AmQuel???

[couplescaddy]

i have a new tank less than a week old, and i have 27 fishies in a 6 gal tank (many babies) and im worried about the ammonia levels becomming too high before the bacteria colony sets up. i got this stuff at petco that supposevly removes ammonia, chlorine, and chloramines, anybody know if this stuff is effective and if i should use it, or should i just stick to water changes every 1 or 2 days???

[youronlysin]

First off, I'd say to get those fish out of there if you have the option to do so. If you have an older established tank, think about transferring them in order to save their lives. Setting up another tank wont do any good because it will have to cycle as well. Your cycle process has already started since you have fish in the tank so you can't do anything to speed it up really. Add some gravel or decor or something from an older established tank to help get things going, but I doubt that will help for what is to come.

I can't speak for the chemical additive; I've not tried it, although I haven't read anything good about it either. At any rate, I'd have to say that even if it did lower the ammonia concentration you have a long ways to go and many more things to worry about. Once your Ammonia levels drop your tank will experience a rise in Nitrites that will far exceed the length in time that your ammonia spiked. That period was the hardest for my fish. Even daily water changes wouldn't bring the levels below the critical mark and only prolonged the cycle time. At this point I would say all you can do is hold your breath and see what happens. Of course do whatever you can to keep the fish alive, but just know that everything you do will have consequences. Chemical additives will more than likely NOT work at this point and may only cause undue harm to the fish. Water changes may dillute levels SOMEWHAT however, this will also increase the time it takes to complete the cycle process. I was on top of my tank and knew the water parameters as if my own life depended on it when I first set it up. As hard as I tried, I could not save all of the fish. I only lost a couple but I don't doubt that the rest suffered. I've learned a lot since then and I know I won't make the mistake, again, of putting fish in a tank before its completed it's cycle.

Remember, the more fish you have in there, the larger the bio-load on the tank. This means that its going to take even more bacteria to handle the waste. This increases the cycle time dramatically. Hopefully your babies dont create that much waste but they grow FAST!! Your tank is going to have to catch up with the load and grow with it fast. You may be in for a long, long cycle time. Hopefully your fish will survive.

One thing you should probably think abouit doing in the near future is getting a larger tank, or in the very least, a few more smaller ones. Just get them cycling before you put fish in them. When your babies grow up, they are going to be a huge load on a 6 gallon tank....I dont really think it matter what kind of fish they are!

Best of luck and let us know what happens! There are sooooo many people here with great advice. So far they dont even seem to mind answering the same questions over and over( and over, and over ) Truly, these people are great help. WElcome and good luck!

[couplescaddy]

thank you to everybody who has helped me, yeah, i dont know how i got soooo many fish, i guess it was sorta bad luck, i just went to petco and bought 4 fish to get the bio stuff workin and to get the bacteria growing, then i woke up the next day with many fishies. i dont really wanna kill them, but we dont have any other tanks up and running right now, and i dont wanna overload another one by putting 23 baby fish in it. it probably wouldn't be as bad as 23 big fish, but still. anyway, im gonna go to petco tomorrow and see if theyll give me a store credit on the big fish, maybe i can raise just small buggers. i dont think theyll make too much waste in the first couple weeks. thanks for the help tho guys!

[youronlysin]

Haha. All it took was one day, huh? Well, your on to something there. Get some live bearers to start your new tank and when the babies are big enough, trade them in on the fish you really want! Hopefully next time your tank will have been cycled before you try that though! Good luck!

[couplescaddy]

yeah, i just bought some good starter fish that the guy at petco told me to get, and so i did, and they had little fishies and now i have little fishies all over the place. not really what i had prepared myself to expect

[youronlysin]

Must have been Platys. Are they Orange? One thing you might have to watch for is that the bigger fish dont eat the babies. If you want to keep the fry (babies) look into picking up a breeding net at the store. They only a cost a few dollars and could save the fry from becoming lunch.

[couplescaddy]

the babies are mollies, 3 of the 4 small but not babies, are platies. basically at this point, i dont really care if they get eaten, i just have too many, not to be an ideot, or mean, but its natural and ill let it happen, they seem to be getting along REALLY well right now and the babies are growing FAST like super quicky style. i dont think the adults could get them down at this point and its only been a day. anyway, thanks for everything

[Menagerie]

The best way to avoid a live bearers party is to buy only males. Females can store sperm and even without a male around, babies suddenly spring up! If the adults haven't eaten the fry, then they might not.
As for adding chemicals to the tank, I advise against it. You want ammonia in there so bacteria can feed and grow. The only thing I ever put in my tank is a dechlor that neutralizes chlorine and chloramine.

[Fishboy-from-NY]

couplescaddy, I know that you can sometimes get so many advice, but remember thier are easy way out to things is money ain't an issue. What you can do is purchase a product called cylce and triple the dosage of it for a week and your tank will cycle. The reason why thats much better than AmeQuel is it actually contains bacteria that breaks down Ammonia and Nitrites after you keeply cycle your tank, I would do 3 20% water changes like 1 on monday, 1 on wednesday and 1 on friday. Also Amequel is not a good product since I only detoxify the ammoina and nitrite and I have lost fish using that.

[Menagerie]

Cycle does not have all the necessary bacteria. The only product that is proven to work is BioSpira, but in most places it is currently unavailable due to the high demand. It will be back on the market in the Fall. I would still look around~some members reported that their LFS have it.

[Fishboy-from-NY]

the only bacteria that cycle doesn't contian is Nitrate breaking bacteria and that's all I have done tons of research on it and thats what seperates i from Biospira.