I wanted to dose Melafix, which I always dose for 7 days and then do a 25% WC after that, as recommended on the bottle.

If I do the daily PWC's I won't be able to treat the fish accordingly and if I treat the fish and don't do the PWC's it will be exposed to ammonia and nitrite, which I can use prime to detoxify, but I'm not sure if that's recommended and how often should I do it.

Please help. Thanks.

 

[fddlss]

I just got home and tested for ammonia and nitrite. Ammonia is now at 0 PPM and Nitrites went up to 0.50 PPM, which means that the sand from the established filter didn't cycle the tank instantly, but it probably helps in speeding up the cycle; However, that's not a very good option so I am seriously thinking about moving the fish to the main tank and if he happens to be ill I'll treat the whole tank.

The other option is to leave the fish in the Q tank and do daily water changes, but I don't know if this will alter the cycle in a bad way. On top of that, I would have to wait until the tank is cycled in order to treat the fish for anything he might have (if any).

I'm against using fish to cycle a tank and that's exactly what I'm doing.

What do you guys recommend?

 

[Dale_I]

I wouldn't treat the fish for any suspected problems. I would wait to see if he has an issue and then specifically treat for only the issue he is diagnosed with.

For the water, it isn't going to slow or quicken the cycle continuing the water changes to keep the maximum levels of ammonia or nitrite down. I would keep the bag of sand in, which is certainly helping the cycle, and I would imagine that you are going to be measuring acceptable readings soon.

Personally, I would not risk the main tank fish unless it is absolutely needed. However, that would depend on the cost and emotional attachment you have with the main tank fish.

Only one mans opinion... that and a nickel will get you five pennies.

 

[fddlss]

I was so worried that my fish would have permanent damage from being in a "cycling" tank that I couldn't wait any longer and moved it to my main tank. If I see anything unusualy, I will wait to see what it is and treat the whole tank, I have no choice and what I did wasn't probably the best choice but I had to do something quick and wasn't sure if the water changes + Prime were going to prevent the fish from being intoxicated with ammonia and nitrite. When I read your post I had the fish in a bag acclimatizing to the new tank.

As soon as I let him out of the bag my Venustus attacked him really bad, the Venustus is quite smaller than this fish but he's the dominant male. I'm thinking about removing him because he has at least half of my fish in one corner of the tank and he keeps the whole tank for himself.