Hi im new n have some questions

[WeedyGonzalez]

Hello everyone I'm not a too green fish person but have been arguing with my wife who is also familiar with aquariums about why our fish have died recently. We got a new tank n switched some fish over to the new tank but she was a little too over zealous in my opinion because I wanted to cycle the water for at least 4 days. She added the fish after a little more than 24 hours and n we've seem fish that were thriving in our other tank die. She's trying to blame the plants etc. Can anyone help me win this argument that we should have cycled the water longer lol. If not no biggie but hello everyone

 

[mark4785]

Switching fish from an aquarium with aged water to a new aquarium solely can kill a fish in some circumstances if there is a huge disparity in PH, carbonate hardness and general hardness of the water.

In terms of cycling, this is done using the fishless method on any new tank. It involves adding a calculated level of liquid ammonia to the tank frequently to develop a colony of nitrosomonas and nitrobacter bacteria in the filter sponges. These colonies are responsible respectively for absorbing ammonia and nitrite excreted by the fish that would otherwise kill the fish If not absorbed. It typically takes around 6-8 weeks to seed enough of these colonies for this purpose.

The only way to avoid a fishless cycle is to plant the aquarium up heavily so that the plants play an active role in removing these toxins. Even with plants you would need to be doing daily water changes and would only be able to stock the aquarium very lightly with non-sensitive species of fish. There would ultimately still be no guarantee that such fish would survive as many plants carry parasites that could also lead to their demise.

If fish were added 24 hours after the setup of a new aquarium and died approximately 5-7 days later (this is the length of time it takes for excrement/urine to breakdown into ammonia in most tropical water) you would be looking at ammonia poisoning as having caused the death due to having not cycled the aquarium at all.

 

[WeedyGonzalez]

Thanks for your input! U can hardly argue with muh wife tho she knows all!

 

[coriesinhawaii]

Yes it is very likely that putting the fish into the new tank without properly cycling is what killed them.

 

[coriesinhawaii]

Thanks for your input! U can hardly argue with muh wife tho she knows all!

Pretty hard for her to claim she knows all if she doesn’t know that you have to cycle a tank before putting fish in it ?

 

[WeedyGonzalez]

Tell her that. I wanted to cycle the water for at minimum a week like the friendly folks at Petco suggested but it is what it is. $60 dollars of fish literally down the drain

 

[coriesinhawaii]

Yeah that’s a big bummer. Sometimes we learn the hard way ?

 

[WeedyGonzalez]

If u met muh wife you'd know different lolll

 

[mark4785]

Tell her that. I wanted to cycle the water for at minimum a week like the friendly folks at Petco suggested but it is what it is. $60 dollars of fish literally down the drain

There is no such thing as cycling the water, its the nitrogen cycle that you have to prime for a period of 6-8 weeks. If you primed such as a cycle for 1 week you would have a small colony of nitrosomonas bacteria that would make a feeble attempt at taking up the ammonia excretions AT BEST.

 

[WeedyGonzalez]

Well thank u for your input again! Its been years since I kept a small tank n i was a child at the time. I vaguely remember what my local fish shop suggested but according to her I'm wrong. I've never had problems with fish I've added to my small 20 gallon tank when i was a kid they always thrived n did well. Her "experience" has obviously been different n we get into arguments about what percentage water change should be done etc. Its been stressful to say the least

 

[WeedyGonzalez]

She bought a bunch of goldfish n because they've thrived she thinks shes doing well even tho every other fish has seemed to die in water changes etc

 

[WeedyGonzalez]

Its lead me to the point where I don't wanna spend more money on the fish I've kept as a kid because in her care they dont seem to.do as well as they did with me as a child. I was able to keep tetras barbs n betas for years now I cant keep them a month.

 

[mark4785]

Well thank u for your input again! Its been years since I kept a small tank n i was a child at the time. I vaguely remember what my local fish shop suggested but according to her I'm wrong. I've never had problems with fish I've added to my small 20 gallon tank when i was a kid they always thrived n did well. Her "experience" has obviously been different n we get into arguments about what percentage water change should be done etc. Its been stressful to say the least

I have kept fish in hospital tanks that are non-cycled. The answer as to what amount of water you would change in a non-cycled aquarium is 100% daily. Without this you get the gradual ammonia poisoning (even with goldfish) and a bacterial bloom that can be hypoxic.

 

[WeedyGonzalez]

Well her goldfish have surprisingly done well with her 90/10 split n when we moved em to the new tank (which she thought was safe because google said 24 hours is enough) they're dying as well. The goldfish were probably 35 cents a piece it's not all about money with me I'm in the business of seeing these fish live as long as possible and thrive! She doesn't seem to understand me or listen to any of the things I offer because apparently she's been lucky in her experience. But luck runs out eventually. She's had a larger tank before so she scoves at my experience with a 20 gallon tank where my fish lived for years

 

[WeedyGonzalez]

I also thought it be important to keep some of the already available good bacteria etc. This is a filtered tank I'm kinda missing your point. Again we've only recently been keeping fishes and my experience differs from hers. 100% water changes doesn't jive with what I was taught.