tropicalcichlid
Aquarium Advice Newbie
A buddy's tank is having some problems and I am a little stumped as to where to go from here. Tank is a 29G. I guess he wanted to cycle it quickly so he started with 9 mbunas about 3-5" long and adding "Cycle" to the water every day as directed by the bottle. This was definately too much load for that small of a tank and a few days after he said he lost a couple fish. They would start breathing heavily and stopped eating and soon died.
He also purchased a 125G tank, filled with water, add water conditioners and ran for 24 hours. After 24 hours he moved the remaining fish to the 125G tank and again started adding "Cycle" to the tank. He said this seem to be ok and ran it for a week with no problems. After a week he bought several large fish (frontosas, large Haps, etc). Everything seems fine for a few days. After that again a few fish start breathing heavily and stop eating.
Here is where I come in and test water. Water is un-cycled with a very high nitrite spike and small ammonia spike. We do a large water change and add Bio-Spira live bacteria. I have always had excelent success with it before cyclying a tank almost overnight. After a couple days still the same situation. Tank appears to be mostly cycled now and nitrates are rising, but the few fish that were breathing heavily are still breathing heavily and not eating. I also notice a peacock with white spots on him appearing to be ick. Instead of adding medications we bring the temp up to about 83 and add Kosher salt to bring the salinity up. I figured that even if it was not ick this should help most fungal diseases of the gills if that was causing the problem.
Now here we are a few days after with salinity around 1.002-1.003 and temp around 83. Also made sure water surface had plenty of movement and added airstones. Everyone seems to be fine except for the few that are still breathing heavily. Will they ever get better and return to normal or is it too late for those.
I also have an update. I went over there at lunch to double check. Again everyone seems to be fine and eating very well except the couple others. 1 large livingstoni is eating well, but kinda twitches his body every now and then. Sometimes it looks like a wet dog shaking were he shakes his whole body. He also opens and closes his mouth rapidly like something was stuck. One of the smaller haps is still just breathing rapidly and not eating.
Thanks
He also purchased a 125G tank, filled with water, add water conditioners and ran for 24 hours. After 24 hours he moved the remaining fish to the 125G tank and again started adding "Cycle" to the tank. He said this seem to be ok and ran it for a week with no problems. After a week he bought several large fish (frontosas, large Haps, etc). Everything seems fine for a few days. After that again a few fish start breathing heavily and stop eating.
Here is where I come in and test water. Water is un-cycled with a very high nitrite spike and small ammonia spike. We do a large water change and add Bio-Spira live bacteria. I have always had excelent success with it before cyclying a tank almost overnight. After a couple days still the same situation. Tank appears to be mostly cycled now and nitrates are rising, but the few fish that were breathing heavily are still breathing heavily and not eating. I also notice a peacock with white spots on him appearing to be ick. Instead of adding medications we bring the temp up to about 83 and add Kosher salt to bring the salinity up. I figured that even if it was not ick this should help most fungal diseases of the gills if that was causing the problem.
Now here we are a few days after with salinity around 1.002-1.003 and temp around 83. Also made sure water surface had plenty of movement and added airstones. Everyone seems to be fine except for the few that are still breathing heavily. Will they ever get better and return to normal or is it too late for those.
I also have an update. I went over there at lunch to double check. Again everyone seems to be fine and eating very well except the couple others. 1 large livingstoni is eating well, but kinda twitches his body every now and then. Sometimes it looks like a wet dog shaking were he shakes his whole body. He also opens and closes his mouth rapidly like something was stuck. One of the smaller haps is still just breathing rapidly and not eating.
Thanks
