New Tank

[robertmarda]

I have just set up a 55 gallon tank at work. I put five mollies in the tank this morning after floating them in the tank in the container I used to transport them from my home. I floated them there for about 20 minutes to let the temperature equalize. They are going to begin the cycling process for this tank.

My concern is that they are all huddling together on the bottom of the tank. When I tested the Ph yesterday it was about 7.0 or 7.1 in this tank. I took three of them from a tank (my 55 gallon tank at home) that had a Ph of about 7.4 the last time I tested it. However, the other two were taken from a tank (my 10 gallon tank) that had a Ph of about 7.0 the last time I tested it.

I added a lot of drops of Ph down to the tank yesterday to get the Ph down from 7.4 to 7.0. Unfortunately, I took my Ph test kit home last night and didn't bring it back.

Any ideas as to why they are staying on the bottom? Also these mollies were born in my tank and have never lived in brackish water, so I doubt this would upset them to not have salt in the water.

[Grant R]

Sounds to me like just the initial stress of the move and the new enviroment. Have you added a stress cure at all ? Give it a day or thereabouts and I'm sure they'll be right as rain.

[robertmarda]

Thanks for the suggestion. I just added NovAqua instant Conditioner & Fish Protector which says to use anytime fishes are under stress. Hopefully this will help.

[Grant R]

It will do, stress medicines like that also help the fish to keep gills healthy and restore any slime coat damage sustained by catching them in a net or during the move etc.

Keep us posted on their progress.

G

[Toomanyfish]

When acclimating fish to a new tank, unless you know for sure that all parameters are the exact same, it's best to open up the container and add some tank water to it a little at a time, not only to equalize the temperature but also to allow the fish time to acclimate to any other differences like pH and hardness.

Adding pH down is not a good idea....lowering the pH drastically like that can cause fish to go into acidosis shock. Even though it seems that going from a 7.4 to a 7.0 isn't all that much, you should know the facts about pH. The following is taken from "The Manual of Fish Health" written by Dr Chris Andrews, Adrian Exell, and Dr Neville Carrington.....

"That the pH scale is logarithmic which means that a one-unit shift registers a ten-fold change in hydrogen ion concentration. This means that a comparatively small rise or fall in pH value actually reflects a fairly substantial change."

Sometimes things happen where you can't exactly match water conditions. I've learned over the years that it's better to go (slightly) up on pH rather than down, (slightly) up on temperature too, and down (slightly) on salinity unless you have inverts in a salt tank in which case the opposite would be true.

I hope your fish get better!

[robertmarda]

Four of the Five fish are now swimming around and eating like they used to when they were in my tanks at home.

[robertmarda]

The fifth one just came out of hiding

[Toomanyfish]

Glad to hear that they are better!

[Hara]

They are going to begin the cycling process for this tank.

I added a lot of drops of Ph down to the tank yesterday to get the Ph down from 7.4 to 7.0.
Any ideas as to why they are staying on the bottom?

First off, you do realize you are asking them to live in the equivalent of a toxic waste dump. Secondly, you should not be bringing the ph down that fast. Luckily for them, Mollies are pretty hardy.

There are alternatives to using live fish to cycle tanks.

[robertmarda]

I am planning to monitor the ammonia levels. If I use something to trap the ammonia and make it not harmful to fish, will this stop the cycling of the tank?

[Hara]

If not stop it, it will considerably slow it down.
It takes ammonia to get the nitrite growing to get the nitrate growing....
That is why you put the fish in there, to create the ammonia. Therefore, subduing the ammonia production will slow down the cycle process.

[robertmarda]

I dropped the Ph before adding the fish to the tank. I don't think I made that clear when I started this post.

Also I used some water (probably about 1 gallons worth) from a well established 10 gallon tank when I set up the tank and I just used about a gallon more from that tank today. I also added some stress Zyme I bought which says it has 100 million live bacteria per teaspoonful.

I checked the Ammonia level today and it is at zero. How long should it take for these 5 mollies to cause an Ammonia spike? or is it possible I have avoided that spike with everything I've done with the water in that tank.

[dkennison]

Using fish like Mollies is always a good way to start the biological process of the tank.

I have also found that when starting a new tank, using a product called Cycle is also great. You can add it in with fish and also use it on a regular basis, ie: when adding new fish or after a water change.

8)