Howdy - I'm mostly a herp person.
My frog tank contains a small land area, water area with two undergavel filters (one standard airstone, one that pumps water up into an artificial waterfall)
In it I keep two asian floating frogs, one fire bellied newt, some live plants, a small butterfly plecostemus, and two platies.
Male platy died a few weeks ago while I was out of town. Checked chemistry, NH3 was starting a spike - I attributed that to the dead fish that had been in there longer than it should be. I was only out of town for 3 days, he looked like he had been dead a day. Did a partial water change, NH3 levels started to go down. All was well.
Just two days ago, the female platy gave birth. Not the first time, usually between her and the male platy - all the young ones would get eaten in a day or two.
I'd like to raise this brood though, and so I put the female platy in one of those thin mesh separators. I'm going to set up an aquarium for the baby fish tomorrow, and fishless cycle it so that when I move them there from the frog tank, new tank syndrome won't be an issue. Theres at least 20 babies, way too many for the frog tank to support when they are grown, and way to many to put into an uncycled tank.
My understanding is that to fishless cycle, you start with the water ~ 80F to help speed up the process, add pure NH3 (well, pure as in water is there but not additives - pure NH3 is a gas) just so that it measure 5 ppm and count how many drops it took to get there, soak filter media and biowheel in an established tank. Then add that same number of drops daily until NH3 measures 0 24 hours later, at which point you can add plants, and cut the added NH3 in half until nitrite spike is over and measures 0 24 hours after adding. Then you lower water temperature to desired, do a 2/3 water change to reduce nitrates, adjust ph if needed, and continue for a day to make sure all is still fine (NH3 and nitrite still test at 0 24 hours after adding NH3)
I understand all that. There is a warning though to only use dechlor that does NOT neutralize NH3 for the final water change, because that will starve the bacteria just when the fish are added, causing another cycle to start.
The DeChlor I use comes in a greenish bottle with a blue label that has red fish on it, put out by Weco Products. It's called Instant DeCHLOR. It doesn't say it neutralizes NH3 so I'm guessing it is OK - anyone know?
Thanks.
My frog tank contains a small land area, water area with two undergavel filters (one standard airstone, one that pumps water up into an artificial waterfall)
In it I keep two asian floating frogs, one fire bellied newt, some live plants, a small butterfly plecostemus, and two platies.
Male platy died a few weeks ago while I was out of town. Checked chemistry, NH3 was starting a spike - I attributed that to the dead fish that had been in there longer than it should be. I was only out of town for 3 days, he looked like he had been dead a day. Did a partial water change, NH3 levels started to go down. All was well.
Just two days ago, the female platy gave birth. Not the first time, usually between her and the male platy - all the young ones would get eaten in a day or two.
I'd like to raise this brood though, and so I put the female platy in one of those thin mesh separators. I'm going to set up an aquarium for the baby fish tomorrow, and fishless cycle it so that when I move them there from the frog tank, new tank syndrome won't be an issue. Theres at least 20 babies, way too many for the frog tank to support when they are grown, and way to many to put into an uncycled tank.
My understanding is that to fishless cycle, you start with the water ~ 80F to help speed up the process, add pure NH3 (well, pure as in water is there but not additives - pure NH3 is a gas) just so that it measure 5 ppm and count how many drops it took to get there, soak filter media and biowheel in an established tank. Then add that same number of drops daily until NH3 measures 0 24 hours later, at which point you can add plants, and cut the added NH3 in half until nitrite spike is over and measures 0 24 hours after adding. Then you lower water temperature to desired, do a 2/3 water change to reduce nitrates, adjust ph if needed, and continue for a day to make sure all is still fine (NH3 and nitrite still test at 0 24 hours after adding NH3)
I understand all that. There is a warning though to only use dechlor that does NOT neutralize NH3 for the final water change, because that will starve the bacteria just when the fish are added, causing another cycle to start.
The DeChlor I use comes in a greenish bottle with a blue label that has red fish on it, put out by Weco Products. It's called Instant DeCHLOR. It doesn't say it neutralizes NH3 so I'm guessing it is OK - anyone know?
Thanks.
