HELP!! On bubbly foam.

[spacepops]

Is this normal? I added gold fish and then this bubbly foam popped up

 

[ZxC]

Could be just protein film caused by the organics the goldfish is excreting.

 

[spacepops]

Leave it there? Would it be good for the cycling?

 

[ZxC]

I would leave it there for now. No, it's not good for cycling, neither is a fish in the tank

Make sure to perform large water changes to keep ammonia low if the tank isn't cycled.

 

[spacepops]

I’d rather have feeder fish create waste and ammonia than add pure ammonia or leave something to rot. As of now the ammonia levels are rising but so is nitrite and nitrate

 

[spacepops]

And the foam comes and goes.

 

[King Fisher]

I’d rather have feeder fish create waste and ammonia than add pure ammonia or leave something to rot. As of now the ammonia levels are rising but so is nitrite and nitrate

Why is that? Fish can introduce disease in your tank. Not opposed to fish in cycles but there is that risk.

 

[spacepops]

Why is that? Fish can introduce disease in your tank. Not opposed to fish in cycles but there is that risk.

I learned that after. Is there anything incurable?

 

[spacepops]

Opening a bottle of pure ammonia would give me the harshest head ache as well. I don’t clean with it either.

 

[King Fisher]

I learned that after. Is there anything incurable?

Columnaris is **** near impossible to cure IME.

 

[spacepops]

Columnaris is **** near impossible to cure IME.

Wel they are in the tank now... what should I do. I’ve lost a few minnows I don’t know exactly why. They all have life before I leave then I come back to one dead. And cause in the intake drain. The gold fish has a reddish pink sore looking thing on it. I’ll post a picture tonight if itll hold still

 

[King Fisher]

I'm not against fish in cycles. I've done most of the tanks I've kept like you have with feeder fish. Ive cycled with fish food but it's a little messy. Not a huge problem if you do water changes with a gravel vac.The last couple tanks I cycled I used raw shrimp from the grocery store in a mesh bag. That was clean and pretty simple. I haven't tried the pure ammonia yet but the next cycle I start I think I'm gonna give it a shot. Seems very clean and a lot of people here have been successful with it.

As far as your fish getting ill it's probably from the spikes in water parameters as it's cycling. Spikes in nitrites can out right kill a fish in no time. I know when I did fish in cycles I was super anal about it. I would test the water every other day and do frequent water changes. I still sometimes lost fish despite my efforts. Just seemed like a lot of work compared to other means of cycling.

My best advice for a fish in cycle would be to keep that ammonia at .25 ppm. Do a water change if it goes above that. Do an immediate water change with any reading of nitrites. Nitrates can go up to as high as 80 ppm while cycling IMO but it doesn't hurt to keep it at 40 ppm or less. This seemed to keep the fish alive more often than not.

 

[spacepops]

I’m using strips they aren’t very accurate. I woke this morning to no casualties. All swimming around just fine I even dipped my finger tip in the top of the water and the little minnows came up to my finger and nibbled it and schooled around it lol
I did a 5 gallon water change and cut the ammonia to .25 I haven’t checked the other stuff yet I had to head to work

 

[King Fisher]

Ya strips are pretty inaccurate. If you can get your hands on an API master test kit you will get more accurate results.

 

[spacepops]

Ya strips are pretty inaccurate. If you can get your hands on an API master test kit you will get more accurate results.

Out of stock everywhere local trust me I looked . Imma have to order it