Accidental fish in cycle. [My journey]

[JessiBeau]

Well, a little back story...my husband and I got a 65g tank for the living room, put in some cave,s gravel, live plants. Then promptly stocked it with fish. Then my husband brought home more fish.

This is when I discovered all the info about cycling your tank, realized our tank was over stocked, and grabbed a 36g bow front for the bedroom (to move some fish to in order to lover the bio load. It's now a molly sorority tank. All my females, my cherry red shrimp and some of the corys. Judging by aqadvisor/aqadvice don't remember which, both are now just right.)

I've got prime and stability arriving today from Amazon, some sponge filters to add in addition to the HOBs already installed, to up the filtration, plus my husband has agreed to let the serpae tetras go back to the store to decrease the living room tank bioload by a touch more.

So this is basically going to be me documenting the process, the water parameters and any losses. (The API master kit arrived yesterday, so I'm all set.)

I feel like a complete dummy, not doing a little more research prior to setting this stuff up, but I'm determined to fix everything.

Any advice going in to this? I'm already doing water changes, between 5 and 15 gallons, to keep the levels down until the prime and stability arrive.

 

[megi-lin]

Keep up with PWC. Test regularly. Watch for any strange behavior. And keep an eye on your light time in the tank. Also, make sure you do good gravel vacs with all those fish! That will keep down some of the bio load. Maybe add a biowheel to your filters. Helps with quick cycle.

 

[JessiBeau]

All of the crappy filter cartridges have been replaced with bio rings and the intakes have sponges on them, so I'm hoping that helps. 10 minutes after feeding I vac out any uneaten food (usually isn't much. Lol. Little beggars.) and I've been gravel vaccing every other day during water change.
Hopefully we can make it through this with minimal to no losses.

 

[megi-lin]

Awesome! Just keep up with it and it should be fine.

 

[JessiBeau]

Thank you!
Thankfully my hubby has been learning along with me, so I have a helping set of hands whenever he is in town. (He works out of state for a week and a half, then comes home for half a week.)

 

[megi-lin]

A helping hand is always nice.

 

[BBradbury]

Jess...

Below are the instructions for cycling a tank with fish. This is all you need to know.

Once the tank is set up and running, add some individual stems of a floating plant like Hornwort, Water sprite and/or Anacharis. Add 3 to 4 small to medium sized fish for every 10 gallon of water you want to cycle. Feed the fish just a little every couple of days. They don’t need much during the cycling period. The dissolving fish waste (ammonia) combines with oxygen from the outside air and begins to grow the bacteria colony. Test the water daily for traces of ammonia and nitrite. If you have a positive test, remove a quarter (25 percent) of the tank water and replace it with tap water treated with an additive that removes chlorine and chloramine and detoxifies the three forms of nitrogen. Don’t remove more water, you’ll starve the bacteria and slow the process. Test every day and remove and replace the water when needed. When several daily tests show no traces of ammonia or nitrite, the tank is cycled. Once cycled, in a month or so, you change out half or more of the tank water every few days to maintain good water conditions

 

[BBradbury]

Jess...

Below are the basics for cycling a tank with fish. This is all you need to know.

Once the tank is set up and running, add some individual stems of a floating plant like Hornwort, Water sprite and/or Anacharis to help steady the water chemistry between water changes. Add 3 to 4 small to medium sized fish for every 10 gallon of water you want to cycle. Feed the fish just a little every couple of days. They don’t need much during the cycling period. The dissolving fish waste (ammonia) combines with oxygen from the outside air and begins to grow the bacteria colony. Test the water daily for traces of ammonia and nitrite. If you have a positive test, remove a quarter (25 percent) of the tank water and replace it with tap water treated with an additive that removes chlorine and chloramine and detoxifies the three forms of nitrogen. Don’t remove more water, you’ll starve the bacteria and slow the process. Test every day and remove and replace the water when needed. When several daily tests show no traces of ammonia or nitrite, the tank is cycled. Once cycled, in a month or so, you change out half or more of the tank water every few days to maintain good water conditions.

B

 

[BBradbury]

Apologies...

Got a little crazy with the computer keys.

B

 

[JessiBeau]

Packages delivered! Everyone has been dosed with both prime and stability, I'll be doing level testing in a few hours. (I work in the toddler room of my local church so I have to be at work before six. But I'll be testing as soon as I get home. Then I'll test at the same time every day until these tanks get cycled.)

BB- so far that hasn't worked for me. That's what I've been doing, daily PWCs while waiting for the seachem stuff to arrive. It drops the ammonia by a little, but not enough to make me feel better.)

 

[BBradbury]

Jess...

One thing to remember, you're not just keeping the fish healthy, you're growing the beneficial bacteria. If you remove more water, you remove more of the bacteria food source, which is the ammonia and nitrite. If you starve the bacteria, you delay the cycle. 25 percent water changes, get the water chemistry into a safer zone for the fish and still leaves enough nutrients for the growing bacteria colony.

B

 

[JessiBeau]

Living Room 65g parameters [day 1]

Ph- between 7 and 7.2
Ammonia- About 2.0 ppm
Nitrite- 0ppm
Nitrate- 0ppm

Will get a 15g water change in the am.

Bedroom 36g parameters [day 1]

Ph- between 7.0 and 7.2 as well.
Ammonia- between 1.0 & 2.0 ppm
Nitrite- 0ppm
Nitrate-0ppm

Will get a 10g water change in the am

Definitely not good, but I'm dealing with it. Hopefully the prime and stability will help me get this under control.

--on a side note, I felt like a mad scientist with this master test kit. Lol--

 

[JessiBeau]

Well, I couldn't go to bed with the ammonia that high. I ended up going ahead and doing a 15g water change on the living room 65g. That brought the ammonia from 2-3 down to 1.0 ppm. Dosed the new water with prime before adding it, used a little extra because of the ammonia levels.

My kids are finally asleep, but they're in my bedroom, so not sure if I can do the bedroom tank tonight, might have to wait until morning. Not sure if I'll be able to sleep without doing it though. I hate that my sweet fishies are going through this. Ugh.

Just goes to show, research is so so important wit this hobby.

 

[JessiBeau]

Again, couldn't sleep. So I went ahead and did a 10g water change in the 36g bedroom tank. Brought the ammonia from 1-2 ppm to between .50 and 1.0 ppm. Still not ideal, but better than it was.

I'm debating on calling my LFS in the morning and asking if they'd be willing to give/sell me some cycled media to seed my tanks. So far I'm not seeing any redness on the gills or clamped fins in either tank, but the serpae tetras in the living room don't seem to be doing well. Strange, the other tetras are doing alright. Keeping a close eye on them.

 

[JessiBeau]

My babies are fasting today. Trying to limit this ammonia somewhat. I'll probably feed every other or every third day until we get the cycle done.

Any suggestions on feeding timeline?

The 36g bedroom has been cloudy for about 1 1/2 to 2 days. In my research seems like most people were saying it is a bacteria bloom? Is this bad? Because now the living room 65g is clouded as well. (Just as of this morning)

Stability will be dosed again in a few hours. Sponge filters are arriving sometime today, so both tanks will be getting one in addition the their HOBs. I know the living room is a bit overstocked, so it needs extra filtration until I can rehome some of the tetras (most likely. Out of everything in the tank, they're my least attached fish. Lol)

The activity in the ranks is better today. There was a little lethargy yesterday in both. Everyone is swimming (more)happily today.

Fingers crossed, or say a prayer! (Which I can admit I totally did last night. Prayed for my fish. Lol.)

 

[PerfectDepth]

Jess...

One thing to remember, you're not just keeping the fish healthy, you're growing the beneficial bacteria. If you remove more water, you remove more of the bacteria food source, which is the ammonia and nitrite. If you starve the bacteria, you delay the cycle. 25 percent water changes, get the water chemistry into a safer zone for the fish and still leaves enough nutrients for the growing bacteria colony.

B

I disagree. Fish are constantly producing ammonia, so this isn't really a concern. It's important to change enough water to make sure the tank water becomes non-toxic as quickly as possible when there are fish in the tank. When doing a fish-IN cycle, definitely do not hesitate to perform multiple 50% or more water changes in the same day if necessary, waiting maybe an hour or so in between to give the fish a break from being disturbed. Although sometimes getting the water changed is more important than waiting an hour in between which isn't always necessary- I would just try to be as non-intrusive as possible with water changes when doing them often.

 

[JessiBeau]

Perfect- What would you suggest trying to keep the ammonia at during this cycle?

I'm testing the water now to determine if I want to do a water change before adding the next dose of stability.

I'm more than willing to do multiple water changes a day. I'm a stay at home mom, except for working at my local church Wednesday night and Sunday morning, so I'm here to keep checks on the levels nearly all the time.

 

[PerfectDepth]

Perfect- What would you suggest trying to keep the ammonia at during this cycle?

That depends. what is your ph and temperature?

 

[JessiBeau]

Ph stays between 7.0 and 7.2 for both tanks. Bedroom is mostly mollies so t runs about 80, living room runs about 76-78.

 

[JessiBeau]

Ok. 50-55% WC done in bedroom tank. Sponge filters came in so it now has a sponge filter in addition to the HOB.

A little cloudy from so much being kicked up by the water buckets, but the sponge filter is quickly clearing a lot of that up. Also has been dosed with stability. Will test ammonia levels in about an hour.

Taking a break (back is killing me) then I'll be doing the same in the living room. It also has a sponge filter that will be going in!

Update soon.