CKutz
Fishaholic
So i just came home for the weekend from school. i've had my little brother taking care of the 30 gal we just got and set up. unfortunately we are doing a fish in cycle with feeder fish (i know not a good choice, but i didn't know what else to use). he's only 10 and i didn't feel like trying to explain to him how to do a fishless cycle....maybe it wouldn't have been too difficult ("fill this test tube up to here with this stuff and dump it in every day," think that would have worked?") but i also thought he'd get a little enjoyment out of having the feeder fish, it would keep him interested.
so anyways, we got the tank used, locally. unfortunately the previous owner didn't think of things like keeping the filter running in order to give us a mature filter. However he believed by putting the gravel in ziploc bags it qualified as "mature gravel" and would help with something...he seemed to think pH was the big issue and didn't seem familiar with the nitrogen cycle. I thought this was thoughtful, however pointless because i've read without an undergravel filter, not much bacteria if any stays in the gravel.
So we set up the tank and put in this gravel, and the rocks that he had along with a plant or two. A week prior I asked my girlfriend to stick another filter in her tank so she could give us a filter to help start off. I didn't think a week would be long enough for a complete filter, but might help. when she gave us the filter it had originally been white, and now like a corner or so of it was blackish brown, w/e. so i stuck that and my filter media into the filter and ran the tank, put in several mL of ammonia to feed any surviving bacteria (she also didn't know you were supposed to keep the filter in water during transit, but it was still damp, out of water maybe 15-20 minutes, the rocks the man gave us were also still damp, i don't know how long they were out of water though). a few days later my brother got 18 feeders with the money i gave him.
when i called to check on the tank he said the fish were dying left and right, realistically it was 1 or 2 a day. i thought this was typical as they aren't very hardy in the first place, plus with climbing ammonia and nitrite many wouldn't make it. in about the last week he's only lost 1 or 2 fish perhaps..we're down to about 10.
so i came home and brought my test kit and tested the water and the ammonia and nitrite were zero. I thought this probably meant that these little fish don't even produce enough waste to even get the cycle going. but then i thought i'd look at the filter media, see what developed on that..and they are covered in stuff. i'll post a pic later..
do you think the tank is cycled?
so anyways, we got the tank used, locally. unfortunately the previous owner didn't think of things like keeping the filter running in order to give us a mature filter. However he believed by putting the gravel in ziploc bags it qualified as "mature gravel" and would help with something...he seemed to think pH was the big issue and didn't seem familiar with the nitrogen cycle. I thought this was thoughtful, however pointless because i've read without an undergravel filter, not much bacteria if any stays in the gravel.
So we set up the tank and put in this gravel, and the rocks that he had along with a plant or two. A week prior I asked my girlfriend to stick another filter in her tank so she could give us a filter to help start off. I didn't think a week would be long enough for a complete filter, but might help. when she gave us the filter it had originally been white, and now like a corner or so of it was blackish brown, w/e. so i stuck that and my filter media into the filter and ran the tank, put in several mL of ammonia to feed any surviving bacteria (she also didn't know you were supposed to keep the filter in water during transit, but it was still damp, out of water maybe 15-20 minutes, the rocks the man gave us were also still damp, i don't know how long they were out of water though). a few days later my brother got 18 feeders with the money i gave him.
when i called to check on the tank he said the fish were dying left and right, realistically it was 1 or 2 a day. i thought this was typical as they aren't very hardy in the first place, plus with climbing ammonia and nitrite many wouldn't make it. in about the last week he's only lost 1 or 2 fish perhaps..we're down to about 10.
so i came home and brought my test kit and tested the water and the ammonia and nitrite were zero. I thought this probably meant that these little fish don't even produce enough waste to even get the cycle going. but then i thought i'd look at the filter media, see what developed on that..and they are covered in stuff. i'll post a pic later..
do you think the tank is cycled?
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