greetings from newbies

[the Ents]

Hello and Wow!

this is such a great site, we've decided to stop lurking around and say hi!
We are about to expand from a 10G to a 55G.

This part's embarrasing:
We seem to have made all the usual mistakes:
(too soon, too many, overfed, and one "Tetra don't-try-this-at-home Jackass Moment" with the intake valve.)
They seem to have now survived ich (!)and now finally, we're getting nitrates, altho the amm and 'trites are still reading high.
Poseidon must be blessin' the fish cuz they are hanging in there.
The fancy guppies just had babies and the surviving fry are bold.
We gave everybody a brine shrimp treat and they gave up on the babies.

We are determined to learn quickly and not make the same mistakes with the 55G.

We now have a Eheim 2217 and have just run in the water, put aq salt (1T/5g), 11 capfuls each of Cycle and Aquaplus.
Can we use some gravel that we've taken from the orig tank if it had ich?
We've rinsed it clear, but....paranoia!

How soon can we transfer some fish to larger quarters?
We get the heater next weekend, so not 'til then

1-3" gold pleco (very active)
2-1.5" clown loaches (do everything together)
1-1" albino cory (lunatic)
1-2" upside-down catfish (loner, territorial)
2-1" fancy guppy parents (they're working it)
5- 1.5cm fry

[d9hp]

Let me be the first to say welcome and congratz on overcoming ICH, its nasty. Im sure this site will help a lot, everyone here is freindly and there is no fighting like many other forums.

[fishfreek]

Welcome,

Thanks for joining.

Dont be embarrased. We have all done the unthinkable items when we first started out. After all contrary to what some experts would say on other sites no one was born an expert and everyone was a at one point in time.


How long ago did you have ich in your first tank? The ich parasite has about a 3 week life cycle. how sad to only exist for 3 weeks

Anyway if your tank has been ich free for at least a month then I would say yes use your old gravel. I would not even have rinsed it. Using the old gravel should give your bio filter a jumpstart cause of the existing bactera on the old gravel.

How cold does your tank get with out a heater?

Ill shut up now and let the freshwater folks step in.

[the Ents]

we set up the week b'twn xmas and new years(after the water sat in for a prev month, cycling thru an aquaclear mini, plastic plants and inherited gravel).
A lot has happened in a very short time you see...

So, perhaps reusing gravel is not safe ,yet?
Also, we have a 100W heater in the 10G and will be getting a 250W for the 55G.
We have a pH of 7.2 and a temp of 78-80 (we heard that raising temp kills ich.)

[Chrismac]

Is your Aqua clear Mini in the 55 gall?

[the Ents]

the mini is in retirement, and a penguin 170 bio-wheel is in the 10G.
we're trying to figure if the cloudy(not green)water is the bacteria bloom y'all keep talking about. been doing daily changes during the 1st 7 ich med days(used quick cure) and every other day since.

[mitche8359]

Welcome!

One thing that I've read about ich is to increase the water temperature to 84 degrees if the fish in the tank can live in that hot of water. Leave the temp that high for about seven days. You ight want to do this to the ten gallon tank as an added security procaution before moving the gravel.

So what are you putting in the 55g?

[jasonit]

My bacterial bloom lasted almost a month! I cut back on the food and did weekly watcher changes. One day it was just gone... Hang in there

[the Ents]

thanks for the encouragement!
we want to transfer the pleco(she's getting bigger) and the upsidedown catfish,
and the male guppy to give mama some breathing room( besides, she looks about ready to drop a 2nd batch).

an angelfish is on the horizon (i'm such a sucker for the way they swim up to the glass and say hi), and B wants black mollies. i want a shoal of neons again, (hopefully they'll stop playing in the current near the intake!)
the loaches are so happy, but i hear they get big, so they'll be moving.
hope everybody gets along and no fin nipping on the angel....

the pleco has just spent some time sucking on the bubble wand- is the concern about blowing up like a Macy's balloon valid?

[Chrismac]

Hey there Ents,

Your pleco should be okay doing that. lol

one thing I would recomend about angels is that you wait till your 55 is set up for at least 6 months you'll have a better go with a more mature tank.
another thing you should avoid getting one of most species especially angels
I would get 6 angels and let them pair off
chances are you may lose a couple and the rest should pair off.

We just bought six the otherday taking another attempt at them, we got two before and they both died weird thing is they died at the same time.

In my opinion Aqua clear is far better to use they suck up junk alot better and there are more options for medium where the Penguin filters you only get the one cartridge, but the Penguins are good for the biological bacteria just sucking the waste is where its lacking.

[the Ents]

hola chrismac,
tks fer da reply!
We set up the 55G last night, 5 zebra danios are zippin' around.

gave everybody in the 10G a romaine lettuce leaf - fishnip!
water still cloudy, no signs of ich recurrence at the 2 wk mark- whew.
amm- down to 0.5
'trite - down to 2.0
'trate - up to 5.0
but now the pH is lower

my other 1/2 came home w/ a 20G tank- oh boy do we have 'the fever'!

so, the 20G will be breeding tank, 10 G- the quarantine, and as soon as it looks good- everyone else in the 55. (yeah, gonna be patient for the angels!)

i guess the penguin and the aquaclear will see their share of duty....(yup the suction of the aquaclear is mighty...not putting it with the babies for sure!)

boy do these guys help to reduce my stress - in NYC that's a bleedin' miracle!

[Chrismac]

Yeah totally, I agree with the stress lol,
cool thing abot the 20 gall breeding tank, we just had another batch of Yellow lab Cichlids yesterday had to sell 8 6 month olds.
we have 6 tanks from 1 gall hex to a 72 gall mbuna set up. lots of time and cost but definatly worth it.

[the Ents]

hi again,
we moved the upside down cat into the 55 on thurs
(he was just terrorizing all in the 10G- his name's 'Predator',
cuz he blends into the driftwood- fitting, no?)
and now we are getting dead and freaked zebras. 2 out of 6,
and the rest are swimming and spazzing in place.

#1
i don't know if they are doing this from cat attacks or if there is something not going well w/my cycling.
pH 7.0
amm 0
trite 0
trate 0

#2 what's the white algae-looking stuff on my driftwood?
doesn't look like fuzzy fungus, tho...
is this related to my sick zebras?

#3
we think we've found a new home for our lil' beastie - can't place til monday
do 5" oscars eat upsidedowners?

meanwhile, we're about ready to transfer all in the 10G to the 20G.
-used old gravel to seed the new
-used 50% 'top' water from old tank
-transferred ornaments and some fake plants( will get real soon)
-biowheel running since last night
pH 7.0
amm 0
trite 2.0
trate 40.0

#4
are we ready?

are we being too hasty? (a bad trait in Ents as well as in new tanks)

[Chrismac]

What are all the fish you have?

What are you putting in the 20 gall,

Whats going in the 55?

where is the Oscar?

[the Ents]

now:

55- 3 zebras, 1 upsidedown cat

15 (not 20 oops)- empty

10- 2 adult guppy, five 3wk fry, 2 clown loaches, 1 albino cory

later:

55- zebras, cat's new daddy picking him up in an hour, not an oscar- 2 severum

10- empty

15- guppies, yng and old, loaches and cory

thank you for responding
LFS says the wavy white stuff is from an uneaten spiulina tab and we should do a w chg and says they'll replace zebras...

we keep finding out that we know even less than we thought!

[Chrismac]

Cool,
What kind of Zebras
Danios?

Cichlids?

[the Ents]

zebra danios...

Predator came up to the glass, out from under the dark wood to chk out my slowly wiggling fingers
new daddy came to get him, almost lost our nerve...

[the Ents]

Holy Nemo!

are all newbies like this? i bet human babies are Sooooo much easier
has anyone ever had their plecos make it thru 2 cyclings?
we'd like to move ours to the 55, to take advantage of the algae on the wood, but don't want to be hasty...