CharlesLeeRay
Aquarium Advice Newbie
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2016
- Messages
- 4
I've done probably a dozen tanks in my life, and never had the kind of issues I'm having right now starting one and getting it past the "new tank hump."
This is my first very large tank: 125 gallon. So i'm wondering if I'm just rushing things and being impatient? Does a tank this large take a lot longer to fully cycle?
Anyway, here's the entire story, please help me pin point what I'm doing wrong and the root of my problem.
125 gallon freshwater. 2 Aqeuon 400 GPH each power filters + under gravel filter. Tahiti Moon Sand. Drift wood, heated to 78 deg.
Filled it up, conditioned water. Ran for about 1 week fishless.
Added 2 common fancy goldfish to help cycle as I've always had more luck cycling with fish. They did great for about 1 week. Then had a bacteria bloom. Water got super cloudy, both died.
Let it sit for another week to cycle a little. Water cleared up. All levels dropped to pretty close to 0 so I decided to try again. Added some live plants and bought 10 Zebra Danios this time. All Danios died within 2-3 days and most seemed to have red around their gills (suspect ammonia poison?).
3 weeks total now, and the tank went through another bacteria bloom. This time ammonia peaked at 8.0 and seemed to stay high. Let it run an entire week and ammonia didn't budge. A quick note- of the 10 Danios that died, I was only able to find 7. 3 fell somewhere behind my rocks in the back and didn't bother sifting through all the rock because I figured 3 tiny Danios in such a giant tank wouldn't be an issue and would slowly decay without causing problems (maybe I was wrong?).
For fear of my live plants dying from the severe ammonia levels, I decide to add API quick start this time. Within 2 days ammonia levels dropped to 0 and nitrate and nitrate began to rise, so I suspected the cycle was finally processing. A few days later, all levels were perfect: 0/0/0.
Tank has been running 4 weeks now, and levels all 0, so decided to add Silver Dollars this time, thinking the cycle was complete. Day 1 they seemed great and were eating. Day 2 they started seeming lethargic. Day 3 all developed sever fin rot and died.
So in summary, tank has been up 4 weeks now. Used API quick start. All levels 0/0/0, only live plants at the moment, but cant keep fish for more than 2-3 days without developing fin rot. What am I doing / have done wrong? Did I just rush things?
Is it possible my tank is not cycled despite the tests showing perfect levels? Or is there more likely some other cause causing a bacteria / fungal infection like fin rot? I always thought fin rot came from bad water quality so would it make sense for my fish to develop it but yet tests show water is good? I guess the reason I'm so confused is because the tests are showing my water is great.
What would you recommend I do at this point? Is it time to do a 75-100% water change? Or medicate with anti-bacteria / fungal instead? Are those 3 dead Danios somewhere what's causing my problems or would that reflect on the tests as bad water quality if they were? I guess I'm just confused and frustrated because the tests make my quality appear to be fine but yet nothing is living.
Was really excited about finally having my first large tank and getting really discouraged that I can't even keep a goldfish alive for 48 hours
Thanks!
This is my first very large tank: 125 gallon. So i'm wondering if I'm just rushing things and being impatient? Does a tank this large take a lot longer to fully cycle?
Anyway, here's the entire story, please help me pin point what I'm doing wrong and the root of my problem.
125 gallon freshwater. 2 Aqeuon 400 GPH each power filters + under gravel filter. Tahiti Moon Sand. Drift wood, heated to 78 deg.
Filled it up, conditioned water. Ran for about 1 week fishless.
Added 2 common fancy goldfish to help cycle as I've always had more luck cycling with fish. They did great for about 1 week. Then had a bacteria bloom. Water got super cloudy, both died.
Let it sit for another week to cycle a little. Water cleared up. All levels dropped to pretty close to 0 so I decided to try again. Added some live plants and bought 10 Zebra Danios this time. All Danios died within 2-3 days and most seemed to have red around their gills (suspect ammonia poison?).
3 weeks total now, and the tank went through another bacteria bloom. This time ammonia peaked at 8.0 and seemed to stay high. Let it run an entire week and ammonia didn't budge. A quick note- of the 10 Danios that died, I was only able to find 7. 3 fell somewhere behind my rocks in the back and didn't bother sifting through all the rock because I figured 3 tiny Danios in such a giant tank wouldn't be an issue and would slowly decay without causing problems (maybe I was wrong?).
For fear of my live plants dying from the severe ammonia levels, I decide to add API quick start this time. Within 2 days ammonia levels dropped to 0 and nitrate and nitrate began to rise, so I suspected the cycle was finally processing. A few days later, all levels were perfect: 0/0/0.
Tank has been running 4 weeks now, and levels all 0, so decided to add Silver Dollars this time, thinking the cycle was complete. Day 1 they seemed great and were eating. Day 2 they started seeming lethargic. Day 3 all developed sever fin rot and died.
So in summary, tank has been up 4 weeks now. Used API quick start. All levels 0/0/0, only live plants at the moment, but cant keep fish for more than 2-3 days without developing fin rot. What am I doing / have done wrong? Did I just rush things?
Is it possible my tank is not cycled despite the tests showing perfect levels? Or is there more likely some other cause causing a bacteria / fungal infection like fin rot? I always thought fin rot came from bad water quality so would it make sense for my fish to develop it but yet tests show water is good? I guess the reason I'm so confused is because the tests are showing my water is great.
What would you recommend I do at this point? Is it time to do a 75-100% water change? Or medicate with anti-bacteria / fungal instead? Are those 3 dead Danios somewhere what's causing my problems or would that reflect on the tests as bad water quality if they were? I guess I'm just confused and frustrated because the tests make my quality appear to be fine but yet nothing is living.
Was really excited about finally having my first large tank and getting really discouraged that I can't even keep a goldfish alive for 48 hours
Thanks!
