new tank

[bulatz]

so i got this new 75 gallon tank set up i wanna get some opinions on the look of it ill include a pic. its not 100% exactly how i pictured the set up to look like but its not bad for now i think. I got 5 kulhi loaches little babies right now that seem to be doing good. ive been trying to learn their behavior a little bit as im brand new to this hobby. in the video he just keeps going up and down not sure if its normal or not he doesnt do it forever but just wanted to ask im probably over thinking it.

i just had to take some of the food out and took out a decent amount of water in the process so maybe i heard they like to swim around when doing a slight water change sometimes?

i plan on buying a few clown loaches next and adding a terra cotta pot and some dwarf hairgrass and probably some sort of background pic

not sure how many fish you should add at once but im just taking it slow 5 baby loaches right now maybe 3-5 clown loaches next then ill get more kulhi loaches later and some gouramis and stuff but id like to add more if possible at once maybe 10 at a time? or is that pushing it

 

[Aiken Drum]

Did you cycle the tank before adding fish? If so what did you do precisely?

Or are you now cycling the tank with fish? If so do you know how to do this?

 

[bulatz]

i thought i cycled the tank before, i unknowingly used really old test kits that didnt work and well i think it was halfway cycled but i didnt add anything i learned just 2 days ago you have to add ammonia and what not, i just added beneficial bateria for about a month with brand new filter and when i added my fish, got new api test kit i had very high nitrite which i think tells me its still cycling, did a small water change or 2. i now have no nitrite after about 5 days , i keep having a small amount of ammonia like between 0-0.25 and also low nitrate between 0-5 ppm so i think its cycled now perhaps?

 

[Aiken Drum]

If you are able to go a week seeing zero ammonia and nitrite without needing a water change to bring them down, id say you are cycled enough for the fish you have.

The microbial colony grows or dies off depending on how much ammonia is available to support them. So if you arent seeing any ammonia or nitrite you are cycled enough for the fish you have. Add more fish, and the colony wont be sufficient to consume the additional ammonia. So you should add new fish gradually so you dont overload the system too much and give your cycle time to catch up.

Typically adding 1/3 additional bioload at a time is seen as not adding too much in 1 go. So if you have 5 fish, and you are consistently seeing zero ammonia and nitrite, then you can safely add a couple more fish. Rinse and repeat until fully stocked.

5 fish in a 75g tank isnt going to cause much in the way of waste regardless of whether you are cycled or not. Your low numbers might be down to the cycle or might just be down to dilution and your water changes. Give it a few more days, if things look good water parameters wise add some more fish.

 

[bulatz]

hi i come back to this post cause one of my kuhli's was lookin like it was about to die(might of been affected by ich medicine in to long) but i think he should be good now..did small water change/put back in my carbon but now it got me wondering, ive had my fish tank for 2-3 months now with only 5 baby kulhi loaches and 1 clown loach.

with this info i question my water parameters/ if its cycled. i constantly have 0-0.25 ammonia. i have ammonia in my tap water. my nitrite when i added my kulhi loaches was very high once 2-5 ppm for a couple days but now it is always 0 ppm which is good. now my nitrate is always a dark yellow so i assume its between 0-5ppm 0 being yellow and 5ppm being a lighter orange. if i had these fish in my tank for over a month and they all have been just fine it should in theory 100% be cycled i would assume?? it just makes me mad i can never get ammonia at a solid 0 even after water changes/seachem prime. or do these fish not have enough waste for a 75g tank to build up enough bacteria? i did do a fish-in cycle

 

[Andy Sager]

hi i come back to this post cause one of my kuhli's was lookin like it was about to die(might of been affected by ich medicine in to long) but i think he should be good now..did small water change/put back in my carbon but now it got me wondering, ive had my fish tank for 2-3 months now with only 5 baby kulhi loaches and 1 clown loach.

with this info i question my water parameters/ if its cycled. i constantly have 0-0.25 ammonia. i have ammonia in my tap water. my nitrite when i added my kulhi loaches was very high once 2-5 ppm for a couple days but now it is always 0 ppm which is good. now my nitrate is always a dark yellow so i assume its between 0-5ppm 0 being yellow and 5ppm being a lighter orange. if i had these fish in my tank for over a month and they all have been just fine it should in theory 100% be cycled i would assume?? it just makes me mad i can never get ammonia at a solid 0 even after water changes/seachem prime. or do these fish not have enough waste for a 75g tank to build up enough bacteria? i did do a fish-in cycle

It sounds like you are either reading the test result wrong or there is an outside color from light or surroundings possibly skewing what you are seeing. Are you reading the test in sunlight? If not, try that and see if there is a difference ( assuming your test reagents are not expired.)

As for your tank being cycled, Khuli loaches are not going to create a major amount of ammonia in 75 gallons of water so it's hard to say. The fact that you had nitrites and now you don't would make one believe that yes, you have cycled your aquarium. But here's the thing, you would now have a bacteria bed that can only handle the small amount of ammonia that is being produced or introduced into the tank. As you add more fish, your bacteria bed will need to grow to catch up to the increased ammonia so in essence do mini cycles each time. This is why you need to add fish slowly and not a lot of fish at one time.
Remember, the bacteria bed is a living breathing organism that grows and shrinks based on the amount of food ( ammonia) present. The good news is that once established, it takes hours to multiply vs days or weeks but if you add too many ammonia producers ( fish or any live animal) at one time, the water can become toxic enough to kill the fish before the bacteria bed catches up and if you don't have something that is monitoring the ammonia level 24/7, you may not see any issues test wise while you have a tank full of dead fish.
Proceed slowly and cautiously.

 

[bulatz]

Trust me I thought I'm reading the test results wrong to haha! I've put them under multiple lights and there always the same.

Sadly one of my kuhli loaches died overnight and another is struggling. Only thing I can think of what's messing them up is ich medicine being still present in the tank?? I plan to do about a 30-40%
water change I think to get rid of it possibly after work to hopefully get rid of any excess medication.

Or could there be sustained damage possibly to these fish from ich and there just screwed? I dunno lol just thoughts. They were just fine before ich was in my tank I would see them all the time playing but now I barely see them. And one died and another is struggling. I also plan to get a small 10g tank today for future cases like this.. and fishless cycle it instead

 

[Aiken Drum]

Loaches and other scaless fish often dont react well to medication. Its sometimes recommended to use half dose when treating such fish, but then its probably not going to be sufficient to treat the issue.

Getting some activated carbon in the filter will pull out the medication. A water change will only reduce it in proportion to the size of the water change. So 2 x 50% water changes will reduce the medication by 75%. 3 x 50% water changes by about 87% etc.0

 

[Andy Sager]

Loaches and other scaless fish often dont react well to medication. Its sometimes recommended to use half dose when treating such fish, but then its probably not going to be sufficient to treat the issue.

Getting some activated carbon in the filter will pull out the medication. A water change will only reduce it in proportion to the size of the water change. So 2 x 50% water changes will reduce the medication by 75%. 3 x 50% water changes by about 87% etc.0

There's another option besides carbon and that's a Poly-Filter pad. (https://www.poly-bio-marine.com/products.htm ) That pad removes everything. ( You can read the list here: https://www.poly-bio-marine.com/ ) Ammonia, Nitrites, Metals, Medications, Organics, Your Mother from your room, Old girlfriends, I mean EVERYTHING!!! And it changes colors to show what it has removed. That should also solve any questions about the water test showing small amounts of ammonia. If the test still shows ammonia after the Poly-filter is installed, it's the test kit's reagents or the test strip is faulty.