Accidental fish-in cycle.

[libertybelle]

So my 29g fish tank is becoming my toddler son’s fish tank which means glo tiger barbs. Most of the current residents (mostly shrimp / Pygmy cories) will be relocated to their own dedicated tank to be “my” tank and for him I am quarantining 8 tigers in a 10 gallon. I thought would be better than doing it in two groups due to their more aggressive nature.

I have two filters running in the tank. One new that came with this new tank and an additional 10 gallon rated sponge filter with media that has been in my established tank for months ( at least.) Obviously I thought this would allow me to stock the qt pretty heavily right away. And obviously I failed to account for the fairly light stocking of my established tank/media.

After a day in the tank the readings are .5/0/10. (Last night it was 1/0/5; so bb are working just not quite keeping up yet.)

The problem; aside from the obvious, is two fold. First; Just prior to adding fish I planted the tank mostly with vals from my established tank. I briefly dipped them in hydrogen peroxide in hopes of preventing the transfer of the mini ramshorns that are in my 29. It was only for a few seconds but boy did they hate that. Shortly after adding fish I noticed they’d started melting and contributing to the problem. I know they might recover but the melt back is not helping at present. I’ll probably trim back the leaves and leave the roots because I doubt the leaves themselves will recover. Anyone with experience with vals feel free to correct me and tell me if I should just pull the whole plant?

Additionally, my tap is pretty heavy with chloramines. Large water changes with prime result in 1-2ppm (detoxified but still in need of ‘processing’) ammonia. Never been a problem in my established tank. Low stocking and heavy planting means the filter and plants take care of it almost instantly. My planted tank almost always reads 0/0/0 until I dose macros, thanks to the plants, so I was thinking I would just do water changes from the established tank into the quarantine tank to save the qt filter having to process the ammonia from chloramines as well. Is there any downside to doing it this way for a few days while the qt filter catches up?

I haven’t fed the new guys yet today. Is one small feeding okay or should I fast them a couple days?

 

[libertybelle]

Well I went ahead and did it since there was a resounding lack of objections. I figure if my water is good enough for shrimp than there’s probably not anything that’s not on a test kit that would be bad for these guys.

Also pulled out the melting Val almost entirely and put the roots and any bits that seemed salvageable back in the main tank where my amanos and cherrys will clean up the parts that melt. Not worth it; waiting to see if it will bounce back. Added healthy val/ hornwort. During the water change the barbs were trying to eat air bubbles so I caved and fed them a bit.

The plus side is my logic was good re: behavior. They’re rambunctious, of course, but with so many in there no one seems to be getting picked on exclusively even when bickering over a small amount of food. One long finned variety came home from the store with fin rot so I’ll have to keep an eye on him. I’m not providing the usual pristine water so hopefully the prime will protect him until the filters catch up. I’ll test again tonight to see how things are going.

 

[libertybelle]

Here’s the picture no one asked for ?

Ammonia still hanging out at .5, nitrites are zero but nitrates are still climbing so I guess the bottleneck is in the ammonia -> nitrite step.

Dosing prime before bed just to be safe (and crossing my fingers for the littlest one with fin rot.) I suppose I ought to inspect them better before coming home but a little fin rot is usually not a problem for me since my parameters are usually so good and stable. Poor little guy!

 

[SheaFleming]

I guess I don't understand why I would have to change the water every week. Isn't that why you have a good filter system? Also,I thought the fish didn't like it. I recently acquired Apple snails.. I love them...only they are pretty messy. Any suggestions?

 

[Lady.of.Babylon]

@libertybelle, it sounds like you are doing the right thing to me. I have never heard of dipping in hydrogen peroxide. But then again I am still learning myself. Always something new to learn with this hobby. With my freshwater plants, I have had great luck with them bouncing from doom by having brighter lights on longer. the plants in my fresh water tank have moved around a lot from different tanks... some of which testing brought back memories of Lisa Frank stuff from my childhood [emoji15]?. The only plants I have lost so far have been when I transitioned my big tank from fresh to salt.